Israelis camp by Olmert's door to make him quit

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Two Israeli college students have set up camp outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's home in a grassroots attempt to force him to resign after being criticised for mishandling last year's war in Lebanon.

Though turnout for their round-the-clock vigil has been tiny, the protesters say they draw inspiration from a similarly meagre movement that grew powerful enough to force Golda Meir to resign as premier after the Middle East war of 1973.

"We're trying to start a kind of revolution by the citizens," Itai Harary, 28, says standing by several tents where they and a sprinkling of others who occasionally show up to join them have been sleeping now for three days.

Olmert has so far rejected calls to resign from within his Kadima party and from a 100,000 strong protest held last week in Tel Aviv, after an official panel issued a scathing report against his handling of a war with Hezbollah guerrillas in July.

On Monday, he survived three confidence motions brought by opposition parties against his government over the report.

"It's time for the people to rise up and say you are fired," Harary says, referring also to Defence Minister Amir Peretz who the commission also criticised.

Harary and Zichri Weiner, both studying to be teachers, launched their vigil with a 70-km (40-mile) hike at the weekend from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, where they have pitched tents on a sidewalk about 50 metres (yards) from Olmert's residence.

With the residence sealed off by police, that is the nearest they can get.