Peres should be sacked, says cabinet minister
Police sent reinforcements into Jerusalem today for the start of the holy month of Ramadan, while a hard-line Israeli Cabinet minister said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s offer of a Palestinian state was not serious.
Environment Minister Tsachi Hanegbi said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres should be fired for telling the UN General Assembly in yesterday that in Israel, ‘‘there is support for a Palestinian independence, support for a Palestinian state".
Responding to a Peres retort that Sharon himself offered the Palestinians a state, Hanegbi indicated that Sharon’s offer was not made in good faith, because it was ‘‘tied to a series of conditions that the Palestinians have not accepted and cannot accept".
Peres warned today that the alternative to an independent Palestinian state would be ‘‘an Arab majority in a binational state’’ in place of predominantly Jewish Israel.
Police reinforcements poured into Jerusalem as Muslims headed for the Al Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers to mark the start of Ramadan. Islamic militants have stepped up attacks against Israel during Ramadan in the past.
For the first time in months, police said they would allow some Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza to pray at the mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site.
At a crossing point between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, police briefly blocked the road with jeeps and armoured vehicles, then allowed older Palestinians to pass. However, younger men were stopped.
Israeli authorities said they were easing travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza for the holiday, lifting roadblocks in place during most of the year of fighting.
Military official Arieh Spitzen said Israel was taking security risks ‘‘to allow normal life during this holy month.’’
In a sternly worded message for Ramadan, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the militant Hamas, called on his people to keep up their fight against Israel ‘‘until victory or martyrdom.’’
He criticized Muslims for showing weakness in the face of attacks ‘‘here and in Afghanistan.’’
Yassin wrote that jihad (holy war) is an obligation ‘‘to liberate our countries and ourselves from occupiers, aggressors and tyrants,’’ charging Israel and the United States with waging a war of terrorism against Muslims.
In violence on Friday, Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian in central Israel, and Israeli tanks moved briefly into Palestinian areas in Gaza.
