Most of Arab Instigators in Custody, Israelis Report

The army believes that massive arrests in the last 10 days have netted most of the activists who have been instigating Palestinian unrest in the occupied territories, senior Israeli security sources said Thursday.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that although they are cautiously optimistic that they are regaining control after 15 weeks of anti-Israeli violence, they are a long way from getting back to normal.

In the meantime, two more Palestinians were killed in a clash with an army patrol in the Balata refugee camp outside Nablus. The deaths brought to at least 103 the number of Arab fatalities in the unrest. One Israeli soldier has also been killed.

Palestinian sources identified the two as Majed Sawalneh, 21, and Mohammed Ali abu Zor, 18.

In another action, which was seen as a sign of official concern over protests called for next week, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir ordered Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language newspaper of the Israeli Communist Party, closed for a week.

Such closures are relatively common on the West Bank, but Thursday’s order against Al Ittihad was believed to be only the second since 1954 involving an Israeli publication.

Israel Radio said that Shamir, in his capacity as acting interior minister, issued the order after the newspaper published articles considered likely to encourage activity endangering public safety.

This referred to the Communist Party’s support of a proposed general strike next week by Israel’s 700,000 Arab citizens. The strike would be a show of solidarity with restive Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Disturbances Off Sharply

The army refuses to publish specific figures, but it says there has been a sharp decline in the number of disturbances in the occupied territories since mid-March. More than 700 Palestinians have been arrested, mostly in nighttime raids.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Tuesday that 3,000 Palestinians are in jail, and security sources confirmed Thursday that widespread arrests are continuing. According to Palestinian sources, at least 6,000 are being held.

Leah Tsemel, an Israeli Communist lawyer who handles many security cases, said that at least seven new detention centers have been set aside for Palestinians picked up in connection with the unrest. Hundreds of other prisoners, according to Arab journalists, are being held in West Bank and Gaza Strip schools, which have been closed by military order for about two months. Army spokesmen refuse to comment on these reports.

About 400 Palestinians have been ordered held for six months without trial under administrative detention orders signed by military commanders under a new procedure. This, a military spokesman confirmed, is by far the largest number held at one time under administrative detention since Israel took the territories in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Many Leaders in Custody

“Security sources estimate that the (army) has now apprehended the majority of those pulling the strings of the intifada (uprising) in the central towns and refugee camps in the territories,” the Jerusalem Post’s Middle East editor, Yehuda Litani, said in an article Thursday.

A senior military source commented, “I don’t know if most would be the correct word, but quite a lot of (the uprising leaders) are behind bars now.”

Police Chief Chaim Bar-Lev said on a visit to Bethlehem on Thursday that among those arrested were the people responsible for the latest leaflet distributed by the Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories. The leaflet, the 11th in a series of directives signed by the underground group, appeared last weekend. It calls for stepped-up attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Bar-Lev said these people had been arrested in East Jerusalem and other West Bank towns. They are members of “several subversive groups,” he said.

Called Minor Figures

Palestinian sources described them as relatively minor figures whose activities were limited to distributing leaflets.

“They have nothing to do with the unified command,” one Arab source said.

Both sides agree that a major test of the arrest campaign will be whether leaflet No. 12 appears as scheduled next week.

Even if most of the leaders of the Palestinian uprising are in jail, the Israeli security sources said, it may prove difficult to cope with the change that the last 15 weeks has brought to the general atmosphere in the occupied territories.

One source spoke of “the readiness of a great part of the population to continue and live under pressure,” and added: “Of course, we’re in a better situation now than we were a month ago. But we still have a long, long way ahead of us.”

‘Situation of Euphoria’

Shamir, interviewed by Israeli Television Wednesday night, said: “The people who are throwing stones, the inciters, the leaders, they are today in a situation of euphoria, of great enthusiasm. They think that they are the victors. In such a situation, neither they nor other Arab elements will be prepared for any compromise whatsoever, for any kind of concession. . . . Only once this phenomenon ends, after we have ended this wave, only then, perhaps, will it be possible to speak with them and to enter a dialogue with them.”

In addition to breaking the euphoric mood, the security forces are engaged in a struggle to re-establish their authority in the face of continuing commercial strikes and widespread efforts by the Palestinians to organize their own society cut off from Israeli control.

On Thursday, for example, policemen closed the main shopping section of Arab East Jerusalem to automobile traffic in the morning hours. This is the period designated by the underground Palestinian leaders for stores to be open.

Coercing Merchants

A police spokesman refused to comment on the action, but it was seen as part of an effort to coerce merchants into disregarding the underground directives.

Mounted officers were seen guiding their horses onto the sidewalk and scattering pedestrians in what appeared to be deliberate harassment. The police set up roadblocks on several other streets on the Arab side of town, bringing traffic throughout the sector to a crawl.

At almost exactly noon, as the merchants lowered the metal shutters of their shops in response to the underground directive, the police barricades disappeared--a clear message that if the merchants want to do business unhindered, they must do it according to the Israeli authorities’ rules.

Also on Thursday, the army forced several West Bank schools to close after some parents and teachers tried to defy the ban on classes. The underground leadership had declared Thursday to be the Day of Education and called on Palestinians to “challenge the policy of ignorance.”

Forged Leaflets

Another tactic, according to Palestinian sources, involves the distribution by Israeli security forces of forged Arabic-language leaflets designed to create confusion and chaos among Palestinian factions. One such leaflet accuses fundamentalist Muslim leaders of fomenting a conspiracy aimed at “finding alternatives to the Palestine Liberation Organization.” It is signed by the “Palestine Communist Party.”

Another, signed by the fundamentalist “Islamic Jihad,” calls on followers to “fight this infamous group which calls itself the Palestine Communist Party.” And a third, purporting to be leaflet No. 11 of the unified command, gives a different date for the Day of Education, and counters the underground leadership’s call for Arab policemen in the territories to resign.

An army spokesman dismissed as “rubbish” the reports that Israeli security forces are putting out forged leaflets.

Tactics Being Felt

Combined with economic and other sanctions, the latest moves by the authorities are clearly being felt by the Palestinians.

“It’s hurting badly,” conceded Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American who advocates civil disobedience as the best route to Palestinian self-determination. However, he said, it is also deepening a sense of “rebelliousness and hatred” among Palestinians.

“I think we are climbing a ladder and burning each rung on the way,” he said. “We can’t go back. If we go back we’ll be like a mattress on the floor. They will step on us.”