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Arafat slams

Israel for serving

closure notices

GAZA: PLO head Yasser Arafat on Monday slammed Israel's intention to serve closure notices on three Palestinian institutions in Arab East Jerusalem as contrary to the 1993 PLO-Israel interim peace accord.

"It's completely against the agreement. Especially that those three centres are very old centres, (from) even before our Palestinian Authority and our arrival here in Gaza," Arafat told reporters in Gaza City.

On Sunday Israel police spokesman Eric Bar-Chen said the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Council of Health would be handed a warning letter on Monday.

"If they do not close within these 96 hours, then the minister will sign an order to close them," he said.

Justice Minister David Libai told Israel Radio on Monday that the offices' options were to "stop their activities or change the substance of their activities".

The decision was a clear signal to the PLO that Israel intended to keep a tight grip on all of Jerusalem, including the Arab eastern sector captured in the 1967 Middle East War, despite a gradual handover of the occupied West Bank to Palestinian rule.

Jerusalem is up for negotiation at final status peace talks between Israel and the PLO set to start in mid-1996.

Under the 1993 peace deal, the Palestinian Authority must restrict its activities to areas under self-rule -- currently the Gaza Strip and West Bank enclave of Jericho. Israel maintains the three offices are conducting authority business.-Reuter