Olmert announces pull-out
2006-03-28 10:32
Jerusalem - Israel will dismantle all settlements situated outside its West Bank barrier if the ruling Kadima party wins Tuesday's election, acting premier Ehud Olmert wrote in a leading daily.
"We are not going to be able to fulfil all our dreams," Olmert said in an opinion piece for the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
"We must preserve the main settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and we will fix the route of the security barrier beyond which we will no longer remain."
The barrier being erected across the occupied West Bank fences off the majority of the quarter of a million Jewish settlers from the 2.5 million-strong Palestinian population.
Olmert's Kadima party is the overwhelming favourite to emerge as the largest party in the election although it will need the support of other parties to ensure parliamentary approval for the implementation of the pull-out plan.
- AFP