Eleven persons remained in police custody this morning out of more than 20 arrested last night in a massive demonstration against the United States and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger which ended with the stoning of the U.S. Embassy here. Police said that one of those in custody was responsible for smashing an Embassy window as mobs surged toward the building and were blocked by truncheon wielding riot police. No injuries were reported.
The demonstration, which drew an estimated 15,000 people, one of the largest in Tel Aviv’s history, was sponsored by Likud, the younger elements of the National Religious Party and a variety of other groups and ad hoc committees, opposed to further Israeli withdrawals in Sinai. Their anger was vented more against alleged American pressure and Kissinger personally than against the principle of an interim settlement with Egypt.
Addressing the crowd which had assembled, with police permission, in Tel Aviv’s municipal square, Menachem Beigin, leader of Likud’s Herut wing, demanded that the government stand fast on its principles and refuse to succumb to American pressure. He called on the government not to give up one inch of territory unless Israel’s counter-demands are met to ensure the integrity of its defense.
One group, calling itself the “Committee Against Withdrawal From Abu Rodeis set up a two-way radio to communicate with workers in the Sinai oilfields and relayed to them a resolution adopted by the demonstrators not to abandon the oilfields which are essential to Israel’s economy and security. Other groups communicated similarly with settlements in the Jordan Valley and on the Golan Heights. The participants included the Greater Israel Movement which demands the annexation of all the administered territories and the “Committee of Women for Israel’s Security.”
PROTEST AGAINST U.S. PRESSURE
They waved scores of posters and banners protesting American pressure and denouncing any withdrawal. One banner said, “Americans Beware– K (Kissinger) is a Soviet Agent.” Another said, “If Territory is not Important–Tell it to the Arabs”; and still another; “Dr. K. We Shall Not Win You Another Peace Prize With Our Blood.”
A large force of municipal police, re-enforced by border police units, was on hand to prevent clashes with “doves” should they have attempted to interfere with the demonstrators. But no clashes occurred. The demonstration was angry but orderly until masses of people started marching westward toward the Tel Aviv beachfront where the U.S. Embassy is located on Hayarkon Street, a neighborhood of luxury hotels. The police had not issued permits for a march in that direction and a majority of the crowd was dispersed by border police and mounted patrolmen.
But several hundred shouting demonstrators, many of them wearing yarmulkas, managed to push their way to the seashore. They were halted outside the Embassy compound by a heavy cordon of police and began hurling curses and stones at the Embassy.
The police made their arrests at that point and the crowd dispersed leaving the street littered with stones. The only damage to the U.S. Embassy building was a smashed window. Police maintained a heavy guard around the compound through most of the night but apart from small knots of people on street corners, the demonstration was over and no further incidents occurred. Hayarkon Street was open to normal traffic this morning but police barricades remained around the Embassy compound.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
