The 20 signatories of the letter, who included nine deputies of the 88-member Palestinian legislature, accused Yasser Arafat's Authority Saturday of "practicing a horrible policy of corruption and exploitation of the Palestinian people."

At Nablus's An-Najah University a festival attended by hundreds of students previously planned on behalf of Palestinian prisoners in Israel turned into a show of support for the detainees.

The campus was covered with posters urging the release of the detainees and condemning corruption, witnesses said.

At Bir Zeit University outside Ramallah hundreds more students attended a meeting addressed by Abdel Jawad Saleh, one of the deputies who signed the statement.

Saleh, a former agriculture minister in the Palestinian Authority, told the students that the fight against corruption would continue "until the last breath."

In Bethlehem between 50 and 80 students from all Palestinian parties marched from the university to police headquarters in the town.

And in Gaza the opposition Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was organizing a conference to be addressed by representatives of all Palestinian opposition groups and leading human rights activists Haider Abdel Shafi and Iyad Sarraj.

The 20 signatories of the statement dated November 27 said they were "hurt deeply by what has become of sacred Palestinian Arab land," which Arafat had promised to turn into a "new Singapore" following the 1993 Oslo accords with Israel.

"After six years, more land is despoiled, Jewish settlements have grown, they plot behind closed doors against Palestinian refugees and our sons are kept behind bars in Israeli jails," they wrote in the petition.

Arafat's security forces on Monday arrested three more signatories after detaining six on Saturday and Sunday and placing two others under house arrest, bringing the total detained to 11, according to human rights groups who lined up to condemn the wave of arrests.

"This petition is the beginning of a civil revolution," said a statement issued on Monday by the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. "This could be the first step towards changing the system, therefore we look upon these arrests as outrageous," the PHRMG said.

The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (LAW) said that it was "appalled by the actions of the Palestinian Authority and strongly condemns the detention of these citizens."

The PHRMG added that Arafat, who left early on Monday for a two-day visit to Russia and Egypt, was considering lifting the parliamentary immunity to prosecution of the nine deputies still free.

Those arrested included university academics, a physician and a political activist in a splinter group of Arafat's Fatah faction. Put under house arrest were respected former Nablus mayor Bassam Shaka, and Wahid al-Hamdallah, mayor of the neighboring town of Anabta.

Arafat did though receive some support from deputies in his Fatah faction who held an emergency meeting in Gaza on Sunday.

The deputies issued a statement saying that Fatah "strenuously rejects the statement destructive of the roots of democracy."

As for the Palestinian Authority itself, officials privately questioned the timing of the anti-corruption statement, linking it to Syrian-backed Palestinian opposition groups.

Such feelings were strengthened by comments carried in the official Syrian newspaper Tishrin describing the accusations contained in the text as "true."

"The negotiations conducted by the Authority have sold off Palestinian rights," Tishrin said.

Text of Petition
Following is the translation of the petition signed by 20 Palestinian leaders. The idea was to distribute it and collect thousands of signatures, but the Palestinian Authority has been cracking down on the original signatories.

"The homeland is calling us''

We are pained by what is happening on the sacred land of Palestine, of displaying utter disregard for the people and selling out their rights. We, as ordinary citizens, motivated by our loyalty to the homeland, feel compelled to speak out to you in order to work together to correct the lamentable state of affairs that we have reached.

Following Oslo (the signing of the Oslo agreement on September 13, 1993), the Palestinian leadership claimed the accords would enable us to establish a state whose capital is Jerusalem, repatriate the refugees, dismantle the settlements, free the prisoners and pave the way for an economic transformation that would make us the Singapore of the region.

Indeed, some of us were so deceived that we took to the streets to celebrate the false victories. However, six years after Oslo, more of our land has been usurped, settlements expanded, plots against the cause of the refugees are accelerating rapidly behind the scenes, and the gates of prisons are locked on our sons. Neither Jerusalem was recovered, nor has Singapore's advent come about, and the people are now divided into two groups: a small one that is oppressing and extorting; and a large one grieving and looking for a savior. It is a horrible scenario of deception and dishonesty, the outcome of which will undoubtedly be felt deeply and painfully in the final status talks.

Apart from that, the Palestinian Authority has adopted a modus operandi of graft, corruption, humiliation and exploitation of the Palestinian people. Indeed, the Oslo agreement now looks as a mere selling-out of the homeland in return for some corrupt and corrupting elements within the PA getting rich.

The president of the PA has opened the doors widely for the opportunists to spread corruption in the larger Palestinian public. Economic conditions have worsened, social bonds have become weaker, the moral values of our people lax; and destruction has befallen many of our health, educational and judicial institutions.

Hence, the danger alarm must be sounded in every village, town and refugee camp; in every corner and lobby, even in every shop, home and office. The homeland is being sold out and the citizen is betrayed and decimated. So let us stand together in the face of this tyranny and corruption. The oppression will not be stopped save at the hands of the oppressed, and the oppressor will only be stopped by the strength and determination of the faithful.

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