Barak hits at Holy War calls

Yasser Arafat: "Despite the losses...our people are determined"

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has attacked Muslim leaders over calls for a Jihad or Holy War in support of the Palestinians against Israel.

Ehud Barak: Defiant

Iraq and Sudan have called on members of the Islamic Conference Organisation (OIC), meeting in Qatar, to back a Jihad.

But Mr Barak said confrontation was not the right way to solve the disputes between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

Mr Barak, who has been meeting US President Bill Clinton in the US, said: "Israel strives for peace but a peace that will be reached around the negotiating table rather than through imposing of the will of one side on the other or through international activities."

All of the 56 Islamic nations at the OIC summit have agreed that the blame for the mounting death toll in the Palestinian territories lies with Israel.

But while the OIC is united in words, it is sharply divided over how to support the Palestinians in practice.

Our people are determined, more than at any other time, to continue their holy struggle

Yasser Arafat

The call for a Jihad is not being taken seriously by delegates other than Iraq and Sudan.

Saudi Arabia, considered to have a moderate pro-Western policy, has called on Muslim countries to downgrade their ties with Israel or freeze them altogether.

That puts the pressure on Egypt and Jordan who both have peace treaties with Israel as well as full diplomatic relations.

Egypt's President Mubarak has pointedly stayed away from the summit. Instead, he sent his prime minister to Qatar to suggest increasing an agreed fund to support the Palestinians to $2bn.

Still volatile

But hardliners say that unless the summit results in punitive measures against Israel and its American backers then its message of protest will be both weak and wasted.

Meanwhile, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza remains volatile in the extreme.

Over the weekend, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli troops at the Erez checkpoint between Gaza and Israel and several parts of the West Bank were shelled by the Israelis after troops reported gunfire from Palestinian positions.

In the town of Hebron, a convoy of vehicles carrying the UN human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, also came under fire but no-one was hurt.

More than 200 people, most of them Palestinian, have been killed in Arab-Israeli violence since September.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told the OIC: "Despite the heavy human losses which exceed more than 200 martyrs and over 9,000 injured... our people are determined, more than at any other time, to continue their holy struggle."