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Palestinians Strike Protesting Orient House Seizure, Girl Buried
JERUSALEM, Aug 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinians closed down shops and businesses in a general strike Monday to protest Israel's seizure of Orient House, their highly symbolic headquarters in Arab east Jerusalem, as mourners in Hebron buried a seven-year-old girl and her grandmother.
The shutdown came as Palestinian officials blasted what they said was Washington's lack of will to quell the conflict ahead of a meeting between U.S. envoy David Satterfield and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres prepared for possible direct talks with the Palestinians after getting a limited go-ahead from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to try to put a halt to 10 months of bloodshed.
Shops in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem were shuttered as the Palestinians launched the largest strike so far of the Intifada, or uprising, to protest the internationally-criticized closure of Orient House.
Police again clashed Monday with some 200 protestors outside the building, snatching Palestinian flags waved by demonstrators and ripping up banners saying "No peace without justice for the Palestinians."
Sharon ordered his security forces Friday to close the building, seen by Palestinians as the seat of government for a future state, after a bombing in Jerusalem that killed 16 people, including the bomber.
Ismail Abu Shaneb, a leader of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which claimed the Jerusalem bombing, said his men will continue their campaign against Israel.
Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon also observed a general strike.
Despite Palestinian protests and threats there was little sign Sharon would withdraw police forces after another bombing rocked the northern town of Haifa on Sunday, injuring 15 people and killing the bomber.
Meanwhile, the international community has condemned the occupation of Orient House, with Washington calling it a "serious political escalation" and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urging Israel to quit the building.
But Israeli Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said Sunday that Orient House would remain under Israeli control "for good".
The government added there would be no more Palestinian diplomatic or administrative activities in Jerusalem, which both sides see as their capital.
There were signs, however, of the more conciliatory wing of Israel's coalition government gaining strength as Peres overcame Sharon's opposition to talking with the Palestinian leadership about resuming a fractured ceasefire.
Sharon finally gave Peres the green light Sunday to meet Palestinian leaders to revive the failed June 13th truce, though he ruled out talks with Arafat.
The Israeli daily Maariv said Monday that Peres favors a unilateral retreat from the Gaza Strip in exchange for a full ceasefire with the Palestinians.
Diplomatic efforts to tackle the crisis, which has left more than 700 people dead, stepped up Monday as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he would send a delegation to Washington in the coming 48 hours to discuss the situation.
Neighboring Jordan was holding urgent consultations with Arab nations ahead of an Arab League committee meeting Thursday to discuss the occupation, Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib said.
And U.S. envoy Satterfield, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, was due to meet Arafat later in the day in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a day after talking with Peres.
But the Palestinians held out little hope the meeting would provide the vital boost they say only Washington could give the stalled peace process.
Palestinian minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath said "the Americans don't actually have any role right now," taking them to task for refusing to pressure Sharon into accepting international monitors.
"They have contributed to the current impasse, while they are the only power in the world capable of influencing Israel without sending in their warplanes," he said.
"Like the U.S. media said, [Satterfield] is coming here to baby-sit until mama comes out of his ranch," he said in a swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush, who is holidaying on his Texas farm.
Washington says both sides must curb the violence before any progress can be made.
An opinion poll published in the daily Yediot Aharonot showed that 54% of Israelis were against holding ceasefire talks, although 44% favored the move.
Meanwhile, Palestinians gathered in the West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron) Monday to bury a seven-year-old girl shot in the head by Israeli occupation troops, who will be laid to rest beside her grandmother who suffered a heart attack after the girl's death.
Sabrin Abu Snena died in Ahli hospital in Hebron after Israeli troops shot her in the head Sunday, hospital officials said.
Her 60-year-old grandmother, Wadha Abu Mayela, accompanied her to the hospital. After the girl died, the distraught Palestinian woman returned home, where she suffered a cardiac arrest and died, hospital sources said.
With the current deaths the death toll reached has 716, of which 549 are Palestinians, since the Intifada began 10 months ago.
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