by Hossam Ezzedin and Majeda El Batsch
RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 21 (AFP) - Deputies added to the Palestinian leadership`s turmoil on Wednesday by endorsing calls for a new government to tackle the spiralling security chaos as another official was briefly kidnapped.
A report calling on veteran leader Yasser Arafat to accept the resignation of his prime minister Ahmed Qorei was passed on an overwhelming show of hands in the Ramallah-based parliament.
The vote added another twist to a week of political crisis, the most serious challenge yet to Arafat`s hold on power, and overshadowed a diplomatic victory for the Palestinians at the United Nations over Israel`s West Bank barrier.
The report, compiled by a specially formed committee of MPs, called for Arafat "to accept the resignation of the current government and the formation of a new government."
Qorei has already submitted his resignation to Arafat, but the veteran leader and overall head of the Palestinian Authority, has refused to accept it.
"The current government, for whose formation the parliament gave its confidence, has not implemented its program and has not exerted its functions/prerogatives as written in the Basic Law," the report said.
"It has also failed to fulfill its responsiblities in controlling the domestic situation and improve the security of its people."
The state of chaos was rammed home late Tuesday when one of the report`s authors, former information minister Nabil Amr, was attacked by gunmen in Ramallah.
Amr, who was recovering in hospital Wednesday, said he would not be silenced by opponents after what he called an "assassination" attempt.
Qorei condemned the "cowardly attack", adding in a statement that it was "a direct manifestation of the deep security crisis that rages among our people and leadership."
And a local official was also briefly kidnapped by masked gunmen Wednesday in the northern West Bank town of Nablus.
Fadel Asshuli, who is in charge of village affairs in the Nablus area, was freed several hours after being abducted by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat`s Fatah movement.
Qorei submitted his resignation on Saturday after a spate of kidnappings, including the abduction of the police chief for the Gaza Strip.
He has been fighting for greater control of the security services since coming to power last autumn, but Arafat has refused to release his grip.
Qorei`s predecessor, Mahmud Abbas, quit afer losing a similar struggle.
A botched revamp of the security services last week, which saw Arafat first promote and then demote his unpopular cousin, has served to weaken Arafat`s position at a time when international pressure is mounting.
In an almost unprecedented intervention, the overall leader of the Islamist movement Hamas phoned Arafat on Wednesday and called for an end to the chaos.
The Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal told both Arafat and Abbas in a phone call that intra-Palestinian dialogue was needed to solve the crisis.
With MPs reluctant openly to condemn Arafat, Wednesday`s vote is another way of registering deep unease with the performance of his Palestinian Authority.
Arafat himself spoke by telephone to a meeting of Palestinian refugees at the Rashidiyeh camp in southern Lebanon, promising to "continue to work for the consolidation and strengthening of national unity."
He repeated his commitment to a right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland and to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The international community, meanwhile, is openly calling on him to cede power.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Arafat to "yield real executive power to a prime minister for that prime minister to do what is needed for the Palestinian community."
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, on a tour of the Middle East that will take him to Israel on Thursday, also urged Arafat to loosen his grip.
"I think that the manner to tackle the issue (of the Palestinian crisis) is having an efficient PM with power and abilities," he said in Jordan.
Meanwhile, Israel vowed Wednesday to continue building its West Bank barrier despite overwhelming condemnation in a UN General Assembly vote hailed as a watershed diplomatic victory by the Palestinians.
"We have every right to defend ourselves and are determined to construct this fence," Dore Gold, a senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told AFP after the resolution underwrote a recent world court ruling.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said the decision was "a major victory for Palestinian diplomacy and the Palestinian people" while chief Arafat advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said the government would push for sanctions to be imposed if Israel did not comply with the resolution.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday Israel should heed the world court ruling to tear down parts of the barrier built on Palestinian territory.
"Even though it`s not enforceable, it has some moral bearing on what they do," Annan said.