Dozens of Palestinian demonstrators and anti-occupation Israelis clashed Monday with Israeli security forces next to the Orient House, the PLO’s unofficial building in the occupied east Jerusalem, said Haaretz newspaper, reporting no immediate injuries.
It said the clashes began when Israeli police ordered demonstrators not to wave the Palestinian flag and banners.
Police arrested one demonstrator who was taken in for questioning. Dozens of Palestinians are currently demonstrating outside the occupied building, it added.
The Palestinians are holding a general strike in east Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank in protest of the seizure of Orient House and Palestinian institutions in Abu Dis, as well as other actions taken by Israel.
The strike was declared by the leaders of the current Intifada, who published a statement Sunday calling for Palestinians to strike.
The statement also encouraged Arabs and Muslims around the world to demonstrate and show solidarity with the Palestinians and their struggle against Israel.
Shops and businesses across the West Bank and Gaza Strip were shuttered, said AFP, adding that in the main Palestinian towns of Ramallah, Gaza, Nablus, Hebron and Tulkarem, as well as in occupied east Jerusalem where Orient House is located, all sectors were closed down, including administrative centers, universities, shops and markets.
The occupation of the Orient House was condemned by the international community, with Washington calling it a "serious political escalation" and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging Israel to leave the building.
There were signs, however, of the more conciliatory wing of Israel's coalition government gaining strength as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres overcame Sharon's opposition to talking with the Palestinian leadership about resuming a fractured ceasefire.
Sharon finally gave Peres the green light Sunday to meet Palestinian leaders to revive a failed June ceasefire, though he ruled out talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said earlier reports.
Haaretz newspaper quoted the daily Maariv as saying Monday that Peres was in favor of a unilateral retreat from the Gaza Strip in exchange for a full ceasefire with the Palestinians.
It said the proposal was one of several being studied by Peres to help bring an end to the unrest.
A June 13 ceasefire orchestrated by the United States has failed to take hold on the ground, with more than 100 people killed, the majority Palestinians, since the truce was announced.
"The minister of foreign affairs believes Israel should pull out of the Gaza Strip unilaterally and allow Yasser Arafat to declare an independent state on the territory," the paper said.
However, an opinion poll published in the daily Yediot Aharonot showed that 54 percent of Israelis were against holding ceasefire talks.
Forty-four percent saw the move as a way out of the impasse of strike and counter-strike, said the poll, cited by AFP.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank town of Hebron, Palestinians gathered to bury a seven-year-old Palestinian girl who died after being shot in the head during heated exchanges of fire Sunday between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters.
Sabrin Abu Snena was to be laid to rest beside her 60-year-old grandmother Wadha Abu Mayela, who died of a heart attack shortly after the girl succumbed to her injuries, said AFP.
AFP's latest death tally for the Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation comes out to 13 Arab Israelis, 548 Palestinians, and 146 Israelis, putting the ratio of casualties at around four Palestinians killed for every Israeli loss. Israeli wounded number in the high hundreds, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society puts the number of Palestinians injured at over 14,000.
Amnesty International reported early this year that almost 100 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli soldiers, nearly all in situations where the occupation troops were under no immediate threat - Albawaba.com
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