Protestors chanted anti-Sharon slogans outside 10 Downing Street ahead of Sharon’s arrival

LONDON, July 15 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) – The British government rebuffed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s calls to shun contacts with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and help change the EU position regarding the Palestinian leader.

"We still have our differences with Britain on a series of issues, including Arafat," a senior Israeli official was quoted by the BBC News Online as saying after Sharon’s meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair Monday, July 14.

Sharon arrived in London Sunday, July 13, on a mission to mend frayed ties with Britain, bringing with him a firm line about the need to ostracize Arafat and making a public statement challenging the legality of Palestinian resistance.

But he made little if any headway in getting Britain's help in changing EU attitudes towards the veteran Palestinian leader during his meetings with Blair and his British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

After Sharon’s talks with Straw, British officials said Arafat was an elected leader and the UK would continue to deal with him where it was appropriate.

One official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Straw made it clear to Sharon that the British position was similar to the wider EU stance.

"As the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian Authority, we will continue to have contacts with President Arafat where we judge it to be useful," the official averred.

Israel accuses Arafat of inciting violence ever since the outbreak of the Intifada for liberation in September 2000. It and the United States have shunned any contacts with the Palestinian president.

Arafat repudiated the allegation, and Palestinians say it is Sharon who is blocking progress in peacemaking by refusing requests to release thousands of Palestinian detainees.

Last week, Sharon told Britain's Daily Telegraph that European leaders were making a "major mistake" by keeping up contacts with Arafat.

"We want the Europeans to assist in putting pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the Arab countries to neutralize Arafat and put him into a position where he does not control the money and security services," an Israeli source told AFP.

"If the European countries want to play a constructive role in the peace process they should not meet with Arafat," he said.

The official also argued that, if Europe wants to play a Middle East role similar to the United States, it would have to adopt a more "balanced policy".

"Britain is a doorway... If Britain can take the lead in changing the attitude of the European Union, Israel will be willing to reciprocate and allow greater European involvement in the peace process," he said.

But a Foreign Office official countered that the "European Union position is to keep in contact with Yasser Arafat.

"He has high standing among the Palestinians, has an influence on the roadmap and is, after all, an elected leader."

Straw used the talks to raise the question of three British citizens shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Palestinian territories in recent months.

Sharon assured him he had given instructions for the incidents to be investigated.

On May 2, Israeli occupation forces gunned down a freelance British television journalist while filming demolition of Palestinian houses in the southern town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

On April 11, a 21-year-old British activist was pronounced clinically dead after being hit in the head and critically wounded by Israeli sniper fire in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

His parents came under fire themselves as they traveled to the spot where their son was hit.

On November 21, Ian Hook, a 21-year-old British activist was shot dead by an Israeli soldier inside a clearly marked U.N. compound in Jenin.

War Criminal 

After his talks with Straw, Sharon had dinner with Blair in Downing Street, where several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators mounted a protest.

Organizers of the demonstrations outside Downing Street estimate that 1,000 people attended, while Metropolitan Police put the number at 700, the BBC News Online reported.

Betty Hunter, general secretary of the demonstration organizers the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: "We feel it was absolutely important General Ariel Sharon should know the strength of feeling here in Britain against what the Israeli Government is doing to the Palestinian people daily.

"We believe that Ariel Sharon is a war criminal and has been a war criminal continuously," said Hunter.

Challenging Free Speech

In the meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) protested Monday Sharon’s "boycott" of the BBC during his British tour, saying his behavior sent a dangerous message on press freedom.

The Brussels-based group, which represents around 500,000 journalists in more than 100 countries, said Sharon had banned the public broadcaster from taking part in his meetings with the press during his visit to London in protest over the broadcast of a documentary on Israel's nuclear program.

"Governments that claim to be democratic cannot pick and choose media coverage to suit themselves," IFJ Secretary General Aidan White said in a statement.

"The price of democracy is transparency and public scrutiny... When Israel turns its face against these basic principles it makes the job of democratic transformation in the Middle East harder not easier."

Israel's attitude "challenges free speech and sends out a dangerous message in a region where press freedom is under pressure," the statement continued.

The BBC and the Blair government are at loggerheads over British government claims about the level of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the U.S.-led Iraq invasion in which British troops played a major role.