Security and scepticism as Bush visits West Bank

Palestinian police sealed off large parts of the West Bank city of Ramallah today, in an unprecedented operation to secure George Bush’s first visit as US president to the volatile Palestinian territories.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will receive Mr Bush later at his walled headquarters, which was repainted and had its helipad repaved before the meeting.

Residents in buildings around Mr Abbas’ compound were told to stay away from windows and balconies and Palestinian security officials said US snipers were being deployed in the area.

Mr Bush, who arrived in Israel yesterday, will spend much of today in the West Bank, and will visit Jesus’ traditional birth grotto in biblical Bethlehem.

He was to fly from Jerusalem to nearby Ramallah by helicopter, but Israeli police said heavy fog was forcing the president to come by car instead. The car trip would take 30 minutes and take Mr Bush through two Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank.

But Mr Bush’s visit has generated little excitement among Palestinians, who are largely sceptical of his promises to try to move along Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The US is perceived in the Palestinian areas as a staunch ally of Israel, at the expense of the Palestinians.

“Bush stands with Israel. He doesn’t care about the Palestinians,” 47-year-old grocer Hassan Nadali said as he opened the doors to his business in Ramallah’s largely-deserted Manara Square.

“He is actually going to set us back. He is not going to take our issues further.”

Nearby, police checked documents of motorists, and blocked the road leading to Mr Abbas’ compound with a pile of tyres.

Pedestrian Hind Abu Aoun stood at one closed junction, arguing with police to cross a blocked road to get to work.

“I think this is the only tangible result of Bush’s visit – closed roads,” she said.

Yesterday Israel had also imposed a West Bank closure, barring Palestinians from reaching Israel for the duration of the Bush visit.

Mr Bush’s joint news conference with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert yesterday did not help to allay Palestinian concerns.

Even though Mr Bush asked Olmert to remove small illegal settlement outposts set up in recent years, the US leader remained silent when the prime minister said he would keep expanding large settlements in some of the areas claimed by the Palestinians for their state, including east Jerusalem.

Under a US-backed peace plan, Israel is required to halt such expansion, and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told an Israeli newspaper earlier this week that Washington opposed Israeli settlement construction, including in east Jerusalem.

Nabil Amr, an Abbas adviser, said the Palestinians would like to see greater US involvement in the negotiations, including pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction.

Mr Bush said yesterday he would nudge the parties forward, but not try to impose an agreement.

In Hamas-ruled Gaza, thousands of supporters of the Islamic militant group took to the streets yesterday to protest at the Bush visit. They chanted: “Death to America” and burned effigies of Mr Bush and Mr Olmert, as well as US and Israeli flags.

“We came to say, as we burn the American flag, that God is great, greater than America,” Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader, told the demonstrators.

The fate of Gaza is expected to loom large in Mr Bush’s talks with Abbas. Hamas seized control of the coastal territory by force in June, defeating Abbas loyalists. The Palestinian president has no influence there, and it is unlikely he would attempt to restore control by force.

Mr Olmert said yesterday that Gaza would have to be pacified for any peace deal to move forward. Bush said he planned to ask Mr Abbas what he intended to do about halting rocket fire from Gaza on Israel.