- TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)
-- Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered Saturday night to mark the eighth
anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, showing
their continued support for the stalled peace process.
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- The peace rally took place in the Tel Aviv plaza where
Rabin was fatally shot on Nov. 4, 1995, by an extremist Jew opposed to
his peace efforts.
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- "For me, this is reassurance of the desire for peace,
reassurance for people against violence, and reassurance of Rabin's way,"
said Zvi Friedman, one of the rally's organizers.
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- A large picture of Rabin hung behind the stage, with
the words "Eight years since the murder." Many of the people
in the crowd carried banners backing the peace process, saying, "There
is no other way."
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- Labor party leader Shimon Peres, who was with Rabin at
the plaza moments before he was gunned down, said he felt his old partner's
presence at every memorial rally.
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- "Every time I mount these stairs, at this building,
at this time of evening it is as if I am coming to shake Yitzhak's hand,"
he told the cheering crowd.
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- Hours earlier, Palestinian leaders, meeting to form a
new government, welcomed a new offer from the Israeli government to resume
peace talks. But they said any negotiations must come with efforts to stop
violence and halt Jewish settlement building on land claimed by Palestinians.
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- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed willingness
on Thursday to meet with Palestinian leaders. The next day, Israeli media
reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz plans to meet with Palestinian
officials next week.
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- A new round of meetings depends in part on whether the
Palestinians can form a government in the coming days. Palestinian Prime
Minister Ahmed Qureia, who currently leads an emergency government with
a one-month mandate, has until Tuesday to form a full Cabinet.
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- So far, Qureia has been unable to do so, mainly because
of intense wrangling with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over ministerial
choices. In particular, the two men have differed over who should control
the Palestinian security forces.
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- In another development, legislators from Arafat's Fatah
faction nominated a hard-liner, Rafiq al-Natche, to be parliament speaker,
a position Qureia left vacant when he became prime minister. The speaker's
post is important because the speaker would become acting leader of the
Palestinian Authority if something were to happen to Arafat.
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- New Israeli-Palestinian contacts would likely try to
revive the stalled U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, which aims
to end three years of fighting and create a Palestinian state alongside
Israel. Continued fighting and the failure of both sides to meet key obligations
has left the plan at a standstill.
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- Sharon's readiness to meet with Qureia, made in a speech
Thursday night, reversed previous Israeli suggestions that it would not
deal with the new Palestinian prime minister because he was too close to
Arafat. Both Israel and the United States have sought to sideline Arafat,
believing he is closely linked to terrorism.
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- Qureia responded Saturday, saying that while no meeting
with Sharon was immediately forthcoming, there were contacts between the
two sides.
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- "We have not studied the issue of a meeting, but
there are contacts with the Israelis," Qureia said. At the same time,
Qureia is trying to restart talks with Hamas and other militant groups
aimed at persuading them to stop suicide bombings and other attacks on
Israelis.
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- Israeli leaders rejected a similar course plotted by
his predecessor, insisting that the Palestinians dismantle the violent
radical groups, a step required by the "road map" plan.
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- Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Cabinet minister in charge
of negotiations, said the Palestinians were always ready for talks, but
said Israel must stop construction in Jewish settlements built on West
Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians want to establish an independent state
in those areas.
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- Earlier Saturday, a Palestinian man riding a motorcycle
in the West Bank city of Nablus was shot and killed in a refugee camp.
The military said soldiers shot the man after he refused calls to stop,
ignored warning shots and fled from troops.
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- The military said the man, Mohammed Hamad, 23, was lightly
wounded in the leg. But an Associated Press reporter saw the man's body
in a hospital morgue with two gunshot wounds to the chest.
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- In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said it fired at
three Palestinians who entered a buffer zone near a fence along the border
with Israel late Saturday. Two of the Palestinians were wounded. Their
conditions, and the whereabouts of the third Palestinian, weren't known.
The army said the Palestinians had entered the buffer zone in twice and
had appeared to be planting explosives.
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- Copyright 2003, The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of
Fredericksburg, Va.
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- http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/apmethods/apstory?urlfeed=D7UI13PO0.xml
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