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March 16, 2001/Adar 21, 5761, Vol. 53, No.24
Blockade eased on Ramallah
NAOMI SEGAL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - The first major challenge of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's young tenure is shaping up over Israel's blockades of Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
Israel defends the blockades as necessary for security reasons, citing an alleged plot by Ramallah-based militants to carry out a massive terror attack in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority this week renewed a call on the U.N. Security Council to send in peacekeepers to protect the Palestinian people.
For its part, the U.S. State Department said Israel's attempts to end the violence through economic pressure only provide economic hardship and do not enhance security.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher urged Israel to ease economic restrictions on the Palestinians, reiterating that Israel should also release tax revenues it has withheld from them.
The United States "opposes any measures that make it impossible for ordinary Palestinians to survive economically," said Boucher.
Faced with criticism from the United States and the European Union, Israel on March 13 eased its blockade of Ramallah, opening two roads to the city. Palestinian officials, however, complained that the move was only cosmetic and intended to deflect international criticism.
Hundreds of Palestinians took part in a "Day of Rage" demonstration March 14 in Ramallah to protest Israel's closure of the West Bank city. The protesters briefly seized an Israeli army checkpoint, before soldiers, firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowd, retook the position.
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Jewish settler leaders that because of a recent period of relative quiet, Israel was lifting restrictions imposed around Kalkilya, Tulkarm, Hebron and Bethlehem.
He defended the blockade around Ramallah, saying there was intelligence information that terrorists there are trying to infiltrate Israel with a car bomb.
"We have very clear indications" that terrorists are trying to get into Israel for a "very big operation," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio.
Israel Radio quoted senior Palestinian security forces as denying that any terrorist cell was planning such attacks from Ramallah.
Meanwhile, the first plan-ned ministerial-level meeting between Israel and the Palestinians since Sharon took office was canceled.
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