The Israeli government on Thursday declared Yasser Arafat an obstacle to peace and said it will ”act to remove the obstacle” in a move widely interpreted as a threat to exile the Palestinian president.
Furious members of Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet voted to take action against Arafat after the double suicide bombings by Hamas that killed 15 people on Tuesday. But a Cabinet statement said that exactly how the Palestinian president will be removed, and the timing, would be decided later.
”It will be at a time and in a manner we decide,” said Ra’anan Gissin, a spokesperson for the prime minister. In the meantime, let Mr Arafat worry a little about the policies he is carrying out, let Hamas worry a little.”
The Palestinian foreign minister, Nabel Sha’ath, said the Cabinet decision was ”a declaration of war” and a threat to kill Arafat. ”What more aggressive action could you get?” he said.
Earlier in the day, Israeli troops moved to the edge of Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. Shortly afterwards, the Palestinian president said he would not be forced out.
”No one can kick me out,” he told reporters.
Sharon, who arrived back in Israel yesterday after cutting short a visit to India, had promised that retaliation for the bombings would be ”harsh and swift”.
He has already vowed to step up the ”targeted assassinations” of Hamas leaders, which have led to the killing of at least 12 in recent days, besides a botched attempt on the organisation’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, shortly before the latest suicide bombings.
A clear majority of Cabinet ministers favoured grabbing Arafat from the Ramallah compound and forcing him into exile.
The hardline Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz, said the Palestinian president was ultimately responsible for all ”terror attacks”, even though responsibility for the latest bombings was claimed by Hamas in response to Israeli attacks on its leaders.
But the Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, had said he expected Sharon to avoid a vote on the issue under pressure from the United States, which fears that banishing the Palestinian president would fuel violence and create a backlash against the US in the rest of the Arab world, compounding its problems in Iraq.
Sharon has previously made a commitment to President George Bush that Israeli forces will not harm Arafat.
Shimon Peres, the former prime minister and leader of the opposition Labour party, said that expelling Arafat would be a ”historic mistake” that would ”deepen the hostilities between the Palestinians and ourselves”.
Israeli forces seized two buildings next to Arafat’s compound in Ramallah yesterday, including the Palestinian Culture Ministry, and set up posts on the top floors peering deep into the compound. From there, they will be able to control all movement in and out of the Muqata and sever Arafat’s communications.
The Israelis have already closed off movement for most Palestinians to and from Ramallah, and from the occupied territories to Israel.
The closure forced the man tipped to be the new Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, to postpone presentation of his cabinet to Parliament after the Israeli army refused to grant legislators permits to travel to Ramallah.
Palestinian officials accused the Israeli government of dismissing Qureia’s attempts to curb the violence. Aides to the Palestinian prime minister designate approached the Israeli left-wing party, Meretz, with a proposal for a general ceasefire by the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government.
If it was agreed, Qureia would declare Hamas and any other organisation that launched attacks to be in breach of the ceasefire and could use his forces to pursue them, as Israel has demanded.
But Meretz officials said the proposal was dismissed out of hand by the foreign ministry.
”A low-level official was told to deal with it and he said his impression is that this was not a serious offer and it came from Hamas,” said a Meretz official. ”Not even responding to this offer is leaving the Palestinians only one option.” — Guardian Unlimited Â