Word: khatib
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...disturbances may also strengthen Arafat in his dealings with the Israelis. Says al-Khatib: "It proves to the Israelis that he has certain cards to play if they continue to stall the peace process." Certainly Arafat was in no great hurry to squelch the uprising. On Wednesday Israeli security officials expressed frustration that he was not responding to their appeals to restore calm. On Thursday afternoon Arafat issued a call to his forces for restraint. But it was half-hearted, and the violence, though lessened, continued into Saturday. Netanyahu, once so resolutely standoffish, phoned Arafat asking for a meeting...
...last week by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Forty percent said the agreement was insufficient, and an additional 16% said it offered the Palestinians nothing whatsoever. "In the Gaza Strip there is no debate at all that things are worse under autonomy," says the center's director, Ghassan Khatib...
...that the West Bank city of Jenin would soon be turned over to the Palestinian Authority. The residents of Jenin themselves petitioned Arafat to stop any such move. "They didn't want to see their city turned into another prison, opened and closed according to Israel's wish," says Khatib. As long as the West Bank's future is still under negotiation, its residents remain subject to the indignities of the occupation: checkpoints, curfews, the presence of an alien army. What's more, the Israelis continue to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, making Palestinians doubt that the Israelis...
Arafat is also burdened with heavy political considerations. "Already people feel that the Palestinian authority has become an instrument of the Israelis," says Ghassan Khatib, who monitors Palestinian public opinion. An all-out assault on Hamas would jeopardize its credibility further. "Is a Palestinian civil war the price of Israel's concept of peace?" the East Jerusalem newspaper An-Nahar asked in an editorial on Friday...
...preserve Arafat's credibility as leader of the P.L.O. While Rabin's government has thus far fended off no-confidence motions in the Knesset sponsored by the right-wing opposition, Arafat has been shaken by a recent spate of resignations from his own Fatah movement. According to Ghassan Khatib, a West Bank-based official with the People's Party, a constituent party of the P.L.O., the continuing delay in implementing the agreement has only further weakened Palestinian confidence in Arafat. Popular support for the Declaration of Principles ran at 65% in the territories just after the September signing; last week...