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Uneasy Calm in Jerusalem Following Anti-arab Violence by Jews Angered over Killing of a Yeshiva Stud

November 18, 1986
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A large police presence enforced an uneasy calm in Jerusalem Monday after 24 hours of anti-Arab violence by Jews enraged over the fatal stabbing of a yeshiva student in the Moslem quarter of the Old City Saturday. Three youths from Jenin, linked to a terrorist organization, were taken into custody almost immediately after the crime.

They were remanded for 15 days by a Jerusalem magistrate Monday. The judge banned release of any further information about the suspects who the Police Ministry said Sunday were members of George Habash’s Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Although they are from a West Bank town 17 miles from Jerusalem, local Arabs were the targets of attacks by Jews during and after the pre-dawn funeral Sunday of the stabbing victim, Eliahu Ambi, 22. Arabs were stoned and beaten in the Old City and other parts of East Jerusalem and in the Sanhedria and Shmuel Hanavi quarters of West Jerusalem. Ambi lived in Shmuel Hanavi.

At least 10 Jews were arrested for attacking Arabs. Three fire bombs were hurled at Arab-occupied houses in the Old City. The windshields of Arab-owned cars were smashed and tires were slashed.

As police squads patrolled the narrow alleys of the Old City Monday, some residents of the Jewish quarter threatened more violence. They said the murder “could not go unanswered.” Police warned that any further disorders would be dealt with firmly.

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