Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to establish buffer zones between Israel and the Palestinian territories drew Palestinian outrage on Friday.
Sharon declared in a nationally televised speech on Thursday night "security separation" from the Palestinians was the recipe for protecting Israelis from attacks.
But Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo condemned the move, which followed a day of Israeli raids that killed nine people, as an attempt to "create jails for the Palestinian people within their cities, towns and villages,” reported Reuters. Abed Rabbo vowed Palestinians would resist Sharon's scheme, saying it would "transform our areas into isolation centers".
Sharon did not elaborate, but experts assumed Israel would seal off some Palestinian areas and might even put slices of Palestinian-ruled land bordering the Jewish state back under Israeli military control.
Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said Sharon had "offered no hope...and opened no way to ending the confrontation and heading back to the peace table". Shaath added: "If separation is intended to stop suicidal missions, it has failed. If it's intended to stop trade and communication between the two peoples, it has succeeded to the misery of both."
A U.S. State Department official said Sharon's plan could amount to the kind of unilateral action which Washington has opposed, but said the United States was reserving judgment, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, in New York, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said: "Truly we are nearing the edge of the abyss."
Before Sharon started to speak, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Middle East crisis had reached a "critical moment" after a recent surge in violence and urged both Israel and the Palestinians to do whatever they could to avoid a further escalation.
"We are deeply concerned about the ongoing violence between Israel and the Palestinians." "We've seen a sharp deterioration in the last 48 hours."
"At this critical moment we urge both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to consider their actions and the consequences very carefully," he said.
"We strongly recommend that both sides do their utmost to avoid escalation and restore genuine security cooperation and consultations," Boucher said.
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
