Palestinian President Yasser Arafat left for Amman on Sunday on a tour that will also take him to the Gulf states, where he will try to build support for an urgent Arab summit. Meanwhile, Israel says its occupation of the PLO headquarters in east Jerusalem, Orient House, is permanent.
Haaretz newspaper reported Arafat would hold talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Gulf leaders on the deteriorating situation the occupied Palestinian territories, following Israel’s Friday seizure of Orient House, which Israel insists will be “for good.”
The Palestinian leader will also gather support for an urgent Arab summit, a proposal that was previously dubbed “illogical’ by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during Arafat’s visit to Egypt and other countries about two weeks ago.
The Jordan Times reported that Arafat spoke to Abdullah by phone Sunday, and that the king criticized Israel's occupation of Orient House, calling it "humiliating aggression" and "a dangerous precedent."
The king also briefed Arafat on the outcome of “his efforts and contacts to put an end to the dangerous escalation and the aggression that the brotherly Palestinian people are facing,” said the paper, citing an official source.
He also reaffirmed his support for an emergency meeting of the Morocco-based committee on Jerusalem to discuss the latest developments.
Arafat has launched a diplomatic effort to oppose Israel's closure of Orient House, sending letters and emissaries to world leaders urging them to intervene and force the Jewish state to withdraw from the occupied building.
But Israeli Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said on Sunday that the Jewish state would control Orient House "for good."
"Sovereignty and Israeli law will be applied for good to Orient House, which has been occupied to prevent terrorist activities by the Palestinian Authority in the heart of Jerusalem and this type of activity will not resume," the minister said on military radio, cited by AFP.
"If one day we have to leave this building, which is private property, the activities which will be carried on there will be entirely within the framework of Israeli law," he added.
AFP's latest death tally for the Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation comes out to 13 Arab Israelis, 547 Palestinians, and 146 Israelis, putting the ratio of casualties at around four Palestinians killed for every Israeli loss.
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.
ISRAELI TROOPS SEIZE PALESTINIAN TELECOM CENTER IN ABU DIS
The Israeli army on Sunday took over a Palestinian telecom center in the occupied east Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis, reports said.
The Palestinian Broadcast Corporation is under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.
Al Jazeera satellite channel reported that the occupation troops evicted about 15 workers, shut down broadcasts and carried out searches in the district.
A dozen other PA administrative and security buildings have already been closed down by Israel in retaliation for Thursday's suicide bombing in west Jerusalem which killed 13 Israelis, two foreign tourists and the Hamas attacker.
THREE PALESTINIANS WOUNDED BY ISRAELI FIRE IN RAFAH
Three Palestinians were wounded Sunday as the Israeli occupation troops launched another offensive in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported that the occupation tanks fired on Palestinian homes near Salaheddine Gate, between the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border.
At least ten Palestinian houses were destroyed either completely or partially, said WAFA.
Earlier, Al Barazeel neighborhood in Rafah was also shelled by Israeli tanks, said the agency, adding that hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets, calling for "halting the occupation's atrocities." – Albawaba.com
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