HUNTSVILLE NEWS · 6 November 1991

CP-1991-058

Israeli army bans Palestinian peace demonstrations

By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY

Scan 860 × 215 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

(Editor’s note: This article was submitted to Israeli military censors, who ordered a deletion.) JERUSALEM — The Israeli army announced Tuesday that Palestinian peace demonstrations in the occupied territories will not be permitted because they could escalate into violent confrontations. “We are not allowing any demonstrations,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.

Ehud Barak declared on a tour of the West Bank. “Many demonstrations starting with olive branches ... quickly become very violent.” Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip have organized dozens of peace demonstrations since the Mideast peace talks opened last week in Madrid, Spain.

Participants have sometimes clashed with Israeli troops or members of Muslim fundamentalist and radical Palestinian groups opposing the talks. In comments over army radio, Barak said commanders in the field have been instructed to use sound judgement and not necessarily employ force while dispersing nonviolent demonstrations.

On Tuesday, soldiers dispersed a demonstration by about 600 Arabs who were waving olive branches and chanting slogans in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. In theory, Palestinians would still be allowed to ask for a permit to demonstrate, but Barak said the chances of one being granted were slim.

The fundamentalist movement Hamas, or Zeal, issued another leaflet Tuesday vowing to kill Palestinian supporters of the peace talks with Israel. “We warn away those bargaining away Palestine that he who will approve the confiscation of Palestine and Jerusalem will not pass without a punishment,” the leaflets said.

The Palestinian negotiators are seeking limited autonomy as a first step toward self-rule in their talks with Israel, which captured the West Bank and Gaza, home to 1.7 million Palestinians, in the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinian uprising that began in 1987 has claimed more than a thousands lives.

The number of Palestinians killed by Israelis in the uprising rose to 867 with the death Tuesday of Mahdi Abu Hassan, a 22-year-old Arab armed with a submachine gun who tried to fire on troops who seized him, Israeli sources said. At least 464 Palestinians have been slain by other Arabs as suspected collaborators with Israel.

How this transcription was made

Read directly from the folio line: “WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1991”. 6 November 1991 was a Wednesday. The body says the army announced the ban “Tuesday” and that the Madrid talks opened “last week” (they opened 30 October 1991) — consistent. Agrees with Maria’s label. — Complete article as clipped, six columns. Printed errors kept as set: “has claimed more than a thousands lives” (the paper’s own number for the intifada dead, mis-set); “sound judgement” with the British spelling, as printed. The ellipsis inside Barak’s quotation is set with spaced periods and is the paper’s, not mine. One reading is not crisp: in “At least 464 Palestinians,” the middle digit is a blurred closed loop that is most likely a 6 but could conceivably be a 0; verify against another copy before publishing the figure.

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