Cease-fire holdout rules Jenin refugee camp

Zakariya Zubaideh, 27, lost his mother and brother in the Israeli assault on Jenin. Photo by Matthew Kalman, special to the Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
July 11, 2003

By Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Jenin refugee camp, West Bank — Zakariya Zubaideh is head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the most extreme wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, in Jenin, the most militant outpost of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.

That pedigree -- coupled with his refusal to abide by the 2-week-old cease- fire with Israel -- makes him a wanted man.

The tall, dark and slim 27-year-old speaks in a disarmingly gentle voice with a slight lisp. But even before you notice the silver Smith & Wesson pistol nestling on his hip, you see scars on his face and bloodshot clouds in his eyes, the results of a mortar bomb that blew up in his face two years ago.

"My vision is blurred during the day. I only see clearly at night," said Zubaideh.

Right now, he is seeing red.

Alone among the armed Palestinian groups, Zubaideh and his men refuse to accept the cease-fire, or hudna, hammered out by the commanders of Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"This hudna doesn't concern me or any other party," Zubaideh said defiantly.

"Until now, no one has consulted with us, and we haven't received instructions to stop the fighting from the leadership. They made this agreement on their own. They didn't consult with anyone."

He pours scorn on the Palestinian leaders in their "air-conditioned rooms" on the cosmopolitan boulevards of Ramallah and says his intifada will never end without a total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.

Here in Jenin, an isolated town surrounded by Israeli troops at the northern tip of the West Bank, Zubaideh is king and his exploits the stuff of legend.

He was 13 when he was first shot -- in the knee, while throwing stones during the first intifada. He soon graduated to Molotov cocktails, which earned him four years in an Israeli jail.

Released under the Oslo peace accords, Zubaideh was exiled to Jericho but returned to Jenin using faked identity papers. He became a building laborer inside Israel but was eventually caught and returned to Jenin. Deprived of work, he turned to stealing cars for a few years, ending up with another jail sentence, this one for 15 months. He was released just before the start of the second intifada in October 2000.

In April 2002, Zubaideh helped lead armed Palestinian opposition to the Israeli invasion of the Jenin refugee camp, the most bloody confrontation of what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield, launched in response to the killing of 30 people at a Passover Seder ceremony.

In separate battles, Israeli soldiers fatally shot in the head Zubaideh's mother, Samira, while she was looking out her window; his brother, Taha, was also killed. The family home was destroyed. Zubaideh says he survived 16 days under the rubble.

Now he is aware that his own days may be numbered. Israeli troops have been after him for months. Last week, Palestinian security forces issued an arrest warrant after his men shot and killed a Bulgarian laborer driving past the nearby West Bank village of Yabed on June 30, the day after the hudna was declared.

But it appears that Zubaideh has little to fear from the Palestinian Authority. At an interview this week, he was accompanied by Atta Bourneli, the Fatah secretary-general in the Jenin area and a man in direct contact with Arafat, who ordered Zubaideh's arrest.

A few weeks ago, a delegation of Palestinian Cabinet ministers visited the Jenin refugee camp to speak to the residents. Zubaideh told them they were not welcome and sent them packing, according to several sources. They came again, this time to the city of Jenin, and the same thing happened.

Israeli intelligence officials say they are convinced that Zubaideh's refusal to abide by the cease-fire is part of a plan that has been well coordinated with Palestinian leaders, especially Arafat.

"No one asked Zubaideh to stop fighting because they don't want him to," agreed a local Palestinian analyst who insisted on anonymity. "He is their trump card, their deniable bargaining chip in talks with the Americans and the Israelis."

Zubaideh says he doesn't need the central leadership, although he swears undying loyalty to Arafat. He says his Brigades unit receives no money or support from Ramallah or anywhere else, but Western diplomats on the ground say there is money pouring into Jenin from Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

"I tell you, we do not need any help from anyone," Zubaideh said. "We have sold the jewelry of our women to buy weapons. We pay from our private money -- not to mention (what) we have taken from the Israelis.

"Here in the camps we have about 20 weapons which we captured from them. There are also members who go inside the settlements and steal weapons. I started out as a car thief. I know how to get there."

But there is another, unexpected side to Zubaideh -- his past involvement in Israeli-Palestinian peace projects.

A decade ago, an Israeli actor set up a theater studio in Zubaideh's own home, where young Palestinians rehearsed plays based on ancient legends replete with contemporary meaning.

"My house was the first to be opened for the Israelis," he said. "Israeli peace activists used to come to us, and we had a joint Palestinian-Israeli theater. Every day, 200 Jews used to come to the camp . . . to sleep, work and act. My brother also had a certificate of journalism from Givat Haviva, a peace center in Israel.

"I'm one of those who extended their arm for peace with the Israelis, but they chopped it off," he said bitterly. " . . . In the end, they killed my mother and my brother. They also demolished my house."

Displaying the perhaps tortured logic of someone who has felt the sting of such a close personal loss, Zubaideh said that he chose his present path "when I became convinced that the Israeli people, not the government, don't want peace."

Noting that it was a Labor Party defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who ordered the Israeli operation in Jenin, he said, "The Labor Party is responsible for the killing of my mother and the massacre in the camp. I accuse the Israeli peace camp of the killings and the destruction."

Now, he says, the only way to achieve peace is to fight for the complete withdrawal of Israel from the occupied lands.

Elsewhere, Palestinians have cautiously welcomed the cease-fire, evidence of their fatigue after nearly three years of fighting and thousands of casualties.

But Zubaideh says the people of Jenin are behind him.

"We have many members in the area," he said. "The entire Palestinian people are the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades."

Don't free prisoners, families of slain Israelis say

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Tuesday, July 8, 2003

Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Jerusalem -- Israeli families whose loved ones have died in Palestinian terror attacks have appealed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to succumb to growing pressure for the release of more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

But Palestinian leaders and the prisoners' families say the step is essential to bolster a shaky, week-old truce and increase the standing of reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel said on Sunday that it will release 350 prisoners, but the Palestinians are demanding more. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, said in a statement Sunday that "we are ready to carry out the most powerful and dangerous military attacks inside Israel and in the settlements" unless a full release is carried out.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom reiterated on Monday that Israel would not turn loose prisoners who have "blood on their hands" -- a reference to those who killed Israelis or aided the killers.

Late in the day, the prisoners announced a hunger strike to protest Israel's refusal to grant a general amnesty.

Opposition leader Shimon Peres of the Labor Party said the government stood at a crossroads: "One is not to release prisoners who would endanger our security; the other is to put an end to the intifada.

"I don't think we have to give (the Palestinians) everything they want, but we do have to show them support -- and allow Abu Mazen (as Abbas is known) to show them something."

Jailed members of radical groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad reportedly were instrumental in brokering the current cease-fire. Now, Abbas is under pressure to repay them by securing their release.

But on Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet ruled out a general amnesty when it approved strict legal criteria for deciding which prisoners would be freed. It specifically barred anyone who had planned or carried out attacks on Israelis, including most of the 1,000 or so jailed members of radical groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The prisoner issue strikes deep within Israeli and Palestinian society.

Tzafi Adonian-Haas, whose husband Eli was killed by a Hamas suicide bomber in a Jerusalem market in 1997, said she opposed the release of convicted terrorists.

"I think they should stay in prison," she said as she played with her two grandchildren, who she said had brought some hope back into her life.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think about Eli. I feel as though I lost half of myself. If they had carried out these attacks in the United States, they would get the electric chair or life in prison."

As for calls by some bereaved Israeli families to release the prisoners for the sake of future peace, Adonian-Haas said, "We tried releasing prisoners during the Oslo peace process, and it got us nowhere. Now we have more than 800 Israelis dead, and I don't believe in these agreements any more.

"It's a matter of trust, and I just don't trust them."

Across town in the Palestinian village of Lifta, Mohammed Odeh and his wife had just returned from visiting their son Bilal in Ashkelon Prison, where he is serving an 18-year sentence for attempted murder.

"I feel as though I have lost him," said Mohammed, sitting in the shade of the vines in his garden. "I'm just waiting for him to come back. There is hope that sooner or later the Israelis see that this is impossible."

Bilal, 26, a university graduate in social work, was the leader of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine cell that detonated a series of car bombs packed with mortars in central Jerusalem two years ago. Several people were injured in the blasts, but no one was killed.

"He did what any other Palestinian would do under occupation, and I am proud of him," said Mohammed.

Fadel Tahboub is a former Palestinian militant who has become a peace campaigner. He was captured in the late 1960s after staging a cross-border raid into Israel from Jordan and spent the next 15 years in jail. He now helps run the People's Peace Campaign, a joint Israeli-Palestinian project based in East Jerusalem that is trying to hammer out some basic principles for mutual coexistence.

But the gray-haired veteran, who is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's parliament in exile, the Palestine National Council, said the prisoner issue could undermine any attempt to move toward peace.

"For us, these people are not terrorists but national heroes for carrying out resistance to the occupation," Tahboub said.

"The cease-fire will collapse if they do not release them," he warned. "It will weaken Abu Mazen, and he will fall."

But Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Hisham Abdel Razek, the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs, that it would be "impractical" to consider releasing Hamas prisoners when the group's leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, had vowed to resume attacks after the truce expires.

"When Rantisi goes on television and says that after the (cease-fire) in three months they will continue the war to wipe out the Jewish state, it is not exactly smart to demand of us to release fighters to annihilate the Jewish state," he said.

"Some of the most terrible violence has taken place as a direct result of the actions of many of the Palestinians now sitting in Israeli jails," said professor Gerald Steinberg, a political science lecturer and analyst at Bar- Ilan University.

"Over the past 10 years, on many occasions Palestinians were released from Israeli jails as part of a goodwill gesture, and they came back and committed more terrorist acts. While the Palestinians are demanding a large number of prisoner releases, I think it's extremely important for the Israeli government to say no and to pursue the legal process."

Mosque destroyed, Nazareth remains divided

Muslims vow they'll try to rebuild

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Sunday, July 6, 2003

Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Nazareth, Israel -- Christians here are quietly celebrating after Israeli bulldozers moved in last week to destroy the foundations of an illegal mosque being built next to the Church of the Annunciation in the boyhood town of Jesus.

But few people in Nazareth expect this will be the end of the affair, which has pitted Muslims against Christians, Arabs against Jews, and the Vatican against Israel.

Local Christian leaders were keeping a low profile, wary of a fresh outbreak of the riots that swept the city in May 1999, when the Vatican branded the planned building of the Shihab al-Din mosque "a provocation." Since then, tensions have simmered. Last May, the Brethren Church in this northern Israeli city was hit by four Molotov cocktails after rumors circulated that the congregation was evangelizing among Muslims.

"We're celebrating, but privately and behind closed doors," said a Christian spokesman on condition of anonymity.

The dispute split the city council of Nazareth, whose nearly 60,000 inhabitants are 30 percent Christian and 70 percent Muslim. Mayor Rames Jarrisi, a Christian, spent last Tuesday morning in a police helicopter over the city, supervising the demolition operation. He had campaigned for years against the mosque.

Many local Muslims -- though certainly not all -- called the decision to destroy the mosque "a provocation."

"It is being done for no reason," said Salman Abu Ahmed, a Muslim who is the city's deputy mayor. "It is the first time that a mosque has been demolished in this country. I haven't heard of any synagogue or church being demolished in this country. It goes against the consensus here."

But Atef Fahoum, son of a former mayor and trustee of the White Mosque, the oldest in Nazareth, said the demand for a new mosque on the contested site had more to do with politics than religion. "I went to that school as a child, when the British were still here, and there was never a mosque on that site," said Fahoum. "They are just doing this to make trouble. I'm very sad. We are not accustomed to such trouble in Nazareth. For hundreds of years we have lived in peace and love and harmony. We don't like troublemakers."

Natan Sharansky, an Israeli Cabinet minister who chaired the last of three separate government inquiries into the planned mosque, expressed relief that "finally justice and law are being restored to Nazareth."

"How were these mosque foundations built?" asked Sharansky. "They were built as a result of a chain of scandals, violence, blackmail and threats. There would be a sea of blood if they were not allowed to illegally build a mosque on a holy Christian site."

RUMORS OF PAPAL VISIT

The dispute began in 1997. The millennium was approaching and there were rumors that Pope John Paul II would visit the Holy Land. The Oslo peace process was in full swing, and the Israeli economy was booming.

Tourism was expanding, and the Christians of Nazareth expected millions of pilgrims to visit the spot where the Virgin Mary had been told she would have a baby. So the city fathers decided to raze an aging municipal school building next to the Church of the Annunciation to make way for a new city plaza.

The area was flattened, awaiting a final decision from the local planning committee. But there remained in one corner of the site an ancient tomb believed to belong to Shihab al-Din, nephew of the Muslim warrior Salah al-Din, who died fighting the Crusaders.

A small Muslim group moved onto the site, erected a tent and declared it "Waqf" -- inalienable Muslim holy land. They said they would build a mosque on the site and began preparing plans and finances.

The city council refused to give planning permission. The mayor said that land records showed the old school site had been owned by the local municipality since Ottoman times. A local court ruled that the land belonged not to the municipality, but to the national government. Then the politics began.

A controversial decision by the government to allow the building of a mosque on the site was greeted with dismay by Christians all the way up to the pope himself.

Some observers said it was a blatant attempt by the right-leaning government of Benjamin Netanyahu to attract Muslim votes in the 1999 election. It failed. Netanyahu lost to Ehud Barak, whose government also approved the plan.

But the Nazareth council continued to object. Christians called a "strike" and shut down the country's churches in protest just before Christmas 2001. More pressure was piled on as the pope and President Bush both referred to the dispute. Finally, in March 2002, Sharansky's committee blocked the building plan and offered the Muslims a larger site less than half a mile away.

Back in Nazareth, building work began anyway. Unhindered by Israeli authorities or municipal inspectors, pro-mosque campaigners began laying the foundations of a vast complex, completing three underground levels before they were stopped.

TO SUPREME COURT

The case went all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court, which also rejected the case for the mosque, triggering Tuesday's demolition operation.

Professor Yosef Dan of the Hebrew University said the failure of the campaigners to erect the mosque was of historic proportions, calling it "the first Christian success in the Muslim world for 60 years."

"It was only the unbridled support of three bodies -- the Vatican, the European Union and the United States -- that enabled the Israeli government to take the decision to destroy the mosque in Nazareth," said Dan. "Without this unprecedented unity in the West, Israel wouldn't dare to send bulldozers to destroy the foundations of a mosque."

But the campaigners said their struggle was far from over.

"This is a black day," conceded Nawwaf Al-Zoeby, at the Shihab al-Din mosque. "They demolished the mosque because we don't have a building license. We'll continue with the procedures to try and get a permit and build the mosque."

Israel pulls out of Bethlehem

Palestinians hopeful, but must rebuild after uprising, occupation

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Thursday, July 3, 2003

Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Bethlehem, West Bank -- Uniformed Palestinian police officers returned to the streets of Bethlehem Wednesday, marching into the brilliant sunshine in Manger Square to the surreal accompaniment of chimes from the Church of the Nativity and the amplified call to prayer of the muezzin at the Omar Mosque.

The Palestinian Authority regained full security control of this West Bank city for the first time in more than a year after negotiating the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. Troops had occupied Bethlehem in an effort to stop suicide bombers reaching nearby Jerusalem and to halt frequent shooting attacks on the adjacent Jerusalem suburb of Gilo.

Bethlehem's economy has been crippled by the 33-month Palestinian uprising, during which control of its streets passed to armed gangs and terrorist groups, triggering an Israeli invasion. Many official buildings were destroyed by Israeli missiles, while the invaders' rumbling tanks smashed electricity, water and transport facilities.

Mayor Hanna Nasser said he was pleased to see the Israelis go but that as long as Bethlehem remains hemmed in by army roadblocks -- cutting off residents from jobs in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank -- it is "a ceremonial withdrawal, not a real one."

The move followed Monday's Israeli pullback in the Gaza Strip and an upbeat meeting Tuesday between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Both leaders seemed determined on Wednesday to encourage a rising mood of cautious optimism. Israel released eight Palestinian prisoners in a symbolic move designed to show continued goodwill, and Sharon announced that the Israeli Cabinet would discuss more prisoner releases early next week. For his part, Abbas vowed to imprison anyone breaking the cease-fire and urged his people to embrace peace.

The United States announced it was giving $30 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority to rebuild damaged roads and public services. President Bush declared himself "really happy with what we've seen so far."

But he warned that extremists could still destroy the fragile steps toward peace.

"There are people there who still hate," Bush said. "They hate Israel. They hate the idea of peace. They can't stand the thought of a peaceful state existing side by side with Israel, and they . . . may be willing to . . . attack."

The threat emerged again Wednesday afternoon when thousands of Israeli drivers were brought to a halt around Tel Aviv as police, acting on an intelligence warning, sealed off all main roads to search for a suspected suicide bomber believed about to strike in central Israel.

In Jericho, Palestinian security forces jailed two would-be suicide bombers authorities said were captured on their way to carry out an attack. And in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians opened fire on the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom, injuring four people.

Bethlehem Police Commander Alla Hosni, overseeing the deployment of blue- uniformed officers armed with AK-47 assault rifles, expressed determination to make the handover stick.

"We have fulfilled all our commitments to Israel," he said. "Bethlehem is our territory, and we are now responsible for security.

"No one must shoot at the Israelis, especially now they have withdrawn as agreed with us. Anyone who violates this security arrangement is betraying the interests of the Palestinian people."

Hosni said his officers would stake out Bethlehem's perimeter to prevent anyone from trying to attack Israel and triggering another invasion of the city.

"We will not allow any armed group to operate," he vowed. "The only people allowed to carry weapons are the official Palestinian police and security personnel."

Municipality Director Jamal Salman said that the local economy is in ruins with the destruction of the Christian-centered tourist industry and that unemployment is running at 65 percent. He added that at least 2,000 of the city's 24,000 people have left since the intifada began, most of them Christians.

"The situation is very difficult for me," said Jumana Murad, a 22-year-old college graduate trained to work in tourism but who has never had the chance. "I sit at home with nothing to do.

"I am engaged and I don't see my fiance because he lives in Jerusalem and I cannot go there," she added. "He manages to reach Bethlehem just once a week because of the roadblocks. I hope God will help us."

Walid Zawarha, a CIA-trained former officer in the Palestinian secret service, said he hopes peace is coming but doubts it.

"The Israelis are still near Bethlehem and the checkpoint is still there," he said. "It's like being in a big prison. I haven't been to Jerusalem for four years although it's 10 minutes away. My wife is expecting a baby this week. The day I can take him to Jerusalem, I will know peace has finally arrived."

But Zawarha and other residents expressed mixed feelings about the renewal of Palestinian control. Zawarha said he quit his job in the security forces because they were corrupt and mistreated local Christians in the period prior to the intifada.

"The problem was that everyone had guns, machine-guns," he said. "Two or three guns in each house. Now the Israelis have taken everything, and it's clean. The Israelis left only about five wanted people in Bethlehem. It's clean, quiet."

Zawarha said he is confident that the revamped Palestinian security forces will not permit a reversion to the anarchic conditions before the intifada. But some of the city's dwindling Christian population said they fear they will once more become second-class citizens to the Muslim majority.

"We hope the Palestinian Authority will now put an end to the state of lawlessness that prevailed here," said Ramzi Sahhar, a local merchant. "We want security and order. We want one authority, not many people with guns.

"We want peace. We have suffered enough. Our economy has been destroyed, and we haven't worked for three years."

Cease-fire challenges Fatah fighters

They distrust truce with Israel

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Tuesday, July 1, 2003

Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Ramallah, West Bank -- The fashionable young men sitting in the cafe in Ramallah on Monday resembled young lawyers or business executives on their day off. As they talked and ordered another round of strong black coffee, their sports jackets fell open to reveal pistols, cellular phones and walkie-talkies hanging from their belts.

These are the street fighters of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the terrorist wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which is blamed for the deaths of many Israelis in the past 33 months, either by shootings or suicide bombs.

After 1,000 days of their bloody uprising against Israel, these young men are at a crossroads.

On Sunday, the Fatah leadership announced a six-month cease-fire, on condition that Israel fulfill a long list of difficult demands. Later, the Martyrs Brigades endorsed the truce. The Fatah decision followed Sunday's unilateral declaration of a three-month hudna, or conditional truce, by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

As the Palestinian ground troops in this war absorbed orders from their leaders, some reacted with defiance, while others expressed a mood of victory or a sense that Israel could be tripped up by this diplomatic maneuver.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi hinted that the truce was more of a tactical maneuver than a real attempt to end the violence.

"We are sure that Israel will break this hudna, and then the whole world will have to start supporting the Palestinian people," said al-Hindi.

In the village of Yamoun nestling in the nearby hills, gunmen of the Hamas terror wing Izzadine Qassam expressed disdain for the truce.

"This cease-fire will not hold because Israel is continuing its aggression against the Palestinians," said the local Hamas commander. "We should not give Israel a breathing space, and the struggle should continue. We do not see ourselves as a party to this. We are the ones who are paying the price on the ground, and we have a duty to defend our people. There can be no peace with the Jews until they withdraw from all of Palestine."

But for the rank and file of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the truce presents a real quandary.

Some of their friends have been arrested or killed by Israeli troops. If the young men support the cease-fire, they must stifle their desire for revenge.

On the other hand, the truce has the blessing of Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, and these cadres are fiercely loyal to Arafat, referring to him familiarly by his nom de guerre, Abu Ammar, or simply as "Ra'is" -- the chief. Some are full-time salaried officers in the Palestinian mukhabarat secret intelligence force commanded by Tawfiq Tirawi, one of Arafat's closest confidants. Others subsist off cash handouts from the Ra'is.

Arafat's word carries weight among these cadres.

Nasser Katami, a young Fatah politician with close ties to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said, "The hudna relies on the extent of Israel's commitment and the existence of a political vision. A hudna means calming the situation. We will honor the agreement for as long as Israel meets all the conditions."

He admitted, however, that "there are some marginal elements who don't accept it."

Hussein al-Sheikh, a close confidant of Arafat who is believed to be the operational commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said he was still engaged in "serious consultations and contacts with all the Fatah cadres, including the wanted men who are hiding in the mountains and who are scattered throughout the West Bank."

On Monday, those consultations had not yet reached Jenin in the northern West Bank, from where Al Aqsa gunmen set out to shoot at an Israeli car passing the nearby village of Ya'bad, killing a 46-year-old Bulgarian working on a road construction project.

"We are not committed to this defeatist cease-fire," said the local leader of the brigades, dressed in military fatigues, his face hidden by a tightly wrapped red kaffiyeh headdress.

"How can there be a hudna when the entire Palestinian people are under siege and when President Arafat is under house arrest and the Israeli army is continuing with its aggression?" he asked. "The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are opposed to this agreement, and I'm not talking only abut Jenin but in many other places in the West Bank. We will continue the struggle until we achieve all our rights."

Even if the militants can be persuaded to halt their attacks, it seems unlikely that they will agree to the demand made by Israel and Washington that they give up their weapons.

A poll published Monday by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found only 9 percent of Palestinians believe the paramilitaries should hand over their weapons, and only 25 percent support the ending of the armed intifada uprising.

Rashid Abu Shabak, a Palestinian security commander in Gaza, said the Palestinian Authority had "no intention" of disarming the armed groups.

"Those who think that the 'road map' (peace) plan means disarming Palestinian factions are mistaken," he said.

That mood was echoed in Tulkarem where the local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs said he would abide by the cease-fire but would never give up his gun.

Israelis employ all weapons in fight against terror attacks

Targeted killings considered key part of defense policy

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Saturday, June 28, 2003

Ram-On, Israel -- Across a picturesque valley in northern Israel, a field of sunflowers sways in the afternoon breeze under a scorching sun. Suddenly, two figures leap across a ditch and head for a hillside. One is carrying a semiautomatic rifle.
The wail of sirens shatters the bucolic calm near the farming village of Ram-On, and two jeeps and an all-terrain vehicle race toward the suspicious men. A dog leaps out of a vehicle, pinning one of them to the ground. His companion is soon captured by three soldiers in camouflage.
It was all part of a recent training exercise for the Israeli border police along the "seam line," the invisible boundary that separates the West Bank and Israel. Despite its peaceful appearance, Ram-On, which lies southeast of the Israeli port city of Haifa and near the West Bank town of Jenin, has become a terrorist commuter route for Palestinian suicide bombers entering Israel.
"This is the reality we are dealing with every day and every night," Lt. Col. Fero Ziyad, deputy commander of the Israeli border police, said of the training exercise. This week alone, Fero said, his soldiers stopped four potential suicide bombers. His unit has also failed, he added.
On Thursday, they captured a 15-year-old Palestinian youth but only after he gunned down an Israeli telephone engineer in a nearby village. Last month, a young woman traveled six miles from Jenin to the Israeli town of Afula loaded with explosives and blew herself up at the entrance to a shopping mall, killing three people.
Aided by sophisticated camouflage and the latest technology, Fero's unit waits undetected in underground bunkers for up to 72 hours, using high- resolution Loris night vision cameras to relay pinpoint information on suspicious movements up to a mile away.
At the same time, Israel is also constructing a "separation fence" around the West Bank of concrete walls, ditches, patrol roads and electronic sensors. The 186-mile barrier, which the Palestinians bitterly oppose and say is evidence of Israel's rejection of the road map peace plan, is expected to be completed within the next 12 months.
But Israeli security chiefs say their most potent deterrent is also the most controversial -- the targeted killings of militant leaders.
Two weeks ago, Israeli helicopter missiles attacked Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi while his jeep traveled through Gaza City. Rantisi survived, but a bodyguard and two bystanders were killed, including a young women. On Wednesday, two more people died when Israeli missiles hit a car in the Gaza Strip that the Israelis said was packed with mortar shells to be fired at Israeli settlements. Palestinians said the victims were innocent bystanders.
Michael Tarazi, a Palestinian Authority legal adviser, says the Israeli attacks prevented a cease-fire pact from being reached earlier this week.
"We were very close to having an agreement. Unfortunately, there are ongoing Israeli measures that make it difficult for us to finalize that agreement," said Tarazi, referring to Wednesday's missile attack.
Israeli human rights groups have also denounced the targeted killings.
"The assassinations perpetrated by Israel in recent months are a violation of the right to life as guaranteed by Israeli law and international law and constitute extra-judicial executions," said Yael Stein of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
But Israeli leaders are convinced their hard-line policy is halting terrorist attacks and persuading militant leaders to accept a cease-fire, which is now expected to be formally announced on Sunday.
"The Palestinians are beginning to understand that their own interests oblige them to end terror, violence and incitement," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Thursday. "Their eyes were opened by the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and their commanders who made it absolutely clear how much the long arm of the Israeli army knows how to reach the terrorist leaders in any place at any time."
According to a senior Israeli army officer who asked not to be named, the killings have "massively reduced" the number of terror attacks from its peak in March 2002, when more than 130 Israelis were killed.
"If we hadn't hit those terrorist leaders, we would be in a much worse situation today," he said. "In June alone, we have had two attacks, but at least 17 more have been stopped."
The same source also rejected accusations that the policy exposes innocent Palestinians to unnecessary risk.
"We have invested massive sums in developing the technology and ability to launch pinpoint strikes at known terrorists with the minimum possible loss of innocent lives," he said. "We have spent huge amounts of time and money calling back helicopters armed and ready to strike, just because we discovered a target had his wife or children or an unknown civilian with him."
A top official of Israel's Shin Bet secret service added that the mass arrests and targeted killings had not only decreased the number of terrorist attacks but created a leadership vacuum.
"It takes time for them to learn the skills of bomb-making," he said. "Every time we take an expert terrorist out of the game, for the next two or three weeks we see new guys blowing themselves up. It's become a known by-product of their learning process."

Arafat alleged to raise Libyan money

Sources say he uses funds to finance Al Aqsa Brigades

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Monday, June 23, 2003

Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Ramallah, West Bank -- Sources close to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat say he has raised $2. 5 million from Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy to finance continued terror attacks against Israel, undermining efforts by reformist Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to achieve a cease-fire as the first step on the U.S.-backed road map toward peace.

The sources say the Libyan money has been paid into bank accounts controlled by Arafat in Beirut and Cairo to underwrite the terror activities of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the paramilitary wing of Arafat's Fatah movement.

Members of the Brigades confirmed to this reporter last week that they were receiving funds from Arafat's office despite efforts by the new Palestinian government headed by Abbas to end attacks against Israel.

Israeli and Palestinian officials say privately that the Arafat-Khadafy link is part of a series of secret diplomatic moves by Arafat designed to undermine Abbas, who is engaged in intensive talks with Palestinian extremists on the terms of a cease-fire.

The Al Aqsa Brigades continue to embarrass Abbas, even though both he and they belong to the Fatah movement. Last Tuesday night, Al Aqsa claimed responsibility for killing a 7-year-old Israeli girl and wounding her 2-year- old sister in a shooting attack on their family's car as it drove along one of Israel's major motorways near the border with the West Bank.

Al Aqsa is also suspected of involvement in a shooting attack near Ramallah on Friday that occurred during a Jerusalem press conference held by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Tzvi Goldstein, 47, a settler originally from New York, was killed, and his 73-year-old parents were badly injured.

Late Sunday, four members of the Brigades were killed in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, apparently when a bomb they were planting detonated prematurely. Loudspeaker trucks drove through the area later, saying that the four had died while "fulfilling their national duty," a phrase used in the past to announce accidental deaths.

MINISTER IN TUNIS

Arafat remains isolated in the wreckage of his headquarters compound in Ramallah. The secret diplomatic contacts are being conducted on his behalf by Farouk Kaddoumi, the foreign minister for the Palestine Liberation Organization, who is based in Tunis and is not part of the Palestinian Authority's government.

Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, is strongly opposed to Kaddoumi's activities and has threatened to resign in protest, according to Palestinian officials.

Kaddoumi flew to Damascus this month on another top-secret mission on behalf of Arafat to meet with Khaled Mashal, Hamas' political and military leader, whose headquarters are in the Syrian capital. Kaddoumi carried a message from Arafat denouncing Abbas' peace diplomacy and distancing himself from Abbas' recent conciliatory speech toward Israel at the Aqaba summit.

According to Palestinian officials within Arafat's close circle and reports in the Arabic press, Arafat has spoken to Mashal several times by telephone since the Aqaba summit. Hamas sources say that Arafat is trying to set up a joint strategy between the pair to undermine Abbas.

Kaddoumi has a history of carrying out sensitive, deniable missions for Arafat. He was revealed as the go-between in secret contacts last year between Iraq and Libya aimed at providing a safe haven for Saddam Hussein. Those talks,

which were abandoned after being revealed by British intelligence, were conducted by Kaddoumi with Hussein's chief of staff, Abid Hamid Mahmud al- Tikriti, who was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq last week.

British intelligence officials said the PLO had been paid more than $1 million by Hussein for Kaddoumi's failed efforts.

POWELL MISSION

On his diplomatic mission to the area on Friday, Powell branded Hamas an "enemy of peace," and refused to condemn Israel's policy of assassinating alleged terrorists classed as "ticking bombs" -- those preparing attacks.

Less than 24 hours later, Israeli forces in Hebron gunned down Abdullah Kawasmeh, believed to be the West Bank commander of Hamas' terrorist wing. Israeli security officials said Kawasmeh was the mastermind behind the June 11 Jerusalem suicide bombing in which 17 people were killed.

Speaking to a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan on Sunday, Powell said the killing of Kawasmeh was "cause for concern that could impede progress of the road map." But he said the blame for such incidents fell squarely on the terrorist groups.

"We can talk about what the Israelis ought to be doing, what the Palestinian Authority ought to be doing," Powell said. "But it begins with putting the blame first and foremost on organizations such as Hamas, . . . Islamic Jihad and others which continue to conduct terrorist attacks requiring response from the Israeli side and keeping the day further away when the Palestinian people can find peace and security."

SHARON TO IGNORE ROAD MAP

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, told his Cabinet that Israel can continue construction activities in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, despite a freeze required by the road map unveiled by President Bush.

"Just build, but just don't publicize it," Sharon said, according to a Cabinet official who briefed reporters after the meeting. Israel TV's Channel 1 said he had told the ministers that settlement building "isn't part of the road map, it's my personal commitment."

Under the peace plan, Israel would have to observe the building ban in the coming months, after the Palestinians begin dismantling militias and Israel removes dozens of settlement outposts. Sharon has declared many times that he will not compromise over what he regards as Israel's security, indicating that he will not carry out all the road map's requirements regarding settlements.

Palestinian militants plan new offer to end attacks

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY
29 July, 2002

JERUSALEM — Palestinian militant groups said Monday that they plan to renew their offer to end attacks against Israeli civilians despite last week's Israeli airstrike that killed an extremist leader and more than a dozen Palestinian civilians in Gaza City.

The proposed moratorium on attacks against civilians in Israel and the occupied territories was scheduled to be announced last week. But the announcement was put on hold after an Israeli F-16 warplane bombed the Gaza residence of Salah Shehadeh, leader of the military wing of the Hamas resistance movement. Also killed in the attack: a senior aide to Shehadeh and 15 civilians.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that he did not believe the efforts to achieve a moratorium on attacks against Israelis were serious. His comments came as Israeli officials floated their own confidence-building proposals. They say they want to alleviate the hardships caused by security measures, which have prompted international criticism.

Israel also granted 5,000 more work permits to Palestinians, bringing to 12,000 the number of Palestinians authorized to work in Israel. About 100,000 Palestinians have been prevented from working in Israel for more than a year, fueling anger. Palestinians confined to their homes in Nablus in the West Bank on Monday defied an Israeli curfew for a second day.

Israeli officials also said they would turn over $15 million to the Palestinian finance minister Monday, the first of three installments of tax revenue withheld by Israel during 22 months of fighting.

Hatem Abdel Kader, a leader of the Fatah Tanzim militia in Jerusalem, said he and other Palestinian officials had been prepared to call a unilateral halt to armed attacks on Israeli civilians, including Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Abdel Kader said he visited Iran three months ago to try to persuade Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join the moratorium by groups aligned with Fatah. "There were signs that they would agree," Abdel Kader said. Last week, Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, said the group had been seriously considering a cease-fire.

The call for a cease-fire was due to be published last week first in The Times of London and later in Israeli and Arab newspapers. It was canceled after the Israeli airstrike.

Abdel Kader said Hamas, angry over Shehadeh's assassination, now opposes a cease-fire. "Despite that, we are continuing with our dialogue and we will continue to put pressure on our brothers in Hamas and Islamic Jihad," he said.

Mark Perry, a Washington political activist with connections to the Palestinian leadership, said militia leaders have moral and political reasons for a cease-fire.

"On the moral side, they were beginning to understand that they were raising a generation of children whose lives would be lost in hatred. On the political side, they saw the continuing political disintegration of their society," Perry said. "Both of these taken together were intolerable."

Israelis fear retaliation for strike

USA TODAY
July 24, 2002

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

JERUSALEM — People bustled down the streets of Jerusalem in the summer sunshine Wednesday. But those familiar with the city at this time of year said that compared with a few years ago, the place looked like a ghost town.

"Everyone is scared, just waiting for the next attack," jeweler Moshe Beigel said. "After the attack in Gaza, I might as well lock up and go home. No one will be coming into town."

Israelis prepared for the worst on Wednesday as Palestinian militants vowed no Israeli was safe after an attack in Gaza City early Tuesday that killed 13 civilians, a top militant and his bodyguard. Nine of the dead were children.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv told Americans in Israel that it is taking seriously threats from the radical Hamas group to avenge the Israeli airstrike. A missile killed Salah Shehadeh, commander of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli officials said that Shehadeh was responsible for terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of people.

Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, said Wednesday that there would be "100 new Salah Shehadehs" and "new operations which will bring about the death of hundreds" of Israelis. Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the terrorist cell founded by Shehadeh, called its followers to turn Israel into a "sea of blood."

Even before Palestinian militants threatened to avenge those killed in the airstrike, 22 months of Israeli-Palestinian conflict had destroyed Jerusalem's restaurant and tourist industry. Half the city's hotels have closed their doors. Most of those that are still open are operating half-empty.

The Jerusalem municipality is running television and radio advertisements urging Israelis to visit Jerusalem and its famous holy shrines. Though people are steering clear of public places, it's still nearly impossible to find a parking space here; many locals use cars instead of buses for fear they will be targeted in a bomb attack.

Beneath Beigel's shop on Hillel Street, seats at the usually packed Aroma Cafe tables were empty. "We still come, but we don't sit around like we used to," said Yehudit Wilson, a bank clerk. "They have a security guard here now, but he won't be able to stop a suicide bomber. Most of the time, we just stay home." Her friend Sara Ben-David said Hamas' new threats are "very scary. They sound as though they mean it, and with all those dead children being shown again and again on TV, I think most Palestinians also want revenge."

Even away from the center of town, people in Jerusalem are jumpy. The northern neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol is near the French Hill junction where a suicide attack on June 19 — the last in the city — claimed the lives of six Israelis. "We are very afraid," said Sami Azulay, a cafe waitress. "We heard that the terrorists want to take revenge. We are keeping our eyes open."

Shoshi Hatouka, who sells jeans and other clothes at a nearby boutique, said things were going from bad to worse. "In a month, I'll have to close down," she said. "Every time we think there's going to be peace, the situation only gets worse. It's hopeless. We are afraid to walk in the street. We are afraid to go shopping. We have become prisoners."

Pressured Arafat announces government reforms

10 June 2002

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority announced Sunday that it had revamped its Cabinet, an apparent response to international pressure on Yasser Arafat to institute reforms that could help stop violence in the region. The United States, the European Union and Israel have demanded that Arafat restructure the Palestinian Authority, which has been accused of corruption and failing to stop attacks that have killed 280 Israelis this year.

After meeting Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Camp David, Md., President Bush said, "If the Palestinian people have a government that is transparent and open and willing to serve the people, Israel will be better off, Egypt will be better off, America will be better off, and we're more likely to achieve peace."

Mubarak said he hoped to persuade Bush to support the declaration of a Palestinian state early next year, even if its borders have not been decided.

Bush responded, "We're not ready to lay down a specific calendar."

Sunday's announcement of reforms in the Palestinian Cabinet came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in Washington. He meets with Bush today. In an opinion piece Sunday in The New York Times, he repeated that Israel was prepared to resume negotiations if Palestinian attacks stop. He also said it could be years before the Israelis and the Palestinians reach a final peace deal.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Cabinet will be cut from 31 to 21. He also said presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in January and municipal elections this fall.

Other changes announced Sunday:

- Arafat appointed Salem Fayad minister of finance. Fayad, 50, has worked in Jerusalem for the International Monetary Fund and was regional director of the Arab Bank. He will try to persuade donors that the Palestinian Authority isn't using aid money to finance terrorism.
- The new interior minister is Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, 73, a former guerrilla commander. He has been asked to control rival security chiefs and turn their forces and militias into a streamlined anti-terror police as CIA Director George Tenet demanded last week. Yehiyeh will report to Arafat, who remains commander in chief of security forces.

Some Palestinian officials rejected the announced reforms.

"This is not a change, this is simply a Cabinet reshuffle," said Ziyad Abu Amer, a Palestinian legislator and leader of Arafat's Fatah group in Gaza. "We were looking forward to the formation of a Cabinet whose members are mostly new faces."

Hamas spokesman Abdel Azziz Rantissi also criticized the reform plan. "The Palestinian Authority leadership is corrupt and therefore has to be changed," he said.

Also Sunday:

- Palestinian police arrested Islamic Jihad leader Sheik Abdullah Shami, whose group took responsibility for a suicide attack last week in which 17 Israelis died. Shami, arrested in Gaza City, has been arrested and released by the Authority several times.
- Funerals were held for three Israelis killed Saturday in a Palestinian attack on a West Bank settlement. Seven Palestinians were killed over the weekend while carrying out or attempting to carry out attacks.

Israeli Cabinet votes to retaliate

8 May 2002

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

JERUSALEM — The Israeli Cabinet on Thursday approved military action against "terrorist targets" in response to a suicide bombing that cut short Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the United States. The decision to strike back came amid reports of a deal to allow most of the Palestinians holed up in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for the past five weeks to leave. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, meanwhile, ordered his security services Wednesday to prevent future attacks against Israeli citizens, hours after the militant Muslim group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing in a Tel Aviv suburb that killed 15 Israelis.

"I gave my orders and directions to all the Palestinian security forces to confront and prevent all terror attacks," Arafat said in Arabic on Palestinian TV.

Sharon, who was meeting with President Bush on Tuesday in Washington at the time of the bombing, returned to Israel immediately to deal with the crisis.

The Israeli Cabinet considered a large-scale invasion of Gaza and Arafat's possible expulsion in retaliation for the bombing, according to Israel Radio.

A government statement after the meeting said Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had been authorized to decide on what action to take.

Palestinian officials said they expected Israeli forces to target Gaza. Hamas is based in Gaza, a swath of land on the Mediterranean spared during the Israeli offensive launched March 29 in the West Bank against militants.

Arafat insisted in his speech that his security forces needed help. The United States has repeatedly demanded that the Palestinian leader show a commitment to the peace process by condemning terrorism in Arabic to his people.

There were few signs that the violence might be abated, though. In a new attack Wednesday, another Palestinian detonated explosives at a bus stop in northern Israel. The assailant was critically wounded but caused no injuries to others.

And Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, told the Associated Press that his group would continue attacks against Israel. "Israel's action will not go unpunished. They have harmed civilians, and so their civilians will be harmed," Yassin said.

According to negotiators in Bethlehem, the tentative agreement on the standoff affects all but 13 of the more than 100 Palestinians inside. Most would be freed; 26 militants would be sent to Gaza. But the fate of the 13 suspected Muslim militants was still undecided. Negotiators had agreed to exile them to Italy, but the Italian government balked.

Contributing: Laurence McQuillan in Washington, wire reports.

Talks continue on ending Ramallah standoff

By Matthew Kalman

USA TODAY
30 April 2002

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Bush administration was still working early Tuesday to finalize a deal to free Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from a month-long Israeli military siege at his headquarters. Meanwhile, the standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem dragged into a fifth week. Also, Israel rejected a bid from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to allow fact-finders to investigate the siege of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Israeli officials want military veterans on the United Nations panel so they will understand what Jewish troops experienced.

Arafat, penned up at his offices by Israeli tanks and troops, could go free as early as Tuesday. Israeli officials on Monday said he could leave his bullet-riddled compound and travel in Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza territory immediately.

"Arafat can go where he chooses," Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said. But Arafat said he would stay at his compound until Israeli forces left Ramallah. Those forces were not expected to pull out until six men wanted by Israel were transferred from Arafat's complex to a Palestinian prison in the West Bank city of Jericho.

The six men are to be kept under observation by U.S. and British monitors, under the Bush administration plan designed to get Israel to release its stranglehold on Arafat and withdraw troops from Ramallah.

Four of the six Palestinians are wanted for carrying out the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. A fifth heads an extremist group believed to have plotted the murder. Another is an Arafat aide accused of smuggling arms from Iran.

Jericho is the only West Bank city to escape major destruction in Israel's month-long offensive.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said U.S. monitors in Jericho will be security officials but not military personnel. U.S. and British officials say they are still choosing wardens to oversee the prisoners. Britain will provide the bulk of the personnel, who will be drawn from a pool with policing experience in war zones such as the Balkans and Northern Ireland.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the wardens would be unarmed. "Prime responsibility is on the Palestinian Authority to ensure the physical security of the facility and the personal security of our wardens," he said.

In Ramallah, some residents were preparing to celebrate once Arafat emerged from his compound, most of which has been razed by Israeli tanks and bulldozers.

"If Arafat is free and the Israelis withdraw, that means we have won a great victory and there will be a party, a big party," shopkeeper Taher Odwan said.

In related matters:

The Bush administration tried Monday to mediate an end to the standoff between Israeli troops outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and an estimated 200 Palestinians inside, many armed.

U.S. officials were hoping gunmen in the church would reconsider an earlier offer by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who said they could go into exile or face trial in Israeli courts.

A Palestinian official said 18 civilians in the church would be allowed to leave soon. On Monday, an Israeli sniper killed an armed militant in the church garden.

Israel made fresh incursions in the West Bank city of Hebron and in the Gaza territory in search of the Palestinians who attacked a Jewish settlement. The army said it killed four militants, including one of the men involved in the settlement attack Saturday in which a 5-year-old girl and three other Israelis were shot to death by Palestinian assailants dressed as Israeli soldiers. Palestinians said the Israeli army killed at least eight people in Hebron and that some were civilians.

In Gaza, Israeli troops blew up tunnels believed to be used by Palestinian militants smuggling arms.

Israel voiced new objections to a U.N. fact-finding mission that is to report on its military assault on the Jenin refugee camp.

The camp was the scene of the bloodiest fighting during Israel's incursion in the West Bank. Israel vehemently denies Palestinian claims that scores of camp residents were massacred by its forces. Both the U.N. envoy in the Middle East and Secretary of State Colin Powell have said they know of no evidence of a massacre.

The U.N. and Israel argued over the mission since April 19. Israel wants military officials on the team who are familiar with urban warfare, and it insists the mission be limited to finding the facts only.

Contributing: Barbara Slavin in Washington and wire reports

Killings of 'collaborators' rise

April 1, 2002

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

BETHLEHEM — Palestinians turned their guns on each other Monday when 11 men suspected of collaborating with Israel were executed. The executions came as Israel intensified its crackdown on West Bank cities it called "nests of Palestinian terror." Late Sunday and Monday, Israeli troops moved into Qalqilya, Tulkarem, Bethlehem and the villages of Al Khader and Beit Jala. The killings of alleged collaborators, as Palestinians call them, have — like the suicide attacks on Israeli civilians — reached a new peak. Israel's incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas have unleashed an extraordinary wave of Palestinian anger at other Palestinians suspected of helping the enemy.

"Every time Israel attacks us, the crazy militants look for scapegoats and they are usually fellow Palestinians," said Osama Barakat, 41, a Palestinian shop owner in Bethlehem. "It doesn't make a difference if these people are guilty or not. This killing is out of control."

The corpses of eight Palestinian men were discovered early Monday in Tulkarem, a West Bank city. Witnesses said two masked gunmen entered a Palestinian intelligence building where the men were being held and summarily shot them. Their bodies were then dragged outside into the street.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the terrorist wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, said its gunmen had murdered them.

The bullet-riddled bodies of two men were found in a side street in Qalqilya. The discovery was made as Israeli troops seized control of the town with about 60 tanks and several hundred infantry soldiers.

Local residents said the two men had been held in a Palestinian jail for a year on suspicion of collaborating with Israeli authorities.

A man was fatally shot in Bethlehem after he was accused of sending intelligence to Israel by e-mail. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said it also carried out that killing. The group also had claimed responsibility for the deaths of two suspected collaborators in March in Bethlehem.

The past month has seen a dramatic increase in the number of suspected Palestinian collaborators killed. In March, 10 were killed. In comparison, 24 suspected collaborators died from the beginning of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 to March.

Analysts suggest the number of murders rose because Palestinians feared that the suspected collaborators might have been rescued when Israeli troops moved in.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat described the killings as "very, very unfortunate," but he did not condemn them.

He said the Israeli actions were undermining the ability of the Palestinian Authority to maintain law and order in the territories.

"It shows that (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is destroying our ability, destroying the Palestinian Authority," Erekat said. "I don't want to justify such things. These things are not justifiable, honestly. That's the result of what Sharon is doing. Where is our authority today amid all these tanks and all these attacks?"

To most Palestinians, a collaborator is considered a betrayer to the cause of Palestinian independence and statehood.

"There is absolutely no greater crime against the Palestinian people," said Sana Madani, 21, a student in Nablus. "The people are worse than dogs. They deserve to die."

The crime is considered so great that some accused collaborators are tried or killed without evidence. Many Palestinian lawyers refuse to defend an alleged collaborator for fear of reprisals.

"People are convicted and killed without any of the standards of international law," said Bassem Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in Jerusalem. "They are sometimes caught, tried, convicted and killed in the same day."

While collaborators are considered pariahs in Palestinian society, Israeli security officials see them as a necessity.

Government officials credit collaborators — "Israeli agents" — with helping them locate and assassinate dozens of suspected Muslim militants since the Palestinian uprising started. They also say collaborators give them information on the location and strengths of Palestinian militias.

"Israel would not be as successful in hunting down terrorists if we did not have the participation of (collaborators)," said an Israeli security official who goes by the name Abu Issa. "These men have become our eyes and ears in the territories."

In exchange for their information, Israel pays collaborators up to $120 a week. That's more than double the amount most Palestinians earn in a month. They also are offered loans, employment, housing, building licenses and government identification cards. All of these are nearly impossible for many Palestinians to obtain because of Israel's control over the area.

On Monday, Israeli troops remained in Ramallah, where Arafat was surrounded in his headquarters.

The chief of Arafat's Fatah faction in Lebanon threatened to launch attacks against U.S. interests if the Palestinian leader is harmed by Israel.

"If one hair on the head of Arafat is harmed," Sultan Abul-Aynayn told the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut, "the U.S. had better protect its interests around the world. I mean what I am saying."

Contributing: Jack Kelley in Washington

Terrorist says orders come from Arafat

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

March 14, 2002

TULKARM, West Bank — A leader of the largest Palestinian terrorist group spearheading suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel says he is following the orders of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "Our group is an integral part of Fatah," says Maslama Thabet, 33, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Fatah, headed by Arafat, is the largest group in the Palestinian Authority, the government of the autonomous Palestinian territories. Thabet spoke from the Tulkarm refugee camp, where he was holed up with about 300 of his heavily armed followers as hundreds of Israeli soldiers swept through the town. Over the past two weeks, Israel has launched massive incursions into Palestinian towns and refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza in search of terrorists.

"The truth is, we are Fatah itself, but we don't operate under the name of Fatah," he said in a recent interview. "We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself."

Spokesmen for Arafat give differing responses when asked about his ties to Thabet and the brigade. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Arafat's chief spokesman, says he has never heard of Thabet. "The president has nothing to do with these things, he has nothing to say about this issue," Rudeineh says.

But Mohammed Odwan, Arafat's foreign media spokesman, confirms that the brigade is "loyal to President Arafat."

"They are working for the interests of the Palestinian people," Odwan says. "They are fighting because they think these kind of operations — and I agree — will push forward their independence and their dream of freedom."

Israeli security officials concede Arafat is not involved in directing the on-the-ground operations of militant groups, but they say his regular calls for holy war against Israel's occupation have been taken up as a directive by the extremists.

In a televised address Saturday, as Palestinian terrorists launched suicide attacks in Netanya and Jerusalem, Arafat urged Palestinians to "sacrifice themselves as martyrs in jihad (holy war) for Palestine."

"When Arafat stands in front of a crowd and calls for millions of martyrs to march on Jerusalem and holy war against Israel, he is giving a clear directive to his followers," says Reserve Col. Eran Lerman, former head of research for Israeli Military Intelligence and now the Jerusalem director of the American Jewish Committees. "Marwan Barghouti (secretary-general of Fatah in the West Bank) and the local leaders below him take that directive and transform it into actions. ... Arafat does not personally approve individual operations, but he provides the money for Barghouti's terrorism."

Barghouti, who often is on the guest list at dinners with Arafat in the Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah, confirmed last week that one of his lieutenants who was killed in an Israeli assassination was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

The link between the brigade and Arafat signals a turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It means the Palestinian leadership has openly allied itself with a terrorist group. Palestinian officials openly say dealing in death, not diplomacy, is the only viable way to achieve their end: an independent Palestinian state.

As the Palestinians have ramped up their attacks on Israeli targets, Israel has escalated its response. The result has been some of the worst violence the region has seen in decades. More than 200 people have died — 163 Palestinians and 59 Israelis — since the beginning of March. More than 1,500 people have been killed in the past 17 months, more than 1,000 of them Palestinians. Israel's incursions into Palestinian territory reached a new level this week: 20,000 troops were deployed, and they searched house-to-house for terrorists and weapons. It has been the biggest Israeli military operation since its invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

The emergence of a radical young branch of Arafat's Fatah faction comes as no surprise to Mahmoud Muhareb, a Palestinian professor of political science at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. "They are under siege, under blockade and almost at the edge of starvation," he says. "When you dehumanize the life of human beings, they end up feeling their life is not worthy. Five years ago, you might find one suicide bomber in an entire city. Today, it is different. There are many, because they feel there is no meaning to their lives."

Palestinian Authority officials say most members of the brigade receive salaries from Arafat's Palestinian Authority. For example, the leader of the brigade in Nablus, Nasser Awes, is a salaried officer in the Palestinian National Security Force, one of 14 armed police and security services that report to Arafat. In the past two weeks, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has claimed responsibility for attacks including:

A suicide bombing March 2 in Jerusalem that killed 10 Israelis and injured 44.

A sniper ambush on a West Bank checkpoint on March 3 that killed 10 Israelis and wounded four.

The shooting attack on a seaside hotel late Saturday in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, that killed two Israelis and injured dozens.

An ambush in northern Israel on Tuesday in which gunmen wearing Israeli army uniforms killed six Israelis before soldiers shot two of the attackers dead.

Israeli police say they thwarted a string of other planned attacks by the group in recent weeks.

The brigade, unknown until a year ago, has become the largest armed Palestinian group operating in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel. Unlike two other major Palestinian militant groups, the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the brigade is secular. The group grew out of the Fatah youth movement known as the Tanzim. Under the 1993 Oslo peace accords that stated only Palestinian security services may bear arms, Tanzim is an illegal militia of about 10,000 armed young men headed by Barghouti.

As the terrorist wing of Arafat's Fatah faction, the brigade has the support of the largest political and military faction in the Palestinian Authority. Hussein A-Sheikh, a Fatah political leader in the West Bank, seems insulted when asked whether the brigade is under Arafat's control. "Of course, there is control," he snaps. "What do you think? That we are just a bunch of gangs?"

The Israeli army says Fatah, fueled by the brigade's lethal activities, has surpassed Hamas in Israeli fatalities. Hamas killed 100 Israelis in 2001 and Fatah killed 45, the army says, but since the start of 2002, Fatah has killed 57 Israelis while Hamas has killed 27. The brigade also introduced a lethal twist to its attacks: female suicide bombers. Wafa Idris killed an elderly man and wounded 50 people in a suicide attack Jan. 27 in Jerusalem. A woman blew herself up at a West Bank army checkpoint on Feb. 27, injuring two soldiers.

Thabet, who commands the brigade in Tulkarm, attained notoriety a year ago when, with his friend Raed Karmi, he kidnapped and executed two Israeli restaurateurs who had stopped in Tulkarm for lunch. Karmi, founder of the brigade in Tulkarm, died in an explosion in January in a suspected Israeli assassination. Palestinian security forces arrested Thabet last year. He was released, as were dozens of other suspected terrorists.

"Our struggle is against the Israeli occupation," Thabet said. "We are prepared to fight to the last fighter against (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and his war machine. ... Israel must pay a heavy price for the atrocities and massacres which they are perpetrating on a daily basis against the Palestinian people."

Israeli air strike

Hamas: Israel to pay 'heavy price'
By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

03/04/2002 - Updated 10:26 PM ET

JERUSALEM — The Hamas terrorist group vowed revenge Monday for the deaths of the wife and three children of one of its leaders. They were among at least 17 Palestinians killed in Israeli military strikes in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Israeli attacks were ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is stepping up pressure on the Palestinians after weekend attacks killed 22 Israelis. The 22nd victim died Monday in an Israeli hospital.

The strikes on Palestinian targets continued into the night Monday. Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The missiles hit a building a few dozen yards from Arafat's office, witnesses said. Palestinian security officials said Israeli F-16s dropped bombs on Arafat's Bethlehem headquarters. Four Palestinians were wounded in Bethlehem.

Earlier, the wife and three children of Hussein Abu Kweik, a Hamas leader in Ramallah, were killed when an Israeli tank shelled their pickup. Bushra Abu Kweik, 38, had just picked up her children — Aziza, 14, Barra, 13, and Mohammed, 10 — from school in Ramallah. Arafat Ibrahim al-Masri, 16, and Haima al-Masri, 7, who were in a nearby car, also died. Israeli military officials apologized later and said the civilians were killed by mistake.

Abu Kweik said his wife, two daughters and son were martyrs to the Palestinian cause. "Despite the catastrophe, I say to Sharon and to his filthy gang that our determination will not be weakened, and we will keep steadfast in our land," he said.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin vowed revenge for the incident. "It is a Zionist crime. Israel shoulders the responsibility and will pay a heavy price," Yassin said.

Palestinian officials said the Israelis were trying to assassinate Abu Kweik. Hamas has claimed responsibility for a number of recent suicide bombings against Israelis.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer expressed "regret over the loss of civilian Palestinian lives as a result of Israeli tank fire." He said Israeli forces were aiming at a vehicle carrying armed men.

In the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, six Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded, eight of them seriously, by Israeli fire, hospital officials said.

A Palestinian physician also was killed when Israeli troops at a roadblock opened fire on the ambulance in which he was riding. Saliman Halil, the director of the Red Crescent in Jenin, was traveling to the refugee camp to treat gunshot victims. The Israeli army said the soldiers fired when the ambulance tried to run them over.

Mustafa Barghouti, head of Palestinian medical relief, called the killing "another in a long catalogue of Israeli war crimes." Israel says Palestinian ambulances have been used to carry weapons and suicide bombers and must be searched at roadblocks.

Israeli troops also exchanged fire with men in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Two armed Palestinians and a civilian were killed, doctors said. And, near the West Bank town of Nablus, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man who ran toward an army checkpoint.

In Washington, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told CNN he had invited Sharon and Arafat to hold talks at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik. Mubarak, on an official visit to the USA, said he hoped a summit could "change the atmosphere" and lead to a reduction in violence.

Contributing: Barbara Slavin in Washington

Arafat Lives by Routine in Small Domain

USA TODAY
February 25, 2002

By Matthew Kalman

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- For the first time in as long as anyone can recall, Yasser Arafat has a fixed routine.

The famously secret movements of the man who rarely slept two nights in the same place for fear of assassination have become public knowledge now that he is limiting himself to a square half-mile -- the size of his headquarters -- in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Since Dec. 3, when Israeli missiles destroyed his helicopters, Arafat has been confined to Ramallah and has remained in the El-Mukata'ah presidential compound. For those 2 1/2 months, Israeli tanks have been stationed a few yards from his office. The 72-year-old Palestinian leader has become the most famous prisoner in the Middle East.

Israel says Arafat can leave any time he wants; all he has to do is arrest the men responsible for the death of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, who was gunned down at a Jerusalem hotel in October. Arafat says he is unable -- the Israelis say he is unwilling -- to catch the assassins. So he remains in Ramallah.

No longer able to roam the world (Arafat claims to have visited every country except Australia), unable to partake in international meetings and red-carpet receptions, Arafat presides mostly over a series of rooms. The change in Arafat's lifestyle is striking. His movements, once confidential and always unexpected, now are predictable and even choreographed.

He begins the day about 11 a.m. in the large new meeting hall of El Mukata'ah. He grants a public audience every morning to hundreds of Palestinian well-wishers at gatherings orchestrated by the newly created Committee of Popular Protection for the Palestinian National Project, which Arafat chairs.

''There are daily popular marches to the president's office and to the governate in support of the president and also to emphasize the steadfastness of the Palestinian people,'' says Nahla Qoura, a leader of Arafat's Fatah movement who helps organize the rallies. Many in the audience are employees of the Palestinian Authority.

'Arafat will defeat you'

Each morning, the crowd gathers in nearby Manara Square and marches to the compound carrying banners and posters of Arafat. The people chant and sing as they are shepherded into the conference hall.

The cheerleader, a short, bespectacled man in his 50s, is hoisted up by the crowd and produces a sheet of paper from his pocket. He is Abu Ali Muqbel, a Palestinian poet. A year ago, he was imprisoned and his head was shaved as punishment for chanting anti-Arafat couplets. Now he appears every day at the appointed time to lead the invited crowds in praising the Palestinian leader.

''With our blood, with our souls, we will redeem Abu Amar!'' he reads, invoking Arafat's nom de guerre. Turning his words on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he says, ''Oh, Sharon, oh Sharon, you coward, Arafat will defeat you!''

The crowd roars its approval as Arafat, standing on a table protected with tissue paper, flashes a V-sign for victory. Smiling, he asks the crowd for calm and launches into his daily monologue.

''You see the tanks across the street?'' he asks in Arabic. ''This is the same tank Sharon sent to me in Beirut.'' As defense minister in 1982, Sharon ordered the invasion of Lebanon that resulted in the expulsion of Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization from their headquarters in Beirut.

''He didn't frighten me then, and he doesn't scare me now,'' Arafat says. ''I don't care even if the tank comes to my bedroom. Palestinian stones can defeat these tanks and those who are behind them.''

The crowd goes wild. Within minutes, some will be outside, throwing stones at the Israeli tanks in what has become a daily ritual. Some youths form a circle in front of Arafat and begin chanting: ''Oh suiciders, oh suiciders, give us more blood in Jaffa Street! Give us more attacks!'' The reference is to one of Jerusalem's major thoroughfares; Jaffa Street has been the site of three suicide attacks in the past six months.

Arafat, who condemns suicide attacks in daily press interviews, looks on with a huge smile on his face. ''We will march toward Jerusalem, millions will be martyred,'' he says, pounding the lectern. The crowd roars its approval.

This morning, he deviates slightly from the script and does not begin chanting ''Jihad, jihad, jihad,'' the call for holy war, which is broadcast regularly on Palestinian television.

Then Arafat, surrounded by bodyguards, heads for his office on the second floor. He receives visitors in private -- diplomats, Palestinian officials and others -- until 3 p.m., when he takes his midafternoon nap. He will not be awakened unless it is urgent. After 6 p.m., Arafat is back at his desk, plowing through a pile of notes on small pieces of paper written by aides, supplicants from various ministries and organizations, and private individuals.

He signs each chit and hands it to an assistant. An aide says half-jokingly that Arafat has two pens, signing in red to indicate someone will get money, signing in blue if the request is to be ignored.

Hummus and politics

By early evening, the office of Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh is flooded with interview requests from reporters from all over the world. Dozens wait at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah, hoping to be selected. The chosen few are taken to the presidential compound. Arafat's evening performance begins after 9 p.m. and is strictly by invitation.

As dozens of gray-haired, moustachioed, chain-smoking officials go in and out of Arafat's office, visitors are escorted to a large, empty room nearby. On one wall hangs a huge picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem -- a symbol of the current uprising, which was two days old when Israeli police shot dead seven Palestinian demonstrators in the mosque compound in September 2000.

A table large enough to seat 20 dominates the room. Cheeses, cucumbers, pickles and hummus fill dishes set out. The meal begins with zucchini soup. When everyone is seated, Arafat enters. There is no fixed seating arrangement. Waiters dressed in white shirts and black waistcoats hover. The guests are an eclectic mix of senior Palestinian officials, journalists and special visitors. This evening, there are three different media crews and a couple of people hoping for a private meeting. There are no bodyguards.

Around the table on different nights are such familiar faces as PLO deputy leader Abu Mazen, West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and Mohammed Shtayeh, director of the Palestinian Economic Development Corp. Arafat says Mazen is a possible successor; Barghouti is wanted by Israel for allegedly planning several murders and terror attacks.

Arafat enters, sits and without a word grabs a piece of lettuce and begins eating. There is small talk. He is asked whether he remembers his early career as an engineer in Kuwait. A smile spreads across his face, and he reminisces.

In front of Arafat is a dish filled with what looks like molasses. It is a special dish made with honey, he explains to one of his visitors. ''This is very healthy, it makes you strong,'' he says as he dips some bread into the mixture and hands a small piece to each of the guests around him. It is a ritual he repeats every evening.

Suddenly, Arafat switches the conversation to politics and what he calls Israel's destruction of the Palestinian economy.

''Do you know that the Israelis have uprooted 50% of the olive trees in the West Bank and Gaza? These trees were the only source of income for tens of thousands of families.'' His assertion goes unchallenged, even though it's believed to be an exaggeration. The correspondents don't want to jeopardize their interviews.

Shifting to Arabic from English, Arafat continues, ''Add to this that they are holding more than $1 billion in tax revenue which they collect for us'' -- a reference to taxes on Palestinian goods and services that Israel stopped transferring to the Palestinian Authority to protest the violence.

Persistent rumors

As he talks, he sinks back in his chair, but his tunic, supported by the rigid bulletproof vest he wears underneath, remains where it is. It is as if his chest has suddenly inflated. Beneath the flak jacket, he appears painfully thin. His hands shake uncontrollably and he stammers even in Arabic. There are rumors, consistently denied, that Arafat suffers from Parkinson's disease and is still affected by injuries suffered in a plane crash in 1992.

Arafat's apparent ill health and advancing age have fueled private speculation about who will succeed him, but no Palestinian dared raise the subject in public until two weeks ago, when Arafat set out the constitutional procedure. It appears he is not yet ready to relinquish power. The Palestinian leader was involved in a confrontation last week with his main security chief, Col. Jibril Rajoub, during which Arafat reportedly drew his gun and accused Rajoub of seeking the top position.

After an hour, Abu Rudeineh announces it is time for the more formal individual interviews. Arafat is escorted from the room and into his office. A doctor who has been on hand follows with a medical bag. No one will discuss what medication the president is taking. As the interviewer is admitted, Abu Rudeineh commands: ''No questions about his private life. No questions about his wife, his daughter, where he sleeps or where he showers. Be serious, talk politics.''

Arafat spends up to an hour with each reporter, repeating prepared mini-speeches he has been reciting for weeks. He vows that Palestinians will ultimately have their own independent state.

Any journalist who departs from the script is thrown out. When the BBC's Lyse Doucet dares to question whether Arafat has really imprisoned Islamic terrorists, he angrily declares the interview over and has her escorted from the building.

The last journalists leave at 1 a.m. Arafat returns to his office and continues his paperwork until about 3 a.m., when he goes to sleep, according to his aides.

Efraim Inbar, chairman of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, says he believes Arafat will remain in power until he dies but will never establish a Palestinian state.

''Arafat is such a towering figure in the Palestinian national movement that he will never be replaced, nor allow anyone else to develop,'' Inbar says. ''He succeeded in bringing the Palestinian issue to the attention of the world, and he brought the PLO to Palestine itself. But he failed to establish a state even when he had the opportunity to do so.''

At 11 the next morning, Arafat will awake to another noisy demonstration of supporters. Yet another group of reporters will make their way to the Grand Park Hotel, ready to be charmed and dined by the king of Ramallah.

Arafat under pressure

Congressional delegation cancels Arafat meeting

01/10/2002 - Updated 04:28 PM ET

By Matthew Kalman, USA TODAY

JERUSALEM — A congressional delegation to Israel and the Palestinian Authority cancelled a planned meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat scheduled for Thursday after examining "evidence beyond a reasonable doubt" of direct involvement by the Palestinian Authority in weapons smuggling and terrorism.

The move to cancel the meeting came hours before a senior U.S. official said there is substantial evidence that the Palestinian Authority was involved in an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of weapons to Gaza and that Arafat knew about the shipment. The remark came after Israeli intelligence officials briefed State Department officials on the smuggling operation. The boat carrying the weapons was intercepted and seized by Israeli commandos last Thursday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell phoned Arafat on Wednesday and stressed "the urgent need for a full explanation" of the smuggling attempt, which he called "deeply troubling," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The U.S. representatives visiting Israel, who also were briefed by Israeli intelligence, said they had seen evidence of Arafat's personal involvement in the shipload of illegal weapons from Iran being smuggled into the Palestinian Authority.

A U.S. official in Israel said the State Department would reevaluate its relationship with the Palestinian Authority in light of the revelations about the arms shipment.

Representative Peter Deutsch (D-FL) told reporters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem Wednesday that the Palestinian leader had gone back on the fundamental pledge of peace he made to Israel in the Oslo Accords, which provided the basis for U.S. engagement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, previously considered a terrorist organization.

"It is clear that the weapons were meant to be sent to the Palestinian Authority for their continuation of terrorism and violence," said Deutsch. "This incident presents a clear indication of Chairman Arafat's failure to act against terrorism."

Congressman Gary Ackerman (D — NY), a ranking member of the House Sub-Committee on the Middle East and South Asia, said the delegation had unanimously agreed to cancel their meeting with Arafat after receiving "a full intelligence briefing" from Israeli officials about the weapons haul, which included rockets, missiles, mines and 1.5 tons of sophisticated explosives.

The delegation said, "a meeting with the Palestinian leadership would send the wrong message about both Congress's views on terrorism and on the leadership of Chairman Arafat, in particular."

Ackerman said the representatives had seen "irrefutable facts that seemed to indicate beyond any reasonable doubt that the Palestinian Authority and Arafat personally were involved with the ship and the purchase of the weapons and the plan to transfer them to the Palestinian Authority."

The representatives' decision to boycott Arafat led to the collapse of their entire program in the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Abu Ala and PLO Jerusalem leader Sari Nusseibeh both cancelled their planned meetings with the US delegation. The other members of the group are Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Barney Frank (D-MA).

"We do think the peace process is salvageable," said Ackerman. "We have just finished meeting with Prime Minister Sharon and we believe the prime minister is committed to the peace process."

But Ackerman warned, echoing Israel's recent declaration that Arafat was no longer relevant, "Unless Arafat gets back to the peace process he will have rendered himself insignificant and squandered all the good will that a peace prize winner would have had." He was referring to Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize, which he won jointly with assassinated Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin for their efforts to establish a peace process.

"Arafat's signature on the Oslo Accords seems to have been written with invisible ink," Ackerman said.

Contributing: Barbara Slavin in Washington