Bethlehem Peace Not Enough, Says Arafat Calls West Bank, Gaza Constraints Issue, Cause Of Economic Hardship

Yasser Arafat said Thursday that Israel’s conciliatory move to lift the month-long siege of Bethlehem was too small a gesture.

The Palestinian leader, who toured a factory and met with professors at Hebron University, complained that Israel’s broader closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip constituted collective punishment and cost his economy $9 million a day in lost trade and wages.

“It’s a good step, but it is not enough,” Arafat said.

An aide to Arafat, meanwhile, called for U.S. pressure on Israel to end the overall blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel imposed the closure after a July 30 suicide bombing by Islamic militants in a Jerusalem market that killed 16 people. The measure bars all Palestinians, including some 100,000 workers, from entering Israel.

A Palestinian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Palestinian police arrested two suspects in the bombing in Bethlehem in the past week.

The information was passed on to the Americans who relayed it to the Israelis, he said.

However, another official later denied the report. He said Palestinian police in Bethlehem have arrested suspects in connection with a bomb factory discovered in the area last month, but that the detainees had no links to the Jerusalem blast.

Israeli officials believed that Hamas masterminds of the bombing were hiding in the city. The two bombers were never identified, though some media reports said they came from abroad.

Israel has said that even if the bombers came from abroad, they were likely helped by Hamas activists in the West Bank.

The siege of Bethlehem barred its 60,000 residents from leaving and prevented many pilgrims from visiting the biblical birthplace of Jesus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would only ease the broader travel ban once the Palestinians did more to rein in the militants, particularly Hamas.