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The following article is extracted from the July-August 1997 issue of THE OTHER ISRAEL

WAR OF NERVES

In the days before Israeli bulldozers went up the then-wooded slopes of Jebl Abu-Ghneim/Har Homa, there were widespread expectations that this would ignite an all-out military confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians, similar to or worse than "The Tunnel War" of September 1996. The Israeli army certainly seemed to prepare for something of the kind. Tanks were deployed at the entrances of Palestinian cities, apparently poised for immediate invasion -- but the Palestinians did not provide a sufficient pretext.

Indeed, ever since "Bulldozer Day" there have been violent clashes in plenty between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers -- but they never quite crossed the subtle line dividing "disturbances" or "riots" from war.

The confrontations mostly broke out at the "half-liberated" Palestinian areas, places where Israeli military and settler enclaves were left intact after the much-publicized withdrawal -- greatly resented not only as a visible symbol of continuing occupation, but also because they interfere in countless concrete and galling ways with daily Palestinian life. At the same time, in such areas the young Palestinian protesters enjoy the advantage of a nearby zone under complete Palestinian control, into which Israeli soldiers can't pursue them without getting in the wrong under international law. Israeli government speakers insisted that "the riots" were all organised and orchestrated by Arafat's men; the Palestinians were adamant in insisting that the outbreaks were completely spontaneous. According to Israeli and foreign journalists who visited the area, the atmosphere of anger and frustration among the Palestinians did not leave much need to organise the protests -- all that was needed was for the Palestinian Police not to make too much of an effort to stop them...

Thus, one after another, the problematic sites became familiar to TV viewers: the tangle of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, with some 5,000 affluent settlers monopolising nearly a third of the land area, about half of the water sources and nearly half the length of the sea shore of a small piece of land where over a million Palestinians live in overcrowded misery; the Tomb of Rachel, retained (because of pressures from rabbis and religious lobbys) as an armed, fortified Israeli enclave in the midst of Palestinian Bethlehem; the Tomb of Joseph, a similar enclave in the heart of Nablus, which was already the scene of a fierce battle last September and which is certain to repeat the role should Israeli-Palestinian relations again reach the boiling point...

The hottest Hot Spot of all was, undoubtedly, the unhappy city of Hebron, left by the long-negotiated Hebron Agreement of January with a jagged partition line running through the alleys at its midst, and with 20,000 Palestinian inhabitants remaining under harsh occupation so that 450 settlers, notorious for their extremism even among other settlers, could continue to enjoy the great benefits they derive from Israeli rule. For such a situation to remain stable even for a short time, a lot of good will would have been needed -- and in the aftermath of Har Homa, good will was in short supply at Hebron, even more than elsewhere.

Confrontations in Hebron started with stone-throwing, occurring daily in the same alleys and attracting increasing crowds of Palestinian youths. Then the army caused resentment by sending soldiers of its notorious "Special Units", dressed as Arabs, to mingle with the crowds and suddenly pull guns and arrest several of them. This was followed by an Israeli extremist entering at night the Palestinian-controlled sector of Hebron and spreading copies of a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad as a pig -- about the worst insult anybody could offer to Muslims, causing angry reactions not only in Hebron itself but in numerous Muslim communities as far afield as India.

In the following days, the Palestinian protesters went over from stones to molotov cocktails, and on to "homemade bombs" made of plumbing pipes filled with explosives and thrown at the Israeli soldiers, first one at a time, then by the dozen. One of these bombs exploded on target, severely wounding two soldiers -- an event captured by one of the many TV crews present on the spot and shown with all the gory details all over the world.

The army retaliated by blocking several streets with concrete blocks, setting roadblocks on the entrances to Hebron, and severely restricting commercial life in the city; at the same time, copies of the Koran were desecrated at a Hebron school, further inflaming Muslim feelings.

The barrages of molotovs and pipe-bombs increased daily; violent incidents were reported from a dozen other spots on the West Bank; the Army made dire threats; the situation seemed to get, at last, out of control. And then, overnight, a truce was called in Hebron, strictly enforced (for the moment) by the Palestinian Police; the Israeli side reportedly made some concessions with regard to the Palestinian Airport in the Gaza Strip, a long-lasting sticking point; and the Palestinians turned their energy to the diplomatic arena in the U.N. Assembly General, striving to get a big majority for an international boycott on goods produced in the settlements...

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Diplomatic duels - Facts on the ground - Pulling the purse strings
Alliance and counter-alliance - Scandals and crises - A fractured society - Deadly deadlock

The Editors

THE OTHER ISRAEL is the newsletter of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

P.O.Box 2542
58125 Holon
Israel.

Phone/Fax: (03) 5565804

Editor: Adam Keller
Coeditor: Beate Zilversmidt

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