Pressure mounts for Israeli pullback: Palestinian vote
TEL AVIV, Nov 21: Israel faced mounting calls on Sunday for it to pull back troops and ease travel restrictions in the occupied territories ahead of January's landmark Palestinian elections to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat.
Representing the single-most influential source of pressure on the Jewish state, US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to meet Israeli and Palestinian officials on Monday for talks focussing on "the political process of a solution with the Palestinians," a senior Israeli source said.
Israel's Haaretz and Jerusalem Post newspapers said the outgoing secretary of state, seen as the leading dove in Washington, would urge Israel to withdraw troops from Palestinian cities to enable a fair ballot to be held on January 9.
Quoting unnamed officials, Haaretz said Israel is expected to bow to an American request to pull back, remove roadblocks, lift travel restrictions and limit military activities in the run-up to the election.
Preparations for the vote, the first since 1996, got under way on Saturday with start of the candidate registration period. Ahead of Powell's arrival, Assistant US Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns said he would support "steps by Israel which are needed to facilitate (the election)".
Speaking after talks with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei, UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen also urged Israel to withdraw from West Bank towns "to facilitate free and fair elections" and called on the international community to do everything to help.
"What we need now is a stabilisation package and a stabilisation programme," with commitments from the Palestinians, Israel and the international community, he said. "Israel is ready in every way to support the Palestinian elections, but will not compromise on security matters," the Israeli source said.
The new head of the mainstream Fatah faction upped the pressure by warning that the election will be cancelled if Israel does not withdraw. "The election will not take place unless Israel pulls back so that people can move freely," said Faruq Qaddumi, longtime politburo chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
A Palestinian source who requested anonymity went one step further by saying that by Monday "the Americans will most likely give the Palestinians guarantees that Israel will allow residents in east Jerusalem to take part in the election, pull out of all the main West Bank towns and ease military activities during the election period.
Israel will also probably agree to ease its closure on the Palestinian territories and checkpoints for the same duration, he said. Palestinian Authority president Rawhi Fattuh on Saturday reiterated his insistence that Palestinians living in annexed east Jerusalem participate in the vote.
"There will be no election unless the residents of Jerusalem can take part," he said, urging the "international community, the United States in particular, to use its influence on Israel to allow free elections to be held".
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has denied that elections were held in east Jerusalem in 1996, saying he wanted "the same" on January 9. Nearly 250,000 Palestinians are believed to live in the territory, which was allowed to cast postal ballots in the 1996 vote.
Fattuh also called on Israel to help pave the way for the election by halting attacks, removing checkpoints and withdrawing to positions held before the intifada, or uprising, broke out in 2000.
"Israel should go back to the places it held before September 28, 2000," Fattuh told a Gaza City news conference. Israel's privately run Channel Two television on Saturday said Sharon was mulling ordering troops in the territories to adopt the "lowest possible profile" in the run-up to the election, although it made no mention of any evacuation of bases in Palestinian towns. -AFP
