Bush endorsement of Israel pull-out plan angers Palestinians

Palestinians and Israeli hard-liners rejected statements by US President George W Bush supporting some Israeli settlements in the West Bank and ruling out the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel.

Mr Bush was speaking after a meeting yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, where Mr Sharon presented his plan for an Israeli withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, along with a smaller pull-back in the West Bank.

The plan faces a referendum of members of Mr Sharon’s Likud Party on May 2, and the Prime Minister’s backers hoped Mr Bush’s statement would persuade sceptical voters that the “disengagement” plan is worthwhile.

Cabinet minister Uzi Landau, leading the Likud campaign against the Sharon initiative, said the Bush speech yielded “a thin harvest”. He called on other Likud Cabinet ministers to join his drive “to stop this bad initiative”, setting a planning meeting of his allies for this morning.

Another Likud Cabinet minister, Tsipi Livni, who had expressed doubts about the pull-out plan, said she was somewhat reassured by Mr Bush’s pledges. “I’m not ecstatic,” she told Israel TV. “I’m apprehensive regarding the process, but I will support if we really get these things.”

Hard-liners oppose evacuating settlements in principle, and are against Mr Sharon’s unilateral pull-back plan, calling it a “reward for terrorism” that would spur more violence.

Mr Bush said that a peace agreement must take into account realities that have developed in the decades since Israel captured the West Bank. He said that the existence of Israeli population centres – referring to settlements – must be taken into account.

It was the first time a US president had come that close to legitimising Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which were traditionally denounced as “obstacles to peace” in previous administrations.

Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with the removal of all Israeli settlements.

Mr Bush also said that the problem of Palestinian refugees must be solved in the framework of a Palestinian state, rebuffing a key Palestinian demand of right of return of the refugees and their descendants to their original homes in Israel.

Minutes after Mr Bush spoke, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia harshly criticised the US President’s stand. “He is the first president who has legitimised the settlements in the Palestinian territories when he said that there will be no return to the borders of 1967,” he said, referring to the cease-fire line that delineates the West Bank.

“We as Palestinians reject that. We cannot accept that. We reject it and we refuse it.”

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat also dismissed Mr Bush’s statement. “This is like someone giving a part of Texas’ land to China,” he told The Associated Press. He said that over the years, US administrations have assured the Palestinians that issues like borders and settlements would be handled in negotiations between the two sides.

Mr Erekat said: “If Israel wants to make peace, it must talk to the Palestinian leadership.”

On Monday, before leaving for Washington, Mr Sharon listed five main settlements Israel intends to keep in a final peace deal.

Mr Qureia objected to the unilateral nature of Israel’s planned moves, ignoring the Palestinians. “

These issues can be determined only through negotiations and cannot be determined through promises from the leader of this or that country,” he said. “This can be decided only by the Palestinian leadership.”

Besides opposition within his own Likud Party, Mr Sharon faces resignations from two of his three coalition partners, identified closely with the settlement movement.

Tourism minister Benny Eilon of the National Union party called on Likud members to “remain faithful to the land of Israel” and oppose Mr Sharon’s plan. He said the problem of Palestinian refugees cannot be solved by ignoring it.

He said more than a million Palestinians in Gaza, bred on hatred of Israel, are clamouring to return to their homes. ”This is not just politics,” Mr Eilon told Israel TV. “Grandfathers pass to their grandsons the key to their house and say, ‘You reclaim the house’.”

If the National Union and the National Religious Party bolt over the pull-out plan, the moderate opposition Labour Party would provide Mr Sharon with parliamentary support, said Matan Vilnai, a party leader.

“If someone tries to topple him in a vote of no confidence in the parliament, we, from the opposition benches, will support him,” he said. However, the party is split over whether to join Mr Sharon’s government under those circumstances.