RA _.. Tha hA inhid!an nniltr __ _ Tko sre nA^vf Pl..#..t,.,r r1G 4 AAG I : - i n VnicmiIga i iydy-- i nursUay, uctoter O, ZL99 West Bank withdrawal begins JENIN, West Bank (AP) - Hun- dreds of ecstatic Palestinians waving flags and chanting "Our revolution is victorious!" mobbed the first represen- tatives of Yasser Arafat's police who arrived yesterday as Israel began pull- ing troops out of the city. Jenin is the first of seven cities to be handed to the Palestinians under the Israel-PLO autonomy agreement signed last month at the White House. The arrival of Arafat's police is the first step toward Palestinian self-rule in most West Bank towns and villages by the end of the year. While Israeli soldiers stood back and watched, celebrating Palestinians took a flag from the crowd and hoisted it to the top of a pole in front of the just- opened Israeli-PLO liaison center, then danced cheering around the once-out- lawed banner. "We have been under occupation for 28 years and now we are witnessing history," said Kadoura Mousa, an Arafat aide in Jenin. "The revolution of the construction of the Palestinian state has started." The relatively smooth start to the Israeli pullout from Jenin, open to the world's press, contrasted sharply with last year's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers there packed up in the middle of the night, accompanied by gunfire and hails of stones. Later yesterday evening, dozens of Palestinians threw stones at Israeli troops in Jenin, slightly injuring at least one border policeman, Israel army ra- dio said. Israel radio said three fire- bombs were thrown, but caused no dam- age or injuries. No Israeli soldiers left the territory they have occupied for 28 years, and only 10 ofthe 12,000 Palestinian police to be deployed in the West Bank actu- ally arrived. But the 10 police, including five se- nior officers in olive drab, were given a hero's welcome at the Israel-PLO liai- son office - six white trailers on the outskirts of Jenin. "This is a moment of joy for our entire people," said Jamal Hasanat, one of hundreds of young men and boys singing and dancing in the bare dirt courtyard in the center of the trailers. Yesterday, Israeli troops moved out of the Jenin police station, loading their belongings into trucks. Palestinians greet a Palestinian police officer yesterday In the West Bank. I Palestinians relocatehng embassyM Los Angeles Times JERUSALEM -Palestinian leader yesterday condemned the U.S. congres sional vote to relocate the Areau Embassy to Jerusalem as a partisan move on behalfof Israel and a provoca- tion of the Arab world. They said the decision, which recqg AP PHOTO nizes Israel's claim to an undivided Jerusalem as its capital, is a slap in i face of millions of Muslims who aI: worship Jerusalem as a holy city, and,' strike against the U.S. role as a Mid J? East mediator, they said. "This step is aimed against Islamic, feelings and the Arab world positioni said Ahmad Tibi, an adviser to Pals' tinian leader Yasser Arafat on Isnt issues. "Nobody can say to Palestinians that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel~; alone. East Jerusalem is occupied 4 even according to long-standing Ame- can policy. It will be the capital Palestine." On Palestinian radio, anger at tl decision overshadowed any celebratioi as Israeli police packed up to move out of their station in Janin, marking the beginning of Israel's pullout from West. Bank cities after 28 years of occupa, tion. Under the interim peace accord be tween Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat, Israeli sot, diers are expected to leave six AraW cities and redeploy in the seventh, Hebron, before Palestinian elections are held early next year. The northernmdst city of Janin is the first. The fate ofJerusalem -the city holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews and that the Israelis call their "undivided and eternal" capital - is to be decided along with the other most difficult is- sues in the final stage of peace negotia- tions to begin next May. Ahmad Qrei, the Palestinians' chief peace negotiator, called the U.S. con- gressional vote on Tuesday"a bad deel sion and bad timing. It harms trust and confidence and violates all ofthe rules." Israel officially proclaimed Jerusa' lem its capital in 1950, when Jordani still controlled the eastern half. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and annexed it. Throughout, the United States has maintained its embassy in Tel Aviv, asserting that the status of Jerusale'm must be resolved by negotiation. Only El Salvador and Costa Rica have ther embassies in Jerusalem. President Clinton opposed the bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) out of concern that it would anger the Palestinians to thii point of derailing peace negotiations. So did Rabin until it became clear the bill would be put to a vote and pss overwhelmingly, and then he jumed on the bandwagon. "Without a doubt, the transfer ofan embassy such as the United Stateb', whenever it will be, is always welcome. We hope additional embassies will be transferred to Jerusalem," Rabin tld Israeli Radio from the United Statie. Rabin was in Washington, D.C., yeste- day for a celebration of the 3,000th anniversary of King David's conqes of Jerusalem. Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert of the opposition Likud party also hailed the vote in Washington, where he was a guest of Dole. The vote was a vic tory for Likud and the many conse4- vative American Jews who support the move. The congressional vote requires thy U.S. Embassy to be in Jerusalem b May 31, 1999, but a waiver provisiop allows Clinton to delay the move sic months if he declares that doing so would harm U.S. national security. I He could declare additional si- month delays into the next century, i an effort to maintain neutrality on tft issue if the negotiations are still goIn on. Some political analysts argue, how- ever, thatby taking the decision tomove the embassy before final status negotia- tions, the United States has already weakened Palestinians at the bargain- ing table, since one of Israel's motivg- tions for making concessions would lie to gain international recognition rf Jerusalem as its capital. Rabin aides in Jerusalem downplayed the potential impact. 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