Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza by the end of 2005, but retain control of the coastal strip's border crossings and airspace, according to details of his "disengagement" plan published for the first time Friday. Under Sharon's plan, evacuated settlements would not be destroyed - as they were when Israel evacuated the Sinai Peninsula in the 1980s - but Palestinian leaders and militants will not be allowed to live there.
| If they don't flatten the settlements, how are they going to control who lives there? |
Before Sharon can begin implementing his plan, he must persuade his Likud Party to support it in a May 2 referendum. Polls published Friday showed the plan garnering a slim majority among the 200,000 party members. Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated Friday against Bush, burning effigies of him and Sharon and pasting pictures of the president on the soles of their shoes, an insult in Muslim society.
| Any babes in bikinis with fake dynamite strapped around their comely young waists? |
"President Bush's statement is a new declaration of war and represents total bias of the American administration against our people," said Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad spokesman. "He is not qualified to deny Palestinian people their rights."
| You boys are doing a great job of that all by yourselves! |
Sharon returned home Friday to continue fighting for his plan. The Haaretz daily reported that Sharon's son, Omri, held a succession of meetings with Likud leaders at a Tel Aviv cafe and warned them that Sharon would resign if the referendum fails, forcing new elections. Under the plan, published in Israeli newspapers Friday, Israel would leave all of Gaza except for a patrol road along the Egyptian border. Israel also would retain full control of Gaza's airspace and border crossings, and Israel's navy would continue to patrol the Gaza coast. Israel may expand the border road before the withdrawal, the plan said. Israel has already razed more than 600 Palestinian homes that border the patrol road in the Rafah refugee camp.
| "Mahmoud! Dig a longer tunnel!" |
Israel will also leave intact "the real estate assets of the settlements" it evacuates, according to the plan. A senior Israeli official said Israel would not allow the houses to be given to Palestinian leaders or militants. Israel is in negotiations with the World Bank to receive compensation for the houses left behind in the 21 Gaza settlements - which currently house 7,500 people - the official said.
Security officials said Friday they plan to dismantle 28 unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts housing 240 families in the next few weeks.
| Interesting if it really happens. |
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