Israeli Court OKs Expulsion Plans

A military court Monday approved the expulsion of three Palestinian relatives of suspected terrorists from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, in a new Israeli tactic aimed at discouraging Palestinians from carrying out attacks.

Human rights activists said the decision would be appealed to Israeli civilian courts.

Palestinian political factions, meanwhile, gave in to militant groups and scrapped a call for an end to attacks on Israeli civilians. Meeting in Gaza City to try to create a “national unity leadership,” they endorsed the Palestinians’ nearly 2-year-old uprising against Israel.

The three Palestinians facing expulsion are Intisar and Kifah Ajouri, the sister and brother of Ali Ajouri, who is accused of giving explosives belts to suicide bombers, and Abdel Nasser Assida, brother of a Hamas activist who is suspected of killing several Israelis.

The expulsions would be the first of their kind.

Nabil abu Rudaineh, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, called for international intervention to stop the expulsions. “This will not help calm the situation,” Rudaineh said.

In Gaza City, the unity meeting came after pressure on the Palestinian leadership to make sweeping reforms. The political factions met to establish unified positions in preparation for elections in January and other planned changes.

The factions say they want the leadership to involve all major groups--including the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out many of the suicide bombings against Israel.

The Palestinian leadership has called for a halt to attacks on civilians, but the militant groups have persisted with daily shootings and frequent bombings. Even the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement, has kept up its campaign.

The proposed call for ending attacks on civilians was dropped because the more militant groups opposed it.

However, even if the proposal were adopted, the current Palestinian leadership would remain in place, and the powers of the new body would appear to be limited.