BELFAST (Reuters) - Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat stare out from below an Irish tricolor and Palestinian flag on a faded mural painting in the Markets, a tough Catholic district of south Belfast.

The Israeli Prime Minister is captioned "Terrorist -- indicted for war crimes," the Palestinian President "Peacemaker -- a life devoted to conflict resolution." The slogan declares: "Stop aggression against the Palestinian people."

Half a mile away in Sandy Row, a working class, staunchly Protestant neighborhood, a tattered Israeli flag hangs from a lamp-post amid the British Union Jacks and Flags of Ulster.

Last year, when Israel launched military incursions into the West Bank in response to a wave of suicide attacks, graffiti appeared nearby declaring support for Sharon.

As Israeli security forces on Monday questioned an alleged Irish bombmaker they suspect of helping Palestinian militants, the murals and flags of Belfast underscore how some on both sides of Northern Ireland´s sectarian divide have drawn parallels between their own conflict and the Middle East.

When Middle East violence flared again in 2002, Palestinian and Israeli banners became a common feature among the other tribal symbols used by Northern Ireland´s divided communities to mark their turf.

Some Catholics have equated the Irish Republican Army´s war to end British rule in Northern Ireland with the Palestinian campaign against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"The IRA has always used the traditional Irish nationalist philosophy that Ireland was colonized by the British, and they are part of the anti-imperialist liberation struggle," said James Dingley, a lecturer in terrorism and political violence at the University of Ulster, outside Belfast.

The idea of being part of a global, anti-colonial movement saw Irish republicans seek to forge links with other separatist movements in the Basque Country and Corsica, and with the African National Congress during South Africa´s apartheid era.

In the 1980s, Irish Army peacekeepers would occasionally come across known republican figures in south Lebanon, where they believed they were working with Hizbollah, a Shiite guerrilla group that fought occupying Israeli troops.

Protestant "loyalists," who regard themselves as British, have little history of seeking overseas contacts, but many have identified Israel´s tough line on what it sees as Palestinian terrorism with their own stand against the IRA´s long campaign.

"There is an emotive identification with the Israelis, they might see Israel as a fellow besieged people, it´s that sort of lager-type mentality," said Dingley. (© Reuters 2003 07/14/03)