All good excuses contain a germ of truth. The 19th-century Irish famine, which was exacerbated by British policies, greatly damaged the morale of the survivors and their descendants. Similarly, the Nazi Judeocide has left a huge scar on the survivors of that catastrophe. However, to escape dysfunctionality, every society must admit its own failings. Irish economic woes stemmed from a culture of risk-avoidance which, while derived from colonial history, had to be admitted and overcome by citizens of the independent state. Similarly, Israelis will never be secure until they admit their responsibility to make restitution for the crimes of their state against the Palestinians. Israelis should beware of false friends who tempt them to avoid this responsibility by misrepresenting the critics of Israeli policies as anti-Semites.

A salient example of this phenomenon appeared in Haaretz last week, in an article ("One hundred years of hostility," Sept. 8), which alleged that Sinn Fein was and is anti-Semitic, and tried to smear the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) by association. Belonging to no party, I will leave it to Sinn Fein to defend itself. However, those Zionist Irish Jews who were prominent supporters of Sinn Fein would be surprised at last week's characterization.

In his autobiography ("Living History"), Chaim Herzog wrote "My father [Yitzhak Herzog, later first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel] was an open partisan of the Irish cause. The outstanding Jewish leader in the revolution was Robert Briscoe."

Eamon de Valera, president of Sinn Fein from 1917 to 1926, was hidden in Rabbi Herzog's home on several occasions during the revolution. Briscoe, who made several trips to Germany to buy arms, was one of the hard-line Sinn Feiners, who followed de Valera in rejecting the 1921 treaty with Britain - an event which triggered civil war in the new state. Briscoe was also a Zionist who, while spending 38 years in the Irish parliament, found time to visit Poland in 1938 as an agent of Jabotinsky and to raise funds for the Irgun in New York in 1939, using his stature as a Jewish fighter for Irish independence. De Valera became a life-long friend of Herzog, meeting David Ben-Gurion in Herzog's Jerusalem home in 1950 and being honored by the Irish Jewish community in the mid-1960s by the planting of a forest in Israel.

In its early years, Israel received a great deal of sympathy in Ireland. While Briscoe's prominent place in Irish politics may have played a role, the two main reasons were a fellow-feeling for Jews as another people who had experienced religious persecution and ignorance about the dispossession of the Palestinians. As the truth about 1948 became known and the horrors of the post-1967 occupation became apparent, attitudes changed.

Coincidentally, the first English-language article to debunk the myth that the Palestinian refugees of 1948 had left on the orders of Arab radio broadcasts ("The Other Exodus," by Erskine Childers, The Spectator, May 1961) was written by the grandson and namesake of a prominent Sinn Feiner, who used his yacht to import arms from Germany in 1914 and who took the same side as Briscoe in the Irish Civil War.

The IPSC reflects the fact that Irish people, having experienced settler colonialism, understand the suffering of Palestinians who endure it today. However, IPSC membership also includes Israeli Jews and Palestinians living in Ireland. Moreover, far from being "a subset of the Republican movement," as was claimed, the Belfast branch has Unionist members and supporters.

Our shared goal is universal human rights. We want all who have the right to reside between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, including refugees, to enjoy that right in peace. Unfortunately, many Israelis think that Palestinians should have less entitlement in their homeland than Jews who migrated to Palestine since 1882. The IPSC thinks both ethnic groups should enjoy all rights stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have no view on the future organization of the territory. That is a decision for all those who are Palestinian or Israeli or both, including refugees.

Many members of the IPSC are veterans of other anti-racist campaigns, such as those concerned with South Africa, East Timor and rights for Native Americans. IPSC members also support campaigns for West Papuans, Kurds, Tibetans and others. The Belfast branch is affiliated to a network which opposes attacks on immigrant workers in that city. With this wide perspective, we see that hafrada (separation) is the Zionist form of apartheid, so we argue that Israel should be treated like the old South Africa.

Our campaign is gaining momentum. Recently, several Irish cultural events rejected Israeli embassy sponsorship and Irish trade unionists prevented use of Dublin trams for training staff of the projected tram system between West Bank settlements. But this is only the beginning. This campaign, part of a world-wide effort to help Israelis overcome their dysfunctional denial of responsibility, will cease only when Israel conforms to International Law.

James Bowen, a professor in the National University of Ireland at Cork, is national chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Even injured political prisoners are forced to work, according to Friday's Nablus-based report. A former prisoner stated, "I had a broken bone but the soldiers forced me out of my cell to work anyway, without any consideration for the pain."

There are approximately 375 Palestinians in Telmond Prison, with most of them being children. The oldest Palestinian in Telmond is 22 years old. The child laborers are given two meals per 24 hours, one at 11:00 pm and another at 6:00 am.

Israeli prison officials also attempt to extract information from children regarding members of the armed resistance and engage in frequent psychological abuse

According to the Information Center there are 200 children less than 16 years old in Israeli prisons begin subjected to some of the worst forms of exploitation and humiliation. A total of 376 Palestinian children are currently imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention camps.

Khalaila said, "The minors have been thrown in with their elders and have no knowledge of the rules of law, and are clearly too young to adapt to prison life."

He described Othman as a "tall, skinny boy in prison contrary to all norms of international law. It is also contrary to Israeli law which does not allow arresting Palestinians under 12 years old."

The lawyer reported that Israeli soldiers arrested the 11 year old from the streets of his village on 25 August under the pretext that he had thrown stones at Israeli forces.

The boy was taken to a mountain high above the town and held there for seven to eight hours. He was handcuffed and blindfolded the entire time. One of the Israeli soldiers put his cigarette out in the boy's hand. Othman was then taken to a military installation for investigation in the Israeli settlement of Givat Ze'ev west of Ramallah in the West Bank. He was interrogated into the morning hours of the second day.

Khalaila stated that due to the boy's young age and lack of maturity or knowledge of how to handle the torturous investigations that most Palestinian males undergo at some point in their lives, he signed the investigators' report without knowing the content. "He was under threat and intimidation, beatings and insults."

None of the child's family members have been allowed to visit him and it remains unknown when or if he will be released. The Israeli military court has held three hearings for the boy since his arrest.

The second minor that the Palestinian Prisoner Society focused on in today's report is 13 year old Rafiq Mohammad Al Aisha. Israeli soldiers took him in the same manner as the 11 year old: from the streets of Beit Ur At Tahta Village, west of Ramallah, accusing him of throwing stones at Israeli forces.

Khalaila sat with Al Aisha as he reported what has happened to him. Israeli soldiers and interrogators have repeatedly punched the 13 year old in the face and kicked him in the legs and backside. The boy said that he was not throwing stones, denying the charge against him. He was forced under threat to sign a statement of unknown content.

The Prisoner Society attorney reported that both children are experiencing difficulty speaking and expressing themselves, and in understanding what is being said to them. Khalaila concluded reporting the sworn statements by saying that the boys are not pronouncing words clearly.

The Israeli authorities have arrested over 5,000 Palestinian minors since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. Still in Israeli prisons are 350 Palestinians aged 11 through 17 years.

To date, 171 civil society organizations in Palestine including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT), and the Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities' Professors and Employees have called for a boycott of Israel, seeing such a boycott as a way for people around the world to express practical solidarity, and effect change in a nonviolent manner.

While this letter does not call for a comprehensive boycott, it does demand that European academic institutions cease funding collaborative projects with Israeli institutions. It also calls for academics to refrain, where possible, from institutional collaboration with Israel. Such actions are to continue until Israel abides by international law, part of which is ending the occupation.

Such a moratorium is not directed against individuals but against Israeli institutions which provide support - both moral and practical - for a racial system within Israel and an illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. The comparison is with South Africa. Just as blacks in South Africa called for sanctions against that country, so have Palestinians under Israeli control called for sanctions against the Israeli state and its institutions. It is no coincidence that modern day South Africans are among the strongest supporters of actions that will peacefully end the brutal racially-based regime in Israel, just as the apartheid regime was toppled.

Groups across the world have heeded the Palestinian call for an academic boycott. The British Academic union NAFTHE recently supported the academic boycott of Israel, followed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). On July 10th, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), explicitly drawing on their own struggle against apartheid, called for a boycott of Israel. Moreover in Ireland, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has already adopted a position of supporting political and economic sanctions on Israel - a position taken at its biennial conference in 2005. Irish parliamentarians too, at a specially convened meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs on August 4th, unanimously called for the imposition of sanctions on Israel.

TEXT OF LETTER WITH SIGNATORIES

Madam - There is widespread international condemnation of Israel's policy of violent repression against the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and its aggression against the people of Lebanon. The Israeli government appears impervious to moral appeals from world leaders and to longstanding United Nations resolutions.

We feel it is time to heed the Palestinian call to take practical action to pressure Israel to comply with international law and basic human rights norms. Many national and European cultural and research institutions, including those funded by the EU regard Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts.

We call for a moratorium on any further such support to Israeli academic institutions, at both national and European levels. We urge our fellow academics to support this moratorium by refraining, where possible, from further joint collaborations with Israeli academic institutions. Such a moratorium should continue until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories.

# Hounaida Abi Haidar, Department of Geography, TCD
# Dr Kieran Allen, School of Sociology, UCD
# Professor James Anderson, School of Geography, Queen's University Belfast
# Professor Ivana Bacik, School of Law, TCD
# Ken Bond, Department of Zoology, Ecology & Plant Science, UCC
# Professor James Bowen, Department of Computer Science, UCC
# Dr Barbara Bradby, Department of Sociology, TCD
# Harry Browne, School of Media, DIT
# Noreen Byrne, Department of Food Business & Development, UCC
# Dr Joseph Cleary, Department of English, NUI Maynooth
# Professor John Coakley, School of Politics and International Relations, UCD
# Dr. Steve Coleman, Department of Anthropology, NUI Maynooth
# Denis Condon, Centre for Media Studies, NUI Maynooth
# Dr Laurence Cox, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
# Dr Colin Coulter, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
# Professor Seamus Deane, Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame
# Mary Eldin, WERRC, School of Social Justice, UCD
# Dr Nazih Eldin, Head of Health Promotion, Dublin North East
# Dr Adel Farrag, Department of Electronic Engineering, Institute of Technology Tallaght
# Professor Tadhg Foley, Department of English & Chair of the Board, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway
# Catherine Forde, Department of Applied Social Studies, UCC.
# Dr Kathy Glavanis, Department of Sociology, UCC
# Professor Luke Gibbons, Department of English, University of Notre Dame
# Dr Brian Hanley, Department of Modern History, TCD
# Dr Deanna Heath, Department of Modern History, TCD
# Conn Holohan, School of Media Studies, University of Ulster
# Marnie Holborow, School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, DCU
# Dr Kevin Hourihan, Department of Geography, UCC
# Dr Carole Jones, Department of English, TCD
# Sinead Kennedy, Department of English, Mater Dei Institute of Education
# Dr Heather Laird Department of English UCC
# David Landy, Department of Sociology, TCD
# Dr Steve Loyal, School of Sociology, UCD
# An Dr. Seosamh Mac Muiri, Rannog na Gaeilge, Roinn na dTeangacha agus an Leinn Chultuir, Ollscoil Luimnigh.
# Dr. Breandan Mac Suibhne, Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame
# Professor Brian Maguire, Faculty of Fine Art, NCAD
# Professor John Maguire, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, UCC
# Dr Sandra McAvoy, Women's Studies, UCC
# Piaras Mac Einri, Department of Geography, UCC
# Dr Conor McCarthy, Department of English, NUI Maynooth
# Dr Cathal McCall, School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast
# Caroline McHugh, Department of Geography, NUI Galway
# Dr Des McGuinness, School of Communications, DCU
# Dr Bill McSweeney, Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD
# Montserrat Fargas Malet, School of Social Work, Queens University Belfast
# Dr John Nash, Department. of English, TCD
# Dr Emer Nolan, Department of English, NUI Maynooth
# Dr Feilim O hAdhmaill, Department of Applied Social Studies, UCC
# Garrett O'Boyle, Political Scientist
# Dr. Eamon O Ciardha, School of Languages and Literature, University of Ulster
# Gearoid O Cuin. Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway
# Dr Ruan O'Donnell, Historian
# Professor Patrick 0'Flanagan, Department of Geography, UCC
# Professor Denis O'Hearn, School of Sociology, Queens University Belfast
# Dr Lionel Pilkington, Department of English, NUI Galway
# Jim Roche, Department of Architecture, DIT
# Dr. Ailbhe Smyth, WERRC, School of Social Justice, UCD
# Dr Andy Storey, Centre for Development Studies, UCD
# Dr Gavan Titley, Centre for Media Studies, NUI Maynooth
# Dr Hilary Tovey, Department of Sociology, TCD
# Dr Theresa Urbainczyk, School of Classics, UCD

"At this point, the main thing stopping rocket strikes against Israel from the West Bank is the inability by local Palestinians to design a weapon with sufficient range," a military source said. "A missile or rocket that can travel one or two kilometers has little value."

On Thursday, Palestinian gunners fired two Kassam-class, short-range missiles from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel. There were no reports of injuries.

Military orders confiscating 152 dunums of land were handed out in the towns of Um Salamuna, Beit Fajjar and Beit Ummar on 7th September to allow a 6.6km continuation of the wall around the Gush Etzion settlement block. A military terminal will be built in south west Bethlehem at Um Salamuna.

A further 7,200 dunums of land belonging to surrounding Palestinian towns are to be isolated behind the wall or destroyed by its footprint.

The affected towns are totally dependent on the land for their income, according to local sources. In Um Salamuna the wall will isolate 200 dunums of land behind the wall uproot more than 800 olive trees bearing fruit, 1500 grape vines and a large number of almond trees and other pine trees. Seven extended families from the town are entirely dependent on this land.

In Beit Fajar, the wall will isolate 1000 dunums, planted with grapes, olive trees and almonds. One resident said:
"This land will be annexed to Migdal Oz settlement and the owners are forbidden to access their land, and especially the soldiers and settlers have tried many times to buy the land, but the people refused to sell it, so they decided to take it using the wall."

In Beit Ummar the footprint of the wall will destroy 715 dunums south of the town. Alterations to the route of the wall mean that it will now isolate 6000 dunums of farmland, rather than the original 5000. Again the land is richly planted with grape vines, olive trees and almonds. A further 750 dunums from is to be confiscated from to the south of the town for the construction of the new apartheid road.

In the last two months occupation forces have begun uprooting land to the south of the town in order expand Karme Tzur settlement. The settlement is to be surrounded by an electrified fence annexing a further 450 dunums.

The single novelty of the report, which mostly rehashes fatuous allegations already disposed of in Beyond Chutzpah, is the new thresholds in idiocy it breaks. Consider the methodology deployed for demonstrating a new anti-Semitism. The report defines an anti-Semitic incident as any occasion "perceived" to be anti-Semitic by the "Jewish community." This is the school of thought according to which it's raining even in the absence of any precipitation because I feel it's raining. It is the dream philosophy of paranoids, especially rational paranoids, for whom alleged victimhood is politically serviceable. The report includes under the rubric of anti-Semitic incidents not just violent acts and incendiary speech but "conversations, discussions, or pronouncements made in public or private, which cross the line of acceptability," as well as "the mood and tone when Jews are discussed." The wonder is that it didn't also tabulate repressed anti-Semitic libidinal fantasies. In the category of inherently anti-Semitic pronouncements the report includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" (only comparisons of contemporary Arab policy to that of the Nazis are permissible) and "theories about Jewish or Zionist influence on American foreign policy" (even if Jewish and Zionist organizations boast about this influence).

Much of the evidence of pervasive British anti-Semitism requires real strains in credulity. * The lone item listed under the ominous subheading "The Blood Libel" is a Syrian television series "that would be possible for viewers in the UK to seeif they had suitable satellite receiving equipment." It also notes the unreferenced "case of a Jewish university lecturer who was subjected to an anti-Semitic tirade from a student in the middle of a lecture and subsequently asked to explain to the university authorities why he ha upset the student." Is it anti-Semitic to wonder whether this is a crock? And then the report cites the warning of the London Assembly Conservative Group that "there is a risk that in some political quarters 'views on international events can, almost subconsciously, lead to subtly different attitudes to, and levels of engagement with, different minority groups.'" The new anti-Semitism business must be going seriously awry when British conservatives start sounding like Lacan. Finally, it is anti-Semitic for student unions to advocate a boycott of Israeli goods because this "would restrict the availability of kosher food on campus." Maybe Israel can organize a "Berlin airlift" of gefilte fish.

Although claiming that, in the struggle against anti-Semitism, "none of those who gave evidence wished to see the right free speech eroded," and "only in extreme circumstances would we advocate legal intervention," the report recommends that university authorities "take an active interest in combating acts, speeches, literature and events that cause anxiety or alarm among their Jewish students," and it registers disquiet that "classic and modern anti-Semitic works are freely available for ordering on the Amazon.com website," and that "the United States in particular has been slow to take action" in closing down "anti-Semitic internet sites." It is at moments like this that even the least patriotic of souls can take pride in being an American.


* The police data on an increase in anti-Semitic incidents in itself proves little because, as the report concedes, the spike might be due to more incidents being reported and a coarsening of British life generally, as well as the "spillover" from the Israel-Palestine conflict. In addition, there is little evidence of "organized," "politically motivated" anti-Semitic attacks; there is no evidence that perpetrators of anti-Semitic attacks were disproportionately Muslim; and most of the suspects in the incidents were adolescents. For 2005 the report cites a couple incidents that were "potentially" life-threatening. It cites no comparative data for other minorities in Britain, although tacitly acknowledging that "the level of prejudice and discrimination by Jews in Britain remains lower," a considerable understatement . On a related note, it deplores that "less than one in ten [anti-Semitic] incidents reported to the police resulted in a suspect becoming an accused" , but cites no comparative data indicating whether this ratio is aberrant.

Norman Finkelstein's most recent book is Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history (University of California Press). His web site is www.NormanFinkelstein.com.

Labor and Kadima officials have in recent years advocated changing Jerusalem's jurisdiction in order to deal with the "demographic problem."

Some 16,200 residents left Jerusalem in 2005, half of them aged 20 to 34, compared to 10,300 who moved to the city.

Jerusalem's Statistical Abstract editor Dr. Maya Hoshen said people leave Jerusalem mainly due to lack of employment and affordable housing. The number of ultra-Orthodox residents leaving the city has also grown in recent years.

In an article she intends to release soon, Hoshen lists four main periods of Jewish emigration from Jerusalem since its unification.

*1968-1972 - The number of people leaving Jerusalem each year on average was 800 more than those moving in.

*1973-1978 - The number of people leaving Jerusalem each year was on average 1,000-2,000 more than those moving in, following the construction of new neighborhoods.

*1987-1988 - The number of people leaving Jerusalem each year was on average 600 more than those moving in.

*1988-2005 - The number of people leaving increased. In 2003, the number of people leaving was 5,100 more than those moving in, the smallest differential since 1990. From 1991 to 1996, the number of people leaving was 5,600-6,200 more than those moving in each year. The ratio of people leaving peaked in 2000, as 8,200 more people left Jerusalem than moved in.

Hundreds of desperate parents swarmed lists of coupon numbers tacked to the walls of the UNRWA relief centre in the Beach Refugee Camp of Gaza City Sunday, nervously trying to locate their assigned lot to collect emergency food packages only being offered to families with at least 11 members.

"There is not enough food in Gaza; even we at UNRWA are struggling to get the food in," warned John Ging, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, as he toured the relief centre. UN workers urgently tossed bags of flour from supply trucks and stacked bottles of oil in efforts to alleviate what Ging described as a "desperate and unprecedented" crisis.

UNRWA began its emergency food distribution 10 September, one week later than planned due to the closure of Karni, Gaza's only commercial crossing. "There must be a solution at the crossing points. We need international help to open up Gaza to a civilised existence," asserted Ging. UNRWA feeds 830,000 of Gaza's 1.4 million residents, and one-third of the food required for the emergency distribution is still outside of Gaza.

"It is not just about bringing in containers of humanitarian assistance. It is about restoring the Gazan economy," said Ging, calling for the implementation of the Agreement on Movement and Access brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last November and that stipulates that all border crossings to Gaza will remain open.

President Mahmoud Abbas announced from Gaza Monday that he had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to form a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. The current Hamas-led government will be dissolved within 48 hours and a new prime minister will be appointed, said presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeinah Monday. However, it remained murky, till Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, as to how Hamas's political programme would change exactly.

Abbas was under great pressure to reach an agreement since he will go before the United Nations 22 September and the Quartet will meet 1 October.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Hamas to form the unity government during his visit with Abbas Sunday in Ramallah in a bid to resuscitate the peace process, although he reiterated the government would only be accepted if Hamas met the Quartet's conditions of recognising Israel and renouncing violence. Blair did not meet with Hamas officials.

Speaking after Friday prayer at a mosque in Rafah, Haniyeh said, "when we form the unity government we shall see if the siege is lifted, although the goal of the Western world is to see Hamas out of office."

Gaza's commercial and passenger border crossings were sealed 25 June after an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas and have opened only sporadically since. The kidnapping prompted Israel to launch a 12- week-long incursion into Gaza, purportedly to rescue its captured soldier and to halt the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel. According to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Health Ministry, as of Monday, 272 Palestinians have died and 1,463 have been injured as a result of Israel's incursion.

Poverty and desperation have gripped Palestinians in Gaza as their economy has been buried by international sanctions against the Hamas-led government and Israel's decision to withhold, in violation of the Paris Protocol, $54 million in monthly tax revenue owed to the PA. The groundwork for Gaza's economic crisis was laid in the closure of the crossings, prohibiting imports and exports. However, since Israeli destroyed Gaza's only power station 28 June leaving residents, businesses, and hospitals without electricity and water, the situation has become unbearable.

Gaza residents are still living in darkness. According to Rafiq Maliha, project manager of Gaza Power Generating Company, an agreement has been signed between the PA and an Egyptian construction company to import transformers, although Gaza's residents still await Israeli permission for the equipment to enter. It will take weeks to begin the repairs and only 35 per cent of the plant's total capacity can be restored anyway.

Gaza's economy continues to die slowly from the effects of the 28 June power plant strike. Amir Company for Ice Cream has closed its doors, no longer making a profit, although owner Emad Al-Wadia still pays over 1,000 shekels per day to operate generators to refrigerate his stores of ice cream. "Seventy-five per cent of my products are exported to the West Bank, and until this week the last time exports left Gaza was in January," said Al-Wadia, unable to sell his products locally due to the lack of refrigeration in Gaza.

Only 40 out of 150 major companies in Gaza are operating due to border closures and the lack of electricity. Generators have doubled operating costs, reports Mohamed Mushtaha, head of the Palestinian Businessman's Association in Gaza. Like many companies in Gaza, if Al-Wadia does not export by 2007, he will close his business forever.

Recently, the Gaza business sector issued a plea to all Palestinian factions asking them not to "conduct operations" against border crossings. The private sector is "calling on the [Palestinian] factions not to target the crossings and the surrounding areas, and to remove them from the circle of conflict with the Israeli side," stated an announcement. "The closure of the crossings and the unavailability of raw materials led to a complete paralysis of the industrial, agricultural and construction sectors, resulting in the closure of factories," the statement continued. Gaza's crossings are "the lifeline of the Palestinian people and the backbone of the national economy".

The plea asked factions not give Israel "an excuse" to continue its closure policy, underscoring that building a Palestinian state depends on the movement of goods in and out of Gaza. Closure of the crossings has increased unemployment, already hovering at 80 per cent in Gaza, and has stifled international projects and investment.

Meanwhile, Palestinian civil servants declared an open- ended strike 2 September, demanding unpaid salaries from the past six months, although by Sunday the strike had lost momentum in Gaza, where Hamas support is strongest.

Almost all Gaza schools are operating and only about 10 per cent of other PA employees continued striking. About 300 employees from various ministries and the Gaza Workers' Union protested outside the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza City Sunday chanting, "The strike will continue until the government meets its responsibilities."

Meanwhile, hundreds of students protested outside the Islamic University demanding lower tuition fees. The general strike continued in the West Bank where union leadership is stronger and most schools remained closed. Abbas encouraged PA employees to return to work after announcing the agreement to form a national unity government.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen Abu Zayad called on the international community to provide Gaza with a peacekeeping force or mission of observers, arguing that the Gaza population deserves protection, during her visit to New York Thursday.

"It would be great to have an international presence, civilian, military, whatever," said Abu Zayad.