LAURIE COPANS

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday called for reviving the practice of demolishing the homes of attackers' families, while his chief deputy proposed cutting some Arab neighbourhoods off from the rest of the city.

A day earlier, a Palestinian driving a bulldozer killed three Israelis on a main Jerusalem street, before security forces shot him dead.

The attacker, east Jerusalem resident Hussam Dwayat, 30, had no problem moving around the Jewish part of Jerusalem. In the wake of the attack, there were calls to reconsider at least some of the benefits the 250,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem receive, such as residency and Israeli ID cards.

Olmert said: "If we have to demolish houses, we will demolish houses. If we have to revoke social rights, we will revoke social rights."

Olmert's dovish vice premier, Haim Ramon, proposed cutting off the attackers' home village and others in east Jerusalem, where about 50,000 Arabs live, by rerouting the West Bank separation barrier to put the villages outside Jerusalem's boundaries. It was a rare call by a senior Israeli official to effectively redivide Jerusalem.-AP