Palestinians Dub Arafat `Lahd,' Clinton Tries to Sell Deal--- NETANYAHU SAYS MORE HOMES FOR SETTLERS TO BE BUILT-- NEWS & VIEWS
October 27, 1998 - 0:0
TEHRAN Shouting slogans pro-Hamas Palestinians staged a demonstration in Gaza and dubbed Yasser Arafat Antoine Lahd, reports coming from the occupied lands said yesterday. Lahd, an Israeli mercenary, heads the South Lebanon Army (SLA), serving the interest of the Zionists in the occupied land of Lebanon. Hundreds of Palestinians including Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin staged a protest in Gaza City and demanded an immediate release of all Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
They were protesting the `land-for-security' deal signed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday in Washington. In the meantime, U.S. President Bill Clinton who brokered the deal yesterday was trying to sell the accord to the leader of the region and the people. Clinton phoned King Hasan of Morocco, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah and British Prime Minister Tony Blair and asked for support to the deal.
U.S. president also aired the deal in his speeches he made during fund-raising trip to California. He urged to all to support for Netanyahu and Arafat. But the Palestinians in their demonstration said, Arafat caved in to Israeli demands. Meanwhile, Netanyahu said yesterday he had made no promises to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank during a nine-day U.S. peace summit with the Palestinians. The prime minister told Israel's Army Radio, he was sticking to a policy of building for Jews in Jerusalem and adjacent to existing West Bank settlements.
We are building throughout the land of Israel and also in Jerusalem (Holy Qods), he said. The radio interviewer asked Netanyahu if he had promised at the Wye Plantation Middle East summit not to build new settlements, not to confiscate land except for settler bypass roads, and not to demolish 1,800 Palestinian homes. There are no agreements. What I have always said publicly there is nothing secret here I always said we are building in existing settlements, we build continuous (to settlements) generally in the vacant land adjacent, he said.
This, he said, was to accommodate natural growth. Under the accord, Israel will give Palestinians 13 percent more of the West Bank in return for security guarantees. The radio said Netanyahu planned to publish tenders soon for building on Har Homa settlement at the edge of Arab East Bait-ul-Moqaddas. Ground breaking on the settlement in March 1997, on a hill known as Jabal Abu Ghneim, plunged peace talks into a crisis that ended only with the signing of the Wye document.
I haven't set a date, Netanyahu said of the report. I said...homes would be built on Har Homa by the year 2000 and that will happen, he said. We haven't taken a decision to build (new) settlements but I say the Oslo agreement doesn't limit us in building in existing settlements, nor in adding settlements. Meanwhile, President Seyed Mohammad Khatami while talking to Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Al-Shara said that interim peace accord is to detriment of independent about countries.
The Palestinians during their demonstration against the deal, No peace without release of all prisoners.
They were protesting the `land-for-security' deal signed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday in Washington. In the meantime, U.S. President Bill Clinton who brokered the deal yesterday was trying to sell the accord to the leader of the region and the people. Clinton phoned King Hasan of Morocco, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah and British Prime Minister Tony Blair and asked for support to the deal.
U.S. president also aired the deal in his speeches he made during fund-raising trip to California. He urged to all to support for Netanyahu and Arafat. But the Palestinians in their demonstration said, Arafat caved in to Israeli demands. Meanwhile, Netanyahu said yesterday he had made no promises to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank during a nine-day U.S. peace summit with the Palestinians. The prime minister told Israel's Army Radio, he was sticking to a policy of building for Jews in Jerusalem and adjacent to existing West Bank settlements.
We are building throughout the land of Israel and also in Jerusalem (Holy Qods), he said. The radio interviewer asked Netanyahu if he had promised at the Wye Plantation Middle East summit not to build new settlements, not to confiscate land except for settler bypass roads, and not to demolish 1,800 Palestinian homes. There are no agreements. What I have always said publicly there is nothing secret here I always said we are building in existing settlements, we build continuous (to settlements) generally in the vacant land adjacent, he said.
This, he said, was to accommodate natural growth. Under the accord, Israel will give Palestinians 13 percent more of the West Bank in return for security guarantees. The radio said Netanyahu planned to publish tenders soon for building on Har Homa settlement at the edge of Arab East Bait-ul-Moqaddas. Ground breaking on the settlement in March 1997, on a hill known as Jabal Abu Ghneim, plunged peace talks into a crisis that ended only with the signing of the Wye document.
I haven't set a date, Netanyahu said of the report. I said...homes would be built on Har Homa by the year 2000 and that will happen, he said. We haven't taken a decision to build (new) settlements but I say the Oslo agreement doesn't limit us in building in existing settlements, nor in adding settlements. Meanwhile, President Seyed Mohammad Khatami while talking to Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Al-Shara said that interim peace accord is to detriment of independent about countries.
The Palestinians during their demonstration against the deal, No peace without release of all prisoners.