Palestinian leaders said yesterday they would hold no talks with Israel on ending Intifada violence until the Israeli government relinquished control of Orient House, the PLO's Jerusalem headquarters which Israeli troops occupied last weekend. Their comments came as Israel moved tanks and infantry into the Jenin area, in the north of the West Bank, in what might presage military action. Two Palestinian suicide bombers, who carried out attacks in Jerusalem on Thursday and Kiryat Motzkin in northern Israel on Sunday, came from Jenin.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, said yesterday he intended to meet any Palestinian leaders who might advance ceasefire hopes, including the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, "if necessary". In response, Mr Saeb Erekat and Mr Abu Ala, two senior Palestinian peace negotiators, said there would be no such meetings unless Israel relinquished control of Orient House and the other Palestinian Authority offices in Jerusalem it took over last week.
Mr Marwan Barghouti, the leader of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction in the West Bank, went further, declaring that there could be no negotiations, and that violent "resistance" would continue, until Israel acknowledged Palestinian rights in the disputed city.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza held a one-day trade strike yesterday in protest at the Orient House seizure, there were protests in several West Bank cities, scuffles outside the building itself for the fourth consecutive day when police tried to prevent demonstrators from waving Palestinian flags and banners, and strikes too in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria - all a reflection, said Mr Erekat, of the fact that Israel had crossed a "red-line" that "cannot be tolerated."
Although Israel's Public Security Minister, Mr Uzi Landau, has insisted the takeover is "permanent," his Jerusalem police chief said the opposite yesterday, and noted the closure order was for six months.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, was, perhaps deliberately, rather vague. "We will not permit the Palestinian Authority to undermine our sovereignty in Jerusalem without lifting a hand," he said, without elaborating.
Privately, several of his ministers have charged that the move was ordered without much thought about the long-term implications.
That the Peres ceasefire effort has apparently been stillborn does not augur well for parallel diplomatic moves in the region being led by the US State Department official, Mr David Satterfield, and the EU's local envoy, Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos. Mr Abu Ala said that he had told Mr Satterfield it was "impossible to talk about anything before the Israelis retreat and change all the last measures and policies they have taken."
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said yesterday he doubted anything productive could come out of talks with Mr Arafat. Israel charges that the Palestinian Authority has, in recent days, released several Hamas activists who helped organise the June 1st suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
In a rare interview on Israel's army radio, an unnamed Hamas leader said his organization had never enjoyed more support, and was receiving growing numbers of volunteer would-be suicide bombers. "The days when we felt chased and vulnerable to arrest are over," he said.
Michael Jansen reports:
A dozen foreign and Palestinian peace activists were arrested yesterday protesting against Israel's closure of Orient House.
A US citizen from Detroit, Ms Heidi Arraf, spokeswoman for the International Solidarity Movement, was detained for a second time and released with a warning that she would be imprisoned and deported if she committed any further offenses. On this occasion she was held for carrying the Palestinian flag.