Barak makes impassioned plea to Arafat to end violence

TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made an impassioned plea to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday to return to the negotiating table and stop the Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed for the sake of peace.

''I call on Yasser Arafat: Don't let the radicals lead you along the path of pain and suffering for both peoples. You are able to stop the deterioration and bloodshed,'' Barak said to the applause of more than 50,000 Israelis at a peace rally commemorating the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

''From here, tonight, now I call on you to put an end to violence and stretch your hand to peace of the brave, of respecting and implementing agreements,'' he said.

It was Barak's first such appeal to Arafat since Israeli-Palestinian violence broke out more than five weeks ago. The violence has claimed close to 170 lives, most of them Palestinian, in the worst bloodshed since the sides began peace talks in 1993.

In an excerpt from an interview conducted Wednesday in Gaza that will air Sunday on CBS's ''60 Minutes,'' Arafat rejected the claim that he could effectively stop the bloodshed, saying Israel is to blame.

Meanwhile, the violence showed some signs of abating after President Clinton called the warring sides' leaders to Washington for talks in a bid to end the bloodshed. Both Barak and Arafat accepted the invitations for separate meetings, most likely to be held next weekend, officials said Saturday.

Barak, surrounded by guards, addressed Israeli peace supporters who flocked to the rally to remember Rabin, the warrior who led his nation to accept the inevitability of peace with the Palestinians.

The demonstration on the former Kings of Israel Square in downtown Tel Aviv, now Rabin Square, was meant to send a strong message that Rabin's dream was not killed by the recent bloodshed.

Many in the huge crowd were young people, some of them sitting on the ground in circles around burning candles. Naama Litvak, 17, said she and her friends miss Rabin.

''It is a personal loss that we feel,'' she said.

During a similar peace rally exactly five years ago, Rabin was shot at that very spot by a Jewish ultranationalist who opposed his course of trading land for peace. Now, amid the violence, many are questioning Rabin's legacy while others say negotiations are the only choice.

''We really don't know the way. We are one country but two people, Israelis and Arabs,'' said 49-year-old teacher Gafen Dolev-Doha, while memorial candles flickered around her at the square. ''Rabin went a long way of war and blood but then thought, maybe there is another, better way.''

On Saturday, Arafat said he had some problems with the date for the Clinton meeting - Nov. 9, said his spokesman Nabil Aburdeneh. He said Clinton expressed sorrow over Palestinian victims in the conflict and stated his desire to advance the peace process.

Barak told the rally he was likely to travel to Washington at the end of next week ''to try to bring about stability and relaxation'' of the violence.

Arafat, meanwhile, lashed out at Israel for supposed violations of the latest cease-fire deal and said he wanted the United States to push Israel into compliance.

''We want the Americans to push Israel into implementing what has been agreed upon,'' he told reporters in Gaza. ''Israel was supposed to immediately lift the closures of Palestinian cities, lift the siege and reopen the (Gaza) airport. I'm sorry to say that until this minute the siege has not been lifted.''

The sides so far have concluded several cease-fire deals, including one brokered by Clinton in Egypt, that were violated as soon as they were announced. The latest one was agreed upon Thursday by Arafat and former Israeli premier Shimon Peres, Rabin's longtime rival and comrade-in-arms.

Both sides have issued calls for restraint. Although the momentum generated by daily clashes proved hard to stop and Palestinian territories were far from quiet, Israeli reports noted a ''certain relaxation'' in the scope of the violence.

On Saturday, a Palestinian girl was shot in the head when passing stone-throwing youths on her way home from school near the West Bank town of Hebron. Doctors said 14-year-old Kazala Jaradat was critically wounded with live fire; the Israeli army said its troops only used rubber-coated steel bullets in the clash.

By midday Saturday, more than 60 Palestinians had received light to moderate wounds in clashes across the West Bank and Gaza. However, Israel's army command reported only a handful of shooting attacks on Israeli troops reported.

That was a significant change from the preceding days - the three soldiers killed in clashes Wednesday, the car bomb that killed two Israelis in Jerusalem Thursday and the three Palestinians shot dead Friday amid a spate of firefights.

Still, top Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath, who echoed Arafat in charging Israel with violating the latest understandings, said soldiers must stop using excessive force against stone-throwing youths.

''They are using any stone-throwing incident as an excuse to injure 20 Palestinians or more,'' Shaath told The Associated Press. ''We told them from the beginning ... that the incidents of throwing stones are impossible to stop in a day and night and that it will take time.''