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CNN Live Sunday
Israelis Begin to Leave Gaza Settlements
Aired August 14, 2005 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SUNDAY: Midnight in Gaza. A fateful day finally arrives after 38 years. The Israelis will depart, leaving the small strip of land to the Palestinians. These are live pictures from a border crossing. Our Guy Raz in in Neveh Dekalim, which is one of the largest settlements with a population, 2,000.
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening from Neveh Dekalim, the largest of the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza. I'm Guy Raz. It's midnight here and in just a few minutes the Israeli government will begin the historic process of removing all of its citizens from the strip of land first occupied in 1967. The first time the Israeli government is removing its settlers from land on which the Palestinians hope to establish their future state. Under way right now, a formal military ceremony at the Kissufim border crossing. That's the main road leading into the major Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Once that ceremony ends, all traffic, except for military traffic will be banned from that road. Over the next 24 hours, some 50,000 Israeli soldiers and police will fan out throughout all 21 Gaza settlements. They'll go door-to-door, house-to-house and they'll begin notifying all the remaining residents they have 48 hours to pack up and clear out. Those who do not leave by midnight on the 16th of August will be forcibly removed and stand to lose up to one-third of their government compensation packages. The Israeli army investigates some 5,000 to 6,000 people will decide to remain in the settlements, many of them infiltrators, not residents, many of them youngsters who managed to sneak into the settlements over the past few days and weeks and the army is expecting some passive resistance, but it does say it is prepared for all eventualities.
The army will be sending four soldiers for every individual who remains inside the settlements. Now, most of the settlers will eventually resettle just a few miles north of the Gaza strip inside of Israel's recognized borders. The evacuation period is expected to take about three weeks' time. Once all the settlers are removed, the Israeli army will then move into the settlements and begin the process of demolishing all of the homes and many of the major buildings, creating an estimated 1.5 million tons of rubble.
The rubble from those homes will be used mainly to build a Gaza seaport for Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Some of the rubble will be buried in Israel. Other bits of the rubble will be buried in Egypt. This is a process that many around the world believe could help restart, reignite the Middle East peace process. The struggle for peace between Palestinians and Israelis, and many Israeli commentators have said the disengagement as this plan is known has forced the wider Israeli public to confront the issue of occupation.
Now this has been a very difficult road for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a man long known as the father of the settlement movement, now regarded as the number one betrayer of that movement by its supporters. Most Israelis do back the plan, but many religious and nationalist Israelis do not. For their part, Palestinians have mixed feelings about it. Palestinians living here in Gaza welcome the move. They look forward to a life without Israeli military roadblocks and checkpoints without settlers. Palestinians in the west bank fear that ultimately it could be ploy for Israel to strengthen its grip on large west bank settlements. The Israeli government says that is not the case.
What is certain is that this is now the culmination of a year in which we've seen the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the election of a new Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, democratically elected and now Israel's disengagement from the Gaza strip. And now we're watching live pictures of a formal military ceremony closing off the Kissufim border crossing, the main road leading into the Gaza settlement blocks. Let's take a listen to what we're seeing here now.
WHITFIELD: All right. Guy, let me ask you, when you talk about the dismantling of the homes. There has to be the question of there are 47 graves and some 38 synagogues throughout these 21 settlements. Might they be dismantled as well and if so, might the handling of those graves, particularly, be done quite differently than of course the dismantling of the residences?
RAZ: No question about it (INAUDIBLE), particularly with the graves it's a very sensitive issue. There are about 40 graves here in the Gaza settlements. All of them will be re-interred within Israel's recognized borders over this period of time. In regard to the major buildings, most of them will be destroyed. All of the synagogues will be destroyed. The homes will be destroyed. But the basic infrastructure, the water, the power lines, the greenhouses, the roads, etcetera will remain intact.
That is part of a long process of negotiation that's been brokered by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, now the representative of the international quartet, which of course is the main backer of the road map for peace and the international community, the United States, Russia, the United Nations, the European Union would like to see both parties return to the road map for peace, once this disengagement process is carried out. It's expected to take three weeks to remove the settlers, another month to level these settlements and then a few more days for Palestinian security officials to come here, to check it out to make sure there is no ordinance left. At that point Palestinians will essentially be allowed to enter this area and to see it, many of them to see it for the first time in their lives. (INAUDIBLE)
WHITFIELD: Guy, this pullout may extend three weeks, but are there already some of the 21 settlements that have been completely vacated?
RAZ: Absolutely. Many of the settlements have -- a fair number of the settlements have been vacated. In fact, most of the settlements in the northern west bank, four settlements in the northern west bank will also be removed and three out of those four are essentially evacuated. Many of the settlements here in Gaza are essentially ghost towns. But, of course, many infiltrators, as many as 6,000, many of them young people. You see them here in the settlements hanging out at night in the town square sort of coming here in a sense as a kind of a religious nationalist rite of passage have arrived to these settlements in the past few weeks, essentially to bolster the defiance here, and the army is expecting some kind of resistance from these people. But ultimately most of the residents are expected to leave on their own will, on their own volition, and it is expected to be a relatively peaceful process.
WHITFIELD: All right. Guy Raz in Gaza, thanks so much on that report of the official pullout now beginning.
Israel captured the Gaza strip from Egypt during the six day war in 1967. At that time, Israel seized the west bank of the Jordan River from the kingdom of Jordan. In the withdrawal beginning right now, the Israelis are to close all 21 Jewish settlements as you heard in Gaza plus four in the west bank. The total number of settlers involved, about 9,000. CNN's John Vause has more from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) and Shlomo Sako (ph) were among the first to move to the Gaza settlement of Neveh Dekalim 22 years ago. Both are teachers originally from the U.S.. They made a life here, raised seven children and like so many other Jewish settlers in Gaza, they believe this is their land promised to them by God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Biblically, you just open up the bible. And Isaac lived here. That is here, there's no question about that biblically.
VAUSE: But more than that, by living among more than a million Palestinians, they believe they're defending the nation of Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are saving all the people in Israel (INAUDIBLE) We are stopping the Palestinians, the Arabs from coming to the other parts of the country.
VAUSE: During the six day war in 1967, Israel captured the Gaza strip from Egypt, the west bank from Jordan. The land was never annexed but in the years that followed came the settlements. Jewish communities built on occupied land driven by consecutive Israeli governments which accelerated under the supervision of then housing Minister Ariel Sharon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is part of the land of Israel and we are going to stay there forever.
VAUSE: The settlements were strategically located to give Israel a (INAUDIBLE), a buffer from Syria, Iraq and Jordan to the east, Egyptians to the south and the Palestinians in Gaza to the west. There was a feeling among Israeli defense thinkers that as long as Israel had a large Palestinian population to its west in the Gaza strip essentially as it would be in a pinscher position, always surrounded. And therefore they thought it was important to establish an Israeli civilian and military presence in Gaza to neutralize that threat.
VAUSE: Ariel Sharon believed that only when Israelis knew every hilltop, every valley and every stone would they defend their land. He wanted to put men, women and children in front of tanks and soldiers. Men and women like the Saven (ph) family. They believe that even now the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, Israel still faces a military threat.
You remember the peace treaty with Hitler and England all those peace treaties? It's a piece of paper.
VAUSE: The Palestinians claim Gaza and the west bank for a future Palestinian state. It's not long now before they get Gaza, but if this Israeli government has its way, it's unlikely the Palestinians will get all of the west bank, home to an estimated 250,000 Jewish settlers and more than 100 Jewish settlements. John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Later, we'll discuss the withdrawal from Gaza with an Israeli diplomat and a former adviser to the State Department who works to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
It's getting hot down in Crawford, Texas as shotgun blasts alarm the war protesters and the media and a local speaks out.
President Bush's neighbor has had just about enough of all the people and the porta potties hanging around. What he had to say to reporters next on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
And later, using a virus to stop cancer. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: An investigation is underway into the crash of a Cypriot airliner today near Athens, Greece. 121 people were on board. There were no survivors. The Boeing 737 belonged to Helios Airways. The flight began in Cyprus and was headed for a stop in Athens, en route to the Czech Republic. CNN's Chris Burns is in Athens. He joins us now for the latest on the investigation. Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, authorities say they found at least one of the two black box recorders on the plane. That's going to offer clues as to what brought the plane down. Those are the voice recorders were in the cockpit, so that could offer clues. Up to now, all authorities can go from at this point is what two F-16 pilots saw when they were scrambled when the plane lost contact with the ground, that these pilots saw through the window of the cockpit and saw that there was no pilot left and that the copilot was slumped over and there were oxygen masks hang down, indicating possible catastrophic loss of cabin pressure, and authorities say that when you're that high up at about 10,000 meters or 30,000 feet, it's like standing on Mt. Everest without any kind of protection or any oxygen. You only last a few minutes, Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: And now, do we know anything more about the passengers on board?
BURNS: Well, what we know is that many of them are Greek Cypriots. Many of them were children. Perhaps a few dozen of them were on their way to Prague for a soccer summer camp. Beyond that, we do not know much more, but we have a report that one of the people on the plane had text messaged with their cell phone to a relative saying the pilot is turning blue. We are freezing and saying farewell. So it does appear that that might add to the evidence that this was a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure.
WHITFIELD: All right. Chris Burns in Athens, thanks so much. And later on in this hour, we'll be talking to an expert about the kinds of training that pilots get when encountering the loss of cabin pressure.
Four bombings and a shooting have killed seven American soldiers in Iraq since Friday. The military is investigating the gunshot death of a soldier found dead in Baghdad Friday. A bomb that day killed another soldier and on Saturday, roadside bombs killed four soldiers in two attacks. The latest attack early this morning killed a soldier with an improvised explosive device. The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq to 1,850 since the war began.
The committee drafting a new constitution for Iraq is working hard on its final day before a Monday deadline. The prime minister says he is optimistic they will have a document ready on time. And the U.S. ambassador to Iraq says he is confident they will achieve that task. The main points still to be settled are regional autonomy for groups including Kurds and Shiites and how big a role Islam will play in Iraqi law.
Concerns about Iraq have come to President Bush where he is vacationing at his ranch in Texas. Bush supporters are rallying to oppose demonstrator Cindy Sheehan whose son was killed in the war last year. She has been joined by hundreds of protestors who agree the troops should come home. A neighbor caused a brief commotion when he shot off a gun outside the demonstration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY MATTLAGE, PRESIDENT BUSH'S NEIGHBOR: You all got plenty of room (INAUDIBLE). What we have here, we got the Secret Service here and the sheriff. The Secret Service has got all the power, but they don't have any rights to get rid of this stuff. The sheriff's department has got the law, which means they saying we have no rights because they can't stop this. So we got two law enforcement agencies and all these helicopters out there and none of that group can do nothing and will do nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, why did you shoot the gun?
MATTLAGE: I'm getting ready for dove season and you all going to still be here, I'm practicing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There wasn't another message involved with the gunshots?
MATTLAGE: Figure it out for yourself. Look, when they first came out here, I was sympathetic to their cause, right. They as American citizens have a right to march, to protest. But it's like company. If you have your brother-in-law in your house for five days, wouldn't it start stinking after a while? You ready for him to go home, won't you? Five weeks of this is too much. We live here, it's our community. We have no respect over here, and we have no respect over here, somebody got to get together and figure it out. It's a damn shame the news media has got to solve this dilemma, but we got a dilemma here. We got a battle of the port a potties. They first started going to the bathroom in a five gallon bucket. Then they move one port a potty in there. Now we got two port a potties. And now we got three, and if this keeps up, they'll be all the way down the road. It's all about respect, everything -- where has common courtesy gone in America? Somewhere you're supposed to respect people, and I respect them and I respect George Bush. I can't do nothing about the world situation, OK? Somebody has got to settle it. And that's what I'm pleading to you people so the whole world will understand my position. That's all I got to say about that.
UNIDENTIED MALE: Larry, how do you spell your name?
MATTLAGE: It's on the mailbox.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Larry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Before talking to reporters there, the president's neighbor was firing the shots on his own property there in Crawford. We'll have a live report for Crawford for you in the next hour.
Killing cancer tumors with smart bombs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FRED LANG, DEVELOPED CANCER SMART BOMB: It can explode within a cell. So the virus enters the cell, increases its numbers, replicates and then essentially blows up that cell to release more virus into the environment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Up next, how doctors have turned a virus into a weapon against cancer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All this week we've been taking a look at an issue that impacts so many Americans, cancer. Chances are you or someone you know has been battling the disease in some way. The search for a cure has produced some promising new developments. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY LUSKY: Duty is when you break the glass and no matter whatever happens in your life there is some shattering.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Allan and Nancy Lusky, life shattered with the diagnosis, brain cancer. Cancer has not been kind nor gentle to Allan. Parts of his brain ripped away. Nobody knew then, but Allan had the deadliest form of brain cancer you can get, malignant gleoblastoma (ph), stage four. He had a year, if he was lucky. To buy time, Allan quickly entered a clinical trial. Out of 13 patients, one lucky survivor.
ALLAN LUSKY, CANCER PATIENT: Me.
GUPTA: Two years ago, Dr. Fred Lang (ph) removed some of the cancer, but now he may have found a better way to destroy Allan's tumor. Dr. Lang and Dr. Juan Fuejo (ph) have developed a viral therapy code name Delta 24. It's one of a new generation of targeted therapies. The very latest in man's arsenal against cancer, it's called the smart bomb.
DR. FRED LANG, DEVELOPED CANCER SMART BOMB: It was called smart because it could distinguish tumor cells from normal cells so it wasn't just something that was going to injure everything. It's a bomb in the sense that it can explode within a cell. So the virus enters the cell, increases its numbers, replicates and then essentially blows up that cell to release more virus into the environment.
GUPTA: At least, that's what they hope will happen. So far the smart bomb has only been successfully in mice. Allan is willing to give Delta 24 a try.
LUSKY: Once have you cancer, you get rid of it two ways. One if they find a cure, two is when you die. Until one of those two things happen, you have cancer.
GUPTA: Allan Lusky prays he's alive to see his daughter get married and his grandchild born. No one knows if time is on his side.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And can you watch more of Dr. Gupta's reporting on this deadly disease tonight on an all new CNN presents, "Taming the Beast, Inside the War on Cancer." It airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific
Searching for answers to today's plane crash in Greece. What might the pilots have been experiencing? Hear from a former Airbus pilot and aviation expert next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Now in the news, the Israeli pullout from Gaza has begun. 9,000 settlers are being forced to relocate. Palestinian police and Israeli troops have gathered at the checkpoints to maintain order. We'll have more straight ahead.
A suspicious package found at a hotel near the White House has turned out to be a hoax. An emergency services spokesman in Washington says the package found at the Mayflower Hotel appears to have been designed to look like a real bomb. The hotel was evacuated and the package removed.
A crash today has become the deadliest aircraft disaster in Greek history. All 121 people on board a jet from Helios Airlines of Cyprus died
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