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Israel could bring forward Gaza pullout -officials

Posted on: Thursday, 21 July 2005, 08:08 CDT

By Matt Spetalnick

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel could bring forward its planned mid-August withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to avoid further mass protests to disrupt it, senior officials said on Thursday.

Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert raised the prospect of moving up the timetable for settlement evacuation hours before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival on a troubleshooting mission aimed at keeping the Gaza plan on track.

A march on Gaza's settlements by thousands of demonstrators fizzled out on Wednesday night after security forces blocked the way, but Israeli police said they arrested about 300 people trying to slip into the occupied strip overnight.

Settlement evacuation is scheduled to begin around Aug. 17, but officials are increasingly worried about giving ultranationalists any more time to mount disruptive protests and foment resistance among a hard core of Gaza settlers.

"I definitely weigh positively the possibility of moving up the date set ahead of time," Olmert told Israel Radio. "The developments of the past days have signaled a direction in nature of the clashes and protests."

A senior government source said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also concerned about a surge of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed, might discuss moving up the pullout with Rice. But the source indicated it would be logistically difficult at this stage to accelerate the process.

Sharon, who has billed his plan as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians, originally planned evacuation of Gaza's 21 settlements to begin on July 22 but delayed it to avoid a Jewish mourning period that starts on Sunday.

Any attempt to bring forward the withdrawal would further antagonize religious settlers and their supporters who believe Jews have a biblical birthright to Gaza, where 8,500 Jews live in isolation from 1.3 million Palestinians.

It could also put further strain on army and police, who have not yet completed preparations for the pullout.

PALESTINIANS PLAN PULLOUT CELEBRATIONS

On the Palestinian side, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said Palestinians would celebrate "over every single meter of land" that Israel withdrew from. Israel intends to leave four of its 120 West Bank settlements along with all of its Gaza enclaves.

Palestinians welcome withdrawal from any of the territory on which they hope to create a state, but point to the fact that Israel is strengthening its hold on larger settlements in the occupied West Bank at the same time as giving up Gaza.

The resources of Israel's security forces were stretched thin this week by the biggest standoff so far with anti-pullout protesters.

Led by right-wing rabbis, 6,000 demonstrators who had been penned into the southern Israeli farming village of Kfar Maimon village for three days massed at the gates on Wednesday night but there was no repeat of clashes that erupted a day earlier.

"We feel at this time it is not wise to confront the police and army," said Benzi Lieberman, head of the YESHA settlers council. "I request everyone who can to remain here and others to come back. We must continue our struggle in the right way."

Only a few hundred people remained on Thursday at the site, 15 km (9 miles) from the main Gush Katif settlement bloc.

Most Israelis support the Gaza pullout, but opponents say ceding any land captured in the 1967 Middle East war would reward the Palestinian uprising.

After abandoning the march, settler leaders said they still hoped to get thousands of people into the settlements to reinforce those who plan to resist evacuation.

Keen to see the pullout go smoothly, the United States hopes the withdrawal will help revive stalled negotiations on a U.S.-backed peace "road map."

A recent flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence prompted Rice to arrange a mission to the region this week to try to calm the situation and ensure that the Gaza plan moves forward. (Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem and Diala Saadeh in Ramallah)

Source: REUTERS

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