Palestinians Promised Statehood

Yasser Arafat's government pledged Monday to declare statehood this year, even as Israel insisted anew that Palestinian independence must come only as part of a peace accord.

The Palestinians' chief policymaking body, the PLO's Central Council, was wrapping up two days of closed-door talks in the Gaza Strip about the timing of a statehood declaration. But even before the gathering's conclusion, Arafat aides said action by year's end was inevitable.

"A Palestinian state will be declared in the year 2000," said Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian planning minister.

Palestinian officials suggested privately, however, that real decision making about a precise date for independence still lay ahead, and that nothing would be finalized without taking into account factors like Palestinian public opinion.

Council sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arafat had quietly asked some council members to study whether the Palestinian people would be willing to accept delays beyond Sept. 13, when a deadline for reaching a peace accord with Israel expires.

Palestinians have said repeatedly they have the right in principle to declare statehood any time after Sept. 13, with or without a peace pact. Prime Minister Ehud Barak's government, though, has strongly suggested that could lead to trouble.

Israeli officials have said that a Palestinian declaration of independence without a peace treaty would prompt Israel to annex chunks of the West Bank -- a step that would very likely trigger a violent confrontation.

Barak told the parliamentary Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday that in case of a unilateral statehood declaration, Israel would annex Jewish settlement blocs and militarize parts of the Jordan Valley. That would effectively rescind Barak's recent offer to hand over the strategic lowlands as part of a final peace package.

"We made it clear to the Palestinians quite some time ago that we do not accept unilateral steps as a mode of action, and if they take unilateral action we will take immediate unilateral steps of our own," Barak told the committee, according to a partial transcript released by the parliament's spokesman.

Both sides say there has been a worrisome increase in tensions, particularly in the crowded, impoverished Gaza Strip. Early Monday, assailants staged an ambush-style attack on an Israeli jeep patrolling outside the Gaza town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, the army said.

The attackers, using Palestinian-controlled territory as a staging ground, first triggered a roadside bomb and then fired on the jeep from two directions, according to the army spokesman's office. No one was hurt, but it was the fourth such attack in the past two months in Gaza.

Israeli commanders have said publicly in recent weeks that the army will use whatever force is necessary to put down any clashes in the West Bank and Gaza. That has drawn angry protests from he Palestinians.

"The comments are dangerous, and the council is studying carefully all of these statements and will decide on the appropriate response," Shaath said Monday as the policymaking body was meeting.

Amid the statehood debate, some Palestinian officials pointed out that there was much more to statehood than simply declaring it.

"I call upon my colleagues to work to organize the Palestinian community, to build a Palestinian economy and to solve social problems as well as building institutions that are needed in our state," said Nabil Amr, the parliamentary affairs minister.

The leadership meeting was boycotted by the radical Islamic group Hamas, which bitterly opposes peace with Israel and has repeatedly staged suicide bombings in the past to try to stave off a peace accord.

"Without an armed struggle, we are wasting time," Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahar said in Gaza. "We believe negotiations will bring nothing."