Arafat in Mali on an African tour

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat headed today to Mali after his visit to Senegal on his current tour that includes some African countries and aims at collecting international support for declaring the independent Palestinian state on May 4.

Arafat convened a trilateral meeting that included Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and Jordan's King Abdullah Bin Hussein.

On the other hand, the Israeli authorities emptying Palestinian lands in eastern Jerusalem in the frame of the Judaization policy followed by the Israeli authorities in occupied Jerusalem.

This comes at a time in which the Israeli authorities decided to close the West Bank and Gaza Strip starting from today for two days and decided not to allow Palestinian citizens in Israel during celebrations of the 51st anniversary of the declaration of Israel.