Jewish vigilante acts against Arabs escalated in East Jerusalem and spilled into the West Bank over the weekend, as Defense Minister Moshe Arens sought help from the Orthodox rabbinate to calm the tempers of Jewish ultra-nationalists.
Arens met Sunday with the Ashkenazic chief rabbi, Avraham Shapira, at his Jerusalem residence. The meeting was described as an opportunity for the rabbi to submit settlers’ complaints about the deteriorating security situation.
But the authorities have ample contact with the settlers on a daily basis, although relations between them are steadily worsening.
Senior army officers were reported to be enraged over the vigilantism. One was quoted as saying that settlers caught committing acts of violence should be put in jail “for a long time.”
Arens promised the chief rabbi that “the Israel Defense Force would meet all security needs” in the administered territories. The meeting took place after fresh violence by Jews.
On Saturday night, about 150 settlers blocked the entrance to the Dahiyat el-Barid neighborhood on Jerusalem’s northern outskirts.
Settlers drove cars through the neighborhood, brandishing flags and slogans calling for better security for Jews. The settlers said they chose Dahiyat el-Barid because members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demonstrated there recently.
But Amir Cheshin, Arab affairs adviser to Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, said the neighborhood was relatively quiet and presented no security problem.
Some of the settlers demonstrated later outside the home of Justice Minister Dan Meridor, whom they blamed for the failure to deport Palestinian activists from the territories.
Vigilante acts were perpetrated at several locations in the territories by settlers demanding tougher punitive measures against the Arab population.
Twelve Arab residents of Hebron filed complaints at the local police station over the weekend, charging Jewish residents of Hebron damaged their property. They charged that Jews smashed the windshields of five cars and solar heaters on the rooftops of seven houses. Two Jews were held for questioning.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
