Already strained relations between Belgium and Israel worsened further Sunday as Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert branded visiting Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt a "bastard" and urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to meet him, reported AFP.
The high-powered EU delegation headed by Verhofstadt had already received a frosty reception in Israel Sunday as it arrived to try to kick-start the ailing peace process, just hours after Israel said its troops had pulled out of another Palestinian town, said the agency.
"He is a bastard, and Sharon must refuse to meet him," Olmert told Israeli public radio, referring to Verhofstadt.
"Under humanitarian and justice pretexts, a violent anti-Israeli campaign with strong anti-Semitic undertones is currently being led in Belgium," said Olmert, a leading figure in Sharon's right-wing Likud Party.
And an Israeli official described the EU as "pro-Arab and anti-Israel."
Israel had already protested Friday against Belgian national television's airing the same day of a BBC documentary called The Accused, which debates whether Sharon should be considered a war criminal over his role in the 1982 massacres in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, when he was defense minister.
Hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children in the refugee camps were slaughtered by Israeli allies, in a prolonged assault critics say Sharon must have known about but failed to prevent.
In a further twist Sunday, press reports said Israel was helping a group of Belgian Jews planning to sue Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a Belgian court, in a riposte to the legal action against Sharon.
The daily Haaretz said Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein had asked officials of the defense ministry for access to documents on Arafat's own alleged role in war crimes to boost the Jews' case.
The Belgian Jews are seeking to sue Arafat, particularly over the killing of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian group at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, and the death of an American Jewish passenger in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985.
A justice ministry spokesman told AFP Sunday that Israel was not a party to the suit, but did not deny the Haaretz report.
Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to Brussels, Shaul Amor, has written to the minister in charge of public television to protest at the broadcast of the BBC documentary, and the channel had said he accused the station of conducting a "hostile policy towards Israel."
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "We regard as unacceptable the decision by the RTBF (Radio Television Belge Francophone) to air this tendentious documentary, and this only two days ahead of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's visit to Israel."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon also deplored the fact that the broadcast came "as an important hearing by the Belgian judiciary is due to take place in the coming days on the case against Sharon."
Two lawsuits are pending in Belgium against the Israeli leader, alleging that he was guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps. They were brought last June by victims of the massacres and their families and independent parties.
A Belgian court is due to rule on November 28 whether the Belgian investigating magistrate had legal jurisdiction in the case.
EU WANTS SHARON'S DEMAND FOR WEEK OF QUIET DROPPED
According to Haaretz, the EU delegation is set to urge Tel Aviv to support the new American initiative that US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to unveil in a speech in Kentucky on Monday.
The delegation is not peddling its own new initiative, according to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. He explained that the requisite blueprints already existed in the Mitchell and Tenet documents. However, the delegation is expected to press Israel to drop its insistence on seven days of complete quiet before resuming negotiations.
The EU delegation met Saturday with Palestinian leaders and the previous day with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Palestinian officials welcomed the visit, but said they did not expect it to produce major results.
"Let us not raise expectations," said senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, noting that real progress would depend on the American initiative. "Europe told us more than once that it will not work independently of the United States or in competition with the United States."
POWELL'S POLICY SPEECH COULD INCLUDE NEW MIDEAST INITIATIVE
AFP said that US officials were hinting that Washington is preparing a major new Middle East peace initiative which could be unveiled on Monday, when Secretary of State Colin Powell delivers a major foreign policy address.
The speech could outline a new US vision for the future of the region, including an independent Palestinian state, but is unlikely to contain a detailed peace plan, officials have indicated.
The top US diplomat is scheduled to speak at the University of Louisville, in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday.
According to Haaretz, diplomatic sources in Israel were not expecting any "surprises" in the speech.
They agreed that Powell was expected in general terms to set the tone of the American image of the final status agreement, which will be based on a vision for a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel in peace.
UN ENVOY PROPOSES 'GAZA FIRST' CEASEFIRE PLAN
United Nations special envoy Terje Larsen has presented Israel with a new 'Gaza First' ceasefire proposal, whereby Israel will withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, dismantle all settlements there and also withdraw from an additional one percent of territory in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported Sunday, cited by the Tel Aviv-based daily.
But Minister Dan Meridor (Center Party), who met with Larsen, told the UN envoy the plan was unacceptable and would be a prize to those carrying out acts of terror. Before Israel made any concessions, Meridor reportedly told Larsen, the Palestinians had to stop all terror activities.
The relative quiet in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the lower rate of terror attacks is the result of army attacks and not a clampdown by Arafat on terror, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer told the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday morning.
Ben Eliezer told the ministers that last week's arrest of the head of Islamic Jihad's military wing, Mohammed "Norsi" Tualbeh, was an effort to relieve some of the international pressure on Arafat. "We are talking about internal control within the [Palestinian] Authority and not about a new policy of stopping terror and arresting militants," he said.
In Gaza, three Israelis were lightly wounded when Palestinians fired at their vehicle in the Neve Dekalim industrial zone, which is located in the Gush Katif settlement bloc – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
