Arab Kills 2 Israelis on a Jerusalem Street : Outraged Government Links Rampage to Arafat Visit in France

An Arab shouting “God is Great” stabbed to death two Israelis on a busy Jerusalem street Wednesday, setting off an outburst of anti-Arab sentiment in the streets of Jerusalem.

In outraged comments to Israeli reporters, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir linked the stabbing to Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat’s visit to France, saying the kind of reception given the PLO leader by French President Francois Mitterrand encourages terrorism.

“This is a cruel murder of fanatic beasts trapped by hatred,” Shamir said. “They are pushed to these acts by such visits. When they see their leader, their idol, accepted in the palaces of presidents, they know he is accepted only because of such murderous acts and they want to increase them.”

An hour after the 11 a.m. stabbings, the Israeli government described the incident as “definitely a terroristic act.”

“It makes it very hard for every Israeli to listen to Arafat,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Alon Liel.

The killings occurred opposite the main Jerusalem post office on Jaffa Road, a central shopping street. The assailant lashed out at people waiting at a covered bus stop, witnesses and police said.

The assailant, described as a 25-year-old resident of the West Bank town of Ramallah, had spent the night in prayer at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City before going on the rampage that also left three bystanders wounded, police said.

“He stayed there through the night and came out in order to carry out damage,” Jerusalem Police Commissioner David Krauss told reporters.

Police said the suspect belonged to a fundamentalist Muslim group and had been detained previously for “terrorist activities.”

Jerusalem residents Nissim Levy, 91, and Vardy Kelman, 60, died before reaching the hospital. An 89-year-old woman was in fair condition at Hadassah Hospital with stomach wounds; a religious student and a 60-year-old victim were taken to Bikur Holim Hospital, also suffering from stab wounds.

Tackled by Passers-by

The attacker ran down the street brandishing his bayonet-type knife until other passers-by and police tackled him at the next corner and dragged him into a flower shop.

An angry mob then formed outside demanding the assailant be lynched. Police kept them at bay until a van arrived to take the suspect to the Jerusalem police station a block away.

“Of course they were mad,” said Michael Svili, an off-duty security guard who helped drag the assailant into the shop. “What do think this is--Chicago, where people are just going to stand around and watch?”

The crowd swelled to several hundred and when two young Arab construction workers strolled down the street, the mob turned on them, repeatedly yelling “Death to Arabs!” The pair escaped behind the protection of a police cordon, and police subsequently dispersed the enraged crowd. Some onlookers screamed, “Why do you protect Arabs?”

Later, riot police broke up a protest by members of the extremist Kach movement, which favors the expulsion of Arabs from both Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Tear gas was used to disperse the demonstrators, who were chanting, “Revenge, revenge.” Police arrested Kach founder Meir Kahane and six of his followers.

Israeli right-wing politicians criticized the government for failing to give enough protection to Jewish Israelis and for not stamping out the Arab uprising. A group of settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron announced formation of a 300-member self-defense force.

Minister of Police Chaim Bar-Lev urged calm. “I hope it won’t prompt extremists from our side to react because that could bring about a vicious cycle,” Bar-Lev told Israel government radio.

The unsettling events came amid Israeli newspaper reports that the unrest in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip would soon spill over into Israel--at the instigation of the PLO. During the uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by Israeli soldiers. Including Wednesday’s stabbing deaths, the Israeli toll reached 17.

Compared to West Bank and Gaza cities, Jerusalem has been relatively free from Arab-Israeli violence.

In a written statement, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek denounced the Wednesday attack as a cowardly act of terrorism. “Terrorists have proven yet again their bravery and expertise in low and dastardly deeds against old people, children and innocent citizens while Arafat spouts empty declarations in Paris,” said Kollek, who is on a visit to New York.

Before the stabbings, news in Israel had been dominated by reports from France, where Yasser Arafat had declared the PLO charter caduc , a French word meaning lapsed or null and void.

The charter, written in 1964, rejected the 1947 U.N. partition of British-ruled Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. It also said Israel would be an illegal state “regardless of the passage of time” and called for the ouster of the “Zionist and imperialist” presence.

In the past few months, Arafat has insisted that the PLO charter had been superseded by the PLO’s declaration last year of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli government reacted dismissively. “We have heard these words from Arafat before,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liel. “Only now, he said it in a more emphatic way.”

But one Foreign Ministry official said that Israel would wait to see whether the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian legislative body, would amend the PLO charter. “If they change it, we would have to respond to it,” he said. “We welcome more moderate rhetoric, but it is not enough.”

Arafat’s statement brought a harsh response from factions within the PLO as well as breakaway Palestinian groups based in Syria. Several dissidents agreed with Israel’s official position that Arafat lacks the power to amend the charter.

The Syrian-backed Palestinian National Salvation Front, which opposes Arafat, said it will call a meeting to overthrow Arafat as PLO leader. “It seems that Arafat has become used to giving free concessions,” complained Haled Fahou, a member of the group.