Wednesday October 17, 2001
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen assassinated far-right Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi on Wednesday in revenge for the killing of a militant leader, throwing U.S.-led peace efforts into turmoil.
The radical Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for shooting Zeevi, a 75-year-old former general who advocated the "transfer'' of Arabs from land claimed by Jews.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said however Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was solely to blame. An Arafat aide denied this and Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned the first Arab assassination of a member of Israel's government.
"The responsibility is Arafat's alone, as someone who has carried out and is carrying out acts of terrorism and never took steps against it,'' Sharon told a special memorial session of parliament after Zeevi was shot at a Jerusalem hotel.
"We will carry out a war to the bitter end against the terrorists, those who help them and those who dispatch them,'' Sharon said, accusing Arafat's Palestinian Authority of harboring "murderers.''
The PFLP, which is in opposition to the Palestinian Authority and rejects Israeli-Palestinian interim peace accords, said it shot Zeevi in retaliation for Israel's assassination of its leader in August in a missile strike.
"The Israeli government, by killing Abu Ali Mustafa, has opened the gates of hell on itself and now the fire is approaching it,'' PFLP spokesman Ali Jaradat said.
PROSPECT OF RETALIATION
Israel and the Palestinians have pledged to try to end more than a year of violence under a cease-fire plan which they reaffirmed on September 26, almost exactly a year after the Palestinians began an uprising against Israeli occupation.
But the assassination raised the specter of Israeli retaliation at a time when the United States is putting heavy pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to reach a truce as it wages a war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.
Sharon told an emergency security meeting "everything had changed'' as a result of Zeevi's death. A political source said the easing in recent days of Israel's blockades of Palestinian areas would be rescinded.
Zeevi, popularly known in Israel by his nickname "Gandhi,'' was shot twice outside his room in a Jerusalem hotel where many ministers and legislators spend the working week.
As the news broke, dozens of Palestinians in the Ain El-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon rushed into the street carrying pictures of Mustafa and dancing. Just as they did on Sept. 11th when the U.S. was attacked.
But Arafat's Palestinian Authority swiftly condemned the attack. "We reject all forms of political assassinations,'' cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said.
"We want to put an end to this vicious cycle of killings although Mr. Zeevi had adopted hostile positions and policies against our people.''
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a senior Arafat aide, said the Palestinian Authority bore no blame for Zeevi's death.
"The one who should be held responsible is the man who is waging a war against the Palestinian people for more than a year,'' Abdel-Rahman said, referring to Sharon.
NO BODYGUARD?
Zeevi had tendered his resignation as tourism minister on Monday after the Israeli cabinet eased blockades of Palestinian areas and troops pulled out of an area of the West Bank city of Hebron they had reoccupied.
Police said Zeevi had no bodyguard from the Shin Bet internal security service in line with official policy to assign personal protection only to cabinet members considered at risk.
"The minister Zeevi arrived at the hospital dead, with no pulse and not breathing... we resuscitated him... and the heart began beating again... but all the efforts afterwards failed,'' Avi Rifkind, an official at Hadassah hospital, told reporters.
Zeevi's resignation had been due to go into effect later on Wednesday. He was a leader of the seven-seat ultranationalist National Union-Yisrael Beitainu bloc, which after his death froze for at least a week its decision to leave the government.
A guest at the Hyatt said he heard a thud and came out of his room to see Zeevi lying in the hall in a pool of blood as the minister's wife screamed next to the body.
``It was pretty obvious to me he was already dead,'' the witness, David Hocking, told Israel Radio. ``I saw (Mrs Zeevi) kneeling over him... blood was everywhere.''
ZEEVI OPPOSED PEACE ACCORDS
Zeevi had opposed Israeli-Palestinian interim peace agreements first forged under Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by a right-wing Jew in 1995.
Zeevi, a father of five, had an illustrious military career and served as a general in several branches of the Israeli army.
As a young man, he was nicknamed Gandhi by friends who though he resembled the assassinated Indian leader. But he had a tough-as-nails reputation, rarely smiled in public and once kept a lion in a cage as a mascot at his military headquarters.
At least 626 Palestinians and 176 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinians began their uprising.
The two sides are under fierce pressure from the United States to end the fighting, which Washington believes is an obstacle to Arab support for the global anti-terror coalition. The level of violence had dropped in recent days.
Update to the above article
PFLP Spokesman Arrested
GAZA
CITY, Gaza, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority police
arrested Wednesday
the spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, who earlier in
the day claimed responsibility for the assassination of Israel's
hardline tourism
minister, Palestinian security sources said.
The
sources said the PA police are interrogating Ali Jaradat, who
said PFLP militants
killed Rehavam Zeevi and then returned to their bases. Israeli
police demanded the
identity of the assailants.
U.N.
Special Coordinator Terje Roed-Larsen said Wednesday that
Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat ordered the arrest of the PFLP suspects.
"Arafat
informed me that he has ordered the immediate search and arrest
of those
responsible for today's operation," said Larsen. "He
instructed all security chiefs
to take necessary actions to prevent acts of terrorism."
Larsen
said that Arafat told him in a meeting that he had condemned
"in the strongest
possible terms the assassination of the Israeli minister
Zeevi."
Arafat
sent his condolences to the Israeli government, as well as
Zeevi's wife and
family, he added.
"My
impression from meeting with Arafat is that he regards the
assassination as
extremely damaging to the Palestinian national cause and
Palestinian national interests,"
said Larsen.
In
Washington, the White House condemned the assassination saying,
"This despicable
act is further evidence of the need to fight terrorism."
In
a statement offering condolences to the Israeli government and
Zeevi's family,
the White House also noted the Palestinian Authority's
condemnation of the assassination,
calling it "appropriate," but "not enough."
"The
PA must immediately find and bring to justice those who committed
this murder,
as well as those who would do harm to efforts to restore an
atmosphere of calm and
security for Israelis and Palestinians," said the statement.
Back
in Israel, the Jewish state's inner cabinet barred Arafat from
using the Dahaniya
airport in the Gaza Strip or other terminals on the border
between the Gaza Strip
and Egypt.
In
reaction to the Israeli government's decision, Nabil Abu
Rudeineh, Arafat's aid,
told United Press International that the decision "is a
violation of all the signed
agreements" between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abu Rudeineh warned Israel against restricting Arafat's movement.
"By
carrying out such a decision, the Israeli government would be
totally responsible
and would be playing with the fire," he said.
10.17.01