By
The Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Yasser Arafat displayed a holstered pistol yesterday - the first time he has shown a weapon in public since returning from exile in 1994, and reviving memories of the day he carried a gun into the United Nations more than a quarter-century ago.
The Palestinian leader said the gesture was an expression of anger over the blocking of a key road by Jewish settlers. The settlers' demonstration delayed his drive back to his Gaza City office after a trip to Arab countries.
More broadly, the display of the weapon reflected the deteriorating relations between Israel and the Palestinians after more than two months of clashes, in which almost 300 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed.
The settlers were protesting a decision by the Israeli military to allow a resumption of Palestinian traffic on the Salah Edin Road. The Israelis closed the road to Palestinian traffic two weeks ago after a deadly bomb attack on a school bus.
Israeli authorities cleared the settlers from the road yesterday, and Arafat was able to continue back to Gaza City after a delay of more than an hour at the Rafah border crossing.
Afterward, Arafat pulled out a German-made machine pistol and gripped it by its carrying case as he passed an honor guard at his office in Gaza City. Talking to reporters, he charged angrily that the Israeli army coordinated the protest with the settlers to block his way.
"The most important thing is that right now they were closing Salah Edin Road and that is why I am carrying this," he said, referring to the squat weapon, partially covered with a carrying case.
The Israeli military rejected Arafat's charge that it coordinated the demonstration with the settlers. "The settlers close roads and we clear them," the military said in a statement. Police detained some of the protesters after they sat down on the road to block it.
Arafat entered Gaza in triumph in 1994 after an interim peace agreement with Israel allowed him to set up the Palestinian Authority to administer parts of the West Bank and Gaza. He never stopped wearing his military-style uniform, but he did not display arms.
While in exile, he carried a pistol in a holster. He caused an uproar on Nov. 13, 1974, by carrying a gun into the U.N. General Assembly. It was practically unheard of for a world leader to bring a weapon into the building.
In his speech then, Arafat said he had come "bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," and added, ``Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.''
The machine pistol Arafat picked up yesterday is one of the weapons his guards carry in his car, a bodyguard said. His decision to carry the weapon in view of reporters appeared to be a symbolic gesture, since he did not threaten anyone with it. But it showed how deep the anger and mistrust has become with the continuing violence and the absence of peace negotiations.
Holding the weapon at his side, Arafat told reporters that international mediators must work to "stop (Israeli) violence and aggression against our people."
Israel charges that Arafat is responsible for the violence, characterized in recent weeks by Palestinian gunfire at Israeli army posts and settlements and roadside bomb attacks.
In recent days the level of unrest has dropped, and Israel has been easing some of its restrictions.
The Israelis closed the main north-south road through Gaza to Palestinian traffic two weeks ago, after a roadside bomb hit a school bus, killing two Israeli adults and wounding nine people, including several children who lost limbs. Yesterday the Israelis reopened the road, citing relative calm in the area.
Settlers demonstrated in protest. Ronit Haratz, one of the demonstrators, said, "Every time there is an attack, they close the road for a while, and then they reopen it and there is another attack." She also objected to allowing Arafat to use the road.
Elsewhere on the Gaza Strip yesterday, an explosion killed an Islamic militant, apparently as he was preparing to plant a bomb. And on the West Bank, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen waged fierce shootouts in and around biblical Bethlehem.
