Arafat Honors `Children Of The Stones' -- In Cradle Of Uprising, Plo Chief Assails Foreign Donors
JABALIYA, Gaza Strip - Yasser Arafat visited the cradle of the Palestinian uprising yesterday to salute the "children of the stones" who fought Israeli occupation, and he warned that the new Palestinian Authority is stumbling in attempts to collect critical international financial aid.
In a defiant speech from the heavily guarded balcony of Al-Faluja Secondary School, Arafat denounced the World Bank and the international donors who last year had pledged more than $2 billion over five years to help launch the newly autonomous areas of Gaza and Jericho.
Arafat, who returned to Gaza Friday as the leader of the Palestinian national movement after 27 years as a guerrilla leader in exile, shook his finger angrily and vowed he would not accept the conditions for foreign aid that countries have sought to impose, such as protections against corruption and diversion of the money.
"I refused, and I will never accept!" Arafat said. "I completely refuse any controls by anybody on Palestinian autonomy, except by the Palestinians themselves. We didn't finish military occupation to get economic occupation!"
Arafat's angry words reflected a failure that others say he has caused himself by refusing to meet the demands that foreign aid be properly controlled.
Hours after the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman spoke, tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis burned pictures of him and denounced government peacemakers in one of the largest
street demonstrations in years in Jerusalem.
Police, who were deployed in the thousands, estimated the crowd at 100,000.
Several hundred grew violent during a march toward the old walled city. Amid shouts of "Slaughter the Arabs!" they threw a smoke bomb at police, set fires on a main road, torched an Arab-owned car, and banged on metal doors of Arab shops and cars with sticks. At least one demonstrator was detained.
Several dozen also tried to get onto the Temple Mount, site of two ancient Jewish temples and the Al-Aqsa mosque, but were forced back, police said.
The standoff continued well over two hours, even after police reinforcements were rushed in. Organizers accused police of beating two protesters.
The protesters' anger was also turned toward Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for concessions to the Palestinians.
"What Arafat really wants isn't an Arab state next to Israel, but an Arab state instead of Israel," said Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party.
He spoke from a second-floor balcony draped with a banner reading, "Death to the master murderer." Usually leaders of the mainstream opposition party distance themselves from such belligerent slogans.
The crowd booed and hissed at each mention of Arafat's name. A little girl waved a Likud flag and shouted, "Death to Arafat!"
Many were angered by Arafat's comments that Palestinians would not rest until Jerusalem was capital of a Palestinian state.
Jerusalem is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as both sides claim the mixed Jewish-Arab city as a capital.
The nighttime rally followed a smaller protest at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.
Arafat, facing a crowd that has often been more sympathetic to the Islamic movement than to his secular nationalism, appealed to all Palestinian factions to join the national authority, which he intends to swear in tomorrow in Jericho.
He appeared yesterday to be trying to put the best face on what other Palestinians said is a bleak financial situation.
Another meeting of the donors is coming up soon in Paris, but Nabil Shaath, the chief PLO negotiator, told reporters that efforts to unlock the money have been unsuccessful.
"The mountain of pledges turned into a molehill," Shaath said. The Palestinians are especially in need of cash to subsidize operations of the still-unformed government until later in the summer or early fall.
"Last time in Paris, we were promised $42 million, but suddenly the World Bank sends an employee telling us we decided only to give you $10 million because we have a budget problem. The World Bank is asking me to make my people pay taxes the same as the Jews were taking from me," Shaath told reporters earlier, referring to the Israeli taxes that many Palestinians resisted.