A senior Palestinian official hinted broadly today that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would demand “international protection” and international observers to stop what he called Israel’s “acts of aggression” against the Palestinians.

At the same time Palestinian officials warned “The Tel Aviv Government” (Israel) that continued Israeli violence would lead to Palestinian reactions-a not-so-subtle reminder of Palestinian human bomb and rocket attacks.

“This is an army with missiles, with planes, with tanks, and we are an unarmed people,” asserted Dr. Saeb Arikat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, who is heading to Moscow for talks with European Union (EU) officials on May 9.

His comments followed the shooting deaths of two Palestinian youths, 15 and 17 years old, who were reportedly among a group that attacked Israelis building a fence near Ramallah.

The Israeli army has suspended the local army commander at the scene pending completion of an investigation.

In a prepared statement, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called the Palestinian deaths an Israeli “war crime” designed to torpedo the current “cooling-off” period that has not been very cool.

During the course of the day, the Palestinian media have embellished the story and changed the “youths” into “child martyrs” who, the Palestinians now claim, were “playing football” when they were “killed without provocation” by Israeli troops.

“The two boys were shot, respectively, in the face and in the chest while they were playing football near the fence,” asserted V.O.P. radio’s anchorwoman Jumal Kuneis this afternoon. Earlier, Palestinian newspapers had reported that the young men were part of a “peaceful demonstration” against “the racist separation barrier.”

Several weeks ago, three Palestinian teenagers were killed trying to infiltrate under barbed wire near the Gaza border checkpoint, and the Palestinian leadership then also said the young men were “playing football.”

The atrocity story motif has emerged as the favorite means of anti-Israeli propaganda among Palestinian officials and the Palestinian media since Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat as head of the PLO in November and as head of the PA in national elections in January.

In early February, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in Gaza school playground. For three days, the PA claimed the girl was killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, when, in fact, she had been shot inadvertently by a Palestinian man firing celebratory shots in the air after returning from an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

While there have been some documented cases of Israeli brutality, there have also been cases in recent weeks of Palestinian women and children who have been caught smuggling weapons or having been sent as human bombs.

A woman blew herself up at the Gaza checkpoint several months ago after smuggling a bomb in a prosthetic device, and there have been numerous cases of Palestinian children caught carrying explosives and pipe bombs under their clothing.

This has not been acknowledged by the PA or the PLO, both headed by Abbas.

“The Israelis continuing their assassinations, their invasions, their arrests shows the international community that we need international protection, ” declared PLO official Arikat in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio Thursday morning.

“We need to have the Israeli occupation end and for a return to the boundaries of June 4, 1967,” declared ‘Arikat.

“There can be no hudna (ceasefire) or tahdiyya (lull or cooling-off) without it being a mutual cessation of violence,” declared Saeb ‘Arikat, the PLO official who is the chief Palestinian negotiator with Israel.

The Palestinian negotiator called on the “Quartet”-the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations-to force Israel to give up control of Rafah border checkpoint between Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli zones in Gaza where Palestinians have been regularly trying to smuggle bombs and explosives.

For the last three weeks the Palestinians have been conducting a press campaign against Israeli search devices at the border checkpoint, claiming that the Israelis are deliberately using “radiation devices” in order “to poison” Palestinian travelers.

The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, and the major PA-supported newspapers and broadcast media all reported that an elderly woman was killed by the “radiation device” last week.

“They have turned Gaza into a big prison,” he said. “That’s why they have taken over the international border crossing at Rafah. And that’s why it’s become, a big prison, and they want to turn the West Bank into cantons inside fences.”

© 2005

Report compiled by Michael Widlanski Associates.
Commissioned by the Center for Near East Policy Research.

[Permission to quote or reprint from article conditional on citing Michael Widlanski or Michael Widlanski Associates.]

Dr. Michael Widlanski is a specialist in Arab politics and communication whose doctorate dealt with the Palestinian broadcast media. He is a former reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times,The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post.

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