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.