The leading Palestinian official in Jerusalem, and a man who was until recently perceived as being among the most moderate Palestinian leaders, died unexpectedly yesterday of a heart attack. Faisal Husseini was 60.
It was indicative of the hardening of opinions across the Israeli-Palestinian divide in re cent months that Mr Husseini died in Kuwait, where he was attending a conference reportedly devoted to resisting the normalisation of Arab relations with Israel.
The Baghdad-born scion of a prominent Palestinian family, Mr Husseini had been a member of a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation that held lengthy peace talks with Israel after the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, had visited the Israeli Knesset, and had warm relations with many leading Israeli left-wing and centrist politicians.
Yet his support for peaceful co-existence had given way to a more hawkish tone since the outbreak of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September.
Cementing the anti-Israeli bitterness, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who cut short a visit to Brussels with the news of Mr Husseini's death, charged that it had been exacerbated by the inhalation of tear-gas, in canisters fired by Israeli troops at a recent demonstration attended by Mr Husseini.
Mr Arafat and Mr Husseini had a fractious relationship: after one dispute at the Palestinian cabinet table, Mr Arafat tried to marginalise Mr Husseini by setting up a separate Ministry for Jerusalem Affairs and freezing funding for Mr Husseini's Orient House headquarters in East Jerusalem - impediments which Mr Husseini overcame because of his wide support among east Jerusalem Palestinians and his ability to raise private funds abroad.
Mr Husseini's death came on the same day as a further shooting by Palestinian gunmen of a Jewish settler, 63-year-old Tsv ika Shelef, on a West Bank road. This was the 24th such killing since the conflict erupted, and it brought intensified demands by Israeli right-wingers for all-out war against the Palestinian Authority.
Mr Avigdor Lieberman, a cabinet minister and head of a right-wing faction in the coalition government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, demanded a 48-hour military blitz to "topple the governmental bodies of the Palestinian Authority" because, he said, "it is not outlaw bodies that are conducting the acts of murder and killing against us, but the Palestinian Authority itself".
Mr Sharon, however, is resisting such calls. Visiting the relatives of another settler shot dead earlier in the week, Gilad Zar, he said his blood was boiling over the killings, but he would not be pushed into taking action that he did not think appropriately timed.
During the condolence call, which was video-taped, Mr Sharon sat expressionless, as Mr Zar's sister screamed at him to "wage war" against the Palestinians.
Settlers protesting outside Mr Sharon's office yesterday echoed the theme, demanding "revenge now". Settler leaders announced that they were setting up an armed militia to patrol West Bank roads. Near Nablus, a settler opened fire on a Palestinian car, injuring two people, and a group of settlers stoned and beat up several Palestinians, one of whom was badly hurt. Three of the alleged assailants were arrested.
Agencies reports from Brussels: Mr Arafat sa id yesterday that the limited ceasefire announced by Israel was a ploy for preparing "an atrocious war" against the Palestinian Authority.
He said Israel had an ulterior motive in announcing last week that its troops, battling an eight month-old Palestinian uprising for independence, would fire only if attacked. He said Israel aimed to use the limited ceasefire to "mobilise the Israeli masses, to prepare them for what will be an atrocious, far-reaching war against the Palestinians in which they will use all military means to paralyse the activity of the Palestinian Authority."
The European Commission was yesterday to sign an agreement providing €60 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, a spokesman said.