Ramallah - Thousands of Palestinians rallied in this West Bank city yesterday in support of Mr Yasser Arafat after corruption allegations were laid against his self-rule authority. Some of the estimated crowd of 6,000, mainly supporters of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction, fired shots in the air as others carried Palestinian flags and held up photos of Mr Arafat.
One Palestinian minister, Mr Nabil Amr, defended the crackdown on Tuesday and warned that action in future would be dealt with harshly. Tuesday's crackdown on critics. "We will guard freedom of opinion and are keen to preserve it," he said, "but there is a crucial difference between the freedom . . . to spread accusations that sow doubts and gossip . . . among the people and between expressing reasonable and responsible opinions."