Israel prepares to hand over Bethlehem

Palestinian police were preparing to move back into the West Bank town of Bethlehem today, the second area Israel is turning over under a Middle East peace plan, following an upbeat summit meeting that boosted hope for an end to 33 months of bloodshed.

The handover of the ancient town was to take place today, officials on both sides said, after the last of the Israeli soldiers left. Yesterday army transport trucks hauled equipment away from two Israeli bases next to the town.

Israeli forces have occupied Bethlehem several times during the conflict, once holding the Church of the Nativity under siege for a month, demanding surrender of Palestinian gunmen who had fled inside the shine that marks the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

After a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus on November 21, carried out by a Palestinian from Bethlehem, three miles away, soldiers went back in and stayed.

Yesterday, senior commanders met and finalised the details of the handover. In a statement, the military said Israel would be in charge of security of Israelis, including settlers in nearby villages.

Palestinian security forces, meanwhile, “have committed to preventing and thwarting terrorist attacks in the areas under their responsibility”.

A similar formula held in Gaza, where Israeli troops pulled out on Sunday.

Speaking in front of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s office before their summit yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said the turnover of Gaza and Bethlehem would be “followed by pullbacks from the rest of the cities and towns and Palestinian refugee camps”.

It was the first time the two leaders spoke before reporters and cameras at a Jerusalem summit, their third in six weeks. The atmosphere was cordial and friendly.

Palestinian and Israeli Cabinet ministers, some of them enemies until recently, sat at a table next to the two lecturns, chatting easily and smiling, establishing a relaxed setting for conciliatory language not heard in the region during three years of bloodshed.

“Even if we are required to make painful compromises, I will be willing to make them for the sake of true peace – a peace for generations, the peace that we all yearn for,” Sharon said.

Abbas responded in kind, saying: “Enough suffering, enough death, enough pain. Let us stride forward with courage and without hesitation to the future we all deserve.”

Both premiers committed themselves to the “road map” peace plan launched by US president George Bush at a June 4 summit with Sharon and Abbas. The plan leads through three stages to creation of a Palestinian state in 2005.

The two leaders, joined by senior Cabinet ministers and aides, then withdrew for two hours of talks aimed at resolving disputes over their next moves.

They agreed to reconstruct committees set up during the first years of peace efforts in the 1990s to discuss issues including security, prisoners and legal matters, according to officials on both sides.

The committees were suspended during the current violence.

Abbas also asked for freedom of movement for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been confined to his West Bank headquarters by Israel for more than a year. Sharon said he would consider allowing Arafat to move to Gaza, but a senior Israeli official said it would be a “one-way ticket”.

Left behind in Ramallah as Abbas travelled to Jerusalem, Arafat told reporters: “We hope that they will continue with implementation of the road map plan, which means complete withdrawal from all Palestinian lands.”

However, there were many doubts and doubters, with misgivings and suspicions left over from previous failed attempts to stop the violence and move towards peace.

The chief of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter, said Israel would withdraw from additional West Bank towns only if Palestinian police began disarming Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other violent groups in the Gaza Strip.

“We will not move on to transfer responsibility for the West Bank before it becomes totally clear that in Gaza the process of disarming terror groups has begun,” Dichter told a symposium at Tel Aviv University.

Abbas opposes the use of force against militias, fearing it could trigger a civil war. He suggested that illegal weapons would not be confiscated, but that Palestinian police would try to persuade militiamen not to use them.

“The misuse of weapons must be prevented through dialogue and agreement, not through internal war,” Abbas said in an address to the Palestinian parliament yesterday.

Israeli officials said Sharon insisted in his talks with Abbas that violent groups be dismantled, in line with the road map. “There can be no peace with terrorism,” Sharon said in his opening address.

Despite the truce announcement, a Palestinian man opened fire at a West Bank checkpoint yesterday and was killed by troops, the military said. There was no claim of responsibility.