Israel Tightens Its Restrictions on Palestinians

Israel’s government Sunday imposed new restrictions on travel by Palestinians into Israel, pledged to accelerate deportation of nationalist activists and affirmed a policy of demolishing houses belonging to armed assailants as part of a campaign to put an end to assaults on Israelis.

Expulsions and house demolitions have long been opposed by Washington. The decision to continue with both tactics will likely bring criticism from the Bush Administration, which is pushing for an easing of tension between Israel and Palestinians as a means of setting the stage for peace talks.

However, Israeli officials insist that such measures are needed for self-defense and should not be put in the context of opposition to peace moves.

Half a dozen fatal knife assaults on Israelis during March provoked an outcry for a crackdown, prompting the government’s response Sunday.

“With the intention of increasing its deterrent power, Israel will expel inciters in places from where murderers, stabbers and others set out. Expulsion is considered especially effective,” state-run radio said.

The expulsion orders will include nationalist Palestinians who live within Jerusalem’s city limits, officials said. Several public spokesmen for the nearly 3 1/2-year-old uprising make their homes within Arab neighborhoods of the city, which Israel annexed after the 1967 Middle East War.

The tough new measures also forbid workers from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to drive their own cars into Israel. The move is meant to put the laborers under tighter control of their employers, who are supposed to pick up their employees and ensure that the Palestinians do not stay in Israel overnight.

The number of work permits given to Palestinian workers will be reduced. Israel had already sharply cut the flow of workers into Israel during the Persian Gulf War, and the loss of jobs deepened an economic depression gripping the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli intelligence officials have warned that increasing hardship could lead to more violence.

In formulating the new policy, defense officials rejected a proposal from the Police Ministry to forbid bachelors under the age of 30 to enter Israel. The blanket prohibition would have meant a separation that would have suggested that, for certain age groups, Israel is a foreign country. The government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir considers the occupied land to be part of Israel and is committed to holding onto it.

Some Palestinian analysts view the tightened restrictions as a step toward a de facto separation of the West Bank and Gaza from Israel and therefore, a kind of victory in their drive for independence. Others, however, recognizing the damage done to Palestinian economic well-being, oppose the move.

“We do not want the territories cut off to suit Israeli priorities,” said Mahdi Abdel Hadi, who heads an Arab think tank in Jerusalem.

Until the Gulf War broke out, about 120,000 Palestinians held mostly menial jobs in Israel. That number has been cut to 50,000 in the last two months on the grounds that Palestinians might carry out armed attacks in support of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. About 1.7 million Palestinians live in Gaza and the West Bank.

On a recent visit to Israel, Secretary of State James A. Baker III urged Israel to end expulsions of Palestinians as a confidence-building measure to ease tensions with Palestinians. Israel has expelled 62 Palestinians since the beginning of the intifada , or uprising, and most of them have been organizers of the revolt. Last month, another four were ordered banished, but their expulsion awaits a final court decision.

The State Department has often condemned house demolitions on the grounds that they breach international laws against collective punishment for individual offenses. Israel insists that the demolitions deter violent anti-Israeli activity.

There has been a rush of speculation about what, if any, confidence-building steps Israel might take to satisfy the Bush Administration. On Sunday, three Palestinian leaders from the Gaza Strip visited Cairo, and reports said they were exploring the possibility, with Israeli approval, of setting up a municipal administration in the city of Gaza. In Cairo, they were supposed to canvass representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization for permission.

The PLO has generally opposed formation of Arab-led authorities under Israeli occupation.

For its part, Israel has been lobbying European governments and the United States to put pressure on Arab governments to give up an economic boycott maintained for 40 years against Israel. The Israeli government has put elimination of the ban at the head of a list of confidence-building steps it would like Arab governments to take. Many Arab states refuse to do business with companies that also trade with Israel.