The Palestinian leadership held an urgent meeting in Ramallah on Sunday to discuss Israel's "shameful" decision not to lift travel ban on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saying it would sever all ties until Israel revoked the decision.
"This is a shameful decision. It is unacceptable, and a clear message that this government does not want a cease-fire, it does not want calm," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
"I hope the United States and Europe will recognize that this government's program will only lead the region into war and bloodshed and the whole world should intervene before it is too late," he added.
Israel's security cabinet decided Sunday to allow Arafat to leave his compound in Ramallah but not to move freely from the West Bank city where Israel has confined him since early December, officials said.
Arafat has left the compound on numerous occasions, including a solidarity visit to the city's hospital around a 1.5 kilometers away last Thursday.
Senior media aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said there would be no more political or security meetings with Israel until it went back on the decision, and urged the world community to "isolate" the right-leaning government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
He said the decision not to allow Arafat to leave the city where he has been confined to for almost three months came at a time when international efforts were raising hopes for a reduction in the violence that has rocked the region. He added that the Israeli decision is pathetic, and it means only that the Israelis intend to proceed with their aggression against the Palestinian people and leadership.
Abu Rudeina added that this contempt decision by the Israelis will lead to more violence, terror and bloodshed.
General Amin al-Hindi, head of Palestinian intelligence, said the Palestinians would boycott a joint security meeting scheduled for late Sunday and aimed at easing the conflict, which claimed some 70 lives in a fresh upsurge last week.
For his part, Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the decision was aimed at "humiliating the Palestinian people," and called on Arab states to also cut all contacts with Israel.
He said top officials from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority cabinet were meeting in Arafat's compound to discuss the latest developments.
Israel's decision to officially allow Arafat to leave his office complex came after his security services arrested last week three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) accused of assassinating the Israeli Tourism Minister in revenge for Israel's killing of the PFLP's former chief.
Head of the Palestinian intelligence in the West Bank, Tawfiq Tirawi, told AFP that the three men had been moved from Nablus to Ramallah and were being held in jail facilities in Arafat's compound.
He said his agents had only been able to transport the men 35 kilometers from Nablus, to the north, through Israeli army checkpoints because of guarantees of their safety by the US, the EU and Jordan and Egypt, the only two Arab states to have signed peace deals with Israel.
The PFLP's armed wing shot Zeevi dead last October in the Hyatt Jerusalem hotel, two months after an Israeli helicopter strike in Ramallah killed PFLP chief Abu Ali Mustafa, accused by Israel of orchestrating a string of car bombs.
A senior Israeli official close to Sharon told AFP on Saturday that Arafat would have to arrest one more suspect connected to the assassination before he would be granted freedom of movement.
Majdi Rimawi, an operations officer in the PFLP who allegedly recruited Zeevi's assassins, is still believed to be in Ramallah, while Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the group, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority in January.
Buffer Zone
On Saturday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asked United States Secretary of State Colin Powell during a telephone conversation to prevent Israel from building a buffer zone between Israelis and Palestinians, an aide to Arafat claimed.
"Arafat told Powell about the dangerous situation in the Palestinian territories and asked Powell to continue his efforts to stop Israeli aggression and prevent it from building a buffer zone," advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
"We need efforts from the Palestinians and Israelis to implement the cease-fire," Abu Rudeina added, referring to a US-brokered cease-fire last June that has still not taken hold.
Arafat and Powell agreed to continue communications, said Abu Rudeina, who added that Powell initiated the phone call.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed the buffer zone plan during a televised address to Israelis on Thursday aimed at reassuring them he would strengthen security for them.
Palestinian officials said the plan was a sign that the Israeli Prime Minister intended to continue his military polices aimed at crushing Palestinian aspirations for statehood, and would result in shutting them up in a "big prison." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
