Stop humiliation of Palestinians : Bush
Stop humiliation of Palestinians : Bush
Agencies, London/Eilat, Israel
U.S. President George W. Bush urged Israel on Wednesday to end
the "daily humiliation" of Palestinians and not to prejudice
final peace talks by erecting "walls and fences".
Bush backs a peace plan that envisages a Palestinian state in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.
He has in the past objected to a fence that Israel is building
through the West Bank to prevent Palestinian militants entering
Israeli territory and launching attacks.
"Israel should freeze settlement construction, dismantle
unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the
Palestinian people and not prejudice final negotiations with the
placement of walls and fences," Bush said in the keynote speech
of his three-day state visit to Britain.
He also said Palestinians should adopt peaceful means in their
dealings with Israel, and urged Arab states to end anti-Israeli
incitement in their media and cut off funding for terrorism.
The fence veers for much of its length well into the Israeli-
occupied Palestinian territories. Palestinians describe it as a
new "Berlin Wall" that reflects an attempt to create a political
border.
In a separate incident, a gunman from Jordan opened fire on
tourists at a border crossing near Israel's Red Sea resort of
Eilat on Wednesday, wounding five people before being shot dead,
Israeli border officials said.
The rare outbreak of violence on the usually quiet Israel-
Jordan border broke out just before Palestinian leaders began
talks with militant factions on reaching a cease-fire with
Israel, a step needed to revive a U.S.-backed peace plan.
Egyptian mediators were to arrive later in the day to take
charge of truce negotiations, which offered a glimmer of hope for
the "road map" peace initiative stalled so far by persistent
violence and Washington's increasing preoccupation with Iraq.
Jordan, one of only two Arab countries to have peace treaties
with Israel, condemned the attack, calling it "an individual act
by a lone gunman". Medics said the five wounded were tourists
from Ecuador. One woman was critically hurt.
The gunman passed through the Jordanian border terminal
outside the port of Aqaba and crouched among trucks queued at the
Israeli terminal before opening fire on tourists waiting ahead of
them, Israeli border officials said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie began talks with
Islamist militants on Wednesday, to steer them into a truce with
Israel and set the stage for talks on the road map, which charts
reciprocal steps to a Palestinian state by 2005.
Qurie, a moderate who won parliamentary backing for his new
cabinet last week, met leaders of five factions including Hamas
and Islamic Jihad, which have spearheaded a campaign of suicide
bombings and ambush attacks on Israelis since September 2000.
Top militants emerged from hiding places taken after Israel
assassinated several in missile strikes earlier this year.
On Wednesday, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot
of the mainstream Palestinian movement Fatah, said it would
reject any agreement for a suspension of anti-Israeli attacks.
In Moscow, meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov
said on Wednesday that Russia would present a draft resolution to
the United Nations Security Council to get its formal approval
for the faltering "road map" plan for Middle East peace.