The Israeli army on Wednesday said that a planned attack on the Palestinian village of Beit Jala near the West Bank city of Bethlehem had been delayed, but not cancelled, and denied US pressure had caused the postponement.
Senior commanders received word from the political echelon at Tuesday 8:00pm (Israel local time) that the operation would be delayed for 24 hours, they said, cited by the Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer denied Wednesday that US pressure or a telephone call from Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had halted the planned Israeli army incursion into Beit Jala.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had threatened attacks in the Bethlehem area following automatic arms fire from Beit Jala towards the Jewish settlement of Gilo near occupied east Jerusalem early Tuesday, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Earlier, AFP said that the Israeli army was poised to strike at Beit Jala Tuesday night, but the cabinet held off a ground forces action into the town after the White House termed "provocative" a similar operation in Jenin earlier Tuesday and President Bush called for Israeli "restraint."
But Ben-Eliezer denied there was a US pressure.
"No one pressured me, not the Americans, not the foreign minister. I made the decision after receiving certain intelligence information...I received information that [Palestinian President] Yasser Arafat was making efforts to stop [the shooting], and it was over," said Ben-Eliezer in an interview to Israel Radio.
ISRAELI ARMY ASSASSINATES FATEH LEADER, ARRESTS THREE ISLAMIC HIJAD ACTIVISTS
The Israeli army on Wednesday morning assassinated a Fateh activist near the West Bank city of Hebron.
Meanwhile, three members of the Islamic Jihad movement were arrested for allegedly planning to carry out bombings in northern Israel.
Emad Abu Snaineh, 25, was killed by the occupation troops near the Israeli-controlled zone in Hebron, said AFP.
Palestinian Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Nabil Amr condemned the latest hit by Israel, which has vowed to assassinate Palestinian resistance fighters if the Palestinian Authority fails to arrest them first, according to AFP.
Amr said "undercover Israeli occupation soldiers entered the Palestinian-controlled area in Hebron and ambushed (Abu Snaineh), fatally shooting him in the head, chest, abdomen and legs as he was leaving his home.
"Such state terrorism shall seriously impede the internationally sought efforts to bring calm to the region," he said in a statement, adding that Palestinians would increase efforts to secure international protection from the UN Security Council.
Haaretz quoted security sources as claiming that Abu Snaineh had been involved in a spate of shooting attacks in the Hebron area.
Palestinian officials say that over 40 political leaders and resistance fighters have been killed under Israel's assassination policy, variously called by the euphemisms "targeted killings," "liquidations," "surgical strikes" and "interception operations."
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced on Wednesday that it had arrested three-member cell of the Islamic Jihad movement for allegations that they were planning plant bombs in crowded places in northern Israel, said Israel Radio.
The three, all residents from the West Bank city of Jenin, were arrested in Kiryat Ata near Haifa, the report said.
Israeli police claim that they were getting help from Arab Israelis, adding that they found a a bomb they had “prepared for their attack.”
The police alleged that they intended to put the bomb in crowded place in Haifa between Thursday to Friday, but the police stopped them after they received intelligence about cell, the report added.
ARAB LEAGUE WANTS ‘ZIONISM AS RACISM’ ON TABLE AT UN CONFERENCE
In Cairo, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa called Wednesday for the United Nations to confront "Israeli racism against the Arabs" during its anti-racism conference in South Africa at the end of August, said AFP.
"The success of the Durban conference calls for the condemning of all racist behavior understood in the racist practices and declarations of Israel," Moussa told AFP.
This conference "must necessarily deal with the question of racism demonstrated by the Israeli party toward the Arabs seen in the declarations of Israeli officials and religious leaders."
Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party, declared in July that Arabs in Jerusalem were "swarming like ants" and "they should go to hell."
For its part, Egypt's media are often charged by Israel with publishing virulently anti-Semitic tracts.
Egypt and the Arab world have called for the Durban meeting to condemn Israel's practices as racist.
A UN resolution approved in 1975, but repealed in 1991, described Zionism as racism.
The United States and members of the European Union blocked the Arab World's campaign against Israel in a preparatory session for Durban that began in Geneva last month.
The session ended with an agreement to keep out of the texts wording equating Zionism to racism - language that had been opposed by the United States and Israel.
But Arab countries and the Organization for the Islamic Conference insisted on terms such as "racist practices of the Occupying Power" and "racial discrimination against the Palestinians as well as other inhabitants of the Arab Occupied Territories" be included, despite Israeli and US objections.
The Durban conference is to run from August 31 to September 7 – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
