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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speaking at a press briefing Tuesday evening. (Reuters)
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| By Ellis Shuman May 23, 2001 |
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The Israeli Defense Forces have been given orders to cease all initiated pre-emptive operations against the Palestinians and only to respond to Palestinian attacks "in cases of genuine danger to human life." The move, announced by Israel's Ministry of Defense last night, was seen as an Israeli initiative towards implementing the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission.
"[Defense Minister] Ben Eliezer has called on the Palestinian leadership in turn to immediately stop acts of violence and terrorism," the Ministry statement added.
The Defense Ministry announcement came shortly after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered the Palestinians an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. Speaking at a news conference last night, Sharon stated that Israel regards "the Mitchell report as a positive basis which may enable both sides to break the cycle of violence and return to the negotiating table."
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"I call upon our neighbors to immediately stop the violence and return to the negotiating table"
- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
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Sharon said he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, and welcomed the Secretary's call for a cease-fire as the next step. "In this spirit, I call upon our neighbors to immediately stop the violence and return to the negotiating table," Sharon said.
Sharon reiterated the Israeli position that a "total and unconditional cessation of violence and terrorism" was the first step towards implementing the Mitchell Commission recommendations. This would be followed by a "meaningful" cooling off period and the implementation of confidence building measures before negotiations could be resumed.
Sharon: "We are not talking about a settlement freeze"
Asked by a reporter if the Israeli government would accept a total freeze of settlement activity as one of the confidence building measures, Sharon replied, "We are not talking about a freeze." Sharon said, in accordance with government policy, no new settlements would be built and no additional land would be expropriated for the purpose of settlement construction.
Sharon vowed to answer the needs of existing settlements, including the paving of new bypass roads for security reasons if necessary. "There's enough land, believe me, I know there's enough land," he said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that President Bush "welcomes the statement by Prime Minister Sharon,'' and said the United States "would welcome a similar statement'' from the Palestinians.
The Palestinians, though, immediately rejected Sharon's cease-fire call, claiming that Israel had chosen to implement part of the Mitchell Commission's report while ignoring the report's call for a freeze in settlement activity
Opposition leader MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) charged last night that Sharon "has no intention of adopting the Mitchell report." The report was meaningless without an immediate settlement freeze, Sarid said. Sarid warned that the Mitchell report was the last chance to stop the violence, and if this effort collapsed, Israel would find itself at war.
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