Cabinet set to approve settlement evacuation, fence route

The cabinet is slated to approve two historic decisions on Sunday: the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, and the route of the separation fence around Gush Etzion and the South Hebron Hills.

The two decisions are being brought at the same time in an effort to neutralize international criticism of the fence route by coupling it with the decision to evacuate settlements.

But even as the disengagement plan advances, a dispute has erupted between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that will delay the planned transfer of security authority for Jericho to the Palestinians. The city was supposed to have been handed over to the PA on Tuesday, but at meetings between senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials Monday, it became clear that the sides were still at odds over two issues: the amount of territory to be transferred to the PA, and the number of Israeli checkpoints that will remain in place around the city following the transfer.

While the initial meeting between the commander of the Israel Defense Forces' Jordan Valley Brigade and the commander of the Palestinian forces in Jericho failed to produce an agreement, a higher-level meeting was scheduled for a few hours later. That meeting was attended by Brigadier General Gadi Eisencott, commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank, and General Haj Ismail, commander of the Palestinian security services in the West Bank.

However, it too failed to produce an agreement, so the dispute was transferred to the political echelon.

The Palestinians want to be given all the territory they received under the 1994 Cairo Agreement: the city of Jericho plus an enclave to its north that includes the village of Uja, which spans both sides of the Jordan Valley Highway. But the Israelis said their orders were to transfer only Jericho itself at this stage.

The Palestinians also want all IDF roadblocks around the city removed, to enable complete freedom of movement from Jericho to Bethlehem and Ramallah. Israel has agreed to ease movement restrictions, but not to remove all the checkpoints. In particular, Palestinian sources said, Israel insisted on retaining the main checkpoint at the entrance to the city.

The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, led respectively by Sharon's advisor Dov Weisglass and Saeb Erekat, also met briefly Monday for a previously scheduled meeting, but apparently did not address the Jericho dispute. The two agreed that all the joint committees Israel and the PA have decided to establish will start work immediately.

The delay in transferring Jericho will also delay the handovers of the four West Bank cities that were supposed to follow over the next few weeks. The next in line is apparently Qalqilyah.

Unlike other West Bank cities, Jericho has been almost devoid of violence throughout the intifada. Because of this, it is also the only city where the Palestinian police force remains relatively intact.

At Sunday's cabinet meeting, which will follow the Knesset's expected approval of the disengagement law on Wednesday, the ministers will approve the evacuation of settlements in principle.

However, the proposed resolution stipulates that the cabinet must reconvene before each stage of the disengagement to approve the evacuation of each new group of settlements, as mandated by last June's cabinet decision on the disengagement. That decision, a compromise reached to secure the support of Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu, Limor Livnat and Silvan Shalom for the plan, calls for the evacuation to take place in four stages.

The fence route, whose approval Sharon has repeatedly postponed due to its diplomatic sensitivity, is effectively a "package deal" meant to satisfy both hawks and doves: The fence will penetrate deeply into the West Bank to encompass the Gush Etzion settlements, but will follow the Green Line around the South Hebron Hills.

The route around Gush Etzion is expected both to elicit fierce protests from the PA and to be challenged in the High Court of Justice, as it will enclose four Palestinian villages with some 18,000 residents, plus a sizable amount of Palestinian land in addition to the Israeli settlements. This is the part of the route about which Sharon hopes to mute criticism by linking it to the disengagement plan.

Also on Sunday, the American security coordinator Lieutenant General William Ward will arrive for a "get-acquainted" visit to Israel and the PA. He will begin his permanent mission here following the March 1 London conference on aid to the PA. Ward's job is to assist in reforming the Palestinian security services and to mediate any security-related crises that erupt between Israel and the PA.

On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon approved the details of the army's preparations for carrying out the disengagement, whose operation is currently planned as a unilateral move. Only in April, based on the progress of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, will a decision be made on whether to revise the plan to allow for coordination with the PA.

Also Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik told Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres that he wants to persuade donor nations to the PA to focus on economic development and establishing a social welfare system instead of simply funding the PA's ongoing operations.

	Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attending a session of the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday. (Reuters)