JERUSALEM, Oct 17: Israel decided on Monday to suspend all contacts with the Palestinian Authority and impose a series of restrictions on civilians in the West Bank following a shooting attack which killed three Jewish settlers.
As the funerals of the three young victims, two women aged 21 and 23 and a 14-year-old boy, were taking place, Israel tightened security across the country ahead of the Sukkot religious holiday, which began on Monday.
In the occupied West Bank, recently dismantled roadblocks reappeared while private Palestinian cars were banned from travelling on inter-city roads in the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
The shooting was the first since the completion of Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip last month, and is an embarrassment for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is due to hold talks with US President George Bush in Washington this week.
Israel’s Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said the attack showed the Palestinian Authority was doing nothing to rein in militant groups and that it was impossible to make progress in the peace process in such an environment.
Israeli and Palestinian officials had been due to hold a series of meetings in the coming days to prepare the ground for a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mr Abbas after his return from Washington.
“In the current situation, we cannot move forward with the political process,” said Mr Boim, ruling out any prospect of Israel handing over responsibility for security in parts of the West Bank.
Defence ministry officials had earlier announced the decision to bar private cars from inter-city roads. Sunday’s drive-by shootings took place by a junction on the road linking the southern West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Hebron.
The Israeli restrictions in the West Bank and the decision to freeze contacts were roundly condemned by Palestinian officials who warned the moves would prove counter-productive.
“This will only add fuel to the fire. We call on the Israelis to immediately stop these moves and to allow the Palestinian Authority to do its job,” Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei told reporters.
Despite the moves, Mr Abbas himself expressed confidence that Israel’s contacts with his Palestinian Authority would soon be resumed.
“We are sure they (contacts) will resume as quickly as possible because we have many issues to discuss with the Israelis,” he said upon arrival in Paris before talks with French President Jacques Chirac.
He also condemned Sunday’s deadly shooting attacks, saying ‘these acts caused enormous damage to the ceasefire that all Palestinian organizations are committed to respect’.
Greeting Mr Abbas, Mr Chirac said he hoped the withdrawal would ‘give impetus to a political process, a process leading to peace, which will allow two viable states to live side by side in peace and security’.
Planning Minister Ghassan Khatib said Sunday’s attack was designed to weaken Mr Abbas and the decision to freeze contacts would only strengthen hardliners.
The shooting was ‘a blow to the Israelis on the personal level, but also a blow to the Palestinians in a political sense which weakens Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the Palestinian leadership”, Mr Khatib, a senior negotiator with Israel, said.
“Therefore the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships must work together to stop these operations and revive the peace process and not just do something against the majority of the Palestinians.”
Mr Abbas, who is due to meet President Bush on Thursday, held talks on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo before flying to Paris.
After the meeting, Mr Mubarak’s spokesman Suleiman Awad urged the two sides to resume negotiations.
“We hear these things from time to time ... about discussions being broken off but both sides always resume dialogue very quickly because it is the only way to overcome obstacles and take the peace process forward,” he said.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical offshoot of Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement. —AFP
