El Bireh, Ramallah and Nablus, West Bank; Amman, Jordan; Sidon, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria - December 14 1998
AGENCY COMMON
El Bireh, West Bank
1. Various of Palestinians throwing stones.
2. Palestinian police trying to stop demonstrators burning tyres
3. Israeli troops fire tear gas and rubber bullets into crowd
4. Israeli troops
APTN
Ramallah, West Bank
5. Wide of women holding pictures of sons, who are prisoners
6. Various close ups of women shouting slogans
7. Wide of students marching
8. Various of banners against Clinton's visit
9. Close up student chanting
10. Students burning flags
Nablus, West Bank
11. Palestinians with pictures of prisoners
12. Close up child chanting
13. Demonstrator with megaphone shouting slogans against Clinton and U-S-A
14. Various of Palestinians shouting slogans
Amman, Jordan
15. Wide shot demonstration
16. People carrying a banner saying "Refugee until I return"
17. Various shots of students shouting slogans
18. Various green flags
19. Various shouting Arafat is a traitor and the Koran is the solution
20. Banner saying "We are all Ahmed Yassin, no to the deportation no for creating a homeland."
21. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Sheik Hassan Abyu Dbaah, Camps
22. Demonstrators (Soundbite overlaid)
23. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Abdul Majid Shehada, Vox Pop
24. Various shots of demonstration
Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp, Sidon
25. Burning American and Israeli Flags
26. Fighters with machine guns and behind them a banner condemning Wye Plantation agreement
27. Masked fighters
28. Fighters with machine guns
29. Close up burning flags
30. People with Palestinian Flag
31. SOUNDBITE: (English) Khaled Younes, Democratic Front for Liberating Palestine (D-F-L-P)
32. Fighters with machine guns stamping American and Israeli flags
33. SOUNDBITE: (English) Abou Ali Hassan, Popular Front For Liberating Palestine, (P-F-L-P)
34. Group of fighters with American and Israeli flags before and during setting fire to them
Damascus, Syria
35. Pull out from flags to wide of crowd
36. Pan of crowd of demonstrators
37. Pull out from flag
38. Side shot of man addressing rally
39. Protestors in street
40. Boy on man's shoulders waving flag
41. Burning Israeli flag
Arabic/Eng/Nat
President Clinton's visit to the Middle East continues to provoke reactions from hardline Palestinians.
Arabs throughout the region have been demonstrating against moves by Yasser Arafat to water down the Palestinian charter as agreed under the Wye Accord.
The Palestinian government-in-exile voted to revoke clauses in the P-L-O charter that calls for the destruction of Israel, under pressure from the United States and Israel.
But extremist Palestinians have accused their leaders of betraying the Palestinian cause.
As U-S President Bill Clinton prepared to address the Palestinian assembly, Israeli troops in the West Bank clashed with young Palestinian demonstrators.
The men were apparently trying to break into the settlement of el Bireh.
At first Palestinian police tried to prevent the Palestinian demonstrators burning tyres as they approached the Jewish settlement.
Israeli troops then blocked their path and fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd.
Palestinian police were among the crowd.
Earlier hundreds of Palestinians had taken to the streets of the West Bank to demand the release of the prisoners still held in Israeli gaols.
Under the Wye agreement Israeli troops are to withdraw from a further 13 percent of the West Bank, in return for a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism.
But the deal has faltered, with both sides accusing the other of reneging on the agreed terms.
Israel had promised to release 750 prisoners by the end of January.
Last month, Israel freed 250, but most were common criminals rather than political prisoners.
There is also great mistrust of America.
Many Palestinians accuse the U-S of indirect involvement with Israel's cause.
In Nablus, another West Bank town, demonstrators shouted slogans condemning Clinton.
Clinton's appearance at the specially convened session of the Palestine National Council (P-N-C) was the centre piece of his trip.
But while the politicians debated, the Palestinian people were calling for the vote to be cancelled until the issue of the prisoners was resolved.
The protests have not been confined to the West Bank.
In Palestinian communities throughout the middle East, feelings are running high.
In Jordan, about four-hundred Palestinian refugees gathered to protest changes to the Palestinian charter.
Hard liners, such as these, in Jordan, who were at the forefront of the fight for a Palestinian state, say they feel let down by Yasser Arafat.
Ever since the first peace treaty with Israel in 1993, Palestinian leaders have referred to the clauses in the charter calling for the destruction of the Jewish state as null and void.
Now, on the day of Clinton's visit to Gaza, the National Palestinian Council voted to revoke the clause.
Members of Palestinian refugee groups want to register their anger.
As refugees from the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, these people feel particularly betrayed by the move.
Camp council members also believe that it is premature to revoke such a clause until peace has been reached.
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"We don't want the people to think that we are against a just peace, we are against normalisation until peace is justly implemented."
SUPER CAPTION: Sheik Hassan Abyu Dbaah, Baqaa Camp Council
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"We would accept to live in a tent if it meant living in our own country."
SUPER CAPTION: Abdul Majid Shehada, Vox Pop
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the mood was no different.
Protestors in the southern city of Sidon burned U-S and Israeli flags and criticised the Wye agreement.
They were lambasting Clinton and Netanyahu for their roles in Wye.
They believe Israel has unfairly pressured the Palestine government into changing its historic charter.
And they claim Clinton forced the Palestinians into a humiliating climb down.
They are called their own leaders traitors, shouting slogans against Arafat.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We, the sons of the Palestinian People, announce our condemnation of the meeting taking place in Gaza today the 14th of December which will be held as a consequence to the American demand and Zionist Presence in order to Nullify our National Palestinian Pact. We announce with power and strictness our refusal to modify or nullify any Paragraph in the National Palestinian Pact, and our support to the Palestinian Popular Convention taking place in Damascus."
SUPER CAPTION: Khaled Younes, Democratic Front for Liberating Palestine (D-F-L-P)
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They want the rights which is known as the rights for any people. They didn't accept Wye Plantation, they didn't accept the Israeli Occupation, they didn't accept all agreements which didn't give them their simple and well-known rights."
SUPER CAPTION: Abou Ali Hassan, Popular Front For Liberating Palestine, (P-F-L-P)
And in Syria demonstrators shouted "Clinton get out! Palestine will remain free!".
Many of the 15-hundred demonstrators carried banners denouncing Arafat's peace deals with Israel and his plan to revoke calls for Israel's destruction.
These people want to return to an independent Palestine as soon as possible.
But, if their feelings are representative of the whole of the Palestinian people, then it could be some time before the dream of peace in the Middle East is finally realised.
