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- <text id=89TT1079>
- <title>
- Apr. 24, 1989: Israel:Death Comes At Ramadan
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Apr. 24, 1989 The Rat Race
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 36
- ISRAEL
- Death Comes At Ramadan
- </hdr><body>
- <p>A bloody West Bank flare of violence heats up the intifadeh
- </p>
- <p> The trouble began just before dawn. Observing the ritual for
- the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Palestinians in the West Bank
- village of Nahalin last week ended their prayers at the village
- mosque before sunrise and prepared for another day of fasting.
- Suddenly about 100 rifle-toting Israeli border policemen swarmed
- into Nahalin to make arrests, imposing a curfew on its 3,000
- residents. Shouting vulgar insults, the Israelis started
- searching for young Palestinians suspected of stoning the cars
- of Jewish settlers traveling on nearby roads. Confronted by a
- stone-throwing mob, the policemen opened fire, killing a
- 28-year-old laborer named Riyadh Abu Gayadeh.
- </p>
- <p> That touched off one of the bloodiest incidents since
- Palestinians began their intifadeh in December 1987. Villagers
- said their tempers had flared earlier in the week when Jewish
- settlers uprooted trees in the area and Israeli soldiers
- patrolling the rural village shouted obscenities at local
- women. When word spread of Abu Gayadeh's killing, the enraged
- villagers poured out of their houses and attacked the policemen.
- "As we say in Arabic, patience has limits," said Ahmed, 45, a
- farmer who would give only his first name. "They pushed us to
- attack them."
- </p>
- <p> In the ensuing clashes, which Palestinians called a
- "massacre," the Israelis shot and killed four more villagers
- and wounded 25 others. The next day, Israeli troops sealed off
- the main cities in the West Bank. For the first time,
- Palestinians from the territories were prohibited from praying
- at Jerusalem's al Aqsa Mosque. But seven more Palestinians were
- shot and killed in rioting that broke out in the West Bank.
- </p>
- <p> In a rare legal move against Jewish settlers, an Israeli
- court last week indicted one of their leaders, Rabbi Moshe
- Levinger, 54, for manslaughter. The court charged that the
- Israeli shot an Arab shopkeeper to death and wounded another in
- the city of Hebron last fall, after Palestinians stoned his
- car. The indictment stunned Levinger's followers, who have
- asserted their right to protect themselves with guns.
- </p>
- <p> The surge in violence seemed to undermine plans by Prime
- Minister Yitzhak Shamir to cool off the uprising by holding
- elections in the occupied territories. Neither Palestinians nor
- Israelis appear ready to end their violent confrontation.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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