RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, 19 August 2004 — Palestinian President Yasser Arafat admitted yesterday unacceptable mistakes had been made by Palestinian Authority as he warned that the woes of his people could not simply all be pinned on Israel.

After Arafat made this daring declaration, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confronted Likud party rebels with a pledge to put the good of Israel first later in the night as he battled to avoid an embarrassing defeat over his Gaza pullout plan.

He addressed a raucous Likud convention before voting began on a motion sponsored by party rightists to bar Sharon from bringing the center-left Labour Party into government to prop up his plan for “disengaging” from conflict with Palestinians.

Earlier, in a much anticipated keynote speech to members of the Palestinian Parliament, Arafat accused Israel of trying to sabotage his government and of wrecking the peace process with its continued settlement activity and its building of the West Bank separation barrier.

But in a rare acknowledgement of the failures of his government, Arafat said: “We shouldn’t blame only the occupation. Some unacceptable mistakes have been made by our institutions and some have abused their positions and violated the trust that has been placed in them,” adding that he himself had also been guilty of errors. “No one has been immune, starting from me downward.”

Mass demonstrations were held both within the Gaza Strip and the West Bank last month in protest at the corruption in the Palestinian Authority, representing arguably the biggest challenge to his authority since his return from exile a decade earlier.

The protests also came amid a general collapse in security, which included an unprecedented spate of kidnappings and arson attacks on government buildings.

Arafat admitted in what was his first address to MPs since Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei took over last November that “no real efforts have been made to enforce law and order.”

“More efforts and support should be made for the security of the people and this is the responsibility of the security organizations,” he added.

Qorei was with him during the address, and Arafat pledged to do everything in his power to help the premier tackle the security situation. “I support my brother Abu Alaa (Qorei) and I give him my full support to implement this.”

As well as pledging to tackle the security chaos, Arafat also promised to set up “a comprehensive workshop on reforms” to address the demands to tackle corruption. “All basic rights of citizens have to be protected and we will not allow any violations of the law,” he said. “We will not allow aggressions against property.”

While owning up to his mistakes, Arafat also accused the Israeli government of trying to wreck the Palestinian government. “Israel has not stopped for a minute its campaign to end our Palestinian National Authority but this will all be in vain,” Arafat said.

Arafat said that anyone who failed to accept that his government would not collapse “can drink the waters of the Dead Sea.”

He also savaged the government of his arch enemy, Sharon, over its continued settlement activity “in our land.” Describing the separation barrier as “an apartheid wall”, Arafat said that it was “destroying the potential of creating a Palestinian state.”

Meanwhile, hundreds more Palestinian prisoners were joining an open-ended hunger strike in Israeli jails yesterday as the Palestinian leader announced he would also fast for the day in a show of solidarity.

A total of 2,264 of the 3,800 prisoners who are being held in prison service-run detention centers were now refusing their meals, according to prison service spokesman Ian Domnitz.

The latest prisons to join the protest included the Shikma top-security jail near the southern city of Ashkelon, where 296 inmates refused their first meal of the day, and Shaka near the city of Beit Shean, where 196 joined the protest, Domnitz told AFP.

The Palestinian Authority has declared yesterday a day of solidarity with the prisoners. Arafat paid tribute to the prisoners in the Parliament as he also announced that he and fellow leaders would fast for the day. “The Palestinian leadership has agreed to joining in the fasting today,” he said.

— Additional input from Agencies