Israel Blacklists Palestinian Lawmakers

Israel issued on Sunday a blacklist of 12 Palestinian lawmakers barred from personally attending a session of the Palestinian parliament in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment but Israel had said earlier in the week that lawmakers "involved in terror" would not be permitted to attend the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) session on Monday.

The meeting was expected to be the first time that most of the 86 members of the legislative assembly would meet in person since a Palestinian uprising for independence began in September 2000 after negotiations for a final peace treaty deadlocked.

Over the past two years, lawmakers prevented from attending parliament sessions by Israeli military roadblocks and other restrictions have participated from their hometowns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through a television linkup.

Palestinian officials said the 12 lawmakers banned from attending Monday's session, all of whom are from the Gaza Strip, would take part in the meeting via a video link.

"We will not surrender to the Israeli dictates. The PLC will go ahead with the session the way we see fit," Nabil Amr, a parliamentarian and former cabinet minister, told Reuters.

The lawmakers were expected to vote on Yasser Arafat's June cabinet reshuffle at the parliament building after hearing a speech by the Palestinian President on "national, political and security matters" at his Ramallah headquarters.

A Western diplomat close to the Palestinian Authority said he expected Arafat's address to the assembly to include a call to both Palestinians and Israelis to end the violence that has torpedoed Mideast peace efforts during the past two years.

Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeineh said the Palestinian leader was still working on his speech, but he confirmed that U.S. and European officials were pressing for a clear and direct ceasefire call.

Ramallah has been under Israeli military occupation and regular curfews since June after a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings that killed scores of Israeli civilians.

Kamal Sharafi, one of the Gazan legislators prevented from traveling, said the partial ban was evidence that Israel wanted to hamper, rather than help, Palestinian political reform.

"Israel by this has proved to the world that they are working to sabotage the Palestinian political process and political institutions. We are representatives of our people, elected by the people and we have the full right to attend the session," Sharafi said.

Israel Radio quoted officials at the army's civil administration office as saying they were doing their utmost to facilitate the attendance of most parliamentarians but that those linked to "terror" would be barred from attending.

On Sunday, Israeli security forces maintained a heightened security alert following warnings that Palestinian militants were planning attacks over the Jewish New Year holiday.

Police leave was cancelled over the weekend and security forces were on alert after police thwarted an attempt on Thursday by Palestinian militants to detonate a car bomb.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the bomb "without a doubt, could have caused the heaviest of disasters."

Armed guards were posted at synagogues across the country as hundreds of thousands of religious Jews attended holiday services. The holiday began on Friday and ends on Sunday night.

The army said it reimposed curfews on five West Bank cities for the duration of the holiday as part of its heightened security measures.

Police feared militants would target holiday celebrations as they did during the Passover Jewish holiday in March, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 29 people attending a festive meal at a hotel in the coastal city of Netanya.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested five Palestinians during a sweep of the village of Yatta and a Palestinian youth was lightly hurt in the leg from Israeli gunfire after a group of stone-throwers pelted tanks enforcing the curfew with rocks.

The incident followed the wounding of four Palestinian stone-throwers in clashes with troops in Jenin on Saturday.

At least 1,537 Palestinians and 591 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began two years ago over the Jewish New Year holiday.