OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A hard-line Israeli minister openly called Thursday, July 4, for the murdering of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, while the powerful head of West Bank preventive security, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, accepted his dismissal.

Arafat and his “gang of murderers”, including his lieutenant Marwan Barghuti, should be put to death, said Effi Eitam, Israeli minister without portfolio and leader of the extreme-right National Religious Party on public radio after being quoted by the daily newspaper, Ma’ariv, as making similar remarks in a speech in a Tel Aviv synagogue, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Eitam said Barghuti, who was detained by Israeli troops in Ramallah mid-April, should have been on Israel ’s list of militants to be eliminated.

“He deserves death, but we brought him to Israel and are now obliged to concern ourselves with his legal status,” he said.

“Arafat and his gang of murderers, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis, deserve death,” Eitam added.

Ma’ariv quoted him as demanding why Barghuti was being held for questioning, and adding, “He should be taken into a field and a bullet put in his head.”

Eitam also said, “Arafat is a crazy murderer who should be killed,” according to Ma’ariv.

Eitam is a former general whose party is considered the voice of Jewish settlers in the Occupied Palestinian territories.

Eitam’s goal is to become prime minister and sweep away Jerusalem mosques marking Islam’s third holiest site of Al-Aqsa mosque, to build a Jewish temple.

Meanwhile, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, the powerful head of West Bank preventive security, told AFP he accepted his dismissal by Arafat.

“I respect this decision and I am going to carry it out,” Rajoub told AFP by phone, saying he had been informed of Arafat’s decision by an “Arab country’s intelligence service.”

But his aides later specified that Rajoub was only ready to formally step down once he had received an official letter from Arafat informing him of his dismissal.

Rajoub said the fact that he had not been told of his sacking by Arafat himself was “disrespectful” and did not conform to correct procedure.

He had refused to acknowledge his dismissal after Palestinian public works minister Azzam Al-Ahmed said late Tuesday, July 2, he had been replaced in the key post by Jenin governor Zuheir Manasrah.

Manasrah told AFP Thursday, he had been informed of his new appointment and had accepted.

Arafat also sacked his longstanding police chief, General Ghazi Jabali, on Tuesday, officials said, though the general likewise refused to accept his ouster. His fate was still unclear on Thursday.

Tensions within Palestinian society, wracked by poverty after being closed off to the outside world during 21 month of fighting and with Israeli forces occupying almost the entire West Bank, flared into street violence in the Gaza Strip Wednesday.

Eighteen people, including several policemen, were injured when a crowd, including supporters of the Islamic resistance group Hamas, attacked a police station in Rafah demanding the execution of a man accused of helping Israeli forces kill Hamas members.

The riot came a day after a Gaza rally in which poverty-stricken jobless Palestinians vented their anger not only against Israel but also at alleged corruption within Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces appeared set to stay in the West Bank, which it has almost entirely re-occupied in the last two weeks.

Palestinian analysts and Eitam have predicted the army could stay in the West Bank for the next six months, when Palestinian elections are due.