Israeli Cabinet Rejects Delay in Gaza Pullout

Israel’s Cabinet on Sunday soundly defeated an attempt to delay the planned Gaza Strip withdrawal by three months.

The 18-3 decision was the first of two planned votes this week on proposals to postpone the pullout, scheduled to start next month. The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is expected Wednesday to defeat a separate measure seeking a delay.

The proposals stoked fresh tensions between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his main political foe, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who joined two other right-wing ministers Sunday in calling for the delay.

Netanyahu, under pressure from rightist supporters to resist the withdrawal, has indicated that he would sit out the Knesset vote rather than back the current timetable -- a move that Sharon aides said could lead to his dismissal from the Cabinet.

Israeli newspapers quoted unidentified representatives of Sharon as saying Netanyahu was legally obliged to support the government’s plan or forfeit his position as a minister. Netanyahu aides insisted he was allowed to abstain from voting, and said Sharon had done so as a minister in a Netanyahu-led government during the 1990s.

The odds of a showdown were waning by the time the Cabinet voted, with Sharon aides appearing to back away from threats that Netanyahu would be sacked.

Netanyahu has voted in favor of the withdrawal when it has come up in the Knesset. But he also has been critical of the plan and maneuvered at times as if he were intent on derailing the pullout, apparently to bolster his right-wing following for a future battle with Sharon for leadership of their conservative Likud Party.

Sharon has made no secret of his irritation but kept Netanyahu in the government and endorsed his budgetary policies.

Israel plans to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four tiny communities in the northern West Bank beginning about Aug. 15. The move defeated Sunday, sponsored by Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, would have delayed that until November.

Under last year’s government decision clearing the way for the withdrawal, the Cabinet still must approve each phase.

Sharon vows that the pullout will take place on schedule, despite opposition that has grown increasingly worrisome to authorities. Ministers were fitted for bulletproof vests before Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, amid fears of possible extremist Jewish violence aimed at stopping the pullout.

Last week, the army and police evicted 150 right-wing activists who had set up base in an abandoned hotel in the main block of Gaza settlements, known as Gush Katif. The move came after several violent encounters, including the beating by Jewish militants of a Palestinian teen.

Those clashes, along with a campaign by protesters to snarl traffic by blocking Israeli highways and pouring oil and nails along one artery, dismayed many Israelis. Polls afterward showed an uptick in support for the withdrawal, which generally has enjoyed majority backing.

Government plans for relocating Gaza settlers got a boost Sunday when a community dropped its court battle against construction of temporary housing nearby. The government promised leaders of Nitzan, about 12 miles north of Gaza, that it would retain its religiously observant character and that temporary dwellings would be removed after four years.

“I hope that by reaching this agreement we have contributed our part to a calm between the government and the Gush Katif settlers,” said Nitzan representative Meir Zafrani.

The relocation plan, which involves construction near an undeveloped stretch of dunes, still faces a court challenge by environmental groups.

Also Sunday, the Peace Now group filed a lawsuit urging the government to demolish an illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank.

The Israeli group said the outpost, Amona, is included in a government order to raze more than 50 illegal clusters. Nine families are soon to move into newly built homes in the outpost, near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Peace Now said.

Under the U.S.-backed peace blueprint known as the road map, Israel is to tear down outposts built since March 2001, but it has not done so.

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Times staff writer Shlomi Simhi in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.