Israel's Labor Party stands behind Sharon

By MARK LAVIE
The Associated Press

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Labor was sending signals of readiness to join Sharon's government to promote the Gaza move, but there was stiff opposition from party members on both sides. Also, a poll showed that only 37 percent of the Israeli public supported a Sharon-Labor team.

Sharon lost his parliamentary majority while ramming the Gaza withdrawal proposal through his Cabinet, dismissing one pro-settlement faction, while part of another one walked out in protest.

The plan calls for removing all 7,500 Jewish settlers and the military from Gaza by the end of 2005. Four small settlements from the northern West Bank also would be evacuated.

Sharon and his Likud Party had for decades championed settlement construction. Sharon's sudden about-face, favoring removal of settlements in Gaza and the West Bank for the first time since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Middle East war, angered his own power base but won praise from his parliamentary opponents in Labor.

Also yesterday, Israel contractors were forced to halt construction of a section of a West Bank separation barrier after clashes erupted between soldiers and hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators.

Witnesses said soldiers fired tear gas, but no injuries were reported.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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