Palestinians Stage Pro-Iraq Rally

Palestinians demonstrating in support of Iraq clashed with Israeli troops Friday as Israel warned that backing for Saddam Hussein would undermine the faltering peace process.

Palestinians said PLO police banned two protests planned in the Gaza Strip and arrested a member of a pro-Iraqi group.

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinian stone-throwers during a pro-Iraq rally outside the Jalazoun refugee camp near the West Bank town of Ramallah, witnesses said.

Palestinians said soldiers wounded three protesters. One Israeli border policeman was lightly injured when he was hit in the face with a stone, Israeli military sources said.

Earlier Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said pro-Iraqi demonstrations would further threaten the stagnating peace process, deadlocked for close to a year.

"What does it mean that the Palestinians have frustrations and therefore they call for Saddam Hussein to burn Tel Aviv?," Netanyahu said in a speech to a visiting delegation of the American Jewish Committee.

"We have frustrations. [But do we] call for the burning of Ramallah?" he asked.

"Instead of sitting down with us to hammer out an agreement they are demonstrating for Saddam Hussein," Netanyahu said.

Thursday, about 300 Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops in the divided West Bank city of Hebron during a protest against a possible U.S. military strike on Iraq.

The protests have been held in defiance of a Palestinian Authority ban on public demonstrations in support of Iraq. Some protesters have chanted for Saddam to launch missiles at Israel, as he did in the 1991 Gulf War.

Awad al-Arouki, a leading member of the pro-Iraqi Arab Liberation Front, said PLO police banned protests scheduled for Friday and Saturday in the Gaza Strip and arrested 33-year-old Mohammed al-Atal from Khan Younis, a leading figure in the group.

"We consider this a very serious action that harms democracy and freedom of expression and we hope the Palestinian police will reconsider the decision," Atal told Reuters.

Palestinian police chief Ghazi al-Jabali said in response that "nobody was arrested on charges of solidarity or support for Iraq."

He said authorities drew a distinction between pro-Iraqi rallies and protests where flags were burned and demonstrators called on Iraq to launch missiles at Israel.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has said he opposes any use of force by the United States in the crisis with Iraq over U.N. weapons inspections but has urged Saddam to show "flexibility."

In other developments:

• The Clinton administration has admonished Yasser Arafat for statements he made Thursday threatening a new rebellion against Israel if his demands are not met in negotiations. A State Department spokesman says that kind of talk is "unhelpful and counterproductive"
• Jordanian worshippers defied a government ban on pro-Iraqi protests after Friday prayers in central Amman. Riot police reportedly attacked the demonstrators with batons and threatened the use of firearms.

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