Arafat visit politician angers Israelis

Mr Arafat's compound has been surrounded by Israelis

A Scottish politician has infuriated the Israelis by trying to visit besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Lloyd Quinan was part of a group which was refused access to the compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The Scottish National Party MSP said Israeli soldiers fired shots in the air and threw "a barrage" of stun grenades to get them to leave.

Mr Quinan, who visited the area under the auspices of the Red Crescent and the International Solidarity Movement, described the experience as "very frightening".

When we got to the centre of the compound, shots were fired over our heads without warning and then four stun grenades were thrown at us

Lloyd Quinan

But Israeli Government spokesman Daniel Seaman said it was public knowledge that no-one was allowed to visit Mr Arafat.

He said: "He should respect the laws and instructions of a foreign country, especially when he is a visitor, and he apparently didn't do that.

"He showed absolute disregard for the state of Israel and its sovereignty," he said.

"The fact that he wasn't shot at and killed, which would have been done in any other country in the world, he's sort of exaggerating in his description."

Mr Seaman said Mr Quinan had not arranged the meeting in advance with the Israeli authorities and stressed: "We're not playing games.

Lloyd Quinan: "Very frightening"

"He's not coming to a carnival, he's coming to a war zone, and a war zone where it is declared that Arafat is off-limits to everybody."

He added that Israel said everyone had rushed to support Mr Arafat when Israel had stood up and defended itself.

"Well we apologise, but right now we don't care what other people think."

Mr Quinan, a vice-convener of the Scottish Parliament's cross-party group on Palestine, was taking part in efforts to provide aid to people within the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

He said that when the group got to Ramallah and did not see any soldiers at the gate of the compound they thought that meant the Israelis had agreed to let them visit Mr Arafat.

"When we got to the centre of the compound, shots were fired over our heads without warning and then four stun grenades were thrown at us," he told BBC Radio Scotland.

'Frightening experience'

"Then the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers appeared, manhandled myself and a number of other people from the compound while throwing stun grenades from us."

Mr Quinan also claimed that the IDF tore up a St Andrew's Cross he had taken with him to identify himself.

"It was frankly a very frightening experience, but the behaviour of the IDF I have to say was despicable," he said.

The MSP said he had sustained cuts and bruises during the incident but a German camerawoman had suffered shrapnel injuries to her foot.

Mr Quinan had also planned to visit Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem.

However, he said that those plans were now in doubt following the incident.