Palestinians Riot for Arms

Associated Press

Transcribed from the clipping

“JERUSALEM, Jordanian Sector (AP) — Palestinians demanding arms to fight Israel rioted in cities and towns north and south of Jerusalem Thursday. Jordanian Arab legion troops had to be called in to restore order.

About 10,000 Palestinians from surrounding refugee camps swarmed through the city of Hebron south of Jerusalem for seven hours, scuffled with troops and police and finally were dispersed. Witnesses said three demonstrators were wounded.

To the north of Jerusalem at Ramallah, steel-helmeted legion troops fired over the heads of about 5,000 refugees who threw stones at police and the soldiers for five hours. By midday, order was restored but more violence erupted in the afternoon and a curfew was imposed.

The rioters tried to cut off the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem but troops cleared away the makeshift roadblocks of empty oil drums and piles of stone. The streets of Ramallah were strewn with rocks and rubble.

It was the second straight day of demonstrations in Ramallah and Hebron by Palestinians angered by the November 13 Israeli army attack across the border south of Jerusalem. It was estimated 350 rioters were arrested. The refugees demanded arms to fight Israel, fortification of frontier villages and a free hand for Arab commandos staging raids into Israel.

The Jordanian government officially is pledged to stop the raids, the reason given by Israel for its retaliatory attack. The streets of Ramallah were deserted. Hebron looked like an armed camp with heavy police and army patrols touring the city. Shops were closed.

Nablus, another scene of earlier disorders about 40 miles north of Jerusalem, was sealed off from the rest of Jordan for the fourth straight day. Townspeople were reported barricaded in their houses and firing at police and troops. Demonstrations in Nablus and Hebron first broke out last week after the Israeli attack on the village of Samu.”

Context added by this archive

One of two clippings filling 1966, a year this archive previously held nothing from. It records the aftermath of the Israeli raid on Samu on 13 November, seven months before the 1967 war: ten thousand people from the camps in Hebron, five thousand at Ramallah, Nablus sealed off for a fourth day, 350 arrested.

What the crowds are asking for is in the headline and is unusual in this archive:

arms. Not a ceasefire, not negotiations — weapons, fortified border villages, and a free hand for the commandos. The soldiers firing over their heads are Jordanian.

Cite this item

"Palestinians Riot for Arms," The Daily Oklahoman, 25 November 1966. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1966-001. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1966-001