Jewish leader says Sharon must go

Sigi Feigel says Ariel Sharon is the wrong man to negotiate with the Palestinians Keystone Archive

The honorary president of Zurich's Jewish community says there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as Israel's Ariel Sharon is in power.

As the violence reaches new heights in the Occupied Territories, Sigi Feigel told swissinfo the Israelis needed a new head of government to lead talks with the Palestinians.

“Ariel Sharon is a general, and generals are never good politicians,” he said.

“They should choose younger people to negotiate, people who know a brighter future means living peacefully with the Palestinians. It’s not easy though because the Palestinians are no angels.”

Feigel is equally critical of Yasser Arafat, accusing the Palestinian leader of being a hindrance to the peace process. He said Arafat spoke in “a hundred tongues”, promising people what they wanted to hear but doing whatever suited him best.

“Terrorism would not be possible if Arafat was not prepared to accept it,” added Feigel. “Palestinian leaders and their Arab partners are using the Palestinian people as political ammunition for their own programmes, without considering the suffering involved.”

Peace through negotiation

Although the Jewish community leader believes Sharon is the wrong man for the job, he says he sympathises with the Israeli prime minister’s bloody response to Palestinian attacks.

“The Palestinians committed acts of terror and the Israelis counterattacked,” said Feigel. “The Palestinians tried to destroy as many human lives as they could and the Israelis tried to find those responsible for the attacks.”

However, Feigel believes the two warring parties must accept that the escalating violence is not the path to peace.

Since the start of the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, in September 2000, more than 1,500 Israelis and Palestinians have died.

“There have to be renewed talks to find an issue to the crisis, just as there have been in the past,” he said. “But I think the urgency of the situation will lead both sides to the negotiation table.”

Strong words from Annan

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, on Tuesday urged both sides to “lead your peoples away from disaster”.

Addressing a public meeting of the UN Security Council, Annan condemned Israel’s attacks on the Palestinians, and said it should end its “illegal occupation” of lands captured during the 1967 war.

He said Israel should urgently put a stop to “bombing of civilian areas, the assassinations, the unnecessary use of illegal force, the demolitions and the daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians”.

Annan added that “Such actions gravely erode Israel’s standing in the international community and fuel the fires of further hatred, despair and extremism among Palestinians”.

He also called on Palestinians to stop suicide attacks on Israeli civilians, which he described as “morally repugnant”.

swissinfo with agencies