3 Arabs Allegedly Chatted With Settler Before Slaying Him

Three Palestinians said they met a Jewish settler who was hiking in the occupied West Bank, chatted with him, posed for a picture and then stabbed him to death, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

The men were arrested during the night by agents of the Shin Bet security service in the death Saturday of U.S.-born Frederick S. Rosenfeld, 48, of the West Bank settlement of Ariel, the officials said.

The army later blew up the homes of the suspects, who are from the nearby village of Burkin, Israel Radio said. The army, using bulldozers, also demolished two houses of Palestinians suspected of throwing firebombs at military patrols in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, army radio said.

Calling for Harshness

Rosenfeld’s slaying has enraged Jewish settlers and right-wing politicians who have called for harsher measures, including deportations and the death penalty, to crush the 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Whistles, boos and shouts of “revenge,” “traitor” and “go home” nearly drowned out Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir during his eulogy at the cemetery in the new settlement of Barqan, about three miles from Ariel.

Accompanying the shouting, settlers waved Israeli flags and posters saying,”We Will Still Avenge Your Blood, Rosenfeld.”

Settlement leaders and a large police force surrounded the pale-faced Shamir to protect him from the angry jeering crowd as he walked to his car after the service. Chanting “revenge, revenge,” some settlers managed to pound his car with their fists.

Shortly after the service, a settler opened fire with an Uzi submachine gun on a group of Arabs waiting at a major intersection near Tel Aviv, police spokeswoman Dalia Gilad said.

Two Palestinians were wounded, one of them seriously, she said. The assailant was apprehended after being chased by police and residents. He was not identified.

The three Palestinians accused of slaying Rosenfeld came upon the settler Saturday while he was hiking on a barren hillside near the Arab village of Burkin, about three miles from Ariel, according to security officials.

They said the Arabs told agents during interrogation that Rosenfeld chatted with them, took their pictures with his camera and asked them to take a photograph of him.

Stabbed in the Back

One of them then grabbed Rosenfeld’s knife and stabbed him in the back, said the official.

They said the three Arabs were taken to the scene Tuesday to reenact the slaying.

Other Palestinian shepherds found Rosenfeld’s body Sunday morning. An empty pistol holster, two spent cartridges, a map and binoculars were found near the body.

There was no explanation of how the settler’s gun might have been fired.

According to Ariel settlers, Rosenfeld was a nature lover and apparently was mapping a hiking route for residents when he was killed. Rosenfeld, who was raised in Washington, came to Israel in 1968 and had lived in Ariel for 18 months. He was not married.

Also Tuesday, Fahad Fawzi Madi, a 27-year-old Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel, was found beaten and stabbed to death in the town of Khan Yunis in the occupied Gaza Strip, Arab and Israeli news reports said.

Another Palestinian, Samir Mohammed Antiz, 19, was found dead in his tent at the Ketziot detention camp in the Negev desert, where he had been held without charge since February, an army spokesman said.

Israel radio said Antiz apparently was killed by fellow prisoners who accused him of collaborating with the authorities.

The army said police were investigating Madi’s death and checking reports on Antiz’s death.

Also, a 34-year-old Palestinian postal worker from the West Bank town of Janin was hospitalized with two broken legs and a broken arm after he was beaten by masked Arabs who suspected him of collaborating with Israel, Arab reports said.

More than 40 Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israeli authorities have been killed since the start of the 18-month Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule of the occupied lands.

Since the revolt began, a total of more than 500 Palestinians have been killed. Twenty-three Israelis also have died.

About 70,000 Jews live in 131 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, alongside 1.7 million Palestinians. Relations between the two groups have worsened since the start of the uprising.

In Gaza City, military authorities fired the director of the Israeli-run Shifa Hospital, accusing him of belonging to the mainstream Fatah faction of the outlawed PLO and of maintaining contacts with Fatah leaders in Jordan.