ARABS-ISRAEL - Nov. 18 - Arafat Calls Hebron Plan 'Big Crime'.

Speaking to reporters at his Ramallah compound, Arafat calls Israeli plan to tighten its grip on Hebron "a big crime". (He is referring to the proposal, raised by PM Sharon after Palestinian militants killed 12 soldiers and security men on Nov. 15 - see last week's Recorder. Sharon proposed to build corridors for Jewish settlers that would snake through Hebron, a biblical city divided into PA- and Israeli-controlled sectors under a 1997 interim peace deal. About 450 Jewish settlers, most armed and some among the most militant in the West Bank, live side-by-side with about 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron). Arafat says Israel is out to "Judaise" Hebron. Israeli officials said Sharon's Hebron plan involved creating a secure "corridor" linking the Tomb of the Patriarchs - which is holy to Muslims and Jews - and settler enclaves inside the city to the adjacent settlement of Kiryat Arba, where the Nov. 15 ambush took place. Former FM Shimon Peres slammed Sharon's security blueprint for Hebron, whose Palestinian sector was re-occupied by Israeli forces after the ambush. Peres told Israel Radio: "Making a 'sleeve' will necessitate the deployment of more soldiers to protect it, because the sleeve alone will not keep (the settlers) safe and will only increase friction". In another development, Israeli tanks and helicopters attacked PA Preventive Security Service's headquarters in Gaza. Army officials said they found and destroyed an explosives factory in the building, with Brigadier Yisrael Ziv telling Reuters: "We found a laboratory and a workshop inside the headquarters, where they made mortars, mortar bombs, rifle-mounted grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. The weapons were supplied on a large scale to terrorist organisations, including Islamic Jihad". PA officials denied weapons were made in the building, with Abu Shbak saying: "Every time they bomb a building, a house or a metal foundry they claim it was used to manufacture weapons". PA cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Israel was out "to destroy the peace process, the Palestinian Authority and to maintain the Israeli occupation". At least 1,665 Palestinians and 639 Israelis have been killed since the uprising for Palestinian statehood began in late-Sept. 2000.