Posted on 07/28/2002 9:56:08 AM PDT by RCW2001
NASSER SHIYOUKHI, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 28, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/28/international1126EDT0520.DTL
(07-28) 09:43 PDT HEBRON, West Bank (AP) --
Jewish settlers and Palestinians clashed Sunday during a funeral procession for a slain Israeli soldier, leaving a 14-year-old Palestinian girl dead and several Palestinians wounded, witnesses said.
Separately Sunday, the Palestinian finance minister and the No. 2 at the Israeli finance ministry met and finalized details for Israel to transfer an initial $15 million in withheld tax revenues to the Palestinians by Monday, both sides said.
The money is part of an estimated $600 million Israel has withheld over the past 22 months of fighting. Israel has agreed to release some, provided it isn't used to fund attacks, to help ease the Palestinians' precarious economic situation.
Sunday's trouble in Hebron erupted as the settlers were carrying the body of the soldier from the biblical Tomb of the Patriarchs, through the narrow streets of Hebron, to the cemetery. The Palestinians, though confined to their homes by an army-imposed curfew, began throwing stones at the funeral procession, according to photographers at the scene.
The armed settlers responded immediately, firing shots at Palestinian homes and using metal bars and stones smash windows of cars and homes in Hebron's Old City, residents said.
Palestinian Nizin Jamjoum, 14, was standing on the balcony of her home when she was fatally shot in the head, said her brother Marwan, 26, who was injured. At least six Palestinians were hurt, doctors at the city's Alia Hospital said.
The injured included Ahmed Natcha, age 8, who was stabbed when a group of settlers broke into his home and smashed furniture, said the boy's father, Hussain Natcha. The boy was in stable condition, the father said.
The Israeli military said it was aware of only one injured Palestinian, and that he had received treatment from the troops. The army said it was attempting to calm tensions in Hebron, where several hundred Jewish settlers live among more than 100,000 Palestinians.
However, several Palestinian witnesses said that soldiers did little or nothing to stop the attacks by the settlers, which lasted for about an hour.
Palestinian Dr. Tayser Zahadeh, who lives near the scene of the confrontation, said that "before the funeral, the soldiers told us to stay in our homes and stay away from the windows, because they knew there was going to be trouble."
Shortly after the funeral ceremony began, Dr. Zahadeh said he heard several gunshots and peered out the window, where he saw settlers using metal bars and stones to smash the windows of Palestinian homes.
"The soldiers weren't doing anything to stop them," Dr. Zahadeh said. "After one hour of vandalism, the police intervened. They were the ones who stopped the violence."
Israeli media reported that 15 police officers were injured in scuffles with settlers, who also took police equipment.
The army-imposed curfew in Hebron was supposed to be lifted during the day Sunday, and food stalls in the main market opened in the morning.
However, the security forces, apparently fearing clashes, reimposed the curfew after about two hours by throwing stun grenades and firing tear gas to disperse Palestinians in the market.
That drove Palestinians home before the funeral for the Israeli soldier, Elazar Leibovitz, a resident of Hebron. Leibovitz was shot dead in a roadside ambush Friday.
A second car was also riddled with bullets Friday, killing a Jewish couple, Yossi and Hana Dickstein, and one their 10 children. With the nine orphaned children, ages 2 to 20, in attendance, the three were buried Sunday in the West Bank settlement of Psagot.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack.
In other developments Sunday, thousands of Palestinians defied the army's 39-day curfew in the West Bank town of Nablus, filling markets and opening some offices and banks as Israeli soldiers stood by, residents said.
The Nablus city governor, Mahmoud Alol, and the Fatah movement called for the curfew protest, which began at 9 a.m. and continued throughout the day. Some Western activists also took part, removing roadblocks from the city, allowing cars laden with vegetables and chickens to get out to markets in nearby villages.
"So many of our people are suffering from hunger and others couldn't get medicine so we have to get our rights by ourselves," Alol said.
The round-the-clock curfew in Nablus has only been lifted five times, for a few hours at a stretch, since Israeli troops reoccupied the city more than five weeks ago.
Israel sent its troops back into Palestinian cities in the West Bank in an attempt to prevent Palestinian attacks inside Israel. The number of attacks have fallen sharply, but have not stopped.
In other developments Sunday, Israeli soldiers arrested three suspected militants in the village of Burkin, southwest of Jenin. Among those detained was Mohammed Abu Tabikh, 22, a member of the radical Islamic Jihad, group members said.
Also in Burkin, Israeli forces ordered the family of the late Majid Tayeb, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, to leave their home. Soldiers then fired tank shells at the two-story building and destroyed it, Palestinians said. The army said it was checking the report.
Tayeb was killed a year ago when a stolen car he purchased blew up with him inside. Palestinians say Israel was responsible for Tayeb's death.
Also, two cars outside the home of Mohammed Afaneh in Burkin were blown up by Israeli troops, residents said. Afaneh, a member of the militant Hamas movement, was arrested 20 days ago by Israel. The army did not immediately comment.
©2002 Associated Press
LOL! Yep, no bias here!
http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/news/justin/nat/newsnat-28jul2002-95.htm
I have waited in vain for an explanation of why:
Any Israeli taxes are due to the Palestinian authorities.
Protection money?
Taxes from where?
Who collects it and why?
This is the reverse of the millenia-old muslim practice of the losers paying special taxes.
What gives?
I am truly curious.
Careful what you wish for.
We already have to bear their painful arabic syntax in Free Republic posts over names that sounds so mainstream, like "Lance All-American" or some equally idiotic muslim invention.
Now as to this article, I have heard of crashing weddings, but crashing a funeral? Tossing rocks from the balconys of the apartment buildings at the funeral procession? Talk about tacky! Besides, getting hit with a rock dropped from the third floor could add to the funeral procession. Those Pali's are a sick bunch of people. I wonder if it is rabies or something spreading through Islam. Some virus like HIV that you get from kissing the ground or something. What else can explain the mass insanity of the god mooners?
Yes, Arabs are famous for tacky things like trying to kill people at funerals and blowing up discos with belly bombs. I think having Moslem Arabs living anywhere near is a demonstratively a bad idea.
It is also a bad idea if Israel does nothing to punish the perps. JMO.
I agree, but I was wondering, was your idea of Perp the people raining rocks down on the funeral or the people getting hit by rocks?
Was the funeral procession through Arab areas designed to be an in you face provocation (like Orangemen marching through Catholic areas of Belfast?), or simply a matter of poor judgment?
You do know that Arabs have this tendency to SHOOT at Jews over here. Like, everyday, in-between blowing up pizza parlors “a real in your face kinda thing.” The funeral procession was from the house to the cemetery. Only the Pali's make it a public parade. It took place in the Hebron Hills IMO. I take a clue from the NAME of the PLACE as to just WHO is the in your face kinda guys.
When the Mexicans demand California and shoot up cars on the freeway, is a funeral to bury the dead an in your face provocation just because Americans are outnumbered by Illegal Mexicans in that State? (Uh, I thought not). The Hebron hills are named after the HEBREWS from who the Islamic Invaders stole the land by force and squatted on it. Now the Islamic Invaders are whining because the Hebrews are back. Call a whambulance quick!
I do not, and never will condone murder as a valid form of political expression and I for one do not understand why the world does not just wipe these scum from the face of the earth before what ever disease they have spreads farther than it already has. But then, we let Hitler ripen and rule a country instead of rot in jail where he should have stayed, why should we learn from the past? We are so much smarter than our fathers right?
In any event, it is a bad idea to always support what your team does no matter what the act. It tends to cloud judgment.
You will notice that their story is unattributed which means they have cobbled it together from the newswire services such as AP - not from their own field reporters.
And for anyone who mught be interested the Australian ABC is somewhat equivalent to say PBS and is likewise inhabited almost exclusively by the same left-wing pinko socialist do-gooders who always assume the underdog must always be in the right.
On 9-11 the palestinians danced in the streets.
I don't care what happens to them.
Nothing anyone could say or do could make me care what happens to them.
Then why did you say the following?
Many of these people are suffering from hunger.Now the Israelis throw rocks their funeral.Surely nobody can support this kind of action?I for one must stand up and be counted when I say that what the Israelis are doing is against the UN convention of Human Rights.
OK, so let's check the article again...WHO threw rocks at WHOSE funeral?
While we're on it, rock-throwing is against the UN Human Rights Convention? The Palestinians will be surprised to hear that! Not that it matters any... Or do you mean some other diabolical Israeli act? And just what convention do you refer, exactly?
Have you seen the polls? How many of them support suicide bombings against Israelis?
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