Palestinians Reject Proposed West Bank Pullout as Too Small

The Palestinians on Sunday rejected Israel’s decision to pull troops out of 9% of the West Bank, provoking a new crisis that Israel’s foreign minister suggested could delay the planned withdrawal.

“We totally rejected their percentage,” Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Dahlan said after a tense three-hour meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy and other officials in Jerusalem at which the details of the pullout were to be arranged.

“We informed them that this was not acceptable.”

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordecai had said the army would pull out of dozens of West Bank villages with a combined population of tens of thousands within days, in accordance with a Cabinet decision Friday.

That decision--which was criticized by Israeli hard-liners as being too generous--endorsed what is intended as the first of three “further redeployments” in the West Bank called for in 1995 accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Palestinians had expected to gain control of 20% of the area in the first phase.

Levy pointed out that the accords allow Israel alone to decide on the scope of the three pullouts, adding that the ball was now in the Palestinians’ court.

“They . . . are going back to [Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat] and will have to discuss it among themselves and give us an answer,” he said. “The government made a decision, it prepared for implementation, and if [the Palestinians] don’t accept it, then they are causing delays.”

Israel TV reported that Arafat was considering accepting control over the 9% of the land without recognizing it as the required pullout.