ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609300065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
SOURCE: Associated Press
In a clear message that days of bloodshed must end, Yasser Arafat's policemen clubbed, cajoled and dragged away Palestinian protesters marching Saturday on Israeli army posts and Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But gunbattles subsided in Palestinian areas, where only a day before Palestinian police and Israeli soldiers fought their worst clashes in decades.
For the first time since the violence erupted Wednesday over the opening of a tunnel near Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, no one was killed on either side.
But Israel's army, fearing the situation was still too volatile, laid siege Saturday to West Bank towns and villages. Soldiers barred Palestinians from leaving their communities, tanks were deployed near Palestinian towns, and troop reinforcements were sent into the 144 Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
``There are no assurances that the violence will not erupt anew,'' said Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, the West Bank commander.
Israel's decision came despite efforts by Arafat's armed men - sometimes reluctantly - to separate protesters from Israeli troops.
``Liars, liars,'' yelled one young demonstrator in the West Bank town of Ramallah as helmeted Palestinian police swung black clubs when a smoldering crowd of hundreds tried to push through a wall of uniformed men sometimes four deep.
Fistfights broke out and police dragged away some men before the protesters dispersed after about two hours.
``Look at the way they're behaving,'' said a 20-year-old protester who gave his name only as Daoud. ``They're acting like the Israelis.''
The United States, meanwhile, pressured Arafat and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet soon to rescue peace agreements that may already be lost. Edward Abington, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, met Arafat on Saturday.
However, when asked whether he would meet with the Israeli leader, Arafat grumbled, ``Why for?''
Israeli officials said they preferred to meet at the Gaza-Israel border. But Palestinians insisted on a meeting in Cairo, Egypt, with President Hosni Mubarak and perhaps European and American officials present to guarantee any agreement.
Nabil Shaath, a senior member of Arafat's Cabinet, said Saturday such guarantees were needed in light of Netanyahu's record since his election in May.
``The violations of the [peace] agreements have been rampant, and we'd like to see action,'' Shaath said.
In New York on Saturday, the U.N. Security Council called for an immediate halt to the hostilities and a resumption of peace talks.
The vote was 14-0, with the United States abstaining.
Netanyahu has not given a date for a long-overdue troop pullback from the West Bank town of Hebron, has sidestepped Israel's commitment to withdraw from West Bank rural areas and has postponed negotiations on a permanent peace agreement.
Palestinian frustration over the delays exploded into violence after Netanyahu's decision Tuesday to complete a tunnel near the Al Aqsa compound, one of Islam's holiest sites.
Palestinians see the tunnel as a challenge to their claims on Jerusalem. Netanyahu called the tunnel a ``nonissue'' because, he said, Israel would always respect Muslim holy places.
Since the tunnel was opened, 56 Palestinians, 14 Israelis and two Egyptians have been killed. Riyad Zanoun, the Palestinian health minister, said Saturday that 1,600 Palestinians were wounded.
Even though the gunbattles had stopped, stone-throwing clashes erupted in several refugee camps and villages. From Jerusalem to Hebron, the landscape Saturday was littered with rocks, overturned trash bins and burned tires.
The clashes came despite fresh appeals by Arafat's official Voice of Palestine radio station to stop the bloodshed and ``open a new page.''
Arafat encouraged the protests in the beginning to show his displeasure with the slow pace of the peace process. But as the days wore on, he appeared to lose control over the passions of Palestinians as well as some of his own police, who battled with Israeli soldiers.
On Saturday, however, he again exerted his authority, and it was clear that the 30,000 Palestinian policemen were under serious pressure to put an end to violence in areas they controlled.
Brig. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaideh, a Palestinian commander, told his officers in Rafah in southern Gaza - one of the main flashpoints Friday - that they must arrest anyone trying to attack Israelis.
``We must calm the situation now,'' he said.
Israeli troops, meanwhile, confined Palestinians in the West Bank to their communities Saturday and set up roadblocks around towns and villages to enforce the travel ban.
The last time the army imposed such a stringent closure was in March, after Islamic militants set off four suicide bombs in Israel. The 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have been barred since the bombings from entering Israel, and that ban remains in effect.
As a result of the new restrictions, a Palestinian woman was forced to deliver her baby in her husband's car after Israeli soldiers held up the couple for two hours at a roadblock, said the husband, Adnein Azzein. Mother and baby were fine.
An Israeli government spokesman, Shlomo Dror, said soldiers were under orders to open the roads in humanitarian cases.
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A Palestinian youth uses a slingshot to fire a stoneby CNBat Israeli troops in Bethlehem. Though gunbattles stopped, other
confrontations went on. color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY