Arafat promises ‘own state’ to Palestinians

The trip began shortly after the central committee of the right-wing Likud party voted never to accept a Palestinian state, drawing Arab condemnation and world concern.

The Likud vote at a heated convention in Tel Aviv on Sunday marked a victory for former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the incumbent Sharon in a looming battle for the party leadership.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said en route to a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Iceland that he had spoken to Sharon earlier on Monday and ‘‘he reaffirmed to me that he remains committed to moving forward to achieve that vision that I think most people have of a Palestinian state’’.

Sharon has spoken of the creation of a Palestinian state at the end of a long peacemaking process. He has since said it is premature to talk of a state and has called for major reform of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority as a precondition for talks.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Likud vote showed Israel’s true intentions and would increase Palestinians’ frustration in their 19-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation. European officials also said it would harm the search for peace and the US, Israel’s strongest ally, reiterated it supported an eventual Palestinian state.

However, Israeli political analysts said the decision by a Likud party forum that Netanyahu packed with supporters during his 1996-1999 tenure as prime minister would have little or no effect on Sharon’s actions.

Meanwhile, thousands of people waited to greet Arafat in the Jenin refugee camp, parts of which were flattened by Israeli troops during the offensive and where a still-undetermined number of civilians were killed as well as fighters. But with aides citing security concerns, he went to Jenin city instead, where he spoke in its town hall.

‘‘People of Jenin, all the citizens of Jenin and the refugee camp, this is Jenin-grad’’ — a reference to the World War II battle of Stalingrad. ‘‘Your battle has paved the way to the liberation of the occupied territories,’’ he said.

Palestinians have charged that Israel carried out massacres in the refugee camp. Human rights groups have reported they found no such evidence but said Israeli troops may have committed ‘‘war crimes’’ in the camp where at least 54 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed. (Reuters)