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Demonstrations Mark Balfour Day on West Bank

November 3, 1981
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Strikes and demonstrations throughout the West Bank and in East Jerusalem marked the 64th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration today, a day of mourning and protest among Palestinian Arabs.

Youths burned tires in the streets of Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a soldier on patrol in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem last night and Israeli military vehicles were stoned near the Daheisha refugee camp on the Jerusalem-Hebron highway.

Most shops were shut down in East Jerusalem today and several schools cancelled classes. Students at the Bir Zeit College north of Ramallah claimed they wanted to attend classes but were prevented from doing so by Israeli security forces.

Tension continued in Hebron today where police are investigating a hand grenade attack on an Arab coffee shop in nearby Tarkoumiya village which killed the owner and wounded nine other people. Two unidentified men threw the grenade from a passing jeep. The incident occurred Saturday night shortly after a 28 year-old Jewish resident of Kiryat Arba was stabbed by an unknown assailant in the center of Hebron.

According to police, the grenade was thrown by Arabs and the incident was of a criminal rather than political nature. Hebron Arabs insist however that it was an act of revenge by Jews for the wounding of the Kiryat Arba man.

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