960405

Arafat cornered by Israel-Hamas war

JERUSALEM: Caught in a war between Hamas and Israel, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been cornered by a crackdown on Islamic militants threatening his peace deal with the Jewish state.

Arafat, welcomed as a hero earlier this year when he visited the West Bank town of Ramallah for the first time since it came under Palestinian self-rule, received a hostile reception on Wednesday.

About 1,000 students chanting slogans against Arafat's police chief, questioned the Palestinian leader over the storming of the West Bank's al-Najah University last week and demanded action against officers who ordered the raid.

Later, Arafat was forced to defend his security apparatus' behaviour in front of legislators critical of what they saw as human rights violations.

The Palestinian leader is torn between Israeli pressure to curb suicide bombings which threaten the future of Prime Minister Shimon Peres less than two months before Israel's general elections and his concern for the anger that the crackdown is generating among Palestinians.

Peres's popularity, which plunged after the attacks, has climbed back up in opinion polls. He is now just ahead right-wing challenger Benjamin Netanyahu.

More than 50 of the 88 Palestinian Council members sharply criticised the Palestinian security forces use of violence against al-Najah University students and accused them of human rights violations.

"I have met for two hours a 54-member delegation of students who have handed me a list of demands to be submitted to your council," Arafat told legislators on Wednesday. "The atmosphere was very tense but I have diffused and abosrbed their anger."

Hamas ignited the crisis in February when it sent suicide bombers to carry out bombings deep inside the Jewish state, killing 58 people in four attacks in nine days. Hamas said its attacks were in retaliation for the assassination of its master bombmaker in Gaza in January.

"The struggle between Israel and Hamas has put Arafat in the middle," said Khalil Shqaqi, director of the Nablus-based Centre for Palestine Research and Studies.

An Israeli closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip has prevented more than 60,000 Palestinians from earning their living in Israel, causing more frustrations among his people.

"Arafat has been shackled by Israel's demands to take responsibility for Hamas's actions," said Ghassan al-Khatib, a former Palestinian negotiator with Israel.

"Why should we pay Peres's election bill?" he said.

Palestinian security forces have carried out massive sweeps against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, raiding universities, mosques and charitable associations.

Palestinian analysts say that Arafat was risking igniting civil strife by striking at social, political and religious institutions belonging to Hamas.

"If the (Palestinian) Authority goes far in striking at the non-military infrastructure -- political, social and economic -- I believe that internal strife will become imminent," Shqaqi told Reuters.

"I think he is still popular. But if he did not distance himself from the security forces practices and if he did not take measures to prove he was not involved in these practices, his popularity would be affected," said Shqaqi.-Reuter