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THE ARABS REGIMES --
OFF TO GREET SHARON IN
DOHA
.
MEANWHILE, SHARON MASTERMINDS
ISRAELI EXPANSION PLANS
MER - Washington - 9/30/97:
Even more than
Netanyahu, the hand of Ariel Sharon is firmly behind Israeli policies,
most especially the settlement expansion policies. Yet even so -- cajoled
and threatened by the United States -- the Arab client-regimes are heading
to the fourth U.S.-Israel sponsored "economic summit" in a few
weeks, this one in Doha.
This very important and
very symbolic matter was discussed in the previous MER a few days ago.
The concluding paragraph of the article read: "Meanwhile, adding insult
to injury, none other than Ariel Sharon will be heading up Israel's delegation
if Doha takes place. Sharon -- the war criminal of Sabra and Shatilla.
Sharon -- one of Israel's greatest thugs and Palestinian killers. Sharon
-- the only senior Israeli official who commandered a house in the Muslim
quarter of Old Jerusalem on top of which he prominently flies the Israeli
flag and a Menorah for all to see (all guarded 24-hours daily by Israeli
troops of course).
Sharon -- the Minister
in charge of building still more Israeli settlements to permanently disinfranchise
and ghettoize the Palestinians." The following additional information
about Sharon, published in Hebrew in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz,
has now come to our attention:
.
SHARON PLAN TO REINFORCE GREEN LINE APPROVED
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"A plan to
establish a chain of 17 new settlements between Jerusalem and the southern
Mount Hebron area just inside the Green Line has been approved by Interior
Minister Eli Suissa and passed on to the planning units in his ministry.
"The plan
was initiated by National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon. The new
settlements are intended as the final stage of the plan formulated by Sharon
in the 1980s, when he served as housing minister, to ensure continuous
Jewish settlement along the entire boundary line of the West Bank.
"Sharon's spokesman, Ra'anan Gissin, said
the plan would 'protect the land from being taken over by Palestinians
and Bedouin.' Gissin said Israel must 'seize the land and create facts
on the ground' before the final status negotiations.
"'It's a war,'
Gissin stated. He said economic problems and a sense of insecurity caused
by agricultural thefts in the area where the new settlements are planned
had driven out many residents in recent years.
"At present,
he said, there are only about 5,000 residents there, and 26,000 dunams
(6,500 acres) of state land had been abandoned. 'It is urgent to double
the number of residents,' said Gissin.
"Sources in the Israel Lands Administration
(ILA) said that a Jewish settlement will be established 'opposite every
Palestinian village that lies close to the Green Line, and whose residents
are trying to push the Green Line westward.'
"The plan
has aroused opposition from both left and right. Spokesmen for left-wing
parties said that Sharon wants to push the border between Israel and a
future Palestinian state eastward.
"They claim that the new chain of settlements
will stifle the West Bank and prevent the creation of the 'safe passage'
route between the West Bank and Gaza which is stipulated under the Oslo
accords..." {HAARETZ - 9/15}
M I D - E A S T R E
A L I T I E S
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(202) 362-6965 MER@MiddleEast.Org
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