Israel insists Vanunu still poses a security threat and he is banned from leaving Israel - including visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip - or talking to foreigners without permission.

BBC: NEWS | Middle East | Police keep Vanunu in Jerusalem

His actions on the ground - including a promise not to remove any Jewish settlers from the West Bank - appear to be designed to reassure his supporters that those circumstances are unlikely to arise.

BBC: Israel election: Benjamin Netanyahu holds strong hand

The hope was that, over a weekend of deliberations, Israel and the Palestinians would at last sign the long-delayed interim deal, including Israel's withdrawal from a further 13% of the West Bank.

ECONOMIST: Close call

London's mayor, Boris Johnson, wants central swaths of the capital, including the financial district (known as the City or the Square Mile), the South Bank and the West End, completely exempted from the new rules, and has lodged an official complaint with the government.

WSJ: Londoners Who Live at the Office

In December a Polish foundation brought schoolchildren from Poland, Germany, the West Bank and Israel together to re-enact historical trials, including Nuremberg, as part of a project about international justice.

ECONOMIST: New thinking and old wounds around the Auschwitz death camp

But Mr Arafat was almost certainly not behind the gunfights, between Fatah activists, including members of the Palestinian police force, and Israeli soldiers, that erupted in various parts of the West Bank.

ECONOMIST: Israel and the Palestinians: A warning of things to come | The