WASHINGTON - May 13 - More than 1,500 Jewish and Islamic religious leaders plan to launch a "People's Road Map" for Middle East peace today in New York, but after nine European youths working on development projects sponsored by the European Union (EU) were denied entry into Israel and the travel ban along the Gaza Strip was renewed yesterday, hopes for forward movement have dimmed.

Critics are charging that the visa refusals represent a new wave of restrictions on foreigners suspected of opposing Israeli military operations on the West Bank and Gaza.

The incident took place when the Europeans, all members of a Mideast peace program sponsored by the European Voluntary Service (EVS), tried to enter Israel across the Allenby Bridge from Jordan. In a statement released Monday, the volunteers said that Israel's refusal to admit violated agreements reached under the 1995 Barcelona Declaration, which established exchanges between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbors, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The group had been working on a variety of projects in Jerusalem, Haifa and Hebron since February when they began their EVS projects, which included care of disabled children, counseling unemployed young people and students, and working on a variety of social and cultural projects the main focus of the EVS program.

"This incident is part of a new wave of expulsions of foreigners and restriction which have been placed on internationals wishing to enter Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories," the group said in a statement issued Monday. They also complained of "humiliating" searches by Israeli border police who insisted that the Interior Ministry had decreed that they not be allowed entry without disclosing the reasons.

The Allenby Bridge incident comes amid intensified diplomatic efforts to resume peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians pursuant to a "road map" designed by the EU, the United Nations, Russia, and the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has pledged to take some limited steps to ease restrictions on travel to and from the occupied territories, is scheduled to meet his new Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, Friday for the first summit meeting between the two sides in almost three years. Sharon then plans to travel to Washington for talks with President George W. Bush.

Announcement of Friday's meeting followed two days of separate discussions by both leaders with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Although Sharon has indicated dissatisfaction with the road map, including the sponsoring role played by the EU--which his government considers to be pro-Palestinian-- some activists are hopeful that the process can gain momentum in the coming days, particularly if Bush commits himself firmly to the plan during his talks with Sharon.

To help build that momentum, Rabbi Israel Singer, the chairman of the World Jewish Congress, and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, president of the American Sufi Muslim Association, will announce a grassroots campaign in support of the process by releasing a "People's Road Map" at a press conference in New York City Tuesday.

They will jointly sign a proclamation that acknowledges the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live with freedom, security, dignity, respect, and self-determination and launch an interactive negotiation process designed to achieve consensus on major issues among citizens from both sides through the Internet and other mechanisms, according to OneVoice, which includes Germany's Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Rock the Vote, the International Forum for Peace and Culture, Americans for Middle East Understanding, the Beyond Blame Project, and PeaceWorks.

Some 1,500 Israeli and Palestinian leaders, including Abbas's son, the chief Islamic Justice of Palestine, a number of members of both the Israeli Knesset and Palestinian Legislative Council, have signed on to the effort, as a number of prominent U.S. activists, including former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, Arab American Institute president James Zogby, and World Jewish Congress president Edgar Bronfman.

The incident at the Allenby Bridge, which followed a series of other Israeli actions directed against European peace activists, however, is likely to dampen hopes for quick progress.

On Friday, Israeli troops raided the West Bank offices of the International Solidarity Movement and arrested several activists of the group, which has deployed foreign volunteers, mostly from Europe and North America, throughout the territories to help protect Palestinians against Israeli military actions, including house demolitions.

Israel also began enforcing a new policy requiring all foreigners entering Gaza to sign a waiver that absolves Israel of all responsibility for their safety. Among the first to be required to sign such a waiver was a delegation from Amnesty International, turned back Friday after its members refused to sign.

"(Amnesty) is categorically opposed to any attempt to get people to sign away their rights," the group said Friday. "The signing of 'waivers' does not absolve the Israeli army of its responsibility in any way, nor the Israeli authorities of their duties to ensure that armed forces respect human rights in all circumstances."

Israel claims that its restrictions are based on legitimate security considerations, particularly after a British suicide bomber and an accomplice carried out an attack in Tel Aviv last week.

But Amnesty said it was concerned that Israel's new restrictions were designed in part to "prevent outside monitoring and scrutiny of the conduct of the Israeli army (and that) they will lead to more killings in Gaza."

In the case of the EVS volunteers, the projects on which they have been working are scheduled to conclude in August. The European Commission (EC) requested six-month visas for all of the volunteers at the end of last year. Israel denied the request, giving them instead three-month tourist visas. When they left the country after the expiration of their visas, the EC informed Israeli authorities that they would return via the Allenby Bridge on Sunday to complete their work assignments. But, after being searched, they were denied visas and eventually returned to Amman to await further instructions, according to the volunteers' account.

Copyright 2003 OneWorld.net

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