Israel Eases Sanctions on Two West Bank Cities

JERUSALEM — Hours after U.S. special envoy Dennis B. Ross ended his emergency mission to the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acted early this morning to ease some of the tough sanctions levied against Palestinians since last month’s suicide bombings in a Jerusalem market.

During four days of talks aimed at restoring security ties as a prelude to renewed peace negotiations, Ross lobbied for an Israeli reduction in the travel and financial restrictions imposed on the Palestinian government and people after the July 30 blasts. Soon after Ross left the region, Netanyahu allowed residents of Hebron and Ramallah to travel outside those West Bank cities for the first time in two weeks.

Most of Israel’s sanctions remained in effect. But the easing of the internal closure in the West Bank gave the American envoy one of the few tangible achievements of his brief shuttle mission.

Ross also could point to a fragile agreement by Israel and the Palestinians to jointly investigate the Jerusalem attack, and to report their findings to a three-way panel that will include the CIA station chief in Tel Aviv.

“We have created a mechanism that begins to reestablish the security relationship,” Ross told reporters after a final meeting Wednesday evening with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

Still, he and other U.S. officials cautioned that the renewed security contacts and improved atmosphere are just a start. If a visit to the region by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is to proceed, they said, the security cooperation must quickly produce results.

Ross left early today for Washington, where he will brief Albright and President Clinton on his talks. He is expected to continue monitoring events in the region but has no plans to return immediately, officials said.

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Even as he prepared to leave, high-level Israeli and Palestinian security officials held the first of what American diplomats hope will be regular meetings to trade information on the Jerusalem bombing case. They will then share their findings with the panel, allowing the U.S. to judge how well they are cooperating.

The sessions are not the first between U.S. intelligence officers and their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts. The three parties held at least six sessions between the July 30 bombings and Ross’ arrival in Israel on Aug. 9, as well as a handful of meetings last spring.

“The main thing now is that these meetings will be held on a regular basis and, we hope, be more serious than before,” said a U.S. official involved in the Ross effort. While the earlier sessions were marked by angry political speeches, this week’s have been “professional and serious,” the official said.

The CIA representatives “are there to help in any way they can,” he said. “But obviously, they’re also there so that we can form our own assessment” of whether enough progress has been made for Albright to visit and launch a new U.S. peace initiative.

The U.S. involvement also provides Arafat with an element of political cover for cooperating on security issues at a time of little or no progress in peace talks, a Palestinian political analyst said.

“If these are international meetings, it doesn’t look so much like the Palestinians are working for the Israelis,” said Khalil Shikaki, who heads the Center for Palestine Research and Studies in Nablus in the West Bank.

Sixteen people, including two bomb-laden men, were killed in the market attack, which shattered Jerusalem’s central produce market and propelled the already stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks into a downward spiral of anger and recrimination.

Since then, Israel has demanded that Arafat act aggressively against militant organizations and round up more than 230 people Israel believes may have played a role in the bombings or in earlier attacks against Israelis.

Arafat has insisted that his security forces have never ceased their efforts to prevent such violence, and has accused Israel of trying to harm his credibility and destroy the peace process. But Israeli and, to some extent, U.S. officials say he has not yet been willing to carry out the arrests, disarm the militant groups or try to cut off the groups’ funds.

Nonetheless, the Palestinians asked Ross to press their case with Netanyahu to free more than $40 million that Israel owes the Palestinian Authority in tax revenues collected under terms of their peace agreements. They also had asked for a lifting of the closure that for two weeks has kept virtually all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Israel, and many from traveling outside their hometowns.

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Israeli and U.S. officials said more of the restrictions may be lifted in the next few days if there is progress in the security talks. But Palestinians privately expressed disappointment that neither Ross nor Jordan’s King Hussein, who met Wednesday with Netanyahu in Aqaba, Jordan, had persuaded the Israeli leader to ease them more significantly.

Most critical to the Palestinian Authority is Israel’s refusal to free the funds, which has forced the self-rule government to borrow heavily to meet its payroll.

“We had hoped for more, but Ross did manage to stop the deterioration and create a damage-control mechanism,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. “All we hope is that this can now lead to the visit by Madeleine Albright and get the peace process back on track.”