Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appealed to the international community to hurry to protect his people from Israeli attacks after a month of violence, in remarks published Saturday.
"The Palestinian people are awaiting the speedy provision of international protection for them," Arafat said in an interview with Egypt's government newspaper Al-Ahram, as the death toll from the clashes neared 150.
He was recalling an Arab demand for the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to "guarantee the safety" of Palestinians, "with a view to establishing an international force" in the Palestinian territories.
"The United Nations remains responsible for the Palestinian territories and their people until they achieve their firm rights in Palestine," Arab leaders said in the final statement of a summit in Cairo October 21 and 22.
The vast majority of those killed since confrontations broke on September 28 have been Palestinian. The spiral of violence was sparked by Israeli hard-line opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied east Jerusalem, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian representative at the UN made a formal request for the Security Council to meet to consider sending a UN force to protect Palestinians from Israeli violence.
Arafat said his people were also waiting for a UN commission to start investigating the recent troubles -- another demand of the Arab summit.
The Palestinian leader told Al-Ahram that the summit had issued a "message of peace" that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had rejected by "suspending (peace) negotiations and continuing to mobilize his troops."
Israel denounced the "language of threats" of the Cairo summit, which pledged financial and moral support for the Palestinian uprising, and called a "time-out" in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Arafat pressed for "political separation" from Israel by establishing an independent Palestinian state and recalled that the PLO Central Council will meet next month to deliberate when to declare statehood.
Last month the Palestine Liberation Organization delayed a plan to announce statehood on September 13, but said the council would meet again before November 15 to discuss the matter -- CAIRO (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
