950806

Israelis set up

ring to spy

on PLO

JERUSALEM: Israeli religious activists and settlers have created a network to spy on PLO officials as part of a campaign to force the closure of the Palestinian headquarters in annexed East Jerusalem.

Armed with pistols, portable telephones and video cameras, a group of 20 men film comings and goings or tail the cars of Palestinian officials who want a share of the holy city for the capital of their own future state.

With city hall support, they are building up files which they hope to use in court or for propaganda in the struggle to maintain Jewish sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.

The settlers interests range wide and include property acquisitions by Palestinians, the opening of offices and gun permits.

The group, from the highly politicised Belt Orot Bible Institute on the Mount of Olives, work surveillance shifts outside the PLO headquarters called Orient House or other targets such as the home of Faisal Husseini, the de facto PLO minister for Jerusalem.

Among one of their victims is Ahmad Tibi, an Arab born in Israel who acts as an adviser to PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.

They also maintain a less than discreet presence outside the American Colony hotel, frequented by Palestinian society in East Jerusalem.

The "spies" have published a map of alleged PLO government offices in East Jerusalem and accuse the government of turning a blind eye to Palestinian attempts to strengthen the Arab character of the annexed sector of the city.

The Forum for Greater Jerusalem, a right-wing body lobbying to expand the municipal borders to include a large swathe of the occupied West Bank, has thrown its weight behind the campaign of intimidation.

The forum has set up its office in a tent outside Orient House.-AFP