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Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, center, reviews a map of the Gush Etzion Jewish settlement block as he begins a tour of the area Tuesday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 8, 2006 |
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Israel's acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said Tuesday that Israel plans to separate from most of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and that this would require withdrawal from some of the territory.
"We will disengage from most of the Palestinian population that lives in Judea and Samaria," Olmert told Israel's Channel 2 TV. "That will obligate us to leave territories under Israeli control today."
It was the first time Olmert, who took over from ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a month ago, has spelled out his thinking for future policy if he wins March 28 elections. The Kadima Party he inherited from Sharon is far ahead in the polls.
Under questioning, Olmert listed four areas in Judea and Samaria that Israel would keep under his vision: Maaleh Adumim, a settlement of 30,000 next to Jerusalem; Gush Etzion, a bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem, Ariel, a settlement of 18,000 deep in the West Bank and the Jordan River valley.
Olmert did not mention the string of small settlements in the Jordan valley. Instead, he said, "it is impossible to abandon control of the eastern border of Israel."
Olmert defended his government's actions in tearing down buildings at the unauthorized Samarian outpost of Amona last week, where more than 200 protesters and police were injured. Critics of the government charge that police and soldiers used too much force.
Olmert called the protesters, most of them teenagers, who barricaded themselves on rooftops of the condemned buildings and threw rocks and paint at police and soldiers, "wild lawbreakers."
He said he would continue to enforce the law and would "carry out all commitments Israel has made," a reference to the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, which requires Israel to remove two dozen such outposts.
AP contributed to this report.
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