The ongoing Palestinian uprising is sharply dividing Israelis between political and ideological extremes and the government is clearly alarmed by the escalating strife.
The Cabinet is expected to convene shortly for a special session devoted entirely to the 17-month-old intifada and the increasingly serious confrontations between the left and right in Israel.
On Friday, Jews clashed with Jews at the Erez checkpoint at the entrance to the Gaza Strip.
Fistfights developed between leftists carrying food and medical supplies to the Arab refugee camps in Rafah and Jewish settlers and right-wing activists who attempted to block them.
The Israel Defense Force had to separate the two groups.
Earlier on Friday, Israeli journalists were assaulted by settlers in the West Bank town of Ariel. A photographer was pistol-whipped by a settler amid shouts of “beat them up, turn over their cars.”
On Saturday night, about 30,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Malchei Yisrael Square to protest against the recent wave of Jewish settler violence against Palestinian villages in the West Bank and their abuse of IDF soldiers trying to restrain them.
The demonstration was organized by the Peace Now movement. Its theme was “A Coalition for Peace,” and the emphasis was on “the sanctity of human life and the honor of the IDF.”
It was the first mass rally by Peace Now with which the Labor Party publicly identified.
The opening address was delivered by the party’s former secretary-general, Uzi Baram. Labor Knesset member Amir Peretz also spoke.
The confrontation at Erez was touched off by a convoy of Israeli Jews and Arabs attempting to deliver supplies to the Rafah refugees who are under curfew.
They were confronted at the army post by residents of the coastal town of Ashkelon, a hotbed of anti-Arab sentiment, and by militant Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
The army aided the right-wingers by declaring the area a closed military zone.
When exchanged curses escalated to exchanged blows, soldiers and police broke up the fighting. The convoy did not get through.
Meanwhile, signs of strain are showing in the leftist camp.
Many participants in the Peace Now rally were disappointed by the relatively small turnout, saying the rally exposed the left’s weakness when a show of strength was necessary.
Writing in the Labor Party organ Davar, Tali Selinger asked “What else needs to happen for the 200,000 (demonstrators) to return?”
He was referring to the huge outpouring of peace activists in 1982, during the height of the Lebanon war, which is believed to have influenced the government’s eventual decision to pull the IDF out of Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a rare attempt by left and right to reach an understanding became a source of public controversy.
Leaders of the Gush Emunim and senior reserve officers of the Mapam-affiliated Kibbutz Artzi movement met twice recently at the Gush Emunim settlement of Ofra in the West Bank and at Kibbutz Artzi offices in Tel Aviv.
They made an effort to find common points on which they could agree.
The meetings ended with a four-point memorandum accepted by both groups. They agreed that:
The government and the IDF should have sole responsibility for the peace and security of Jewish residents wherever they live, regardless of political differences; all political groups refrain from acting against the IDF or incitement against each other; Israelis should refrain from attacking Arabs just because they are Arabs; and further meetings should be held to continue the dialogue and establish a satisfactory level of political debate.
But the joint communique was criticized by the left-leaning Citizens Rights Movement which can find no common ground with the Gush Emunim.
The CRM was promptly attacked by right-wing speakers who accused it of favoring dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization but refusing to do the same with the Israeli right.
(JTA correspondent Hugh Orgel in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.)
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