Funeral for Slain Israeli Youths Sparks Violence; Arab Killed

Thousands of angry young Israelis stormed through Jerusalem on Tuesday, hurling stones at Arab cars and roughing up the occupants, after a funeral for two Israeli youths who were brutally killed.

Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, the former defense minister, called for the immediate expulsion of the entire Palestinian leadership, which he said would put an end to the intifada , the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories.

Several injuries and arrests were reported as the police tried to quell the disturbance that erupted after the funeral. And earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman was shot to death near the West Bank city of Hebron.

The rampaging crowds chanted “Death to Arabs” and “Death to left-wingers,” a reference to Israeli supporters of the Palestinian cause.

For the first time, many of the young men racing through the streets wore masks similar to those worn by Palestinian rebels.

Mayor Teddy Kollek called for calm, declaring: “Violence and danger are a way of life. These are problems we have to live with.”

The nation’s two chief rabbis, Avraham Shapira of the Ashkenazic community and Mordechai Eliahu of the Sephardic community, called on Israelis to refrain from “acts of revenge.” Both urged Arab leaders to denounce the crime.

In one incident in Hebron, crowds injured two Pakistani tourists, police said. In others, doors were ripped off cars and passengers were pulled out into the street and pummeled.

Israeli television crews, blamed for announcing the names of the victims before their families had been notified, were also attacked.

The two dead youths were Ronen Karamani, 18, and his friend, Lior Tubul, 17. They were last seen alive Saturday night as they left to visit girlfriends north of Jerusalem. Their bodies were found Monday afternoon in a ravine, bound, gagged, stabbed and bludgeoned.

Sporadic acts of violence continued through Monday night. The most serious was the fatal shooting of the Palestinian woman, Aziza Salem Jaber, 25, as she drove past the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, taking her pregnant sister-in-law to a Hebron hospital.