After Pullout, a Tale of Two Cities

Palestinians poured into the streets of Beit Jala on Thursday to celebrate the Israeli army’s withdrawal after a 50-hour reoccupation, but in Gilo, the nearby Jewish community that has come under repeated fire from the Palestinian village, residents were nervous and angry.

The army pulled out of Beit Jala just before dawn, after Palestinian leaders promised to halt attacks on Gilo, which is on Jerusalem’s southern outskirts. Israeli officials said the army was poised to reenter the West Bank village if the shooting resumed.

In Beit Jala and neighboring Bethlehem, gunmen fired into the air, kissed one another and proclaimed their “victory” over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Residents handed out candies.

“What they gave us in Oslo we have now liberated ourselves,” said Ibrahim abu Srour, an activist in the Aida refugee camp that sits between Bethlehem and Beit Jala. He was referring to the 1993 land-for-peace agreements negotiated in Norway that Palestinians feel never fulfilled their expectations for an independent state and sovereign territory.

In Gilo, counselors and security experts were training residents Thursday how to act in case of an emergency such as a mortar attack, and community officials were meeting to decide whether to begin the school year on schedule Sunday.

“I am very angry and disappointed,” Meir Turgeman, head of Gilo’s local council, said in an interview. “Sharon said the shooting has stopped, but it has not stopped. I don’t know what we are going to do about school starting and how we can make the children safe.”

Gilo was built on West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East War, and Israel now considers it part of Jerusalem. Palestinians regard it as an illegal settlement.

Though most members of Sharon’s Cabinet praised the army’s actions in Beit Jala, several blasted the decision to withdraw.

Rehavam Zeevi, Sharon’s ultranationalist tourism minister, said Israel should have occupied Beit Jala 10 months ago, should have stayed there and should have done a lot more while there.

“We acted late, and with too much restraint,” he said. “We should search every house for weapons, and we should destroy the Muslims’ homes while leaving the Christians’ homes alone.”

Meanwhile, fighting raged Thursday in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, where a Palestinian doctor was killed, and in Tulkarm, a Palestinian city close to the West Bank border with Israel.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops prevented a convoy with United Nations refugee officials from crossing a roadblock to inspect homes demolished by Israeli army bulldozers in the Rafah refugee camp.

Peter Hansen, commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, headed the convoy. When troops blocked access, Hansen got out of his vehicle wearing a U.N. uniform and a bulletproof jacket. A soldier shouted at him in English, “Go back immediately, or we are going to shoot!”

Hansen reached Rafah later via precarious back roads.