Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin warned Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of severe consequences if there is an upsurge of violence in response to the proclamation of a Palestinian state.
“We are prepared to use maximum force to put down any demonstrations following any pronouncement in Algiers,” Rabin declared Wednesday.
Similar warnings were given by senior military commanders as security forces were beefed up in the territories.
The warnings and show of force are in response to the expected declaration of independence by the Palestine National Council at its scheduled meeting in Algiers this Saturday.
The underground leadership of the Palestinian uprising called for new demonstrations against the Israeli occupation, in its recently distributed leaflet No. 28.
But Israelis are worried that the PNC meeting will trigger the worst disturbances since the uprising began 11 months ago.
The PNC, often referred to as the Palestinian parliament in exile, is officially regarded by Israel as a part of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Rabin made clear its actions would have no meaning as far as Israel is concerned.
Israel will not negotiate with the PLO and will not agree to a Palestinian state located between Israel and Jordan, the defense minister stressed.
The Israel Defense Force chief of staff, Gen. Dan Shomron, said the IDF has a two-fold aim to prevent demonstrations and other breaches of public order in support of the PNC meeting, and to ensure Jewish passage through the territories.
He conceded that it was impossible to completely prevent every attempt to block communications over a large area that is heavily traveled by Jewish settlers.
But Shomron, visiting troops in Nablus, told reporters the IDF is prepared to seal off the West Bank and Gaza Strip and impose blanket curfews if necessary to prevent pro-PLO demonstrations in the territories.
“I think we are at a crossroads as far as the intifada is concerned,” Shomron said.
“When they (the Palestinians) realize that the decisions (in Algiers) are only of a declarative nature with absolutely no chance of achieving anything — not even demonstrations — they will finally understand that the suffering they are bringing upon themselves has no purpose,” the chief of staff predicted.
Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, commander of the southern sector, which includes the Gaza Strip, told reporters in Gaza Thursday that the IDF is ready for anything.
He said the large deployment of troops and the high state of alert are to ensure that “developments will not take place.”
The civil administration in the Gaza Strip is concerned that a declaration of Palestinian independence in Algiers will be followed by the mass resignations of Arab civil servants in the territory.
(JTA correspondent Gil Sedan in Jerusalem contributed to this report.)
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