We need world effort against terrorism: Arafat
We need world effort against terrorism: Arafat
Agencies, Doha/Gaza
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on Wednesday for international action to rid the world of terrorism but also used a speech to Muslim ministers to criticize Israel.
Arafat told an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Qatar that Israel was taking advantage of last month's attacks in the United States to launch new offensives against Palestinians.
"The terrible terror actions that struck the United States on Sept. 11...have confronted the world order and international relations with new and unprecedented challenges requiring the world community and the United Nations to pause, reject them and do all that is necessary to stop them," he said.
He added that the world community needed to take "joint action to rid humanity once and for all of all forms of dark terrorism, occupation...and hated racial discrimination".
Arafat also said that Israel "is exploiting the American tragedy and the world's preoccupation with it to escalate its aggression against our land and to re-occupy large parts of our liberated land".
Meanwhile, a rare lull in more than a year of violence descended on Wednesday on Israel and the Palestinian territories, where the United States praised a Palestinian crackdown on Islamic hardliners but still voiced concern over the deaths of two people in violent protests.
In riot-torn Gaza City, schools reopened two days after students demonstrations against the U.S. bombing of suspected terror targets in Afghanistan turned into bloody street battles that left two young people dead and scores injured.
Two small, peaceful protests were staged outside secondary schools to register student anger at the heavy-handed crackdown by Palestinian police.
Police did not intervene in Wednesday's protests, each attended by about 200 people. They also opened the crossings with Israel, which had been closed to all foreigners since Monday's unrest.
Police came in for heavy criticism for their handling of the student protest, with rights groups blaming them for the two deaths.
Security officers blamed the killings on masked gunmen in the crowd who shot and wounded at least one officer.
The Palestinian Authority ordered an inquiry into the violence which erupted as police tried to prevent students, organized by Hamas militant group, from expressing their opposition to the U.S. air strikes.
The United States, which has been pushing both sides toward a truce to allow it to focus international attention on combating bin Laden, said it was "encouraged" by Palestinian moves to rein in Islamic militants in the West Bank and Gaza.
At the same time, Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to renew U.S. calls for Israel to cease "provocative" incursions into the Palestinian territories, said M Spate Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
"We're encouraged by the recent security steps that have been taken by the Palestinian Authority to honor its commitments to achieve a cease-fire and we believe those measures should continue," Boucher said.
But, he stressed that Palestinian police should avoid using unnecessary force in enforcing the law after Monday's rioting in Gaza.
Deep divisions emerged Wednesday between Israeli ministers on the left and right of the coalition government over what approach to take toward Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the wake of U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and rioting in Gaza.