Appearing before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and later at a public rally in Haifa, Sharon on Tuesday maintained that those lands, of which Israel gained control in the 1967 Six-Day War, were not "occupied" but "disputed."
"We are not occupiers. This is the homeland of the Jewish people," he said at a rally backing his Likud Party's candidate for mayor of Haifa. "In the diplomatic dictionary these are disputed lands."
The issue arose when Sharon defended Sunday's Cabinet decision to conditionally implement the "road map" for peace in the region. The plan, proposed by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia, aims to establish a Palestinian nation with Israel's withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967, and to establish peace and security for Israel, by 2005.
Sharon stunned listeners Monday when he addressed his Likud Party's Knesset faction and repeated the world "occupation" four times in one sentence.
"The thinking and the ideas that it is possible to continue holding [people] under occupation - it's occupation; one may not like the word, but what is happening here; it's occupation - to hold 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation in my mind is bad for Israel, also for the Palestinians, also for Israel's economy."
An aide to Sharon told United Press International the prime minister's earlier remarks had been "misunderstood." When he referred to the 3.5 million Palestinians living there as people living under Israeli occupation, he meant the people are under occupation, not the land, the aide argued.
Coalition Chairman Gideon Saar, who was Sharon's Cabinet secretary before entering the Knesset, told UPI that Jews couldn't be occupiers of their own land.
"When we liberated the land in 1967, we freed it from Jordan, and only two countries recognized" Jordan's annexation of the West Bank, he said.
Saar was referring to Britain and Pakistan.
He said he had told Sharon: "You always taught us that the Jewish people have every right over the land of Israel, and all the rights in the land of Israel belong to those who live there. One may compromise [over territory], but not use the word occupation," he said. "An occupier has no rights."
The Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were part of a Palestinian nation in the original 1947 U.N. Partition Plan that laid out a Jewish nation.
A leader of the settler movement, Uri Ariel, now a legislator in the hawkish National Union, told UPI: "The is the land of Israel, and it belongs to us!" Sharon "crossed to the other side," he said.
Israeli doves felt vindicated after decades in which they referred to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as "occupied territories," despite all Israeli governments' references to those areas as being "administered."
"He [Sharon] is in Peace Now," said Labor Party spokeswoman Sarah Gross.
In a statement, the Justice Ministry noted that since 1967, all Israeli governments considered the territories "as disputed territories and not occupied territories. This in an area over which there was no recognized sovereignty before 1967."
The entire area had been under Ottoman rule for some 400 years until Britain occupied it at the end of World War I. The British left on May 15, 1948, when Israel was established. Arab armies invaded it. The first Arab-Israeli war ended with Jordan occupying the West Bank and later annexing it. Egypt ruled the Gaza Strip but never claimed sovereignty there.
The Justice Ministry, quoting the "road map," said the territories' position should be determined in the final status negotiations.
A statement from the prime minister's media adviser issued after the Knesset meeting said Tuesday: "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made it clear today ... that when he used the expression 'occupation' at yesterday's meeting of the Likud Knesset faction, he meant that we do not want to rule over the Palestinian population in the areas in dispute."
National Union's Ariel rejected the explanation. He noted Sharon "does not have slips of the tongue. Things with him are very calculated. He did not make [those statements] at a moment of anger and did not retract them. I cannot accept his explanations."
Knesset member Yossi Sarid of the dovish Meretz Party told Israel Radio, "I don't believe any word of the prime minister because he is a man who zigzags."
Meanwhile, a meeting expected today between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, probably will be held Thursday, sources told UPI. An aide to Sharon said the postponement was "for technical reasons."
Abbas today confirmed that the meeting would probably be held Thursday.
"This is a historic opportunity to return to a track of normalcy," he told the daily Haaretz. "We are saying to the Israelis, 'Follow the map, and don't waste time over details.'"
Nabil Abu Rideinej, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, told UPI that the real test for Prime Minister Sharon is to turn the statements he made that it is not worth to keep occupying 3.5 million Palestinians into facts and deeds.
"As far as we are concerned, the most important thing for the Palestinians is to stop all aggressive action against our people and to end the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories," said Abu Rudeineh.
The executive committee of Palestine Liberation Organization, chaired by Yasser Arafat, said in a statement Tuesday it was ready to issue an official declaration saying that the Palestinians are totally committed to the implementation of the road map. It said that Israel should release a declaration of its own at the same time, one that includes "a frank and clear recognition of an independent Palestinian state."
A three-way summit meeting with President Bush, Sharon and Abu Mazen is expected to be held June 5. The Israelis and the Jordanians would like the summit held in Jordan, preferably Aqaba, but Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom noted it was up to the United States. The U.S. Secret Service has not yet approved a location, Shalom said.
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