Israel’s move this week to seal off both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in an extraordinary effort to curb the rising wave of Palrestinian terrorism, appeared to be different from previous efforts in several ways.
Significantly, there were clear indications that the closing of the administered territories, declared Tuesday, would last longer than in the past, with Israel intending to use the move as a negotiating element with the Palestinians.
And unlike most of the recent instances, the closure was imposed on the West Bank — not just the Gaza Strip — creating a de facto separation between the territories and Israel proper.
Finally, the move was accompanied by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s announcing a dramatic departure from the current shooting orders, allowing soldiers to fire at suspected armed terrorists without first firing a warning shot in the air or firing at the suspects legs.
The crackdown capped a bloody week, in which two Jewish settlers were stabbed to death in the Gaza Strip and two policemen were shot to death outside Hadera in central Israel.
The closure of the territories had both Israelis and Palestinians worried about how to overcome their mutual dependence.
Since Israel relies heavily on cheap Palestinian labor from the territories for manual work, the move threatened to throw the Israeli economy into confusion.
Likewise, the 1.6 million Palestinians who live in the territories rely on Israel proper for salaries earned in jobs there, as well as a variety of supplies and services, including certain foods and medical services.
The Palestinians understood that for an indefinite period they would have to make do without Israel while Israeli employers understood that they would have to seek alternatives for cheap Arab labor.
A SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE LABOR
Throughout the day Wednesday, economic experts came up with ideas about how to live without Palestinian labor, proposing such steps as the early release of soldiers from compulsory service and an increase in salaries to make menial jobs more attractive to Israelis.
Recent government offers to give bonuses to Israelis willing to replace Palestinian workers have proven unsuccessful, however.
The national Employment Service shifted to emergency status to replace the workers with Israelis, while construction projects, which employ some 60,000 Palestinians, slowed, and farm work was left unattended.
The Contractors Association set up a special recruiting bureau to fill the empty slots with Israelis, after it announced it would not rehire Arabs after the closure ends. The bureau was inundated with requests from job-seekers and employers.
The closure order triggered angry reactions in the territories.
Palestinian peace negotiators Hanan Ashrawi and Faisal Husseini condemned the move, saying it would only lead to more violence.
Husseini told reporters that Israel has placed yet another obstacle in the way of the peace process. He said only real progress in the negotiations would end the violence.
Elias Freij, mayor of Bethlehem, said the people in his city could not live comfortably being cut off from Israel.
“This is collective punishment,” he said. Freij noted that shortages were already being seen in fruit and vegetables supplies.
ARAFAT VOWS TO ‘SET THE FEET BURNING’
Freij also rejected Rabin’s comment Tuesday night that the closure was a subject for negotiations with the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks. He said his people would not go to the peace talks under duress.
Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat said Wednesday that the intifada was entering a new phase.
Making the statement in an interview with Radio Monte Carlo, Arafat refused to go into details, but reiterated his “promise” to “set the feet burning under the occupiers.”
Desperate for work, scores of Palestinians on Wednesday disobeyed the new measures and tried to make their way into Israel despite them. The lengthy boundary, or “Green Line,” between Israel and the West Bank is much easier to penetrate than the crossing points into the Gaza Strip.
With tens of thousands of Palestinians off Israel’s streets, police were busy trying to locate those Palestinians who defied the closure.
Hundreds of Arabs were detained throughout the day, with police believing that many others had found shelter with the aid of their Jewish employers, who could not do without them.
Those Israeli employers would face legal measures, promised Natan Kremersky, operation officer for the Jerusalem police force.
South of Jerusalem, a bus crowded with Palestinians insisting on reaching their places of employment in Israel tried to break through a police roadblock.
A police officer, signaled the bus driver to stop, but the driver deliberately tried to crash through the barrier and enter Jerusalem. The driver was taken in for questioning.
In the north, Acre District Court fined nine residents of the Arab town of Shefaram who allowed Palestinians from the territories to stay overnight in town.
As a result of the closure, security officers, as well as Jewish settlers, said they expected intensified terrorist activity within the territories themselves.
Army and border police forces in the territories were reinforced to help suppress any attempts to escalate the situation.
The new order allowing the security forces to open fire on any Arab suspected of carrying arms was widely publicized Wednesday, with the hope that it would deter Palestinians.
So far the new order came under virtually no public criticism here.
Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Gur said the new order was completely justified, insisting it was one of several means available to fight terrorism.
“If you put together all the steps, with a lot of patience, we shall overcome,” Gur said.
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.
