Israeli Likud votes for referendum on Gaza pullout
9/11/2004 11:20
Israeli Likud Knesset (parliament) members voted overwhelmingly in favor
of drafting a basic law on referendum on the planned Gaza pullout, local
newspaper Ha'aretz reported on its website Monday.
The Likud parliament
members also called on Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rethink his threat
to quit the government if no referendum was held.
The vote came a day after
publication of findings by a Likud committee examining the referendum
issue.
The committee recommended on Sunday that the party should draft a
basic law on holding such a poll.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement
plan envisages an Israeli evacuation from the entire Gaza Strip and the removal
of four Jewish settlements in the northern West Bank.
In a meeting ahead of
the vote, Sharon told lawmakers that he was against a national referendum on the
plan, but he would not block the proposal of a bill on the issue in the
Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
The decision would have
little practical value, however, as there was a majority of Knesset members
opposing such a poll.
Xinhua News
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