3 Palestinian Slayings Spur Clashes

Palestinian youths hurled stones and gasoline bombs, and Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets Wednesday on a day of mourning for three Palestinian workers shot to death at an Israeli checkpoint the night before.

At least 30 people were injured in the worst unrest in the West Bank in months, reminding some observers of the days of the intifada, the uprising against Israeli rule of several years ago. But Palestinian and Israeli security forces working in tandem managed to keep disturbances reasonably isolated and under control. The funeral for the slain men was peaceful and dignified.

The solemn service in this hardscrabble Palestinian village drew 10,000 people--one of the largest public gatherings of Palestinians in recent memory. Among those attending was a brown-haired boy, Moussa Rhaheb Rjoub, the oldest of five sons of one of the dead men.

The 10-year-old pressed his tear-streaked face into his uncle’s waist after saying goodbye to his father, Rhaleb Rjoub, for the last time.

“When this child grows up, what do you think he will say? What do you think he will think?” his uncle, Mahmoud abu Zned, said as he stroked the head of the child, who was sniffling inconsolably. A few yards away, neighbors were still slathering concrete to seal the tomb.

“Naturally, he will hate every Israeli and will hate all the people who work with the Israelis,” he said.

The shooting took place Tuesday night near the village of Tarkoumiah, west of Hebron, when a van carrying Palestinian workers returning from Israel apparently tried to bypass a long line of waiting cars but then cut back in swiftly to rejoin the line. The army said the soldiers at the checkpoint fired their automatic rifles because they were alarmed by the van’s sudden lurch.

Although the military initially said the shooting was a reaction to an assault on the soldiers, Israel’s West Bank commander, Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, concluded Wednesday that “it was no terrorist attack.” But the soldiers were within regulations to shoot at a vehicle moving suspiciously, he said.

According to Israel Television news Wednesday night, quoting military sources, the shooting took place after three of the soldiers lost sight of their officer on the opposite side of the van, and one of them erroneously shouted that he had been run over.

Palestinians reacted with anger and indignation, saying they saw no justification for such a lethal reaction. Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat called the shootings “a big crime.”

Palestinians complain that they are routinely humiliated and demeaned at the hated Israeli checkpoints. At the funeral, several people told of how young Arabs hoping to get into Israel for work are picked out of the lines and subjected to various indignities, ranging from being forced to stand for hours in cold weather to being strip-searched or even beaten and arrested.

Incidents such as the killing of the workers cannot help but add to the cycle of violence--and could come back to haunt Israel, those attending the funeral said. “If they think that only they have crazy people, we also have crazy people,” said Mahmoud Rjoub, the dead man’s cousin.

Israeli media said more than 30 people were injured in the various clashes with police in Hebron, Ramallah and outside Dura, while Palestinian officials put the number at more than 50.

In Hebron, the cat-and-mouse clashes between Palestinian protesters and police guarding the city’s small Jewish enclave began Tuesday night and continued all day Wednesday.

Hebron, like other scattered West Bank towns and cities turned over to Palestinian control in recent years, suffers from economic stagnation due to frequent closures and restrictions on movement that cripple normal work and commerce.

Worse, the yearlong stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process means that few here expect any improvement soon, so hope has been stifled.

“The situation is miserable now,” said Muhammad Tamimi, 20, a student in Hebron. He was safely tucked in a doorway as stray rubber bullets fired by Israeli soldiers ricocheted on the main street in front of him. At an alleyway in the distance, young Palestinians lobbed rocks and broken pieces of concrete at the helmeted, flak-jacketed soldiers.

After a while he said, “You know, you can’t work here. . . . Here is worse than Afghanistan. Here is worse that Somalia. Here is worse than anyplace all over the world.”

“Future here?” scoffed a cousin, Hamed, 19. “There is no future here.”