Boosted by another declaration from President Bush in support of Palestinian statehood, the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, stepped up his efforts in Gaza yesterday to suppress displays of public support for Osama bin Laden, but he allowed two West Bank demonstrations condemning the bombing of Afghanistan to go ahead.
Mr Arafat has pledged the Palestinian Authority's full support for the US-led coalition against terrorism, and has been rewarded with increasingly overt assurances of US support for an independent Palestine, culminating in Mr Bush's comments on Thursday that "there ought to be a Palestinian state, the boundaries of which would be negotiated by the parties".
Palestinian ministers yesterday urged the Bush Administration to transform such assurances into active policy.
Mr Bush also applauded Mr Arafat for "trying to control the radical elements" operating inside Palestinian territory. In that vein, Mr Arafat yesterday prevented Islamic Jihad from holding a rally at a Gaza mosque in support of bin Laden. Mr Arafat barred journalists from the area surrounding the mosque, in the Maghazi refugee camp.
On Monday, three Palestinians were reported killed when Palestinian police used live fire to disperse a pro-bin Laden march in Gaza City, and Mr Arafat has now also arrested Ala al-Saftawi, the editor of an Islamic Jihad newspaper in Gaza, who wrote an editorial castigating the killings, and cancelled a TV talk show, whose host, Hassan Kashef, issued similar criticisms.
Mr Arafat is walking a tightrope, well aware of the strong identification with bin Laden among sections of the Palestinian public. He chose not to try to ban two demonstrations - in Ramallah and Nablus - at which 3,000 Palestinians chanted bin Laden's name, denounced the Bush Administration as a "monster" for shelling Kabul, and called Mr Bush "the father of terrorism".
Mr Marwan Barghouti, the West Bank head of Mr Arafat's own Fatah faction of the PLO, led the protests in Ramallah and was joined by many other Fatah activists, alongside Hamas supporters. Like the Islamic militant groups, Mr Barghouti has openly defied Mr Arafat's ceasefire calls.
Intifada violence is continuing - but at a markedly less intense level. Israeli extremists are suspected of shooting two Palestinians in the West Bank on Thursday night. There were exchanges of gunfire near Gaza's Gadid settlement yesterday. And Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a school bus on the West Bank.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, is urging a reluctant Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, to ease restrictions on movement for Palestinians in the West Bank and withdraw the army from Palestinian neighbourhoods it took over last week in Hebron. Mr Peres yesterday met aides to Mr Arafat, but his office said no further talks with Mr Arafat were envisaged at present.
Dr Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian academic and former peace negotiator, was appointed yesterday by Mr Arafat to succeed the late Faisal Husseini as head of Jerusalem affairs. Dr Nusseibeh is urging Israel to relinquish control of Orient House.