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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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042489
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04248900.027
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 36ISRAELDeath Comes At RamadanA bloody West Bank flare of violence heats up the intifadeh
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.