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More West Bank Clashes but Summit Possible

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Reuters

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Mar 25, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/25/97

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<A HREF='http://www.clari.net/'>ClariNet</A> <CLARI-ITEM TYPE>story</CLARI-ITEM> <CLARI-ITEM SLUGWORD>NEWS-MIDEAST</CLARI-ITEM> from <CLARI-ITEM FROM>Reuters</CLARI-ITEM> 
<H1><CLARI-ITEM HEADLINE>More West Bank Clashes but Summit Possible</CLARI-ITEM></H1>
<CLARI-ITEM COPYRIGHT>Copyright 1997 by Reuters</CLARI-ITEM> / <CLARI-ITEM DATE>Tue, 25 Mar 1997 9:12:07 PST</CLARI-ITEM>
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<CLARI-ITEM STORY>
 JERUSALEM (Reuter) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat left the door
open Tuesday for a crisis summit after six days of clashes in
the West Bank.
 In the towns of Bethlehem and Hebron, Israeli troops wounded
dozens of Palestinians protesting Netanyahu's groundbreaking on
a Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem a week ago. The
soldiers fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse
stone-throwers.
 Arafat, on a visit to the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo,
said he was prepared to meet Netanyahu so long as the purpose of
their meeting was to discuss peace and not a publicity stunt.
 ``Why not? If this is for peace I am ready, but if it is for
propaganda, it is something different,'' Arafat told reporters.
 U.S. officials said a peace mission by Middle East
negotiator Dennis Ross was under consideration but far from set.
 Netanyahu's communications chief David Bar-Illan said the
prime minister would accept a summit with Arafat so long as the
issue of security topped the agenda.
 ``We are obviously not rejecting any idea for a meeting but
we expect that if such a meeting takes place, it will focus on
the issues of security and terrorism,'' Bar-Illan told Reuters.
 Palestinians object to any preconditions and say the sides
must talk about other issues besides security.
 Palestinians deny charges by Netanyahu that Arafat has given
Islamic militants a tacit ``green light'' to carry out attacks,
including a Palestinian's suicide bombing that killed three
women at a Tel Aviv cafe last week.
 In Jerusalem, Israel's army chief Amnon Shahak said on
Tuesday: ``The ground is obviously fertile for more attacks ...
We are in a very tense situation.''
 Ending a visit to Sri Lanka, Arafat said his Palestinian
Authority had acted against those who opposed the law, including
the main Islamic militant group Hamas. He accused Israel of
fomenting confrontation between Palestinian groups.
 ``The Israeli government is looking to having instability
and confrontation between the Palestinians, a civil war, which
we cannot accept,'' Arafat said when asked about Israel's demand
that he clamp down on militant groups.
 Arafat's Fatah movement, angry at the building of 6,500
homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, called on Palestinians to
confront Jewish settlement activity with non-violent protests
and by blocking roads used by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
 ``Our objective is to raise our voice to the world against
settlement activity. But we are not calling for violence,''
Fatah spokesman Mahmoud Jasser told Reuters.
 Monday, Mohammad Dahlan, the head of Palestinian Preventive
Security in Gaza, said he had stopped security coordination with
Israel. Netanyahu's adviser Dore Gold said the only possible
security contacts were at a low level.
 Ross, the U.S. Middle East peace envoy, underscored in an
interview with the MSNBC cable television network the need ``for
100 percent effort'' in fighting terrorism and said: ``We'd like
to see them (the Palestinians) do more.''
 Police released three Israeli Arabs after determining they
were not involved in Friday's suicide bombing, Israel Radio
said.
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