Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

QALQILYA, West Bank, 12 January 2004 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei yesterday urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt construction of its West Bank separation wall, saying that time is running out on chances for a negotiated peace settlement.

Qorei toured a section of the wall in Qalqilya, a Palestinian town near the line with Israel that has been largely enclosed by the structure.

“From the edge of this racist separation wall, I appeal to the United States, to President George W. Bush, Europe and the United Nations to (understand) that this leaves no chance for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said in the shadow of the 10-meter (33-foot) high barrier.

“I am not saying this emotionally. I am trying to attract attention to what they (Israel) are trying to do through this wall. They are drawing a picture of an imposed solution on the ground,” said Qorei, who took office in November.

“We want the United States...to tell Israel to stop building the wall that is destroying everything. It is not only an obstacle to peace, the wall destroys peace,” he said.

Meanwhile, violence continued in the West Bank.

A Palestinian man was killed when a bomb he was carrying exploded prematurely. The Israeli military said the bomber, identified by relatives as 19-year-old Iyad Bilal Masri from the West Bank city of Nablus, apparently had been en route to Israel.

Masri’s family said he perhaps was a member of the Islamic Jihad group. Masri’s brother and a cousin were killed by the Israeli Army in clashes last week.

Also, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by the Israeli Army in a West Bank village. Palestinian witnesses said soldiers fired at Palestinian stone throwers.

Israel says it needs the 450-mile (700-kilometer) separation wall to protect itself from suicide bombers and other Palestinian attackers.

The Palestinians say the wall, which dips deep into the West Bank, is a massive land grab that will prevent them from establishing a future independent state. About one-quarter of the wall has been built.

Israel and the Palestinians have both committed themselves to the road map, a peace plan backed by the United States, United Nations, Russia and European Union. But the plan has been stalled for months.

“Where is the road map?” Qorei asked later in a speech to Qalqilya’s community leaders. “Will it be that under the shadow of the road map this racist separation wall will continue to be built?”

The road map, which seeks an independent Palestinian state by 2005, calls for the Palestinians to disarm militant groups and requires Israel to freeze settlement in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will take unilateral steps to separate Israel from the Palestinians if there is no progress in peace talks in the coming months.

Sharon has said the steps would include dismantling some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, but said the Palestinians would receive much more territory in a negotiated deal.

The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said yesterday that Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, the incoming director of Sharon’s National Security Council, has already asked a number of government ministries to begin preparations for the separation plan.

The Palestinians have sent mixed messages in recent days about how they might respond to Sharon’s plan.

On Saturday, Palestinian leaders reasserted their right to unilaterally declare an independent state in the absence of a peace deal with Israel.

But Qorei said last week that if Sharon carries out his go-it-alone plan, the Palestinians would give up their dream of an independent state alongside Israel and instead seek a single state of Arabs and Jews. Qorei said at the time he was expressing his personal view, not official policy.

— Additional input from agencies