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AFP Photo Israel's parliament rejected a referendum bill on the planned Gaza Strip evacuation, removing the last obstacle to the pullout and dealing a seve re blow to those staunchly opposed to withdrawal. The bill was thrown out by a landslide majority of 72 MPs to 39, out of t he 114 MPs present. After Prime Minister Ariel Sharon nailed enough support to force his 2005 budget through parliament by a cut-off date Thursday, opponents had sei zed on a referendum as the last political chance to stall his disengagem ent plan. A plebiscite would have seriously delayed the evacuation of some 8,000 se ttlers and troops from the Gaza Strip -- already sanctioned by parliamen t and the cabinet -- but the effort proved futile. Opponents of the pullout, who include around a third of Sharon's own Liku d party, including Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, failed even to s ecure the support of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which in principle o pposes the withdrawal. The bill's defeat sparked an angry response from settler leaders, thousan ds of whose supporters rallied outside parliament afterwards. "Our struggle switches to the streets," said a statement from the main se ttler organization Yesha. "(Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon today stopped in a brutal manner any chanc e of putting the pullout plan to the people for decision and thus preven ting violent confrontation and civil war." Arieh Eldad, an MP for the far-right National Union, was even stronger in his rhetoric. "Today, Sharon missed the last chance to avoid a civil war," he said. "To day, he signed the death warrants of a very large number of people." Sharon is set to present the details of his pullout strategy to US Presid ent George W Bush at the president's Texas ranch on April 11. He should then return to Israel bolstered by US support before he goes ah ead from July 20 with the evacuation of the Gaza Strip Jewish settlement s and Israeli troops, and of four isolated outposts in the northern West Bank. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat welcomed the disengagement plan as "a glimmer of hope" and called for an immediate resumption of politic al talks. But Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei said no workable Palestinian s tate can be established as long as Israel keeps its settlements in the o ccupied West Bank. "These blocs, which the American administration has legitimised by giving its support to Israel, make the creation of a viable Palestinian state impossible," he said. Sharon has said Israel will keep its largest settlements in the West Bank with US blessing under any final Middle East peace deal. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also said any peace will have to take into account the biggest Jewish settlements. Meanwhile, the Islamist movement Hamas said it was ready to join the Pale stine Liberation Organisation, which groups together the major Palestini an factions. It is a longstanding and clear decision," one of its leaders, Mahmud Zahar, said after talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Gaza City. Progress on earlier disagreements was made during inter-Palestinian talks in Cairo earlier this month, Zahar said. But he stressed Hamas had not abandoned its commitment to a Palestine inc orporating modern-day Israel, regardless of the PLO charter which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state only in land conquered by Israel in 1967. Speaker of the PLO's parliament Salim Zaanun said the PLO executive commi ttee would meet in Gaza with representatives of Hamas and its smaller ri val Islamic Jihad on Tuesday.
Russia, Georgia fail to agree on withdrawal terms for R ussian bases (AFP) Copyright 2005AFP. All information displayed in th is section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectua l property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you ma y not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the pri or written consent of Agence France-Presses.
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