Sharon Approves Jerusalem Security Plan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Sharon Approves Jerusalem Security Plan

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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved Tuesday a security plan drafted by National Security Council (NSC) for strengthening the security of Jerusalem and of the "seam line" between Israel and the West Bank.

Sharon said that he had ordered additional necessary changes in the plan in order to get the final approval from the security cabinet, noting that the plan would be "an essential element in securing Jerusalem."

He emphasized that Jerusalem would be treated as a "single whole" that "includes Jewish and Arab neighborhoods as one."

Sharon's remarks was apparently referring to some ideas in the security plan, which calls for constructing a wall along the 11- kilometer-long seam line between East and West Jerusalem and setting up roadblocks between the eastern and western parts of the city.

The plan also proposes installing video cameras along the seam line, establishing five border police companies that would patrol the seam line, and introducing additional identification technologies such as thermal sensors and night-vision equipment.

However, the plan seems unlikely to be approved in full by the cabinet, because most of the cabinet ministers prefer to focus efforts on preventing terrorists from entering the city rather than on keeping them from crossing from its eastern to its western part.

According to a senior police official, there were 1,800 terror attacks inside Israel in 2001, killing 208 Israelis and wounding over 1,600. In Jerusalem alone, there have been 66 attacks that left 33 people dead and 513 others wounded.

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