Gaza Toll Rises; Arabs Urge Civil Disobedience

Israeli troops shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian man and wounded seven others during renewed violence in the occupied Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the army announced.

The incident coincided with the disclosure by moderate Palestinian leaders on the occupied West Bank of plans for their most ambitious program of civil disobedience ever in hopes of translating the continuing wave of street demonstrations into concrete political results.

The methods advocated by the moderates include flying the illegal Palestinian flag, refusing to carry Israeli identification cards as required, non-payment of Israeli taxes and a partial boycott on Israeli goods.

Both developments came as a blow to Israeli government hopes of quickly restoring the situation in the occupied territories to what it was before Dec. 9, when the death of another Gaza youth in clashes with the army sparked widespread civil unrest.

Tuesday’s fatal clash in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, near the Egyptian border, was the worst in two weeks, and it followed the introduction by Israel of massive troop reinforcements in the territories and the adoption of new crowd control measures intended to cut down on the bloodshed.

The incident began with demonstrations in support of Hasan abu Shakra, a local Muslim fundamentalist who is one of nine Palestinians that the Israeli authorities said Sunday will be deported for “incitement and subversive activity.”

The army said Ali Dahlam was killed and four others wounded when a patrol in the camp came under attack by stone-throwing residents and used live ammunition to extricate itself from a “life-threatening situation.” A few minutes earlier, another patrol in the same camp was similarly attacked and three residents were wounded when the commander opened fire, a military spokesman said.

Five soldiers also were injured by stones and another Palestinian was wounded by a gunshot in Gaza under undetermined circumstances, the army said.

Dahlam was the 24th confirmed fatality caused by army gunfire since the disturbances began last month, and the second this week. A 25-year-old woman from Ram, a village north of Jerusalem, was shot to death Sunday in what the army described as an unjustified incident. A soldier and his commander have been suspended in the incident.

Palestinian sources claimed that two persons were killed in Tuesday’s Gaza Strip violence and that 24 more were wounded.

In Washington, the State Department called on the government of Israel and Palestinian demonstrators to exercise “calm and restraint” and consider the consequences of further violent confrontation.

After several days of muted reaction to reports of growing violence, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said: “People on both sides should pull back and consider the impact of confrontation and the use of deadly

force on the chances for a just and lasting peace in the region.”

The continuing unrest is “a message to the traditional, local (Palestinian) leaders that it’s not enough to attend cocktail parties and talk to foreign dignitaries,” commented Hanna Siniora, editor of the pro-Palestine Liberation Organization newspaper Al Fajr. “They have to do more.”

That is one reason he and at least a dozen other local Palestinian leaders are planning a campaign of civil disobedience, Siniora said in an interview in his East Jerusalem office Tuesday evening.

“We have to bridge the gap between the people in the street and the (Palestinian) businessman,” added Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American political activist here who urges nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“We don’t want the whole ball to be carried by the refugee camps and the students,” Awad said. “The ball has to be carried by all the Palestinian people, the rich and the poor.”

The program is expected to be announced officially at a press conference the organizers have called for this Thursday, when they are also expected to call on Israel to rescind the deportations announced Sunday and forgo other controversial forms of administrative punishment in the occupied territories.

“We are going to utilize exactly the same methods here that (civil rights protesters) used in the United States in the 1960s, from sit-ins to refusal to pay taxes,” said Siniora.

News of the organizing effort leaked in the Israeli media after a meeting of the Palestinians on Monday, and some were concerned that the premature publicity might damage the campaign.

Israeli and some Palestinian sources expressed skepticism over whether the group could mount an effective, coordinated campaign among the politically fractious Palestinian community here. Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and a prominent West Bank researcher, estimated that because of the types of taxes imposed on the Palestinians and the ways they are collected, a tax boycott could be at most 10% successful.

Also, Benvenisti said, Palestinians spend about $800 million annually on Israeli products and are almost totally dependent on the Israeli economy. About 120,000 work in Israel itself, at jobs that are mostly menial but that nevertheless provide pay they could not otherwise earn in the underdeveloped West Bank and Gaza.

However, the Palestinian leaders claimed that their initiative has widespread support among groups ranging from the Communist left to fundamentalist religious organizations particularly active in Gaza.

“Either the present local leadership works together or there is no need for it,” commented Siniora.

‘We Throw Stones’

Awad said the campaign began at least three weeks ago. He said he was approached by people from Gaza and the militant West Bank refugee camps of Dahaisha and Balata. “Okay, we throw stones. But can we do something else?” he quoted them as asking.

Siniora, who was abroad during the entire period of the violence, returned Sunday and quickly urged that the discussions be turned into action.

“I tried to hasten the agenda,” he said. “For us it’s important to influence the Israeli electorate before the next election.”

Israelis are scheduled to go to the polls in November in an election that may be crucial in breaking an existing political stalemate over the future of the peace process and policy in the occupied territories.

“The occupation has to be discussed,” said Siniora. “We want to (make sure it is) by nonviolent means so as not to alienate Israeli voters. But they have to be made aware of what is being done in their name.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres warned Tuesday that any civil disobedience by the occupants of the territories would only worsen their lives.

“I don’t think it will happen because the residents of the territories also have their own limitations,” Peres told army radio during a tour in the north of the country. “Whoever disobeys will make his own life miserable. . . . Whoever suggests making conditions more difficult will just be kicking the ball into his own net.”