Pressure mounts worldwide against Israeli crackdown

BRUSSELS - Israel is under mounting diplomatic pressure to ease its military crackdown on Palestinian militants as anti-Israeli street protests erupted from Indonesia to Brazil.

The European Union called an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers, to be held today in Brussels or Luxembourg, to discuss the Middle East, and Canada has urged Israel to end its "disproportionate use" of military force against Palestinians.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, called for the UN to send a team to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to report back on human rights violations by Israeli and Palestinian forces.

Baghdad pressed the Arab League to endorse an Iraqi draft resolution calling on Arab nations to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it did not end its support to Israel.

Washington was also the target of an appeal by the heads of churches in Jerusalem, who urged President George W. Bush and other heads of government to intercede with Israeli leaders.

Bush, all but alone among major world leaders in publicly condoning Israel's military crackdown, has said the onus lies on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to denounce Palestinian suicide bombings.

Anti-Israeli demonstrators took to the streets in Indonesia, Brazil, Jordan and Egypt, some burning the US flag along with the Israeli Star of David.

Israel says its campaign is aimed at isolating Arafat, a long-standing foe of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and "uprooting terrorists" behind suicide attacks that have killed dozens of Israelis.

Spain, now holding the rotating EU presidency, summoned Israel's ambassador in Madrid to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities, free Arafat and agree to an immediate ceasefire in the West Bank.

The 15-nation bloc also called for free access for foreign diplomats to Arafat, who is blockaded in his Ramallah headquarters by Israeli forces.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique said after talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana that he had spoken to the Israeli ambassador to urge compliance with a weekend UN Security Council resolution calling for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories.

Passions aroused by the Israeli actions in the West Bank sparked anti-Semitic attacks in several European centres. Germany has increased security around Jewish sites, but in Berlin a group of men attacked two American Jews walking along a street after visiting a synagogue.

The incident followed attacks in recent days on synagogues in France and Belgium.

In Chile, more than 16,000km from the Middle East, Jews and Arabs were at odds over a professional soccer club's support for the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel.

Acting on a complaint by Chile's Jewish community, soccer authorities summoned the chairman of first division club Palestino for talks after he refused to stop holding a minute's silence for Palestinian "martyrs" before matches.

- REUTERS

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