Arab leaders call for boycott of Israel

A stern call by Arab ministers to sever all political contacts with Israel has thrown into question whether recent Egyptian-Jordanian efforts to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire will be dropped even as Middle East violence escalates.

It remains to be seen whether Arab governments, often criticised for being long on words but short on action, will follow through on the non-binding recommendation reached yesterday at an emergency meeting of the Arab League.

The foreign ministers and other senior officials at the meeting were believed to have been in contact with the highest levels of their governments during the eight-hour gathering in Cairo, Egypt, where Arab heavyweights used strong words to vent their anger at Israel’s recent escalation in military attacks.

‘‘The meeting called for severing all Arab political communication with Israel as long as the aggression of the siege on the Palestinian people and their national authority continues,’’ according to a statement issued at the end of the emergency meeting.

Anger in the Arab world is at fever-pitch as Israeli-Palestinian fighting has escalated to the use of warplane attacks, which Israel used on Friday in retaliation for a suicide bombing.

Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries that have peace agreements with Israel, recently proposed a peace plan that has been seen as one of the more serious efforts to quell the violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

It is not clear whether mediation efforts will continue following the Arab League statement, which was defended by new Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who spent years mediating the conflict as Egypt’s foreign minister, and Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah Khatib.

‘‘Our intention is not to talk about or fall in the trap of talking about peace proposals while we see that the Israeli government does not really mean it,’’ Moussa said after the meeting. ‘‘The attacks against the Palestinians have to stop.’’

Asked whether Egypt and Jordan will act on the league’s call, Khatib did not answer directly, instead saying the move ‘‘reflects the uselessness of political contacts that do not succeed in stopping the violence and lifting the siege on the Palestinian people.’’

There was no immediate comment from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, where a new minister took office just last week following Moussa’s move to the Arab League.

The meeting at the league’s Cairo headquarters was attended by delegates from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen.

Israel said the Arab call will backfire.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday said the Arab League decision was self-defeating by not urging Yasser Arafat to stop the violence.

‘‘This is not a decision, it’s propaganda,’’ Raanan Gissin said. ‘‘They (the Arabs) need peace exactly as much as we do. Who will they talk to? Each other?’’

On his return to Gaza late yesterday, Arafat told reporters the league position ‘‘reflects the Arab solidarity and stand’’ with the Palestinians following Israeli F-16 warplane and Apache helicopter attacks in Gaza and the West Bank.

Hours before the Arab League meeting, Arafat had said the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative should be the basis for resuming peace. The initiative followed frenetic Egyptian and Jordanian diplomatic activity to end the violence and revive peace talks.

Earlier yesterday, Moussa described recent Israeli actions as ‘‘systematic killing of the Palestinians with the aim of exterminating them.’’

He reiterated Arab calls for an international peacekeeping force in the Palestinian territories a proposal that Israel and the United States have rejected. In all, 468 Palestinians and 84 Israelis have been killed since September.

Arafat said Israel’s military escalation had caused the Palestinians financial losses surpassing $5bn.

The Arab League committee called on Moussa to ensure immediate financial support to the Palestinian Authority and urged public donations into a bank account under Arab League supervision.

‘‘The resistance and the intefadeh will continue whatever the price may be. We cannot, under any circumstances, accept an Israeli peace,’’ Moussa said during the meeting.