Israel: Palestinian officials organizing Hebron violence

JERUSALEM, June 15 (JTA) — Violence erupted this week in the West Bank town of Hebron, where Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators. Sunday’s clashes, which came in the wake of similar confrontations a day earlier, underscored the ongoing impasse in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The peace talks, along with most security cooperation between the two sides, came to a halt after Israel broke ground in mid-March for Jewish housing at Har Homa in southeastern Jerusalem and after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis at a Tel Aviv cafe. Israel accused the Palestinian Authority of fueling the weekend violence, saying it was an attempt to gain political concessions from the Jewish state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted Sunday as saying it was clear that the unrest was organized by Palestinian officials and was not spontaneous. He added that violence against Israel would not lead to any concessions, and he called on the Palestinians to work issues out through dialogue. The unrest came after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution June 10 calling on President Clinton to reaffirm that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel. Israel welcomed the non-binding measure, but Palestinian officials said the move harmed U.S. credibility as a mediator in the region. The Palestinians want the eastern portion of Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967, as the capital of a future independent state. Palestinian sources said that more than a dozen demonstrators were wounded Sunday in the clashes near Hebron’s Jewish Quarter. An Israeli border guard was lightly injured in the clashes, according to Israel Radio. The clashes first erupted Saturday in Hebron when hundreds of Palestinians threw stones and firebombs at Israeli troops. More than 30 Palestinians were reportedly hurt. Palestinian police did not intervene to stop the protesters. One Palestinian official was quoted as saying that the police were busy monitoring high school exams. In other violence, an Israeli woman was moderately wounded last Friday night in a shooting attack in the Jerusalem hills just inside the West Bank. Israeli security forces arrested six Palestinians from the nearby village of Bidu in connection with the shooting. Tensions were high June 12 in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli troops and Palestinians faced off. The Palestinians blamed Israel for instigating the tensions, saying that residents of the Jewish settlement of Morag had built a perimeter fence on Palestinian land. They also protested the installation of a memorial for an Israeli soldier killed by Palestinian fire during rioting last September. The three days of rioting erupted after Israel opened a second entrance to an archaeological tunnel near the Temple Mount.