Israel Parliament OKs Gaza Pullout

A polarized Israeli parliament voted Tuesday to approve Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank — an historic decision to end Israel's occupation of some of the lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Sixty-seven lawmakers voted to approve Sharon's program to unilaterally "disengage" from the Palestinians and 45 were opposed. Seven legislators abstained and one was absent.

The vote will allow the government to evacuate 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, where 8,200 Jewish settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinians, and four in the West Bank. It would mark the first time Israel has taken down settlements in either region.

The victory for Sharon came a day after he surprised both detractors and supporters by giving a speech accusing settlers of suffering from a "messianic complex" and telling Palestinians that Israel has no desire to rule over them.

It looked like a final break between the settlers and Sharon, who spent most of his career championing their cause.

Sharon hoped his margin of victory Tuesday would be enough to head off a national referendum on the Gaza pullout — something the prime minister has denounced as a stalling tactic by his opponents.

The religious right and much of Sharon's own Likud Party voted against him, forcing him to rely on an alliance with the left.

Thousands of Jewish settlers demonstrated outside the Knesset, or parliament, in a boisterous show of force, denouncing Sharon as a traitor.

"I came here to tell the people of Israel that this is our land and my home," said David Pinipnta, 31, of the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim. "No power on earth can move me from it."

Sharon entered the parliament building surrounded by an unprecedented 16 bodyguards — reflecting security officials' fears of an attack by right-wing extremists who believe the prime minister is forsaking God's will by giving up parts of the Biblical Land of Israel.

Posters outside the Knesset declared that "Sharon has disengaged from reality" and "the evacuation of settlements is a victory for terror."

A demonstration by the plan's supporters outside the Knesset on Monday night featured songs, flag waving and signs demanding that Israel "leave Gaza immediately."

The Knesset vote took place on the anniversary of two events that embodied the Jewish state's history of bloodshed and yearning: the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin nine years ago on the Jewish calendar and the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, signed on Oct. 26, 1994.

Notably absent from Israel's debate on withdrawing from Palestinian territories are the Palestinians themselves, who Israel accuses of being unreliable negotiating partners.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel should not be making unilateral decisions about the Palestinians' future. "Now the seriousness of the Israeli government will depend on resuming negotiations with the Palestinian Authority."

Tuesday's vote came as speculation mounted that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, confined to his West Bank headquarters for the past two years, may be seriously ill.

Arafat has a large gallstone that is not life threatening, a Palestinian hospital official told The Associated Press. But the 75-year-old leader broke his Ramadan fast and underwent medical tests, and a Palestinian doctor who has examined him recently said he has been inexplicably exhausted in recent weeks. Israeli officials speculated he was suffering from stomach cancer.

In southern Gaza, Israeli troops withdrew from the Khan Younis refugee camp, ending a two-day operation aimed at halting Palestinian mortar fire. Seventeen Palestinians were killed by army fire.

Sharon's disengagement plan has bitterly divided the Israeli public and ripped apart Sharon's ruling Likud Party. In his speech before parliament Monday night, Sharon said disengagement would boost Israel's security and help ensure the country's identity as a Jewish democracy.

However, he said disengagement "will strengthen Israel's hold over territory that is essential to our existence" — an allusion to his plans to hold on to large parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians claim for a state.

Late Tuesday Sharon fired Uzi Landau, a Cabinet minister who voted against him, and a senior official said the prime minister in the coming days will dismiss other ministers who opposed him.

Sharon's break with the religious right and much of his own party will likely force him into a new coalition featuring a divided Likud, the center-left Labor Party and the secularist Shinui Party — an alliance that excludes much of Israel's religious population and Jews of Middle Eastern descent.

Two religious parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, voted against Sharon despite the prime minister's tenacious efforts to get them to at least abstain.

That could increase pressure for a national referendum, though Sharon's comfortable victory in the vote could give him enough support to ignore that.

The referendum initiative got another boost Tuesday night when the National Religious Party, a key part of Sharon's coalition, announced that it will quit within two weeks unless the parliament vote is accompanied by a pledge to hold a such a vote.

Four Likud ministers — Benjamin Netanyahu, Limor Livnat, Yisrael Katz and Danny Naveh — voted for the plan and then immediately demanded Sharon accept the NRP ultimatum or they would resign from the government.

The announcement puts added pressure on Sharon to hold a referendum and makes a coalition with dovish parties even more likely.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert denounced the threat, saying that the backroom maneuvers showed "a lack of fortitude, a lack of ability to stand up to pressure."

Sharon would probably win a referendum, with opinion polls showing well over half of Israelis support the withdrawal. But Sharon and his new supporters say there's no time for one.

A referendum is "the official burial of the initiative ... because it will take a long, long time," leftist lawmaker Yossi Sarid told The Associated Press. "It's from now to eternity."

The government hopes to complete the withdrawal next year, and must still submit to several more parliamentary votes to implement various stages of the pullout.

One Likud legislator, Eli Aflalo, says he was so rattled by the relentless pressure to vote against Sharon that he collapsed and ended up in a hospital. Aflalo arrived at the Knesset in an ambulance, and entered the chamber in a wheelchair.

"We have to support the prime minister," he said, clutching his right side. "Believe me it is difficult and I am in pain."