4 Die, Hundreds Hurt in West Bank Clashes

In the fiercest clashes here in years, Palestinian police and Israeli soldiers fought deadly gun battles Monday, as protests exploded across Palestinian territory, leaving hundreds of people wounded and dealing a massive blow to the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.

Such an eruption of hostility had long been feared by many Palestinians, who said the sluggishness of on-again, off-again peace negotiations was contributing to rapidly festering discontent.

At least four Palestinians were killed in the violence that swept through the West Bank and Gaza Strip and exposed the fragility of accords that have governed Israeli-Palestinian relations for much of the last decade.

The violence was an embarrassment to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, coming just as he was engineering important goodwill concessions to the Palestinians. Even as riots raged, Barak obtained hard-won permission from parliament to release three Jerusalem suburbs to the Palestinians. But the unrest threw the actual hand-over of the land into doubt.

Barak said Monday evening that he had to appeal personally and repeatedly to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat for a cease-fire, and he questioned whether the Palestinians were really interested in stopping the violence, much of which was clearly coordinated between Palestinian demonstrators and Palestinian police.

It was widely anticipated that Monday would be a raucous day because Palestinians planned enormous demonstrations to protest the birth of Israel 52 years ago, a date they call the Catastrophe. But the demonstrations escalated far beyond most expectations. And Israelis put the blame squarely on Arafat.

In one of the most harrowing of dozens of clashes, about 40 people, including journalists and a handful of Americans, were trapped for more than four hours inside a hotel where they had sought cover after Palestinians opened fire on Israeli troops at a junction near the West Bank city of Ramallah. A Palestinian journalist working for The Times was seriously wounded in the shooting, and a Palestinian police officer was killed.

The Israelis, apparently outflanked by Palestinian gunmen, commandeered the hotel and positioned snipers armed with M-16 rifles and submachine guns on the roof. Gun battles raged on and off for the rest of the afternoon as the journalists, foreign hotel guests and Palestinian employees hunkered down in the lobby.

The gunfire quieted down only after West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub appeared on the scene--and after Israeli helicopter gunships with orders to open fire appeared overhead.

Rioting was also reported in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarm and Janin. Thousands of Palestinians, shooting guns and hurling firebombs, marched in a funeral demonstration late Monday near Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus.

Throughout Palestinian territory, roads were littered with paving stones, spent shells and debris. Plumes of tear gas and the smoke of burning tires hung in the air, as did the screams of ambulances.

Clashes between Palestinians armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails and Israeli forces armed with rubber-coated bullets are not uncommon. But rarely are there exchanges of live ammunition, and Monday’s violence was the worst seen here since riots erupted in 1996 over Israel’s opening of a tunnel near Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Palestinian and Israeli sources said that more than 300 Palestinians were injured Monday and that at least four--two police officers and two demonstrators--were killed. Some Palestinian sources put the death toll at 10. The Israeli army said 14 of its officers and troops were wounded.

Palestinian officials and community leaders have been warning of the possibility of a grass-roots explosion ignited by mounting frustration over what is perceived as the slow pace of negotiations with the Israelis. Many Palestinians feel that they reap few rewards from the process; there is growing realization that a final settlement is near and that it will fall short of their expectations. Palestinians are also frustrated over Israel’s continued detention of more than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners.

Arafat clearly was interested in allowing his people to vent their anger, analysts here say. But it may be that, as one Israeli commentator put it, once he had set the field on fire, he could not extinguish the flames.

“They talk about a peace process, but where is the peace?” screamed a 14-year-old demonstrator in Gaza as he jumped over Israeli military jeeps and hurled rocks at soldiers. “Our mothers and fathers are suffering. There is no peace for us.”

“People are pushed to a situation of hopelessness,” said Khalil Yassin, 57, a Palestinian American who returned to his homeland five years ago to start a business and was caught in Ramallah by the rioting. “There is no fruit at all for the Palestinian people [in the peace process]. When you are in a hopeless situation, you do maybe crazy things.”

Atayeb Abdel Rahim, a senior aide to Arafat, denied that the Palestinian Authority had organized the protests and blamed Israel for the turmoil.

Barak, speaking after a stormy session of the parliament, said the rioting underscored the urgent need to reach a definitive peace treaty with the Palestinians and served as a warning of what the consequences will be if the two sides fail.

In arduous negotiations, Israel and the Palestinians are attempting to draft a comprehensive settlement by Sept. 13 that would resolve such complicated issues as the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian entity and the future of millions of Palestinian refugees.

“All this only reinforces my belief that it is vital to achieve separation between us and the Palestinians,” Barak said, “to demand that they be responsible and to see that they will be.”

The talks have hit a serious impasse, but a secretive channel opened in Stockholm has created a glimmer of new hope. That’s despite the angry resignation early Monday of the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, Yasser Abed-Rabbo, who quit in a pique over the back-channel efforts.

Monday’s violence came as Barak’s Cabinet, and then the Israeli parliament, narrowly approved relinquishing Abu Dis and two other villages east of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. However, in view of the day’s unrest, Barak said he would postpone the actual transfer until the incidents are investigated.

Even before Monday’s upheaval, the land hand-over was a politically risky move for Barak, who now must struggle to hold together his fractious coalition government.

Immediately after Monday’s votes, one coalition partner, the right-wing National Religious Party, announced that it was bolting. The NRP holds five seats in parliament, and two other parties holding 21 seats also are making noises about abandoning the prime minister. That would leave Barak, whose coalition holds 69 seats in the 120-seat chamber, with a minority government and could even force new elections.

In an impassioned speech to rally support for his decision to give up the villages, Barak called on his fellow lawmakers to rise above their petty arguments and accept the “matter of historic responsibility” before them.

Abu Dis and the other villages, he pointed out, are already under civilian Palestinian control and their full transfer would be only a matter of time. He also rejected the argument that the transfer will give the Palestinians a toehold in Jerusalem, the city both sides covet as their capital, because by no one’s imagination could tiny Abu Dis be considered part of Jerusalem.

“Quitting the government today--because of Abu Dis, because of a quarter percent of land which is already in Palestinian hands--is, I believe, an unworthy move,” Barak said. “I don’t recall any prayer for Abu Dis in the Jewish prayer books.”

The vote in the parliament, or Knesset, which took the form of a confidence motion, was 56-48, with several of Barak’s coalition members defecting.

Barak’s opposition wasted no time in attempting to exploit the Palestinian violence to illustrate the dangers of giving up land.

“Today they fire on our soldiers from Ramallah, and tomorrow they will fire on us from Abu Dis,” charged Ariel Sharon, leader of the right-wing Likud Party, the largest opposition bloc. “This is the first time since the [1967] Six-Day War that Jerusalem is being surrounded by enemy troops.”

Later Monday, tens of thousands of Jewish settlers who oppose land transfers to the Palestinians joined assorted right-wing politicians for a rally in Jerusalem’s Zion Square.

“This is a hard and difficult day--for all those who support Barak’s policy,” said legislator Danny Naveh, also of Likud. “We have seen today that the Palestinians shoot--and receive land. And not just any land--land adjacent to Jerusalem! What we saw today is, when they engage in extreme violence, they get what they want. Today the fire is in the territories. Tomorrow this fire will be aimed at houses in Jerusalem.”

Barak’s decision to go ahead with the vote on Abu Dis came after the capture by Palestinian security forces of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, who has topped Israel’s most-wanted list for years and is accused of masterminding terrorist bombings that killed dozens of Israelis and several Americans.

There were overnight behind-the-scenes contacts to try to quell the violence. But more trouble is likely today. The Palestinian minister of communications, Imad Faluji, went on radio Monday to urge the kidnapping of Israeli civilians as barter for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. And Israeli army officers announced that, if rioting resumes, they will show no restraint.