The Israeli Cabinet, at a 41/2 hour meeting today, declared that the government would “continue undaunted” its policies on the West Bank which, it said, were aimed at destroying Palestine Liberation Organization influence there while giving all possible aid to Arab residents prepared to “observe the law and keep the peace.”
The 10 days of demonstrations and rioting an the West Bank, which spread to the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, have taken eight lives so far, including an Israeli soldier killed in a grenade attack in Gaza last Thursday.
Today, three Arab youths were wounded in a clash with security police in the town of Yaabod near Jenin in northern Samaria. The town was placed under curfew. The incident occured when an officer of the civilian administration on the West Bank arrived in the town to meet with the local mayor. A large group of residents attacked the officer with rocks. The soldiers escorting the officer fired back, wounding one of the residents.
Border policemen summoned to the town were ambushed and attacked with Molotov cocktails and knives. The policemen opened fire in self-defense, seriously wounding two of the attackers. The two were rushed to the hospital in Afula.
Premier Menachem Begin’s government has been criticized at home and by several friendly governments and the media abroad for harsh measure taken to quell the disturbances. These included the removal of the elected mayors of Nablus and Ramallah, Bassam Shaka and Karim Khalaf, last Thursday on grounds that they were PLO agents responsible for incitement to violence. One week earlier, the Israeli authorities removed Mayor Ibrahim Tawil and the town council of El Bireh for refusing to cooperate with the Israeli-instituted civilian regime.
MASSIVE RALLY PROTESTS GOVERNMENT’S ACTIONS
The Cabinet issued a statement today saying the government’s policies were intended “to ensure peace and give all possible help to Arab residents of Judaea, Samaria and Gaza who keep the low and maintain the peace. No acts of violence or breaches of the peace, of any kind whatsoever, will be tolerated,” the statement said.
Today’s Cabinet meeting followed a march and mass rally in Tel Aviv last night where an estimated 15,000-20,000 persons representing the Peace Now movement and the Committee for Bir Zeit University protested the government’s actions on the West Bank. They shouted slogans such as “Peace yes, annexation no” and “Zionism is not vandalism.”
At one point a Palestinian flag was raised, apparently by a Communist supporter of Bir Zeit University on the West Bank which has been shut down by the Israeli authorities. It was seized and destroyed by police. The rally included sympathizers with the Druze on the Golan Heights who are striking in protest of Israel’s annexation of that territory. Apart from the flag incident it was noisy but peaceful.
Begin berated the demonstrators. But the Cabinet seemed much more incensed that the government-controlled Israel Broadcasting Authority had allowed the screening of television interviews with deposed Mayors Shaka and Khallaf over the weekend. (See separate story.)
WON’T SAY IF THE WORST IS OVER
Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor, briefing the press after today’s session, declined to say whether the Cabinet felt “the worst is over” on the West Bank. But he said the ministers believed the policies employed there were succeeding.
Naor indicated that Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir spoke of the negative reactions from foreign governments and the media to the dismissals of the West Bank mayors. But he also intimated that the ministers were not disposed to weaken the government’s stand against the PLO be cause of criticism abroad.
Naor said there had been no mention “at all” during the Cabinet meeting of U.S. suggestions that “non-lethal” methads be employed in riot control. He said there was no discussion either of possible disturbances by Israeli Arabs when they mark Land Day on Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the expropriation of Arab lands in Galilee by Israel, Israeli Arab leaders have called for a general strike on that day. Reporters believe the matter was taken up today by senior army and police officers seen entering the Prime Ministers Office after the Cabinet meeting.
BEGIN BLASTS LABOR, TEL AVIV RALLY
Many observers believe that Begin, determined to have early elections in order to benefit from his current high popularity as reported by opinion polls, has already begun to campaign against the Labor opposition.
That view was given credibility by Begin’s blast today at Labor MKs who participated in last night’s Peace Now rally in fel Aviv and by the government’s attempts to blame past Labor governments for the present unrest on the West Bank because they permitted free municipal elections there in 1976.
Begin denounced slogans heard at the Peace Now rally, such as “The Golan is Syrian” and “Down with the occupation.” “He said the slogan about the Golan was in effect “erasing, trampling and ignoring” a law, the Golan annexation bill of last February 14, which was supported by many Laborites.
Referring to the protests, he asked rhetorically, “What are we coming to? To what terrible denial of the bases of Judaism and Zionism and the faith for which our sons fought and died? “He warned the Labor Party to mend its ways “before it is too late.”
A spokesmon for the Peace Now movement said Begin owed an answer to the thousands who turned out to protest his government’s policies in the occupied territories. Denouncing one slogan or another, as Begin did, was no explanation for the serious deterioration of the situation on the West Bank, the spokesman said. The movement dissociated itself from the Palestinian flag raised during the rally.
CHARGE LABOR ‘INVITED’ THE PLO TO THE WEST BANK
Begin ordered his attack on the Labor Party to be published and broadcast. The charge that Labor “invited” the PLO into the West Bank by allowing elections six years ago was raised in a Knesset debate last week by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon in an angry exchange with Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres.
Begin and other Likud spokesmen have picked up on that theme. On Friday, Menachem Milson, who heads the civilian government on the West Bank, held a press conference at which he said that, Israel’s struggle against the PLO has reached a “very crucial stage.” He claimed that the 1976 elections were held under PLO “terror and intimidation” and as a result, 10 out of 25 West Bank municipalities were controlled by PLO supporters.
When reporters reminded Milson that Israel always prided itself that the 1976 elections were free, he retorted that they were free from Israeli pressures but not from PLO pressures and that he himself had never considered them free elections.
He promised that “soon” local dignitaries would be installed to replace the ousted mayors of Nablus, Ramallah and El Bireh, but would not say when. Israeli army officers are now running those towns. He said Israel hoped to hold elections on the West Bank, but not under PLO terror.
Meanwhile, the situation on the West Bank continued to remain tense over the weekend. A Palestinian youth was wounded by Israeli troops in Halhoul last Friday for violating the curfew. He was indentified as Juwad el-Kashkish, 17. Israeli authorities described the shooting as an isolated incident. Rocks and bottles were hurled at Israeli military vehicles in Nablus and in an Arab village near Jenin. There were also incidents in the Gaza Strip, Bethlehem, Bet Sahour and Hebron. In Nablus, Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets to quell a riot in the market place.
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