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Israel looks to cut off Arafat
14/09/2003 17:39 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Killing Yasser Arafat is an option, a senior Israeli minister said Sunday, but indicated the government was more likely to further isolate rather than immediately expel the Palestinian leader.
"His expulsion is perhaps one of the ways of getting rid of him, but it is also possible to isolate him totally in the Muqataa," said Industry Minister Ehud Olmert, referring to Arafat's battered headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
"Arafat cannot continue to be a factor in the Middle East scene. His expulsion is an option, his liquidation is another option. It is also possible to confine him to prison-like conditions," Olmert, who is also deputy prime minister, told Israeli radio.
"In this scenario, he would be cut off from the world. He would be unable to receive anyone and would not be able to communicate by phone."
The Israeli security cabinet's decision on Thursday to agree in principle to "remove" the veteran leader has provoked widespread international condemnation and anger among Palestinians.
Warning
US Secretary of State Colin Powell again warned on Sunday against the impact of Arafat's removal from the peace process.
"The United States does not support either the elimination of him or the exile of Mr Arafat," Powell told Fox News.
"I think the consequences would not be good ones. I think you can anticipate that there were would be rage throughout the Arab world, the Muslim world, and in many of other parts of the world," Powell said.
"I don't see how at this delicate moment that would serve the cause of moving forward on the roadmap," he said.
Israel, however, has criticised reaction to the decision to remove Arafat - which was taken in the light of two deadly suicide attacks last Tuesday - as hypocrisy.
Thousands of people have gathered outside Arafat's offices in Ramallah in recent days to express their support for the symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
Hundreds of students gathered at the Muqataa on Sunday morning in the latest outpouring of support.
And a series of back-to-back demonstrations by different groups in support of Arafat were also taking place near the government offices in Gaza City.
Arafat himself addressed by telephone a crowd of 20,000 gathered in the main square of Rachidiyeh refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Sunday, promising to thwart Israeli efforts to expel him.
"I tell you that any attempts to get our people to capitulate will fail, because with God's help we will not kneel down," he told the crowd.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said that Israel was behaving like "the mafia".
"These threats of physical elimination or expulsion are acts of the mafia, not of government," Erakat told AFP on Sunday, appealing for "the international community and the civilised world to urgently intervene to stop the Israeli military escalation."
According to the Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Sunday, Sharon is wary of upsetting Washington.
"Sharon does not want a clash with the whole world and definitely does not want to go against the Americans. That's why Arafat's expulsion is not imminent," one minister told the daily.
'Don't take orders'
"Sharon wants to deal with Arafat in a sophisticated fashion and not charge head-first into the wall."
More hawkish cabinet members such as Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Education Minister Limor Livnat, however, think that Sharon must move against Arafat, regardless of advice from the United States.
"Notwithstanding our important and friendly relationship with the Americans, we do not take our orders from them," Livnat told the paper.
The fate of Arafat is under debate amid a continued power vacuum among the Palestinian leadership.
The Palestinian parliament had been due to meet on Sunday to install Ahmed Qorei as prime minister but the session was put off indefinitely amid disagreements over the composition of his team.
After a meeting of the mainstream Fatah movement's central committeee, Qorei said: "Negotiations are continuing and we are awaiting a unified position from Fatah members about the formation of cabinet."
Qorei, who was nominated as premier by Arafat a week ago following the resignation of Mahmud Abbas, threatened on Thursday to call off efforts to form a new government after Israel gave the green light for Arafat's expulsion.
- AFP
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