West Bank settlers and their right-wing supporters staged a mock return of “Palestinian refugees” to Israel this week to simulate what they say would occur if the Rabin administration continues on what they see as a concessionary policy in the ongoing peace talks.
Jews costumed in long robes and full Arab headgear, with some women carrying bundles on their heads, sailed a boat along the Tel Aviv shoreline Sunday and were met by similarly garbed “relatives” waiting on shore in Jaffa to greet them with a shower of rice and candy.
The demonstration was part of a high-visibility campaign to highlight their growing irritation with the current coalition government.
Yehiel Leiter, a spokesman for the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, said it was designed to show what would happen under Rabin’s policies.
With funds reportedly donated by American and other foreign donors, the settlers council hired the boat to sail from the Tel Aviv Marina to Jaffa Port.
Some 100 passengers, many of them waving Palestine Liberation Organization flags, came ashore under what they scornfully termed an “Arab right of return.”
The boat also flew PLO flags and displayed signs in Arabic and English that read, “Welcome Arafat, Liberator of Palestine” and “Return to Greater Palestine.”
Police were on hand when the settlers landed at Jaffa to question them about the PLO flags and the chanting of the PLO slogan, “With Blood and Fire We Have Redeemed Palestine.”
The police “welcome” was part of the orchestrated reception, to imitate how Arabs are commonly detained and placed under administrative detention for displaying PLO flags.
The first of these demonstrations was held earlier this spring when a group of settlers, dressed as Palestinian police officers, stopped and harassed a Jewish family on a main road. That event was designed to highlight what would happen if a Palestinian police force were established and allowed to operate in an area of Palestinian autonomy.
“Their scare tactics just won’t work with the vast majority,” one spectator remarked. “They are as transparent as the traditional Arab garb they dressed up in.”
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