The influential mayor of Gaza, Rashod A-Shawa, asked today for a meeting with Defense Minister Ezer Weizman to discuss the deteriorating situation in the administered. territories. It was the first such move by a local leader following the deportation of three West Bank officials last weekend in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Hebron. A-Shawa, considered a moderate, told Israel Radio that the Military Government should act cautiously in an attempt to cool hot tempers.
The Gaza Municipal Council called for a general strike yesterday in protest over the deportation of the three officials. Merchants closed their shops this morning, but at the demand of the Military Government they reopened them during the day.
Tension also continued in the West Bank. Israeli security forces used tear gas to disperse student demonstrations in Ramallah. Israeli vehicles were attacked with stones at several places in the West Bank. The curfew in Hebron, which was imposed Friday, was lifted today for two hours to enable residents to buy food.
But the core of the tension was still in the Hebron region, where Arab homes were once again the forget of attacks by angry Jews following the funeral yesterday of Eli Hazeev, one of the six killed by the terrorists in Hebron.
Hundreds attended the funeral of the Vietnam war veteran, who came to Israel in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War after converting to Judaism, After the funeral, some went to the home of Sheikh Mohammad Ali Al-Joabari, the aging former Mayor of Hebron, shattered windows and caused damage to cars parked nearby. They accused Joabari, who ruled Hebron for 40 years, of participating in the 1929 massacre against the local Jewish population in the city.
Some of the mourners fired shots in the air near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, others threw rocks at windows of Arab homes, and smashed the windshields of cars.
ACTS OF VIOLENCE CONDEMNED
Scuffles broke out when some journalists tried to prevent the acts of vandalism, and a TV cameraman was beaten when he tried to film the stone-throwing. Kiryat Arba settlers admitted that some of them were planning violence against Arab property in the town. But the settlements leaders condemned the attacks, especially the breaking into the Joabari residence.
Hazeev was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Hebron, near the graves of the 1929 victims, the grave of a Kiryat Arba baby buried there in 1968, the first jew to be buried there after the Six-Day War, and the grave of a local policeman who died several weeks ago.
Hazeev’s flag-draped coffin was carried on an open command car flanked by six Corporals as the cortege made its way through the grim, heavily-guarded streets up to the Jewish cemetery over looking the town. The funeral procession included his parents, Col. James Mahan and Mary Sunny, of Alexandria, Va.; Chief Rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Shlomo Goren; West Bank Military Governor Benyamin Ben Eliezer, and Gush Emunim leaders. Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir delivered an address on behalf of the government.
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