Curfew Lifted in Arab Neighborhood
Israel lifted a curfew on an East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood late Saturday after soldiers and police had earlier herded hundreds of Palestinian men into a school and warned of harsher measures if violent anti-Israel demonstrations did not cease.
In an attempt to quell several days of tire-burning and rock-throwing by area youths, authorities had closed the area Friday night and ordered residents to remain in their houses.
The curfew on the A-Tur neighborhood--the first imposed in the Holy City since Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war--was lifted Saturday night after Jerusalem police decided the area was under control.
Saturday afternoon, soldiers broadcast orders for all men in the neighborhood to assemble at a secondary school.
About 30 minutes later, soldiers and police officers searched every house in the neighborhood of more than 5,000 people, Jerusalem police spokesman Rafy Levy said.
More than 700 men crowded into the school where an Arabic-speaking police officer told them that the curfew would remain in effect indefinitely unless they agreed to stop the disturbances, Levy said.
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