Shamir Threatens to Quit if Likud Dumps His Vote Plan

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir threatened Sunday to resign if his Likud Party throws out his proposals for Arab elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“I cannot continue in my job if I don’t feel the movement I represent in the government supports me and stands beside me,” Shamir told Israel Radio before leaving on a six-day trip to Britain and Spain to promote his initiative.

Three Likud ministers, including Shamir’s deputy, voted against his plan in the Cabinet meeting last week, and almost half of his party stayed away from a parliamentary vote endorsing it.

But Israel’s left-right coalition government approved the plan by a 20-6 vote, and Shamir said he expects ultimately to win the support of his right-wing party.

Shamir’s plan, which has won cautious support from the United States but has been dismissed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, would let the 1.7 million Arabs of the territories elect negotiators to talks with Israel.

Muslim Militants Held

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it has detained about 200 Muslim militants in the Gaza Strip in the largest such sweep since the Arab uprising began. In clashes in the occupied areas Sunday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians and wounded at least 25.

The Israeli military identified the militants as members of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, and it accused its spiritual leader of ordering the killing of Arabs suspected of helping Israel.

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, 51 and confined to a wheelchair, was detained by troops Friday. The army said it has proof that he was involved in Hamas military operations.

“The security forces which recently uncovered the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement dealt a blow of defeat to this organization that carried out terrorist acts against the army, against citizens in the strip, against collaborators,” said the southern army commander, Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai.

Gaza Curfew Lifted

In another action, the army lifted a blanket curfew imposed on the Gaza Strip for five of the past six days.

It refused to comment on leaflets distributed by the uprising’s leadership rejecting Shamir’s election plan and calling for an escalation of the uprising.

The leaflet, the 40th in a series signed by the PLO-backed Unified Leadership of the Uprising in the Occupied Territories, urged Palestinians to kill a soldier or a Jewish settler for every Arab killed in clashes with Israelis, starting today.

The army would not say if it was stepping up security measures in light of the threat. “We don’t comment, we act,” a spokeswoman said.

Taking Threat Seriously

But an official representing many of the 70,000 settlers in the occupied territories said the threat could not be dismissed as rhetoric.

“They have proved that this intifada (uprising) is serious business, not a kids’ game. People are wounded and killed, both on our side and on theirs, and it’s certainly very serious,” West Bank settlement official Dov Kenaan said.

Despite the end of the curfew on the 650,000 Arabs of the Gaza Strip, shops and businesses stayed shut in response to a strike call by the uprising’s leaders.

A ban on travel to Israel also ended, but Arab and Israeli witnesses said few Gazan motorists risked stoning by fellow Palestinians by driving during the strike.

In the Gaza Strip’s Nuseirat refugee camp, troops killed Essam Mohammed Akel, 17, Arab hospital officials said. At least 17 other Palestinians were wounded in stone-throwing confrontations with troops in Gaza, Arab doctors said.

In the West Bank, eight Arabs were wounded in clashes in four villages. In Abu Dis near Jerusalem, soldiers dispersing a protest by hundreds of young Palestinians killed Haitham abu Arakat, 18, hospital officials said.