No way out in Ramallah

The Israeli Government is isolating Yasser Arafat

		By BBC News Online's Tarik Kafala

The West Bank city of Ramallah was a sombre sight on the last day of Ramadan.

Ramallah should be excitedly preparing for Eid al-Fitr

On this day, the city should be teaming with Palestinians shopping for feast cakes and new clothes to celebrate the start of Eid al-Fitr.

Residents say that the city is quiet because it has been cut off from its West Bank hinterland and Israeli roadblocks that are allowing nobody through.

Several people told me they have been trapped in the city for more than 10 days and are struggling to get back to their home villages for the feast.

Some businesses have shut because they cannot get supplies in from the surrounding villages.

Arafat under siege

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is holed up in the city. He is pretty much under siege, with Israeli tanks stationed only 200 metres from his offices.

Tanks are stationed only 200m from Arafat's office

His West Bank headquarters, the interior ministry and main police station in the city have been hit, as Israel responds to attacks on settlers in the occupied territories with air strikes against the Palestinian Authority.

In other parts of West Bank and Gaza, Israel has launched air strikes and raids to arrest Islamic militants.

In Ramallah Israeli tanks drive into the city, approach Mr Arafat's headquarters, take up positions and then head back out.

It is not clear what the purpose of such operations is. It may be simply to humiliate the Palestinian leader.

Communications hit

On Thursday night, Radio Palestine's transmitter station in Ramallah was also hit by Israeli jets.

The building and the transmitter mast turned to rubble.

The reason given by the Israelis for hitting the station was that it broadcast incitements to violence.

Possibly the only Palestinian pleased by the Israeli action is Aref Hijjawi, a lecturer in media studies at Birzeit University in the West Bank.

He lives across the road from the former transmitter station. The microwaves generated by the mast used to block out the BBC World Service completely and were a health concern for him and his family.

Now the signal from London is loud and clear.

'Symbols of government'

This said, Mr Hijjawi believes that the Israeli strikes against Radio Palestine were pointless, and the reason given for the attacks disingenuous.

The main police station has been reduced to rubble

"I wish Radio Palestine a new healthier transmitter very soon. The reason it was attacked is that it is a symbol of government, and the Israelis want to destroy these symbols.

"I don't believe that they wanted to end the Palestinian propaganda. The Israelis have their own, much more sophisticated, propaganda," Mr Hijjawi said.

The transmitter station and mast that were brought down were originally installed in 1937 by the British Mandate authorities that governed Palestine until 1948.

They were used by the Jordanians when they ruled the West Bank between 1948 and 1967, and reconditioned for use in the mid-1990s by the Palestinian Authority.

Staying on air

As it was, on the night the station was attacked, Palestine Radio broadcasts were not interrupted.

The station simply took over the FM wavelength occupied by a successful commercial station in Ramallah, Ajyal Radio.

Ajyal station manager Walid Nassar says that plans are under way to buy a replacement transmitter for Radio Palestine.

According to Mr Nassar, the most likely sellers of the right kind of equipment are Israeli.

First inquiries suggest that several private Israeli radio stations may have just the thing - second-hand radio transmitters that were once used by the Israeli military in southern Lebanon.