Unwelcome Linkage
Israel cautious on US. report, rejects call for settlement eeze.
report said the Palestinian leadership
should crack down on terrorism if
peace talks are to resume.
Jerusalem
Sharon said the recommendations
sraeli officials are giving a mixed
by the Mitchell Commission fly in the
response to the findings of a U.S.-
face of previously signed Israeli-
led commission probing the caus-
Palestinian accords, which do not state
es of Israeli-Palestinian violence
that Israel should freeze all settlement
that erupted last September — and
construction. Israel has agreed not to
which continues unabated
build new settlements, but
seven months later.
reserves the right to
The officials said they are
expand existing settle-
pleased that the commis-
ments to handle "natural
sion found that Ariel
population growth."
Sharon's visit to the Temple
For the Palestinians, the
Mount last September did
linkage was political gold.
not cause the violence that
Yasser Abed Rabbo, the
erupted soon after, as the
Palestinian Authority min-
Palestinians originally
ister of information, told a
claimed.
news conference Sunday
Some Palestinian officials
that while the Mitchell
later admitted that the vio-
Commission findings are
lence had been planned for
not complete, they could
months — a claim the
provide a way to halt the
Mitchell Commission
current violence.
rejected.
The commission was
The commission also rec-
conceived
as part of a
Yasser Abe d Rabbo
ommended against deploy-
peace package at a summit
ing international observers
in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt,
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as
last October. In the end, it
the Palestinians had sought.
was the only element of the package
But Israel is dismayed by the report's
— whose main element was an imme-
linkage of Jewish settlements in the
diate cease-fire — that was imple-
West Bank and Gaza Strip to the
mented.
ongoing violence.
The report called for a halt to all
Recommendations
Jewish settlement activity, including
Sharon's "natural growth" of existing
Among the report's other recommen-
settlements. At the same time, the
dations:
• The Palestinian Authority should
prevent Palestinian gunmen from fir-
ing on or from populated areas, and
establish a clear chain of command for
all armed personnel operating in areas
under its control;
• Israel should lift closures on
Palestinian areas, permit Palestinian
workers to return to their jobs in Israel
and transfer to the Palestinian
Authority all tax revenues owed; and
• Israel should ensure that its securi-
ty forces avoid destroying homes,
roads and trees in Palestinian areas.
Panel members include former U.S.
Senator George Mitchell, the group's
chairman; Turkish President Suleyman
Demirel; Thorbjoern Jagland,
Norway's minister of foreign affairs;
and Javier Solana, the European
Union's top diplomat.
The issue of Jewish settlements also
is emerging as a stumbling block to an
Egyptian-Jordanian initiative aimed at
stopping the violence and restarting
peace talks. The initiative, drafted with
the help of Palestinian officials, calls
for an end to all settlement activity.
Meanwhile, violence in the region
showed no signs of abating.
On Tuesday, an Israeli was murdered
by terrorists while guarding empty
mobile homes near the West Bank
Jewish settlement of Itamar. Aryeh
Arnaldo Agranioni, 44, was stabbed
and shot. A previously unknown
group claimed responsibility for the
attack, saying the murder was to
avenge the death last week in
suggest the anti-American forces
behind it may have won themselves
only a pyrrhic victory. Since much of
the world continues to look to the
United States for moral and diplomatic
leadership, observers say that without
America at the table, the rights com-
mission may have marginalized itself
With countries like Sudan, Syria,
China and Cuba sitting on the commis-
sion, "Why should anyone concerned
with human rights pay attention u, it?"
asked Michael Colson, executive direc-
tor of the Geneva-based U.N. Watch.
"I wouldn't ask a country that's all
desert for its opinion on forest conser-
vation. So I may not ask a commission
largely composed of abusive states, or
will never treat Israel equally among
nations and, because of the fiasco, cer-
tain rogue states are "serving as prose-
cutor, jury and judge on human rights
issues," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles, which is an
accredited non-governmental organiza-
tion within the United Nations.
"Instead of returning with hat in
hand, we should consider taking our
marbles elsewhere. Nobody likes to go
it alone. But the U.S. is powerful
enough, and has the self-image and
bipartisan support for human rights,
that if it needs to skip Geneva for a few
years, so be it."
Most disturbing for Israel, Rabbi
NAOMI SEGAL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I
those not willing to confront them, its
opinion on human rights."
The United States has long been
pressured to pay its back dues to the
United Nations, a debt the world
body estimates at $1.3 billion.
`Skip Geneva'
While no one is calling for
Washington's out-and-out disengage-
ment from the United Nations, some
Jewish activists now want the Bush
administration to review its relations
with the commission — and perhaps
go it alone on human rights.
"It's appropriate for Congress to call
hearings to re-evaluate a system that
Ramallah of Hassan Kadi, a member
of Arafat's Farah movement.
On Monday, Sharon apologized
after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian
infant girl when they shelled the Khan
Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The girl's mother, grandmother and
three siblings were wounded in the
shelling. The Israel Defense Force said
it was responding to a Palestinian
mortar attack on the nearby Jewish
settlement of Netzarim.
"Children and babies should not be
involved in this terrible war," Sharon said.
Teens Are Killed
But, as if to mock his words, the bodies
of two 14-year-old boys from the Jewish
settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank
were found Wednesday in a cave, stoned
to death. Police said they suspected the
boys, who had skipped school to go hik-
ing, were killed by Palestinian militants.
There was no immediate Palestinian
comment on the boys' death.
On Monday, the IDF briefly entered
a Palestinian-controlled area during
exchanges of fire with Palestinian gun-
men in the West Bank city of
Tulkarm. The troops struck a
Palestinian police post from which
they had been fired at, according to an
IDF official. One Palestinian was
reported killed during the firelight.
In other violence Sunday, five
Israelis were hospitalized — one for
light wounds and four for shock —
after a bomb exploded in a trash can
in the city of Petach Tikva. The blast
was the third to rock the Tel Aviv sub-
urb in recent weeks.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians on
Sunday fired four mortar shells at the
nearby Israeli town of Sderot and at
the settlement of Netzarim. There
were no injuries.
❑
Cooper said, is how quickly and dra-
matically its relations with the United
Nations have unraveled.
One year ago, there was upbeat talk
about warmer relations with the world
body, as Israel was praised for, among
other things, withdrawing from south-
ern Lebanon and showing flexibility in
peace talks with the Palestinians.
Now, that seems so long ago, Rabbi
Cooper said.
"The hope for a new world, a new
age of normalcy for Israel is now a dis-
tant pipe dream," he said.
"We're bracing for a rocky road
ahead."
❑
Related editorial- page 37
5/11
2001
31