Violence Heightens Israeli-Arab Tension

Middle East peacemaking descended into a new round of bloodshed and mutual accusations Wednesday after an Israeli soldier was beaten by Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and an Arab man was stabbed to death in Jerusalem, apparently by a Jewish extremist.

The escalating tensions came less than two weeks before President Clinton is due to arrive in the area for a visit intended to bolster a fragile peace deal he helped broker in marathon negotiating sessions in October.

But peace seemed an increasingly distant hope Wednesday as Israeli and Palestinian leaders accused each other of violating the new accord and creating an acrimonious political climate that led to the day’s violence.

Late Wednesday, Israel announced that it is suspending further troop withdrawals from the West Bank until the Palestinian Authority accedes to several conditions, including publicly abandoning its plans to declare an independent state in May and accepting Israel’s terms for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinians quickly rejected the conditions.

“This is unfortunate and completely unacceptable,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. “We will not accept any additions” to the agreement signed in Washington on Oct. 23.

Nonetheless, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not proceed with the next scheduled troop withdrawal without “clarifications” that he said Netanyahu’s “security Cabinet” now requires. The agreement stipulates that the next pullback, from an additional 5% of West Bank land, is scheduled to take place during the week of Clinton’s three-day visit, which begins Dec. 12.

“There will be no more withdrawals until the Palestinian Authority lives up to its obligations,” advisor David Bar-Illan said.

It was not clear whether the latest discord could threaten the timing of Clinton’s journey to the region, but Israeli officials said they had not been notified of any change.

Wednesday’s violence began with the predawn stabbing of Osama Musa Natshe, 41, a few hundred yards from his home in a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Police said they believe that Natshe, a Jerusalem street cleaner who was walking to work, may have been killed by a Jewish extremist suspected of carrying out at least seven stabbing attacks against Arabs in the last year. One other man has been killed in the assaults.

Police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said evidence found at the scene appeared to link Natshe’s death to the earlier attacks, which were carried out in or near the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim. He said he could not discuss what had been found, but Israel Radio reported that a knife with a Hebrew word scratched on the blade was left at the scene.

Both Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert condemned the killing.

Wednesday morning, a crowd of mourners gathered on the street outside the house that Natshe, his wife and children shared with his five brothers and their families. Several of those waiting to console Natshe’s relatives pointed grimly at the sidewalk, where a trail of blood led from the spot where he was stabbed to another where he collapsed trying to reach his home.

His eyes red-rimmed, Hussam Natshe, a brother of the victim, said Osama was a “very quiet man” who supported the peace process with Israel and was not involved in politics. “He was just going to his work,” Hussam Natshe said.

Faisal Husseini, the top Palestinian official in Jerusalem, accused Israel of creating an atmosphere of incitement by issuing broad condemnations of Palestinians after anti-Israeli attacks by Islamic militants. “This allows people like this extremist to go and--as he sees it--seek revenge,” Husseini said.

Later, hundreds joined Natshe’s funeral procession through East Jerusalem, where groups of demonstrators hurled stones at police. The officers fought back with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets. Police said several Palestinians attacked an Israeli motorist’s vehicle with rocks, pulled him out and set the car ablaze.

But the Jerusalem violence was overtaken by the chilling incident near Ramallah in the West Bank, which was captured by television cameras and played repeatedly on Israeli news stations. The footage showed the young soldier cowering beside a car, his arms raised over his head, as several Palestinians kicked him and struck him with fists and rocks.

After a moment, the young man, later identified as Assaf Miara, managed to get away and ran, bleeding, toward a nearby army base. He was hospitalized with minor head injuries, officials said.

The driver of Miara’s car, Yehuda Oliva, a resident of the Jewish settlement Beit El, jumped out as the car was still moving and escaped, shaken but unharmed.

The incident began when more than 100 students from Birzeit University marched in Ramallah to protest Israel’s refusal to release hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners jailed for violence against Israelis.

Palestinians are angry about Israel’s decision to include a number of common criminals in the prisoner releases negotiated during the recent agreement.

The protesters walked to an intersection on the outskirts of Ramallah and began hurling stones and large chunks of concrete at cars bearing yellow Israeli license plates and traveling on a road designed to allow Jewish settlers to bypass Palestinian villages.

Israeli officials said the violence was the result of continuing anti-Israeli incitement by Palestinian officials and religious leaders.

In comments aired on Israeli television this week, Ahmed Korei, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament and a longtime peace negotiator, told a rally of prisoners’ families that Palestinians were prepared to “use stones to free the people and the land” from occupation.