An important forum in Fatah movement echoed Wednesday his calls for an end to suicide attacks inside Israel, saying the bombings harmed the Palestinian struggle for a state. "Military attacks inside the 'green line' (Israel) must stop because they reflect negatively on the image of our national struggle," the Fatah Revolutionary Council (FRC) said in a document issued after two weeks of internal discussions.
"Resistance to the occupation should be limited within Palestinian land occupied in 1967," the 130-member body said. The FRC is the most important forum in Fatah after the faction's Central Committee.
The council said it rejected the "phenomenon of armed militias" and that it was up to the Palestinian security forces to defend the Palestinian people.
But a Fatah official told Reuters the document should not be seen as denouncement of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. "I think the ball is in the Israeli court now. If Israel continues its assassinations of Palestinian activists, it will provoke reactions," he said. "And if they go on, it will be impossible to restrain attacks...inside the Israeli cities."
According to the official, the document will be distributed among the 11 factions under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for further discussion. "Once it is ratified by all, it will become a national document. It will then be addressed to all other Islamic and national factions outside the PLO," he said.
Israeli Cabinet
Meanwhile, the Israeli security cabinet met Wednesday morning to discuss Israel's response to the killings late Tuesday of three youths in the Nablus-area settlement of Itamar, and the highway shooting ambush of a fourth Israeli near Ramallah.
But the session ended after several hours without having made operative decisions, Army Radio said. It quoted army chief Shaul Mofaz, when asked to list possible options for an Israeli response, as having reiterated his support for exiling Palestinian leader,Yasser Arafat. The deportation proposal was opposed at length by the Israeli Defense Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon then upbraided Mofaz, who has been increasingly outspoken in matters the prime minister has viewed as political rather than military in purview. According to Israeli media reports, Sharon said the discussion over Israel's response will continue next week, and until then, the current military posture of directed raids and brief incursions would continue. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
