The New York Times · 24 October 1968

CP-1968-019

VIOLENCE FLARES IN THE WEST BANK

Israelis Impose Curfew and Arrest 12 in Ramallah

By JAMES FERON

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Transcribed from the clipping

RAMALLAH, Israeli-Occupied Jordan, Oct. 23—A week of rising tension stimulated by student demonstrations culminated today in violence, arrests and a curfew in this prosperous town in the Israeli-occupied area on the west bank of the Jordan River.

More than 25,000 residents of Ramallah and a sister town of Birah were ordered off the streets at 8 A.M. by Israeli troops and border policemen. The move came after 400 girls in green school uniforms had marched into the center of Ramallah carrying pictures of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of the United Arab Republic.

Shouting anti-Israeli slogans and chanting: “We are all fedayeen,” or Arab commandos, the girls carried what had been daily schoolyard protests into the downtown area. Israeli officials said that when the girls began throwing stones and spitting at Israeli soldiers, the occupying forces turned high-pressure hoses on them and ordered the curfew.

Roadblocks cut the town off from the rest of the west-bank area and severed the main highway through the Judean Hills. A dozen arrests were made, the Israelis said. By midafternoon the town was deserted. At one point, two single shots and then a burst of automatic gunfire could be heard on the outskirts.

Soldiers carrying batons moved along the empty streets, shouting at women who peered out of windows in the long rows of stone building. Jeeps carrying border policemen were the only vehicles in sight.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan at 6x to 12x by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by OCR and not by a person. No masthead or folio; the date follows the dateline 'RAMALLAH, Israeli-Occupied Jordan, Oct. 23' plus one day. It is independently corroborated by another clipping in the same deck, of 25 October 1968, which reports these same two towns released from these same curfews 'yesterday'. Printed error kept as set: 'the long rows of stone building', singular. Four hundred schoolgirls are quoted chanting and not one is named.

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