East Jerusalem was the focus of mounting unrest over a stormy weekend, while a spate of stone-throwing in the West Bank kindled the wrath of Jewish settler. They raged against the army for not acting forcefully enough to suppress the Palestinian uprising.
The settlers’ vituperation was matched by Likud ministers, who at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting assailed “the failure of the security forces to cope with the situation.”
Although no fatalities were reported over the weekend, the most serious incident was a bomb attack on an Egged bus near a settlement in the Jenin region of the West Bank late Saturday night.
No one was hurt and the bus was only slightly damaged. But the attack raised fears that the Palestinians may be escalating from stones and Molotov cocktails to firearms and explosives.
Settlers seethed with anger at Brig. Gen. Zeev, the Israel Defense Force commander of the Samaria region. He charged in a television appearance Saturday that a settler who had opened fire on stone-throwers in Nablus on Friday was in a state of “hysteria.”
The settlers, from Homesh, whose car had come under the barrage of stones, accused the general of “chutzpah.”
In East Jerusalem, local youths clashed with police on Saladin Street, the main thoroughfare. Renewed unrest there was attributed to orders from the underground command of the Palestinian uprising to escalate anti-Israel acts on the approach of the 21st anniversary of Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, which is this Tuesday.
Police are being reinforced to cope with expected rioting. But they may have already arrested some of the ringleaders.
TERRORIST RINGS BROKEN
Security forces announced they had broken several terrorist rings in East Jerusalem said to be associated with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
An unspecified number of Arabs were detained on suspicion of taking part in public disorders. They are suspected among other things of throwing gasoline bombs at two yeshivas in the Old City and at the car of Commerce and Industry Minister Ariel Sharon.
Police shut down four schools in East Jerusalem because students were involved in stone-throwing.
The angry verbal exchanges in the Cabinet on Sunday were politically motivated. Likud ministers apparently saw an opportunity to hit at the defense establishment, headed by a Laborite, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Debate developed and quickly degenerated into polemics, after the IDF chief of staff, Gen. Dan Shomron, maintained that military force could not end the Palestinian uprising. He suggested economic sanctions and other measurers be taken.
Yitzhak Modai, a member of Likud’s Liberal Party wing, charged that the defense establishment was not fulfilling its duty.
Another Likud minister, Moshe Katsav, said he was surprised the defense establishment could not stop the Palestinian underground from distributing leaflets containing instructions for disorders.
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