Middle East - AP
Israel Plan Would Move 2 Gaza Crossings
Date: Sun, Jun 13, 2004
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - Israel will move two main crossing points in its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), a senior Israeli official said Sunday, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) ordered work to begin on implementing the plan.
The Erez crossing, the main entrance for Palestinian workers into Israel and site of an industrial park, will shift northward into Israel.
If the Egyptians agree, the Rafah crossing would be moved 1.5 miles south into Egyptian territory, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Moving the crossing points away from Gaza would end the cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces mandated by interim peace accords in the 1990s, but erased by more than three years of violence.
Also, distancing the crossings from Gaza itself would reinforce Israel's contention that the pullout means the end of its occupation of Gaza, though Palestinians complain that Israel plans to maintain control of its borders and air space.
Israel announced last week that the Erez industrial park, where 4,000 Palestinians work for Israeli and Palestinian employers, will be closed as part of the pullout — another symbolic blow to coexistence.
Last week, the Cabinet approved Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan, but at the cost of Sharon's parliamentary majority. To ensure Cabinet approval, Sharon fired the two ministers from a pro-settler party. After the vote, two members of another pro-settlement faction resigned, leaving Sharon with the support of only 59 legislators in the 120-seat parliament.
On Monday, the parliament votes on three motions of no confidence, but Sharon's government does not appear in danger.
To bring down the government, opponents must garner 61 votes, and the moderate opposition Labor Party, with 19 seats, is abstaining to give Sharon a "safety net," a gesture of support for his Gaza pullout plan.
However, the two members of the National Religious Party who quit said they would vote against the government. "We left the government in order to make every effort to bring it down," said Yitzhak Levy, a deputy minister until his resignation.
Sharon says the withdrawal from Gaza and four small West Bank settlements will reduce friction with the Palestinians and ward off international peace initiatives that would be unfavorable to Israel.
Also, Sharon says that by giving up Gaza, Israel would strengthen its case to retain large West Bank settlements.
Palestinians are ambivalent about the plan, welcoming the evacuation of Gaza but rejecting the idea that Israel would retain any of the West Bank. The Palestinians claim both territories for a state.
Under a timetable put together by Israel's National Security Council, the voluntary evacuation of settlements would begin next month and end in August 2005. If settlers refused to leave, they would be forcibly removed in the first two weeks of September.
Disclosure of the timetable set off a political storm since Sharon had promised Cabinet hardliners to hold another vote by February on the actual dismantling of settlements. Sharon critics said the timetable made a future Cabinet vote meaningless.
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