Barghouti calls for escalating intifada
By Lamia Lahoud
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/12/07/News/News.16951.html JERUSALEM (December 7) - Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti yesterday called upon Palestinians to escalate the intifada and urged the Palestinian Authority not to restart talks with the government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
"We oppose any return to the negotiations, because now it has become clear that there is no way to make an agreement with the government of Barak... we have asked everybody to accelerate the intifada, instead," Barghouti told The Jerusalem Post.
Other Palestinians said it is unlikely that an agreement could be reached with Barak while he is trying to win reelection. "He will not dare to make the concessions that are needed," one PA source argued.
Barghouti insisted that despite some internal dissent, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat is backing Fatah's policy of continuing the conflict.
"There are some individuals inside the PA who want to end the intifada and return to the negotiations for their own interests," he said. "But only through escalating the intifada, will the Israelis understand that they must end the occupation."
Barghouti added that a heavy toll of Israeli dead and constant pressure on the settlements are likely to make the public pressure any government - Labor or Likud - to withdraw and engage in serious negotiations.
Barghouti said the Palestinians will continue public protests and shooting attacks, but that Fatah had ordered its members not to shoot from populated areas, to spare Palestinian civilian casualties from the inevitable Israeli response.
He added that the order not to fire from Area A, the zone under full Palestinian control, has been rescinded.
Barghouti was not impressed by the expected arrival of the international fact-finding commission on Monday. He said there is no need for the commission, since it is clear that the Palestinians are the victim and Israel the aggressor.
Palestinians admitted that shooting attacks by Fatah may divert the commission's attention away from Israeli violations and bring blame on themselves.
On the political front, officials said that Arafat seems unlikely to compromise on his demand for sovereignty over the Temple Mount and has begun, once again, to raise the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees, which many Palestinian officials concede, Israel will never accept, except for a limited number as part of family reunification.
Regarding Turkey's efforts to find a compromise on Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Palestinian sources said that a joint Turkish-Arab compromise backed by Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia would enable Arafat to make a deal.
"The bottom line of an agreement will be Palestinian control over the Temple Mount and the Christian and Moslem quarters, and Israeli control over the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter," a senior PA official said.
Maybe some rights for Israel on the remnants of the Temple can be worked out, another source added |
