Israeli Army to Get Tough With Settlers

Israeli troops have been given new orders to act firmly, even with force, against Jewish settlers who have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the army said Thursday.

“The Israeli armed forces in the (occupied) territories, together with the police, have been told to take strong action against Jews engaged in illegal activities or who disturb the peace,” a military spokesman said.

“Updated orders have been issued recently to commanders in coordination with the Justice Ministry, the police and state attorney’s office.”

Soldiers were told they could arrest settlers in “special cases” and then hand them over to police for prosecution, that they could impose curfews on Jewish settlements to halt rioting and other unrest and that they should, if necessary, employ “reasonable force” to prevent violence.

The army used its expanded powers Thursday evening to bar hundreds of settlers from entering Nablus, located north of Jerusalem and the largest Palestinian city, where they planned to hold a religious ceremony. A scuffle broke out, and about 15 settlers were carried away by soldiers. No injuries were reported.

Troops also closed four nearby Jewish settlements, allowing residents to leave only if they were heading away from Nablus.

The 10 pages of military orders, substantially expanding previous standing orders for troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, were issued to all officers after Israeli soldiers stood by recently while settlers fired upon Palestinians in Hebron, Ramallah and other towns in angry protests against terrorist attacks upon Israelis.

Spiraling violence, the cycle of attack and counterattack between the Palestinians and settlers, has increased sharply in recent weeks, and members of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s Cabinet demanded tougher intervention by the army to halt it.

Seven Palestinians have been killed by settlers in the last three months--three of them slain in a drive-by shooting last week. Since Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization concluded their peace agreement in September, 44 Palestinians and 18 Israelis have been killed in the continuing violence.

But it was televised footage, broadcast here and around the world, of Jewish settlers firing on Palestinians in the streets of the West Bank city of Hebron as soldiers watched--or ran away--that apparently led to the new army instructions.

“This is not a change in policy, but rather an organizing and a detailing of local orders,” the military spokesman said. “In light of the new reality on the ground, a need arose to organize the existing orders on this issue and tell the soldiers how they are to act in different situations.”

The prospect of clashes between soldiers and settlers, however, is a very sensitive issue for Israelis. Most Jewish families have someone serving in the military, and an incident in which a soldier were to shoot a settler, or vice versa, would cause a political uproar in Israel. Police Minister Moshe Shahal has asked for a special force of 10,000 both to ensure the security of the settlers and to police them.

Legal commentator Moshe Negbi said the army, as the primary “legal entity” in the areas captured in the 1967 Middle East War, always had the authority to act against the Jewish settlers but generally chose to leave this to the regular Israeli police.

“These guidelines show . . . that the law has not been applied as strongly toward Jewish settlers as toward Arab residents,” Negbi said. “The law does not discriminate between people according to nationality or religion. Just as the army imposes a curfew on Hebron, it can do so on (the neighboring settlement of) Kiryat Arba.”

Settlers strongly protested the orders as an attempt to intimidate them.

Zvi Katzover, head of Kiryat Arba’s local council, said the army “should not even dream” that it could stop settlers from demonstrating. The military instructions were “ridiculous and impossible to carry out,” he added, and he predicted that Israelis would reject any attempt to place Jews under curfew.

Yisrael Medad, a spokesman for the Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, said the new orders will “encourage civil strife,” turning Israel’s citizen-soldiers against the settlers.

“We will ask our people to act in a disciplined manner,” Medad said, “but we won’t stop the protests. . . . This is a fight about the future of the country, about our personal security, about the future of Zionism. We won’t allow total legality to dictate how we protest the government’s policy.”

About 125,000 Jewish settlers live among 1.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The fate of their communities will not be decided until Israel reaches a permanent settlement with the Palestinians in five years’ time. The security of the settlers is a major issue in the current negotiations on Palestinian self-government.