Hebron killings beget violence in PNA areas
Palestine-Israel, Military, 3/11/1998

There were slight chances of a summit meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but after the Tuesday night killing of three Palestinian workers those chances have diminished, Palestinian sources said Wednesday.

Palestinian sources noted that Israel has sent a number of messages to the Palestinian government suggesting that both President Arafat and Netanyahu meet to discuss the present impasse in the peace talks between the two sides. But after the killing, the sources said, this meeting is being shoved far away from the current agenda. Arafat himself told reporters on Wednesday that a meeting between himself and Netanyahu is not on the agenda for the time being.

Israel sent in army forces into the area of Hebron and Jerusalem in anticipation of further waves of violence in response to the incident in Hebron Tuesday night in which Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinian workers and injured five others as they were returning from their workplaces in Israel to their town of Dura in the Hebron district. Within hours after the incident near the town of Tarkumya, massive clashes took place in the area and spread later on into the Jewish settlers enclave in the heart of Hebron. Israeli military sources admitted that at least 15 Molotov cocktails were hurled at Israeli soldiers and settlers over a period of a few hours after the incident and said that dozens of stoning incidents were reported in various parts of the Hebron district.

Voice of Palestine radio stations said that at least 50 Palestinians in the Hebron area were wounded in clashes that erupted in the city and its surroundings in protest against the killing. The three Palestinians who were killed were identified as Ghaleb Rajoub, 36, Mohammed Shihdeh Sharawne, 36, and Adnan Abu Zneid, 27. They all were rushed to Beit Jala hospital near Bethlehem where their bodies underwent postmortem.

A doctor who participated in the autopsy said all three died of high velocity bullet wounds in the head and the upper part of their body. The body of the driver, Mohammed Sharawneh, was riddled with more than ten bullets, the doctor said. Palestinian chief negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian government sent an official letter of protest to the Israeli government and called for an international commission of inquiry to examine what led to the tragic killing of the three Palestinians. He said that even if there were reasons for the soldiers to suspect the vehicle, they could have shot at the tires to bring the car to a halt. "But the huge amount of bullets they fired at the car showed they shot to kill," said Erekat.

Major General Uzi Dayan, commander of the central district, said the preliminary outcome of the investigation showed that the car driver did not try to storm the military roadblock but claimed that the vehicle was driving at high speed and thus has increased suspicion of the soldiers who acted immediately.

The incident took place when a Ford Transit passengers car drove next to an Israeli army roadblock. Israeli soldiers claimed they were in a life-threatening situation and thought the driver was about to run them over and therefore "we opened fire in self-defense." But Palestinian police reports, based on eyewitnesses who drove right behind the Ford vehicle, said the car drove across the Israeli military roadblock without any extraordinary behavior. "As far as we could see, there was no justification whatsoever for opening fire at the car," one eyewitness said.

As the incident took place, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the middle of his meeting with Jordanian Crown Prince Hassan. After the meeting, Netanyahu released to the joint press conference the official Israeli statement that claimed the soldiers acted in self-defense believing they were about to be run over by the car's driver.

Several hours later, however, Netanyahu called President Arafat and expressed his condolences. Netanyahu told Arafat that Israel is carrying out a thorough investigation into the incident. Arafat told the Prime Minister that he too was party to the desire to promote the peace process, and that he would, indeed, relay Netanyahu¹s message of condolences to the families. Israeli chief of staff, Amnon Shahak called PLO Executive member Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in an attempt to contain the incident, the outcome of which seemed almost inevitable and has long been warned against: a major explosion in the Palestinian land.

The current stalemate in the peace process and the increasing hardships of Palestinians due to Israel's continued closure of the Palestinian territories have prepared the ground for the overall uprising of the situation in the region, said Palestinian sources on Wednesday, noting that the killing of three workers in Hebron the night before was very similar to the famous car accident in Gaza on the eve of the Palestinian uprising against Israel in December 1987.

Today's political atmosphere is very much similar to the one that prevailed before the intifada, Arabic for uprising, and many Palestinian leaders, including Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, warned that the continued stress in the Palestinian territories will inevitably lead to a new wave of uprising in which, unlike the former one, fire weapons might be used.

Mainstream PLO faction, Fatah, called for a general strike throughout Hebron and a leading Hamas member in Gaza called on the Palestinian government to suspend all sorts of cooperation with Israel. The Palestinian government itself issued a statement branding the incident as cold-blooded murder and demanded that a Palestinian representative attend the sessions of the Israeli panel that was set to investigate the incident.

Previous Stories:
  Arafat to Netanyahu: Stop evading Oslo agreement   (2/25/1998)
  Israel surprised by PNA readiness for combat   (10/2/1997)
  Palestinians say territories like big prison   (8/11/1997)

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