Israel Arrests 10 Key Arabs Tied to Civil Disobedience

Ten prominent Palestinians, including six journalists, were arrested here Thursday for advocating a campaign of civil disobedience in the Israeli-occupied territories.

Seven were released later in the day, and the remaining three were being held overnight.

In addition to the journalists, the detained Palestinians included two lawyers and two doctors, who were later released along with three of the journalists.

Among the journalists was Hanna Siniora, editor of the nationalist daily newspaper Al Fajr and a leader in the campaign against the 20-year Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Another editor was Ibrahim Karaeen, whose Palestine Press Service reports on developments in the West Bank. Israeli authorities have charged that the press service incites young Arab demonstrators on the West Bank into violent behavior.

Karaeen was arrested at a news conference at which several Palestinians planned to issue a statement making 14 demands of the Israeli government, including the release of detained Arabs and an end to Israeli taxation in the occupied territories.

Of the seven released, only Siniora and Karaeen were required to post bail.

After his release, Siniora said he was questioned about political statements he made in the United States in May, 1986, and about organizing what police termed an unlawful assembly--an apparent reference, he said, to the news conference.

“This is a continuation of the same repressive measures the Israelis have been using over the last five weeks,” he said. “But it will backfire. It just adds fuel to the fire of the uprising.”

Karaeen told reporters that the Israelis also cited an illegal gathering as one of the rationales for his detention.

Policy Called Bankrupt

“Israeli policy is bankrupt to the point where it doesn’t differentiate between a public meeting and a news conference,” said Karaeen.

Siniora and other senior Arab editors have advocated a boycott of Israeli cigarettes and soft drinks by Arab customers and have suggested that Palestinians not report to work in their jobs with Israeli companies in order to maintain pressure on the Israeli economy.

The six arrested journalists are largely based in East Jerusalem. Israeli sources said their detention was meant as a warning to the Palestinians not to move their campaign of civil disobedience from the territories into the capital.

Israeli observers noted that while recent Palestinian expressions of anger have been widespread in the West Bank and in the coastal Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, with its 350,000 Israelis and 140,000 Arabs, has remained relatively calm. This, it is said, was due to a tacit understanding that violence would not penetrate the city--where, in contrast to the territories, Arabs and Jews often live in close proximity.

The editors’ arrests were the strongest measure the Israelis have taken for some time against the Arab press.

Last December, Radwan abu Ayash, president of the Arab journalists’ association in the occupied territories, was detained without trial for six months.

But while the Arab press is subject to censorship, stories and editorials critical of the Israeli occupation have been allowed to appear.

And in recent days it was Siniora who modeled his proposed boycott of Israeli goods after a similar campaign by Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi, who led the fight for Indian independence from Britain.

“Gandhi,” said Siniora, “started with salt. We are starting with cigarettes.”

One of the other eight Palestinians arrested Thursday was Fayez abu Rahmeh, head of the Gaza Lawyers’ Union. Abu Rahmeh and Siniora became widely known in 1985 when they were chosen jointly by Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and accepted by Israel, as Palestinian delegates to a proposed Arab-Israeli peace conference.

The situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, torn by violence in recent weeks, was relatively calm Thursday.

Israeli authorities found the body of a 30-year-old Palestinian in a military firing range in the Judean desert southeast of Jerusalem. But the Israeli military said the man’s death appeared accidental and unrelated to the recent unrest.

The Israeli army announced Thursday that 11 Palestinian refugee camps --six in the Gaza Strip and five in the West Bank--were under a full curfew.

Western reporters said they saw soldiers turning away U.N. relief agency trucks attempting to deliver bread, fruit and vegetables to the Jabaliya camp in the Gaza Strip.