Both Israelis and Palestinians will hold a series of demonstrations to try to influence key peace negotiations in the United States, organizers said Monday.
Palestinians will hold marches throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday to support their negotiating team in the United States for talks between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton.
"These activities will be held in support of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the negotiating team at Camp David," Marwan Barghuthi, a senior official from Arafat's political faction, Fatah, told AFP in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
He said the activities were designed to help the some 50-strong negotiating team combat US and Israeli "pressure."
The Israeli group Peace Now also announced it would hold a demonstration later Monday in support of Barak, whose coalition was ripped apart Sunday when three parties resigned in protest against possible concessions he could make in the summit.
The Israeli right wing and groups of Jewish settlers have said they will demonstrate against Barak, warning him not to give in to Palestinian demands for an independent state on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with east Jerusalem as its capital.
The three-way summit is due to kick off at the Camp David presidential retreat on Tuesday.
The two sides are trying to hammer out a peace deal to end their half-century conflict by a September 13 deadline, but remain deeply divided on how to do it -- RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP)
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