MIDDLE EAST: The Palestinian Authority is considering declaring statehood in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, if Israel proceeds with a unilateral "disengagement plan" that leaves the Palestinians with much less land than they are seeking for a state.
Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former cabinet minister and close aide to PA President Yasser Arafat, said yesterday that a declaration of statehood was one of a range of possible responses to the Israeli disengagement plan that were discussed at weekend talks with Mr Arafat.
The Palestinians would then attempt to secure international endorsement of their state, said Mr Abed Rabbo, adding that this was "not an academic exercise" but "a real possibility".
The US has previously made clear its opposition to such a move, saying its support for Palestinian independence is conditioned on statehood marking the final stage of peace negotiations with Israel. European leaders have taken a similar position. Israeli officials said yesterday that if the PA declared a state, Israel could respond by annexing some areas of the West Bank.
Under the disengagement plan, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he envisages a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the dismantling of some West Bank settlements and a withdrawal to more defensible lines there - in part, along the security barrier Israel is building.
The PA has welcomed talk of a Gaza withdrawal, but believes Mr Sharon's intention in the West Bank is to relinquish relatively little territory - far less than that offered to the Palestinians at the failed Camp David talks in 2000.
Aides to the prime minister have indicated in recent days that Mr Sharon is contemplating relocating the 7,500 Gaza settlers inside West Bank settlement blocs, and eventually annexing the blocs. The US, while endorsing a Gaza withdrawal, strongly opposes both such moves. Mr Sharon is set to hold talks with President Bush at the White House towards the end of this month.
Meanwhile, defending the security barrier at a hearing in the Israel Supreme Court yesterday, Mr Michael Blass, a lawyer for the government, said its route would probably be altered - bringing parts of the barrier closer to the pre-1967 Israel-West Bank border - "in order to ease as much as the possible the lives of the Palestinians".
The court is considering petitions from Israeli human rights groups against the barrier, which cuts deep into the West Bank in places and is planned to loop around several settlements.
Mr Giora Eiland, a former general charged by Mr Sharon with implementing the disengagement plan, said earlier this week that the barrier had been routed without taking into account "all the repercussions on the life of innocent Palestinians," many thousands of whom have been cut off from their home villages, agricultural land and schools.
"Where necessary," he said, Israel would now have to change "the original path of the fence". About a quarter of the 400-mile barrier has been completed.
A gunman from the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was killed in a clash with Israeli troops near Jenin in the West Bank yesterday, after he and several others opened fire on workers building the security barrier.
Meanwhile, two Palestinians, one a Hamas activist, the other a 17-year-old, were reported killed in Gaza.