1 Palestinian leaders warned Thursday that the closure of West Bank and Gaza during the holy fasting month of Ramadan and stepped-up Jewish settlement construction could lead to a new uprising against Israel.
2 Faisal Husseini, a minister in the PLO's self-rule government, issued the warning a day after Jerusalem's planning council approved construction of 6,500 Jewish homes in the city's eastern sector, which is claimed by the Palestinians as a future capital.
3 Husseini said the construction would undermine support for Arafat and boost Islamic militants who oppose reconciliation with Israel.
4 'If the PLO loses the leadership, then the only ones who can assume this role are the fundamentalists. And if this happens.we will witness a new uprising and no one will be able to stop it,' Husseini said on Israel's army Radio.
5 Palestinians waged a six-year uprising against Israeli occupation that was instrumental in bringing Israel and the PLO to the negotiating table in 1993.
6 Husseini's remarks came just hours before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met with Arafat and other Arab leaders in Cairo to try to rescue the failing Israel-PLO peace talks.
7 The construction dispute coincides with mounting anger among Palestinians who may be denied access to Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem during Ramadan, which began Tuesday, because of the closure imposed by Israel after a suicide bombing last week.
8 The top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem called on Palestinians to challenge the closure by trying to reach Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan this week.
9 'I call on Palestinians to attend the prayers at the mosque. If not (allowed), they can pray at the military roadblock,' said Ikrema Sabri, the mufti of Jerusalem.
10 He told The Associated Press that hundreds of thousands would have their observance of Ramadan impeded by the closure.
11 Israel sealed off the territories after a Jan. 22 suicide bombing by Islamic extremists in central Israel that killed 20 soldiers and a civilian.
12 Since the September 1993 Israel-PLO accord, 116 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
13 Israeli officials, meanwhile, said they would consider easing the closure to enable Ramadan observance.
14 'If there is a sense that security arrangements are acceptable, we will allow (Palestinians) to come here for prayer,' said Police Minister Moshe Shahal, touring the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located.
15 'It can be assumed that starting next week the closure will be eased because of Ramadan. We are not interested in punishing the Palestinian population,' Shahal said later on Israel television.
16 Police commissioner Assaf Hefetz said Israeli forces were on alert in any case. Hundreds of reinforcements were deployed in Jerusalem in preparation for Friday's Ramadan prayers.
17 'We take this month very seriously,' Hefetz said, noting it was the first Ramadan since Palestinian autonomy was established in Gaza and Jericho. 'Jerusalem will be getting reinforcements (and) during Friday prayers we will deploy much larger forces.'
18 Officials also fear militants could try to time an attack for the anniversary of the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers by Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein in a Hebron mosque last Feb. 25.
19 A leaflet distributed by Arafat's mainstream Fatah group warned 'the closure and settlements will lead to more escalation that would put the entire peace process in serious jeopardy.'

" If the PLO loses the leadership , then the only ones who can assume this role are the fundamentalists . And if this happens . we will witness a new uprising and no one will be able to stop it , " Husseini said on Israel ' s army Radio .
fundamentalists
What are the different political groups in this area?