Some 200 hardcore Jewish settlers continued to defy the army after two days of clashes in the West Bank Monday, creating tensions within Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s national unity government.
Meanwhile, to the south of the West Bank, Israeli troops prepared to pull out of Palestinian parts of Hebron, where extremist settlers are also a major factor.
The standoff between the army and settlers exposed the divisions in the government, with Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warning Sharon his Labour Party would quit the coalition unless hawkish National Infrastructure Minister Effi Eitam was sacked.
”We will have to consider whether we will remain in the government in light of the personal attacks against me by certain ministers,” Ben-Eliezer was quoted as saying at the end of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
Eitam, the head of the National Religious Party, the main party for Jewish settlers, had lashed out at Ben Eliezer Sunday over the army’s attempt to dismantle the wildcat settlement outpost of Havat Gilad in the northern West Bank.
Eitam demanded Ben Eliezer be sacked for ordering troops to move in on the settlement during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, and vilified him for the violence that followed, leaving around 50 wounded, most of whom were soldiers.
”He’s an idiot, a liar and a coward, unworthy of holding the position of defence minister,” said Eitam. But Eitam’s party appeared to be taking some steps back from the brink Monday, with Tourism Minister Yitzhak Levy from the NRP saying his party wanted only to be consulted over plans to abandon the outposts in the future, the public radio reported.
However, 200 hardcore settlers made it clear on Monday they would not go quietly as they refused to abandon Havat Gilad and had started to repair the buildings the army had destroyed over the weekend, public radio said.
In a bid to cool down the volatile situation, a representative from the Settlers’ Council, the settlers’ main lobby, urged settlers to ”examine their conscience” and to ”restart dialogue” with the authorities, the radio said.
Ben Eliezer has ordered the dismantling of 24 wildcat settlements, in what many believe is a bid to counter dovish rivals in next month’s primaries for the Labour party leadership. The outposts are little more than a few prefabricated homes or trailers but settlers use them to establish new colonies.
They pose an obstacle to any future peace deal with the Palestinians whose two-year-old intifada was largely fueled by outrage over the mushrooming of settlements across the West Bank.
In an attempt to ease tensions with the Palestinians, the army prepared on Monday for a partial withdrawal from Hebron under a plan championed by Ben Eliezer.
Sharon gave his backing on Sunday to the move, but it appeared to be mainly symbolic as troops would remain on two strategic hilltops overlooking Jewish enclaves in the city centre.
The military has already pulled out of the West Bank town of Bethlehem in return for Palestinian security forces policing against attacks on Israel.
But even as the army looked to ease tensions in some areas, it pressed ahead with controversial tactics that have earned it criticism from human rights groups. Troops demolished the home of an imprisoned Hamas member in Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, said the village’s mayor.
Half-a-dozen tanks, a bulldozer and several other armoured vehicles surrounded the home of Rabi Abu Roub (25) an activist from the military wing of the Islamic radical group, who was arrested five months ago, the mayor said. The army earlier said it had destroyed the home of a member of Hamas’ smaller counterpart Islamic Jihad, in Qabatiya. The demolitions of family homes are used to deter future attacks by militants.
In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed in a battle with Israeli troops on Monday near the Kfar Darom settlement in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli military representative said.
He said the shootout had prevented an attack on the settlement. There was no immediate confirmation from Palestinian security or hospital sources. On the diplomatic front, Saudi King Fahd urged the United States to support the legitimate right of Palestinians to regain their occupied lands and establish an independent state, the SPA news agency reported on Monday.
King Fahd made the call during a meeting late on Sunday with visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns, who is touring the region to promote a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. – Sapa-AFP