Arafat Dismisses Easing of Travel, Warns of Disaster
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat dismissed Israel’s easing of a travel ban as inadequate and warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s harsh policies are leading to disaster.
Hours after the departure of U.S. envoy Dennis B. Ross--who had urged Israel to lift its sanctions--Israel allowed Palestinians on Thursday to travel out of the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron.
“They are letting a few people move from one home to the other--but they are not letting cement, steel and vegetables pass through; they are not allowing any economic life,” Arafat told a delegation of Israeli Arabs in Ramallah.
“You have 220,000 Palestinians who are not being paid, who are not able to bring food to their families,” he said.
“What would happen if we had hunger and starvation?” he asked. “What will be the results everywhere? Disaster.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli court in Jerusalem on Thursday sentenced to eight months in jail two paramilitary border police officers filmed in October beating and humiliating six Palestinians caught in the city without entry permits.
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