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Arafat Urges Arab League to Halt Israeli Buffer Zone Plan
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged the Arab League on Tuesday to prevent Israel from establishing closed military zones around Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a message to Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Arafat called on the pan-Arab forum to "immediately intervene to end Israeli excessive aggressions on the Palestinian people," Egypt's state-run MENA news agency reported.
Speaking to reporters, Moussa accused Israel of intending to impose its occupation on the Arabs and evade peace.
He urged the world community, the U.S. in particular, to help ensure the immediate implementation of the Mitchell report, which urges both the Palestinians and Israelis to adopt measures for building confidence after a cooling-off period, and finally resume peace talks.
Israeli police is drawing up a plan to separate Jewish settlements from Arab villages in areas around Jerusalem by erecting permanent barriers, Israel's Army Radio reported on Tuesday.
The Jerusalem buffer zone plan, as part of a greater plan to set up buffer zones along the Green Line, or the actual control line before the 1967 Mideast war, "could prevent Palestinian militants from infiltrating into Jerusalem to carry out attacks against Israelis," Israeli officials said.
On Monday, the Israeli army set up a buffer zone along the Green Line from Jenin to Tulkarm in the West Bank.
According to the plan, non-resident Palestinians will be required to obtain special permits to enter these areas which have been announced as closed military zones, and anyone entering without permits could be arrested.
The plan ran highly controversial as the Palestinians and the world opinion regard such measures as Israel's new ways to create facts on the ground.
Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and declared Jerusalem as its " eternal and undivided capital" in 1980, a move which is not recognized internationally.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state.
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