Sharon wants to redraw Israeli-Palestine border
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering redrawing Israel’s border to place parts of Israel’s Arab population under Palestinian control in a final peace deal, a senior official said today.
The official stressed that any such move would have to be accepted by Israeli Arabs and come only as part of a final treaty with the Palestinians.
However, the idea threatened to arouse the deepest fears of Israel’s Arab minority and drew immediate criticism from an Israeli Arab leader.
Roughly 20% of Israel’s 6.6 million citizens are Arabs.
Unlike their Palestinian counterparts in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in 1967, Israelis Arabs have the right to vote, receive Israeli social services and can work inside Israel.
Relations with the Jewish majority, however, are often tense.
Israeli Arabs have higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than Jews, and complain of frequent discrimination.
In October 2000, Israeli police killed 13 Israeli Arabs during riots that followed the outbreak of Israel-Palestinian violence.
Sharon has recently floated a series of ideas aimed at reducing “friction” with the Palestinians.
The possibility of placing some Israeli Arabs under Palestinian control is part of that goal, Israeli officials said.
In return, Israel would seek parts of the West Bank, where more than 200,000 Israeli settlers live among some two million Palestinians.
Sharon told the newspaper Maariv today that he is examining a possible population exchange with the help of drawing a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
“I asked that it be examined legally. It is a complicated problem. I don’t have an answer on the matter yet, but I am certainly checking it,” he said.
The senior Israeli official said exchanging populations is “an old method that has been used elsewhere.”
“It’s not a plan for now,” the official stressed. “It will only be on the agenda when there is an agreement between the two sides. If we come to an agreement with the Palestinians, then it will be raised.”
Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab MP, said he opposes the idea. “We are talking about a dangerous, anti-democratic suggestion, which will bring about a schism between the state and its Arab citizens,” Tibi said.
He said residents of Israel’s Arab towns “are not pawns that Sharon can play with.”
Sharon has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he plans to take unilateral steps in the West Bank and Gaza – dismantling some settlements, redeploying troops and imposing a boundary – if there is no progress in peace talks with the Palestinians.
Sharon confirmed today that his unilateral plan would include the removal of virtually all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
