Jewish settlers of Kiryat Arba, the Orthodox township adjacent to Hebron, claimed they achieved a “peace treaty” with Arab residents of the nearby Ein Aroub refugee camp after the Arabs allegedly stoned a Jewish bus on the Jerusalem-Hebron road.
The treaty, or “sulha,” was ceremoniously signed by the Mukhtar (chief official) of the refugee camp who came to Kiryat Arba yesterday declaring he wanted to live in peace with his Jewish neighbors. He promised to try to find the stone-throwers and turn them over to the authorities.
It was the first time a refugee camp Mukhtar visited Kiryat Arba. He himself had been visited a day earlier by 30 armed settlers who made it clear they would not tolerate attacks on Jewish vehicles. The settlers said their visit was a “courtesy call.” They denied threatening the Mukhtar with their weapons. A Kiryat Arba spokesman said later, “These incidents of rock throwing should be regarded as attempted murder and those responsible should be deported.”
CRACK DOWN ON WEST BANK CONTINUES
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities continued to crack down on West Bank Arabs allegedly responsible for recent disorders in the territory. A curfew, lifted earlier in the week on the Balota refugee camp near Nablus, was re-imposed yesterday.
A second local high school, Kardi Toukan, was ordered closed by the Israeli authorities after its pupils allegedly participated in a demonstration followed by rock throwing. The King Tallal school was shut down last Saturday in the aftermath of a violent demonstration in which Israeli border police fatally shot an Arab student.
Former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman paid a private visit to Jewish settlements on the West Bank yesterday, his first tour of the territory since he quit Premier Menachem Begin’s government. Weizman, rumored to be planning a new centrist party to compete in the next Knesset elections, stressed his view that every Jew had the right to settle in “Eretz Israel.” But he expressed concern over whether Jews and Arabs could live together peacefully in the future.
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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.
