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Sharon pushes plan for pullout

JERUSALEM - In a symbolic move, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party voted Thursday for a national referendum on his plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank this summer, but the embattled leader ignored the resolution and pressed ahead, scheduling a final parliamentary test in two weeks.

Agreeing in advance to the vote, Sharon faced down critics, including his foreign minister and finance minister, who insisted that since Sharon switched from backing settlement expansion to uprooting them, the people should have a say.

"The majority of the people support both the "disengagement' and a referendum," said Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. The pullout would mean removing veteran settlements from the West Bank and Gaza for the first time. Israel has never had a referendum.

The nonbinding party vote came hours after a car bomb exploded near a Jewish shrine in the West Bank as hundreds of Israeli worshipers prayed, causing no injuries but damaging nearby Palestinian homes and underscoring the vulnerability of the Mideast truce declared last month.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to intervene personally to ensure that both Israelis and Palestinian factions adhere to an agreement reached last month, including a pledge of nonviolence.

Abbas, who met with Mubarak at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, also said he expects the Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas to take part in a meeting of Palestinian factions planned for mid March in Cairo.

Speaking to his raucous central committee, Sharon did not even mention the referendum idea, which he considers a last-ditch delaying tactic. Instead, he referred to parliamentary approval of the pullout last month.

"The decisions of the parliament will be carried out as approved," he declared, drawing boos from the crowd. "I will not allow the extremist margins to dictate our policy."

There is a parliamentary majority against a referendum. However, Sharon has to survive a crucial budget vote to remain in power, and party rebels plan to vote against him. If he fails to pass the budget by March 31, he must resign and call elections - making the budget the ultimate test of the pullout plan.

Sharon informed the parliament that the final budget vote would take place March 17.

Sharon blasted party critics of the pullout who intend to vote against the budget. "We can try to persuade each other," he said, "but to work to bring down our government is forbidden."

Sharon completes four years in power next week. A poll commissioned by the Haaretz daily, to be published in full today, shows that large numbers of Israelis believe he is promoting the pullout plan for Israel's good, but they also say Sharon is corrupt.

The poll showed that 62 percent believe corruption allegations against Sharon stemming from party financing scandals, though the attorney general has closed all but one of the cases against him.

But most voters don't believe Sharon is using the pullout as a way to deflect attention from his legal problems. The poll showed 48.6 percent felt he is working for the best interests of the country, while just 12.4 percent thought it was a smoke screen.

Methodology and sampling errors were not published Thursday as part of the poll preview in Haaretz and were unavailable. Other polls have shown about two-thirds of the people back the pullout.

Meanwhile, construction continued on Israel's contentious separation barrier along the West Bank, a key element of Sharon's "disengagement" concept.

At Beit Surik, a village near the West Bank line near Jerusalem, about 100 Palestinians with slingshots fired rocks at police and construction equipment. Three demonstrators were slightly injured. Palestinians object to the fact that the fence dips into the West Bank.

In another development, the top Islamic authority approved death sentences for five of 51 Palestinians on death row, religious officials said Thursday.

About half of the 51 were convicted of collaborating with Israeli intelligence. Saeb al-Kidwa, a senior court official, said he expected 15 executions to be carried out this month, including common criminals and collaborators.

The first executions are expected soon, the officials said.

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:32:04]