Settlers Demand Right to Shoot Stone Throwers

West Bank Jewish settlers demonstrated Sunday, demanding government permission to shoot at Palestinian stone throwers.

At a stormy Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir denied news reports that he favors expanding defense rules to allow soldiers and civilians to fire back at stone throwers in the occupied lands, ministers said.

Jewish settlers have been demanding that both the army and settlers be allowed to open fire on Palestinians throwing stones. Soldiers now are allowed to shoot at Arab firebombers. But settlers are permitted to fire back only in cases of imminent danger to life.

The controversy over those rules flared last week when a U.S.-born Jewish settler accidentally shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers. The settler, Gedalia Becker, stopped his car and fired in the dark after a firebomb attack.

200 Settlers Protest

About 200 residents of the West Bank settlement of Einav occupied a park opposite Shamir’s office Sunday and said they can’t live in their settlement because government policies don’t allow adequate protection against stone throwers.

Einav’s secretary, Baruch Lior, said two people from his settlement of 40 families have been hit in the head in stone-throwing attacks in the last 10 days.

“We demand an elementary right to protect our lives. The army is doing everything it can, but the government ties its hands. Can the government say it did not spill this blood?” Lior asked.

At the Cabinet session, Shamir, leader of the right-wing Likud Bloc, and Energy Minister Moshe Shahal of the Labor Alignment became embroiled in a loud argument over the proposal, which Shahal said would turn Israel into the “Wild West where each one takes the law in his hands,” government sources said. Shamir denied advocating such a policy, they added.

Shahal’s attack followed media reports that Shamir supports the idea of shooting stone throwers. But Shamir denied supporting such a proposal, said his spokesman, Avi Pazner.