Israel won't drag Palestinians to violence: PM Fayyad

HEBRON, West Bank, (Agencies) - Israels plan to include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish heritage plan is a clear provocation but the Palestinians will not be dragged into violence, the Palestinian Prime Minister said Friday.
Protesting at what he said was a politically-motivated move by Israel, Salam Fayyad attended Friday prayers (Namaz-e-Juma) at the Ibrahimi Mosque on the fifth day of clashes amid mounting international concern over Israels addition of the shrine to its national heritage list.
Dozens of Palestinian youths hurled rocks and set up burning barricades in running battles with Israeli soldiers, who responded with teargas and stun grenades, an AFP correspondent reported. There were no reports of casualties.
Israel has decided to usurp Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi in the Palestinian city of Al-Khalil and Masjid Bilal Ibne Rabah in the occupied cit of Bethlehem.
The plan, which has triggered daily stone-throwing protests by Palestinians in the ancient city this week, has been described by Palestinian politicians as another obstacle in the way of US efforts to broker a resumption of peace talks.
The US said it had raised concerns with Israel about the designation of sites as Israeli 'national heritage sites, a US State Department spokesman said Thursday. Both sides should refrain from provocations, he said.
UNESCO expressed its concern about Israels plan and the resulting escalation of tension in the area.
It was UNESCOs long-standing conviction that cultural heritage should serve as a means for dialogue, a statement issued from the agencys Paris headquarters said.
The Hamas which rules Gaza has called for a new Intifada (uprising) against Israel in response to the plan.
Fayyad, who heads a rival government in the West Bank, said: We will not be dragged to violence by the terrorism of the settlers, and the terrorism of the settlement project.
Our people understand all the dimensions of this political decision but they are determined to respond by building a positive reality on the ground, he told Reuters.
This is what we call a quiet revolution, added Fayyad, whose Western-backed administration has set the goal of building the institutions of a Palestinian state by mid-2011.
A dozens of youths pelted Israeli soldiers with stones in a rain-lashed Hebron Friday. The soldiers fired teargas at the Palestinians, who were fewer in number than earlier this week.
Fayyad, speaking to journalists, described the Hebron shrine as an inseparable part of the lands occupied in 1967.
Meanwhile, Israel has given the green light for 600 new homes in a Jewish settlement in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, the Haaretz daily reported on Friday.
The development in the Pisgat Zeev neighbourhood, which has been planned for some years, was approved with modifications by the Interior Ministrys Jerusalem district urban planning committee on January 12, a document obtained by AFP showed.