Clashes between police and peace demonstrators encircling the walls of the Old City left dozens of Israelis, Arabs, tourists and police officers hurt Saturday.
At least 26 people were arrested.
The incident seemed to cast doubt on whether it is possible for Jews and Arabs to work together for peace. More important, it raised the question of whether extremist elements on both sides will prevent such collaboration from happening in the future.
While peace demonstrations are not new in Jerusalem, Saturday’s event, organized by Peace Now and its supporters, was unique. It brought together Jews, Arabs and overseas visitors, many with children.
They joined in a long human chain along the walls, singing peace songs, chanting slogans and releasing multi-colored balloons into a blue December sky, in unusually warm weather.
Peace Now had a permit for the demonstration. Police were on hand as always on these occasions, mounted on cars, jeeps and horses, guarding every potential trouble spot.
Had all gone well, the demonstration would have sent out a message of the potential for peaceful cooperation, which radical Arab nationalists clearly did not want to sec.
Such a message would also not particularly please Jews of the ultra right, who were barred from staging counterdemonstrations.
The trouble was confined to a narrow strip a few hundred yards wide between Damascus Gate and Herod’s Gate, along the Old City’s northern wall.
Several dozen Arab extremists assembled near Damascus Gate, chanted nationalist slogans and broke into Palestinian nationalist songs. Raising their fingers in the “V for Victory” sign, they shouted, “In spirit and blood, we shall redeem our fallen.”
TEAR GAS AND RUBBER BULLETS
Border police charged into the crowd to disperse it. The Palestinians responded with stones. Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and finally water cannon, indiscriminately hitting Jews, Arabs and visitors.
The injured included an Italian tourist who lost an eye. A Jerusalem police commander suffered a broken leg.
The scene was repeated two hours later, near Herod’s Gate, where another group of radicals chanted, “PLO, yes; Israel no,” to the surprise and dismay of the peace demonstrators.
The police reacted accordingly.
“It was terrible,” said Amnon Tsaban of Tel Aviv. “Suddenly, without any provocation, they started shooting. We were standing peacefully, not doing anything,” he said.
The police said they had to use force, because demonstrators attacked them with stones and raised the outlawed Palestinian flag.
According to the police, they had advance warning that extremist Palestinian elements planned to harm the peace demonstrators, and so the authorities took every precaution to protect them.
But Knesset member Dedi Zucker of the Citizens Rights Movement charged that the police overreacted, because they “could not stand the sight of Jews and Arabs demonstrating together.”
His denial that Palestinian flags were raised was corroborated by reporters and other eyewitnesses.
A Peace Now demonstration Friday, which involved 5,000 Jewish and Arab women, was also broken up by police as it neared its end.
Sixteen women were detained, including an Italian member of the European Parliament. They were released later.
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