Palestinian police in new haircuts pulled out their dark blue uniforms yesterday and prepared to move back into the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the second area Israel is turning over under a US-backed Mideast peace plan.
The handover of the ancient town, expected yesterday afternoon according to officials on both sides, comes after an upbeat summit between the Israeli and Palestinian premiers boosted hope for an end to 33 months of bloodshed.
Army transport trucks started carrying away armored vehicles and containers full of equipment from two Israeli bases near Bethlehem on Tuesday, and Palestinian security forces were poised to move into the town as soon as the last soldiers left.
At a barracks near a derelict helipad, laughing and joking police tried on their uniforms. Nearby, a special forces officer barked orders at recruits in green camouflage and bright red berets as they practiced marching in a courtyard.
"Today, we're restoring our leadership in one city in this land," their commander, Hani Deek, said. "I hope the rest will soon follow."
However, as long as Bethlehem remains hedged in by Israeli checkpoints, residents don't expect the handover to change much.
"They are making fools out of us," said Jaudat Joude, who has been unable to reach his job at a Jerusalem welding factory since the uprising began almost three years ago. "If you want to make some serious changes, open the roads, remove the checkpoints and let people in to work. Then maybe we can believe that the Israelis have good intentions."
Israeli forces have occupied Bethlehem several times during the conflict, once holding the Church of the Nativity under siege for a month, demanding the surrender of Palestinian gunmen who had fled inside the shrine marking the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
After a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus on Nov. 21, carried out by a Palestinian from Bethlehem, soldiers went back in and stayed.
Senior commanders met Tuesday and finalized details of the handover. In a statement, the military said Israel would be in charge of security of Israelis, including settlers in nearby villages. Palestinian security forces, meanwhile, "have committed to preventing and thwarting terrorist attacks in the areas under their responsibility."
A similar formula held in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli troops pulled out late Sunday.
Speaking in front of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office before their Tuesday summit, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said the turnover of Gaza and Bethlehem would be "followed by pullbacks from the rest of the cities and towns and Palestinian refugee camps."
It was the first time the two leaders spoke before reporters and cameras at a Jerusalem summit, their third in six weeks.
Palestinian and Israeli Cabinet ministers, some of them enemies until recently, sat at a table next to the two lecterns, chatting easily and smiling, establishing a relaxed setting for conciliatory language not heard in this region during three years of bloodshed.
"Even if we are required to make painful compromises, I will be willing to make them for the sake of true peace -- a peace for generations, the peace that we all yearn for," Sharon said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique