Arab Leaders Call for Action against Israel as two more Palestinians Die

Published October 21st, 2000 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

Arab leaders meeting in an emergency summit in Cairo called for action against Israel Saturday as two more Palestinian teenagers died in the Gaza Strip in clashes with Israeli troops. 

But the proposals varied, from a jihad or holy war urged by Iraq, to a break in all relations with Israel and a revival of a boycott of firms dealing with the Jewish state, advocated by Syria. 

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz also called for Arab leaders to set up solidarity funds for the Palestinians worth a total of one billion dollars. 

He proposed setting aside 200 million dollars for families of Palestinians killed in the clashes and the other 800 million for development projects in the Palestinian territories. 

Saudi Arabia would contribute 250 million dollars to the two funds, and King Fahd would "look after 1,000 families of martyrs of the Intifada", he said, referring to those killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the three-week-old Palestinian uprising. 

Delegates said a final resolution was likely to announce limited "measures" against Israel while reaffirming peace as "a strategic choice." 

Qatar, Oman, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania would have to close or freeze activities at the trade or interests missions they have exchanged with Israel, they said. 

Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, and the Palestinian Authority, which signed the Oslo accords in 1993, would not have to abide by the measure. 

But a senior Arab official said the final draft document might be modified after Israel's move announced Friday by Prime Minister Ehud Barak to suspend the seven-year peace process unless violence ceased by the end of the summit on Sunday. 

The draft document also calls for some Israelis, including Ariel Sharon, to be prosecuted in an international court for "war crimes" and condemns Israel for "plunging the region back into a spiral of violence." 

It was a visit by opposition leader Sharon to the compound of Al-Aqsa mosque in disputed east Jerusalem, which Jews also venerate as the site of their destroyed temple, that sparked the current wave of violence. 

Even as the summit opened, a 13-year-old Palestinian was pronounced clinically dead after he was hit in the head by a bullet in clashes at the Gaza town of Khan Yunis that left at least 16 others wounded. 

Soon afterwards a 15-year-old was killed in a confrontation with Israeli soldiers near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the south of the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said. 

The deaths brought to 125 the number of people killed in a three-week wave of violence across the Palestinian territories and in Israel itself, all but eight of them Palestinians or Israeli Arabs.  

Palestinian organizations ranging from Yasser Arafat's Fatah to the extremist Hamas and Islamic Jihad had called in statements for new demonstrations Saturday in the Gaza Strip against the Israeli presence. 

However Nablus leaders from Hamas and Fatah urged youths not to seek confrontation with the Israeli soldiers at funerals in the flashpoint West Bank town for four out of nine Palestinians killed Friday. 

Thousands of angry Palestinians converged on Nablus for the funerals, many gathering in preparation for future confrontation. 

The entire town came to a halt, those not in the procession watching the proceedings from their rooftops or through their windows. 

Dozens of gunmen wearing ski masks and sporting white and black chequered bandanas around the forehead fired in the air before youths started assembling near an Israeli checkpoint. 

Earlier Israel rejected a United Nations General Assembly resolution voted by a large majority to condemn what it called Israel's excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians. 

The resolution was adopted by 92 votes to six, but 46 countries abstained. Israel, the United States and four small Pacific Ocean states voted against. 

The non-binding resolution condemned "acts of violence, especially the excessive use by the Israeli forces of force against Palestinian civilians." 

It expressed support for the truce accord reached at Tuesday's US-brokered Sharm el-Sheikh summit between Barak and Arafat but shattered in days, and urged "all parties concerned to implement these understandings honestly and without delay." 

Israel's foreign ministry said the resolution had not taken into account numerous incidents of Palestinian violence. 

It reiterated Israel's commitment to a ceasefire in the Palestinian territories, and said it expected the Palestinian Authority to do the same. 

Elsewhere, an armed man was killed during an attempted "terrorist infiltration" of Israel from across the Lebanese border late Friday, an Israeli military source said -- CAIRO (AFP) 

 

© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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