The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, Tuesday approved a heightened security plan to "envelop Jerusalem". This plan will limit Palestinian entry into Jerusalem.
It also calls for the construction of an 11-kilometer wall along the seam line between East and West Jerusalem; the establishment of roadblocks between the eastern and western parts of the city; the installation of video cameras along the seam line; the creation of five Border Police units to patrol the seam line and the introduction of new identification technologies such as thermal sensors and night-vision equipment.
Palestinian officials, reacting to reports of the plan, said it would never succeed in protecting Israelis.
"These oppressive Israeli military measures in East Jerusalem will not give Israelis security," said Ziyad Abu Zayad, who holds the Jerusalem Affairs portfolio in the Palestinian Authority. He said Arab East Jerusalem communities had already been cut off from each other due to military trenches and checkposts, Haaretz reported.
"Those measures did not give Israelis security and neither will the new plan. The problem is not a security one but a political one and therefore it cannot be solved by military oppression," he said.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian minister of information, said the plan constituted "heightened provocation" by the Sharon government. He said it showed Sharon was not interested in a political situation and wanted only to "create bantustans," a reference to the semi-autonomous Black regions created by apartheid South Africa.
Both Abed Rabbo and Abu Zayad said the Palestinian Authority was working through international diplomatic contacts to sabotage the "enveloping Jerusalem" plan.
Gaza
Palestinian sources said Tuesday that occupation troops entered Wadi Salka south of Dir al Balah in the Gaza Strip. The sources said that the troops fired from positions taken over in the town's council building and clinic. No injuries were reported.
Palestinians fired at occupation outposts near the settlements of Ganei Tal and Morag, in Gaza on Tuesday night. Palestinians also fired a mortar shell at an Israeli outpost near the settlement of Gadid, in Gaza. No injuries were reported in any of these incidents.
Additionally, occupation troops backed by tanks raided another Palestinian-ruled area of the Gaza Strip late Tuesday, and arrested several people, a Palestinian security source said. The Israeli forces moved some 200 meters into Palestinian territory at Al-Qarara near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where they carried out searches and made an unspecified number of arrests, reported AFP. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
