Seizing base was the most provocative Israeli option

From the Palestinian point of view, closing down Orient House, the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, was the most provocative step the Israelis could have taken in retaliation for Thursday's bombing in West Jerusalem. Orient House, an elegant mansion set in a garden on a tree-shaded street at the heart of occupied East Jerusalem, represents the Palestinian aspiration for an independent state with its capital in this sector of the holy city.

By taking over the premises permanently, Israel has, effectively, deprived Jerusalem's Palestinian citizens of civic and national representation. The Palestine Authority is allowed no formal presence in the city.

The Israelis doubled the provocation when they took down the Palestinian flag and ran up the Israeli flag.

The red, white, green and black Palestinian flag was raised over Orient House on September 13th, 1993, at the moment the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the then Israeli prime minister, Yitzak Rabin, were presiding over the signing of the Oslo Accord. Until that time, it had been an offence to display the Palestinian flag in Jerusalem.

Mr Ahmad Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian Cabinet Secretary said yesterday: "The Israeli occupation of Orient House aims to destroy all the agreements signed since 1993."

The house was erected by the Husseini family in 1860 and lavishly rebuilt in 1890-1895. In the late 1980s the city's leading Palestinian political figure, Faisal Husseini, who died on May 31st, moved the office of his Arab Studies Centre to Orient House. Other Palestinian non-governmental agencies, cultural and welfare organisations used its facilities.

Since the Palestinian uprising, the Intifada, erupted 10 months ago Orient House has played a central role in providing aid to families impoverished by Israel's policy of besieging Palestinian towns and villages. A Palestinian welfare worker told The Irish Times that Israel's seizure of files of charitable organisations "is going to create a headache for us although everything is open and above board".