Talks on ending a five-week standoff at the Church of the Nativity broke down Thursday over new Palestinian demands to send European monitors into the shrine, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators said. The Palestinians said Israel refused at the last minute to implement the deal.
Ala Hosni, the Palestinian police chief in Bethlehem, confirmed that the dispute arose over the proposed monitor, European envoy Alastair Crooke, but said that had been part of the agreement and Israel reneged on it.
Hosni said there was also a dispute over the collection of the weapons in the church. The police chief said Israel had initially agreed that the 13, who would remain in the church, would be allowed to keep their assault rifles.
"After we gave them two hours to prepare themselves, they surprised us by rejecting everything we had agreed upon," Hosni said. "The ball is in the Israeli court now."
Earlier it was reported that Israel and the Palestinians agreed to move all but 13 Palestinians from the church sometime Thursday, a key step in ending the five-week siege, an Israeli official said.
A group of 26 Palestinian gunmen was going to Gaza and about 80 civilians inside would be freed, said Israeli army Capt. Jacob Dallal.
Before the current crisis, departure seemed imminent when two Israeli buses pulled into the square near the church.
The Israelis said they would maintain a presence at the church until all the Palestinians are out.
Word of the apparent breakthrough came after negotiators from both sides met early Thursday and then were seen leaving the church. Also attending were a lawyer, two Franciscan priests and two Greek Orthodox monks who emerged from the church.
Signaling that the end of the siege is near, the Palestinian governor of Bethlehem, Mohammed Madani, left the church for the first time since the confinement began. He was accompanied by two priests as he ducked through the low-slung main door of the 4th-century church.
Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is expected to travel to Rome on Friday for meetings with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Vatican officials in an effort to convince them to accept the 13 Palestinians, reports said Thursday.
Berlusconi has reiterated his view that Italy alone cannot host the 13 Palestinians, adding that a EU-wide solution should be sought instead.
"How can we host some Palestinians who have been accused of serious terrorist acts, who having been neither judged nor sentenced and would, therefore, be considered free men in Italy?" Berlusconi said in an interview to be published Friday on an Italian weekly.
"No one can incarcerate these men or grant them asylum, that's why no European country wants them," Berlusconi added.
Israel TV said Wednesday evening that Spain was being discussed as an alternate possibility, but Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique said his country had not been asked and would have a difficult time holding the men since they had not been charged with a crime there.
However, the European Union High Representative for Common, Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, has promised Israel’s Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to help the negotiating teams find a European country that will take in the 13 Palestinians. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
