OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/ BERLIN, 12 August — Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Dalia-Rabin Pelossof said Tel Aviv does not rule out reoccupying Palestinian territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The daughter of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told German magazine Der Spiegel: “If we reach a point where we lose control of those areas, then we will have to reconsider our next step.” She, however, said such an action was not immediately being considered.
“I don’t think that taking back the land would be useful. But everything depends on how the security issue develops.”
She also defended the Israeli Army’s retaliation against Palestinians, saying that the action sent a message to Arafat.
Israel’s Public Security Minister Uzi Landau was quoted yesterday as saying it was not clear how much longer a policy based on what he called restraint could last.
Asked what policies without restraint might look like, Landau, a prominent hard-liner in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party, told the German newspaper Die Welt: “The Palestinian Authority has depots, vehicles, office buildings. There are enough installations which we can start on in order to take revenge on them.”
Landau added: “The more Arafat urges activists to conduct attacks, the nearer draws the time that we will tolerate him no longer.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appealed yesterday for world pressure on Israel to hand back the Orient House it occupied early Friday as Israeli police violently repelled demonstrators hoping to enter the building.
Arafat wrote to the leaders of the United States, Russia and China, among others, asking for help in returning the Palestine Liberation Organization’s unofficial base seized by Israel.
His appeal came as other Palestinian leaders warned the occupation would escalate the conflict throughout the region, calling on Israel to “understand the danger of this crime before it is too late.”
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries yesterday condemned Israel’s occupation of Orient House and warned against the consequences in the region.
“The provocative acts of the Israeli occupation forces, the latest being the contemptible occupation of Orient House... represent an escalation that the region cannot tolerate,” an official Saudi source told the Saudi Press Agency.
“The government and people of Saudi Arabia condemn the latest Israeli act and hold the Jewish state responsible for the consequences,” the source said. The Kingdom called on the United Nations and all honest people in the world to take a strong stand in the face of the arrogance of Israel, which has ridiculed all international agreements and treaties.
The West Bank leader of Arafat’s Fatah movement, Marwan Barghuti, declared a general strike for today in the Palestinian territories to denounce the seizure, and urged Muslims and Arabs throughout the world to join the protest.
“We ask the United States and the European leadership to interfere immediately to protect the peace process and to stop the Israeli aggression,” Arafat’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
In his letters, Arafat asked world leaders to “intervene rapidly to put an end to the occupation of Orient House and other Palestinian institutions that have been closed,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said yesterday.
Erekat revealed that Arafat had refused to sign Oslo agreement in 1993 with Israel unless the latter guarantees not to close down Orient House or other Palestinian societies and institutes.
Erakat’s announcement that the letters had been sent came shortly before Israeli police violently repelled about 100 protesters trying to approach the building, which was protected by police barricades.
“Orient House will remain a (Palestinian) fortress and witness to Israeli terrorism,” read a banner carried by the demonstrators.
Israeli police clashed with Palestinian demonstrators. More than 10 people were injured including a policeman who was struck on the head by a stone. Palestinian sources said 11 people were arrested in the scuffle — six Americans, three Palestinians, and one each from France and Denmark.
Arafat also wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the presidency of the European Union, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the Organization of African Unity and the organization of Non-Aligned Nations.
Following the earlier demonstration at Orient House, Palestinian Parliament member and Arab League spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, accompanied by an entourage of some 10 people, was also forcefully pushed back by Israeli police after trying to approach the building.
Ashrawi earlier told a press conference that Israel’s actions in taking over Orient House could expand the conflict throughout the region.
In the unrest that followed in the Palestinian territories, two Palestinians died yesterday in the Gaza Strip after being shot by Israeli soldiers in a clash near the Karni checkpoint.
