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Cabinet approves Israeli pullout in principle


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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel's Cabinet voted 14-7 to approve in principle a withdrawal from Gaza and four isolated settlements in the West Bank, Israeli Cabinet ministers said Sunday.

The vote took place after a nine-hour Cabinet meeting, where a compromise deal was reached within Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party, giving him enough votes to pass a watered-down version of his pullout plan from Gaza.

"The disengagement has set out its way," Sharon said shortly after the vote. "The government decided today that, by the end of 2005, Israel intends to leave the Gaza Strip and four isolated settlements in Samaria."

An Israeli government source said that, under the compromise deal, the Cabinet would have to approve Sharon's plan on settlement evacuation, possibly next March, for it to go into effect.

The deal made moot a petition requesting the Cabinet to delay its vote by 48 hours on the withdrawal to allow time for the dismissal of a minister opposed to the withdrawal to become effective.

According to Israeli media reports, the compromise deal would also see a freeze on most settlement funding and construction in Gaza.

The National Religious Party, which opposed the withdrawal plan, was to meet Sunday night to discuss whether it would continue in Sharon's government coalition, a Cabinet minister from the party told Israel Television. Without the party's support, Sharon would lose his majority in Israel's parliament.

Sharon has said a withdrawal is necessary because the Palestinian Authority had failed to rein in attacks on Israelis and because the diplomatic process is in a "frozen state."

Palestinians have criticized the disengagement idea, saying it is an attempt to circumvent the negotiations called for in the so-called "road map" to Middle East peace, which is supported by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

The road map lays out steps Israel and the Palestinians must take toward ending conflict and establishing an independent state.

Sharon has called for the Israelis to withdraw from Gaza and portions of the West Bank in four stages. His initial proposal, defeated in a May 2 referendum by his own Likud party, was for a single-stage withdrawal. He broke the withdrawal into four stages after the vote failed.

Polls conducted by Israeli media indicate the majority of Israelis support Sharon's plan.

The Israeli disengagement plan also includes the building of a barrier -- already under construction -- that Israel says will block Palestinians from attacking Israel from the West Bank.

Palestinians call the barrier a land grab, saying it leaves many Palestinians cut off from farms, schools and hospitals as it winds its way through portions of the West Bank.

Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt in 1967 during the Six-Day War and began building settlements there soon after. There are now about 230,000 Israelis living in West Bank settlements, and Gaza is home to about 7,500 Jewish settlers.

CNN's John Vause contributed to this report.


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