News, May 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Israel announces measures to ease pressure on Palestinians
,
Khaleej Times, (AFP)
30 May 2003
JERUSALEM - Israel officially announced on Friday measures it would be taking to ease pressure on the Palestinians, following late night talks between their respective prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Mahmud Abbas. A statement from Sharon’s office said they would include freer movement for workers and officials, the release of two prominent prisoners and an increase in payment of taxes due to the Palestinian Authority.
As a result 25,000 Palestinian
workers will be allowed to resume employment in Israel, including 15,000
from the Gaza Strip and 10,000 from the West Bank. Senior Palestinian officials will
once more be issued special permits to pass through mililtary checkpoints
and across Israeli territory. Tax payments will be raised to 30
million dollars a month, the statement said. The prisoners to be freed were
named as Taysir Khaled, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation
executive and the leadership of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, and Ahmed Jbarra Abu Sukkar, who has been in an Israeli jail
for 27 years for carrying out a bombing. Khaled, the Israelis’ most
important Palestinian prisoner after member of parliament Marwan Barghuti,
who is currently on trial for murder, was arrested six months ago by
Israeli troops in Nablus in the northern West Bank. Earlier Friday Sharon’s office
said Israel agreed to hand over security control in Gaza and in West Bank
towns to the Palestinians in a phased withdrawal of its troops. The agreement was reached in the
talks between Abbas and Sharon that were described as “very positive”
by both sides. In return Sharon demanded Abbas
take action to halt the violence and practical steps on the ground such as
“dismantling terror organisations, confiscation of illegal weapons, and
the ending of incitement”, his office said. But he warned that if any concrete
threat to Israeli lives emerged from areas under renewed Palestinian
control and the Palestinians failed to take action, “the army would not
hesistate to act to prevent it”. Sharon said that if the
Palestinians put a halt to anti-Israeli attacks by radicals in their camp,
Israel would begin political negotiations on the establishment of a
Palestinian state. The two premiers met at Sharon’s
west Jerusalem office to discuss steps to launch the
internationally-backed roadmap peace plan ahead of their three-way summit
next Wednesday in Aqaba, Jordan with US President George W. Bush. Abbas and Sharon also agreed to
issue a joint statement on the roadmap at the Aqaba summit, said Nabil Abu
Rudeina, a senior aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. A statement from Abbas’ office
hailed the talks as “serious, candid and beneficial”, and said the
acceptance of the roadmap by both sides would be “reinforced” by the
Middle East summits in Egypt and Jordan next week. “The
two sides also agreed to set up a joint committee to continue work on the
roadmap,” added Abu Rudeina, without giving details.
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |