UNITED NATIONS, ARAB LEAGUE, (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Islamic and Arab nations look determined to advance the Palestinian's cause on the world stage. Meetings in New York, the UN heaquarters and in Cairo, the Arab League's headquarters took the subject to heart and came up with a number of recommendations and drew up action plans to serve that end.
In New York, Islamic nations called Wednesday for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to end the Israeli takeover of key Palestinian institutions and for international observers to calm escalating violence.
But the United States, which has blocked two previous attempts to get the council to send international observers to protect Palestinians, indicated it would oppose a third attempt - because of Israeli objections.
The Security Council is expected to discuss the request from the 50-member Organization of the Islamic Conference on Thursday, and schedule an open meeting on Friday or Monday for countries to express their views on the 10-month-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In Cairo, Arab ministers Information Ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital Wednesday lashed out at the international media for playing a key role in what amounted to an Israeli disinformation campaign about the Palestinian uprising.
The closed-door gathering of information ministers and other top officials, attended by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, comes as the Arab world looks to forge a public relations strategy to bolster the Palestinian cause worldwide. (Read photo caption below)
"Some nations give legitimacy to Israel's use of modern weapons against the Palestinian people in their media coverage," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi al-Aridi, who chaired the meeting, said in an opening address.
He did not name any countries in particular but said major international media outlets were helping to foster the impression that "Israel is the victim."
Arab League chief Amr Mussa, speaking in an interview with BBC radio on the sidelines of the meeting, denounced Israel's attempt to "imply that it is the Palestinians who don't want peace."
Meanwhile a top Arab official said that Egyptian Information Minister Safwat al-Sherif had pressed Arab media to focus their attention on the United States and "not content themselves with Europe."
The emergency ministerial gathering was to be followed by four-way talks between Arafat, Mussa and the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan on a possible request to the United Nations for international troops in the region.
Arafat aides raised the possibility of the request on Tuesday just hours after Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into the West Bank Palestinian city of Jenin in Israel's deepest incursion into Palestinian territory since the uprising began in September.
Israel, which is vehemently opposed to any international presence apart from a handful of US intelligence personnel, last week also occupied Orient House, the highly symbolic unofficial Palestinian headquarters in Jerusalem.
Sources said Arafat used his speech before Wednesday's meeting to denounce the "Judaisation" of the city, which Israel insists will be its "undivided" capital and which the Palestinians want as capital of a future state.
They said the Palestinian leader made a special point of protesting any possible move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a re-location that would spark widespread outrage in the Arab and Islamic world.
"The Palestinian people will remain united as they wait for the Palestinian flag to be raised over Jerusalem," they quoted him saying.
Israel occupied Arab east Jerusalem in 1967 and its control over the part of the city claimed by Palestinians is not recognised by the international community.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, left, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa arrive to the Arab League headquarters in Cairo for an Arab Information Ministers meeting Wednesday Aug. 15, 2001. The meeting takes place in a bid to forge a common strategy following Israel's seizure of the Palestiniian headquarters in east Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Enric Marti)
- Aug 15 6:55 AM ET