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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2004)
[ORLD THE BATTALION 11A Thursday, April 15, 2004 alestinians concerned bout Bush’s support f Sharon pullout plan By Mohammed Daraghmeh |the associated press RAMALLAH, West Bank Palestinians and Israeli hard- irs rejected statements by Pitsident Bush on Wednesday suggesting Israel would not tia e to give up some key West Bank settlements and ruling out die right of Palestinian refugees 1 return to Israel. I Bush spoke after meeting Isaeli Prime Minister Ariel S aron in Washington, where $ aron presented his plan for an Isaeli withdrawal from all of ■ Gaza Strip, along with a ■aller pullback in the West Ink. | The plan faces a referendum o members of Sharon’s Likud Prty on May 2, and Sharon bickers hoped Bush’s statement would persuade skeptical voters ill “disengagement” plan is ^ J rthwhile. I Likud Cabinet minister Tsipi 1 mi, who had expressed d ubts about the pullout, said sle was somewhat reassured by I sh's pledges. “I’m not ecstat ic she told Israel TV. “I’m ] prehensive regarding the ; icess, but I will support it if i really get these things.” ■ Cabinet minister Uzi Landau, I iding the Likud campaign i ainst the Sharon initiative, 111 the Bush speech yielded “a t n harvest.” He called on other J aid Cabinet ministers to join ^drive “to stop this bad initia- le,"setting a planning meeting his allies for Thursday. ■ Hard-liners oppose evacuat- k’settlements in principle, and an against Sharon’s unilateral lllback plan, calling it a I ward for terrorism” that will |urmore violence. Bush supports Sharon’s pullout plan President Bush endorsed Israel’s Gaza pullout plan and said West Bank borders must take into account some Israeli settlements. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia warned that will destroy peace efforts. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to keep five main settlement blocs. Settlements □ Israeli I 1 Palestinian ■ Israeli settlements to be kept I Bush said a peace agreement must take into account realities that have developed in the decades since Israel captured the West Bank. Bush said the exis tence of Israeli population cen ters — referring to settlements — must be taken into account. It was the first time a U.S. president had come that close to legitimizing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which were traditionally denounced as “obstacles to peace” in previous administrations. Palestinians demand a state in all the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with the removal of all Israeli settlements. Bush also said the problem of Palestinian refugees must be solved in the framework of a Palestinian state, rebuffing a key Palestinian demand of right of return of the refugees and their descendants to their original homes in Israel. Minutes after Bush spoke, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia harshly criticized the president’s stand. “He is the first president who has legit imized the settlements in the Palestinian territories when he said that there will be no return to the borders of 1967,” Qureia said. “We as Palestinians reject that, we cannot accept that, we reject it and we refuse it.” Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat also dismissed Bush’s statement. “This is like someone giving a part of Texas’ land to China,” he told The Associated Press. He said that over the years, U.S. administra tions have assured the Palestinians that issues like bor ders and settlements would be handled in negotiations. “If Israel wants to make peace, it must talk to the Palestinian leadership,” Erekat said. 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