The New York Times · 12 February 1969

CP-1969-022

Dayan Tours Four Towns in West-Bank Region

He Says the Arabs Must Not ‘Run Wild’ in Protests · Calls Demonstrations Held in Schoolyards Acceptable

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Transcribed from the clipping

NABLUS, Israeli - Occupied Jordan, Feb. 11 — Defense Minister Moshe Dayan plunged today into the towns and villages of the Israeli-occupied west bank of the Jordan River, drawing distinctions between demonstrations and disorder.

He visited Qalqilya, Tulkarm, Jenin and this crowded hilltop city, and spoke with Israeli military government officials and shopkeepers and schoolchildren. These towns, and others on the west bank and in the Gaza Strip, have seen violence and arrests in the last two weeks as Israeli soldiers have attempted to suppress political protests.

To a few newsmen who accompanied him Mr. Dayan said: “We will not intervene if demonstrations are held in schoolyards, not even if they carry Nasser’s picture and shout anti-Israeli slogans.” Military government officials also have been reducing the pressure by fining arrested protesters immediately rather than holding them while additional protests build up.

“We will not let them run wild and we will not let them spill over into the streets to block traffic,” he said. Mr. Dayan’s impact was felt, as it usually is on trips of this kind, during the impromptu stops he makes in some unlikely places in the Arab areas.

He stopped at a fishmonger’s stand in this casbah in Nablus, and became involved in a long discussion over the price of fish. Details were lost in the babble of the throng but Mr. Dayan’s final advice was clear enough: “Sell it in Tel Aviv.” Outside Taibeh, an Israeli Arab village just outside the west bank border, Mr.

Dayan walked through ankle-deep mud in a parsley field to discuss farm problems. Mr. Dayan is a former Agriculture Minister. Nearby at Tulkarm on the west bank, he walked a quarter of a mile into an orange grove to discuss marketing problems. The topic was timely because Jordanian officials appeared today to be reimposing restrictions on traffic at the Damiya Bridge.

The Jordanians barred pedestrian traffic across the bridge, which spans the Jordan River cease-fire line, after a night of shooting in the area. Truck traffic continued, however. Mounting a stone parapet, he asked: “Why don’t you go to school?”

From within the chorus of mumbling replies a young man stepped forward—Bashir Sabah, a 19-year-old third-year student. He shook Mr. Dayan’s hand and said: “We are like those in the other cities. If Nablus finishes striking, we will finish.” Neither he nor Mr. Dayan knew it then, but the strike in Nablus had ended.

The boy continued: “We want to know what will become of our city.” “But you don’t know what will happen,” Mr. Dayan replied. “Will you stay on strike until peace talks are completed?” “You cannot expect us to be placid when our situation remains unclear,” the boy said. Mr. Dayan shrugged.

The exchange was indecisive, like so many other aspects of life under occupation.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan at 2.5x to 22x by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by OCR and not by a person. No full folio - the top right corner carries the fragment 'THE N' - so the date follows the dateline 'NABLUS, Israeli - Occupied Jordan, Feb. 11' plus one day and the slide label. The excerpt is longer than this batch's usual length and is contiguous, not stitched: it runs on to the end of the exchange between Moshe Dayan and Bashir Sabah, 19, a third-year student, because that exchange is the only place in its deck block where a named ordinary Palestinian answers an Israeli minister in print. Two words, 'reimposing' and one 'at', were read from broken ink rather than complete letterforms.

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