Palestinians Stage General Strike, But the Territories Remain Quiet

By JOEL BRINKLEY / Special to The New York Times

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JERUSALEM, May 15 — Palestinians in Israel’s occupied territories staged a general strike today, and all Arab businesses were closed. But the West Bank and Gaza Strip were quiet this weekend, even though Israelis and Palestinians alike warned that there was likely to be large-scale violence.

Both sides credited the calm to curfews in some cities, to the Israeli military presence in the territories and to the unseasonable heat. Temperatures reached 104 degrees in some areas. Israelis celebrated Jerusalem Day today, marking the date 21 years ago when the army captured the city during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

But Palestinians marked what they call the “day of black disaster,” also known as “catastrophe day,” for Arabs the first full day 40 years ago under Israeli rule. A leaflet put out last week by the underground leadership of the Palestinian uprising called on Palestinians to observe “a special day of anger” today.

But if the Palestinians were angry, they kept it largely to themselves. The Israeli Government today reinstated the press credentials of Glenn Frankel, a correspondent for The Washington Post. The Government Press Office took his press card last month after Mr.

Frankel wrote an account of the assassination of Abu Jihad, the military leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, that was not submitted to the Government censor. Mr. Frankel was required to write a letter of explanation, but “it was not an apology,” he said.

The Government has not returned the press credentials of Martin Fletcher, an NBC News correspondent whose credentials were taken at the same time. A press office statement said Mr. Fletcher’s credentials were being kept because NBC News broadcast a report before the Israeli move into Lebanon that was not submitted to the Israeli censor.

The Government said today that a master sergeant involved in burying alive four Palestinians in February was sentenced to four months in jail. The sergeant, Charlie Danino, was one of three soldiers who used a bulldozer to cover four Arab youths with dirt. Villagers pulled the youths out alive, but the episode caused a storm of condemnation here and abroad.

The other two soldiers involved, both privates, had already been sentenced to jail terms of several months.

How this transcription was made

Single scan of a two-column clipping; read in four crops at 4.5x. The clipping appears complete — it ends on a full sentence with no jump line. — No masthead or running head. The dateline reads “JERUSALEM, May 15” with no weekday, which in Times practice is the previous day’s filing, giving a Monday 16 May 1988 paper. The internal arithmetic agrees: Jerusalem Day marks “21 years ago” (1967) and the Palestinians mark “the first full day 40 years ago under Israeli rule” (15 May 1948). Maria’s label is consistent with the page but the numeric date is not printed on the cut.

Cite this clipping

"Palestinians Stage General Strike, But the Territories Remain Quiet," The New York Times, 16 May 1988. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1988-126. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1988-126