Action Aimed at Small Group of Troublemakers : Army to Curb Rampaging Israel Settlers

The Israeli army plans to crack down on Jewish settlers who go on rampages through Arab villages in the occupied territories, a military official said Friday.

Israel Radio said the army would soon start barring leading troublemakers from some communities.

Asked about the report, a senior military official said: “We have been considering steps. We don’t know yet what . . . they will be.”

The official said army policy is to respond seriously to any violence, whether from the 1.7 million Arabs or the 70,000 Jewish settlers in the territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

To Avenge Stonings

Settlers have stormed through several villages in recent weeks to avenge stonings and other attacks, smashing windows and firing shots. They accuse the army of failing to protect them from a 17-month-old Arab uprising. A teen-age Arab girl was shot dead in settler violence Monday.

Security sources said the new army measures will probably be directed against a small group, mainly members of the militant Kach Movement, which favors expelling all Arabs under Israeli rule.

Uri Ariel, the settlers’ leader, swiftly denounced the army plans, saying: “It is unbelievable, nearly a disgrace. Instead of suppressing the intifada (uprising), they are considering using orders against Jews (which are) reserved for fighting the enemy.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli court in Kfar Sava, near Tel Aviv, on Friday ordered five Jewish seminary students suspected in the rampage in which the Arab girl died jailed pending further investigation.

Rabbi Justifies Slaying

The seminary’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, defended the slaying and said the blood of Jews and non-Jews cannot be equated.

“We have to recognize that Jewish blood and the blood of a goy (non-Jew) are not the same thing,” he told Israel Radio. “Every law that is based on equating goys and Jews is completely unacceptable.”

Zevulun Hammer, the minister of religious affairs, condemned Ginsburg’s statement. He said Jewish commandments forbid the spilling of innocent blood, regardless of a person’s religion.

Separately, Jewish settlers Friday attacked and beat Israeli peace activists trying to deliver food and medicine to Palestinian children in Gaza Strip refugee camps.

The peace activists, mostly from the coastal city of Haifa, were met at the army-controlled Erez Junction checkpoint entrance to the Gaza Strip by about 100 Jewish settlers carrying Israeli flags.

The settlers tried to stop the activists from unloading their gifts of powdered milk and rice, and several fistfights ensued.

The army refused to let the activists deliver the goods and also refused to keep the supplies until they could be picked up by Gazans, the army spokesman’s office said.