Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Xsraelitc z
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Our 57th Year ~
I-V1I1 Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, March 26, 1982 No. 13
West Bank turmoil
Cabinet overrules Begin resignation of
Betty Carney, center, of Springdale, Ark., h helped by other tourists after their sightseeing bus was stoned by
Palestinian youths in Ramatlah, on the West Bank. Ms. Carney was one of two American women hospitalized
following the attack.
Nashville reporter to speak
on Leo Frank case April 1
From staff and JTA report*
JERUSALEM - Prime
Minister Menachem Begin
remained at the helm of Israel's
government this week after his
Cabinet, by a 12-6 vote, overruled
Begin’s offer to quit. Earlier this
week. Begin had announced that
he would resign if a no-confidence
motion in the Knesset, called by
the opposition Labor Party, was
not defeated by a clear majority.
The motion resulted in a 58-58 tie.
At issue was the government’s
handling of unrest on the West
Bank, in which five Palestinians
have been killed and 40 people,
Jews and Arabs, have been
injured.
The tie vote was seen largely as a
result of right-wing opposition to
Israel’s scheduled withdrawal from
the Sinai rather than strong
opposition to Israel’s action on the
West Bank. However, there was
speculation that Begin would call
for new elections later this year.
The no-confidence motion was
triggered by the escalation of
violence on the West Bank this
past week, following the removal of
the elected mayor and town
council of El Bireh for refusing to
cooperate with the civilian regime
Sharon set up in the territory last
year.
Sharon said the government was
carrying out a basic policy decision
made a year ago to encourage
“moderate elements” on the West
Bank while hitting hard at “pro-
Palestine Liberation Organization”
elements. Ibrahim Tawil, the
ousted mayor of El Bireh, and
most other West Bank mayors are
considered by the government to
be conduits of PLO influence in
the territory.
Meanwhile, the West Bank
remained tense, with demonstrations,
stone-throwing and tire-burning
reported from many villages and
towns, and in East Jerusalem and
the Gaza Strip.
An officer and several soldiers
were injured by stones thrown by
youthful demonstrators. A
number of Arab demonstrators
were detained when caught
burning tires or throwing stones. A
Swedish journalist was slightly
injured by a stone while walking
along the Old City wall to report
on unrest.
In Bethlehem. Mayor Elias Freij
said he had received a threatening
letter from the Village League of
Bethlehem, one of the village
leagues supported by Israel as a
counterweight to the Palestine
Liberation Organization. But a
league spokesman said his
organization had not sent the,
letter, which bore no names other
than that of the league, and
suggested the letter was an act of
provocation.
A 17-year-old Arab youth was
fatally shot Monday by Israel
Defense Force members during a
riot at the Dir Amar Refugee Camp
near Ramallah. Three other
persons were reported wounded.
In a symbolic gesture. Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon toured the
trouble spots personally, and then
called on the head of the Hebron
Village League, Mustafa Dudein.
Sharon is seeking to build up the
anti-PLO leagues as a counter
weight to the pro-PLO mayors on
See Turmoil, page 25.
Jerry Thompson, the Nashville
reporter whose investigative work
paved the way for efforts to
officially clear the name of Leo
Frank, will be in Atlanta
Thursday, April I, to speak at a
communitywide program of the In
Focus Committee of the Atlanta
Jewish Community Center.
Cosponsoring the program will
be the Anti-Defamation League of
B’nai B’rith, the Atlanta Chapter
of the American Jewish
Committee and the Atlanta Jewish
Federation.
Thompson was a major
contributor to the 10-page
supplement printed March?, 1982,
in the Nashville Tennessean and
headlined “An Innocent Man was
Lyotftftd.”
The veteran reporter located
Alonzo Mann, a witness to events
surrounding Mary Phagan's
murder and Leo Frank’s trial,
conviction and lynching. Mann’s
sworn statement provided the
impetus for the Tennessean’s
investigation and reporting of the
case.
Also noted for his 13-month
infiltration into the Ku Klux Klan
in 1980, Thompson wrote a series
of articles dealing with the inner
workings of the Klan.
The program will be held at 8
p.m., at the AJCC on Peachtree.
The progi*am is open to the public
at no charge.
Strike paralyzes West Bank
by Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA) —A
general strike paralyzed most West
Bank towns earlier this week. The
strike, called to protest the ouster
of the elected mayor and town
council of El Bireh last Thursday
was to have ended Monday. But
West Bank mayors called for an
extension until Wednesday.
All shops, schools and places of
business were shut down in
Ramallah, Halhoul and El Bireh.
The latter town is under a dawn
to-dusk blockade with residents
unable to leave or enter between 8
a m and 4 p.m.
In Hebron and Bethlehem,
Israeli soldiers forced shopkeepers
to open for business Monday
afternoon. In East Jerusalem,
where the strike spread, hundreds
of Israeli police visited the homes
of local merchants early Monday
morning with written orders from
the central command to open their
businesses immediately.
Dozens of shopkeepers were
transported in police vans to their
shops, which they were forced to
open under the eyes of the police.
But at least half of East Jerusalem
remained strikebound during the
day.
The police tactics drew an angry
protest from Jerusalem Mayor
Teddy Kollek, who complained
that the security forces neither
consulted nor informed him of
their plans. He said he was
opprosed to opening businesses by
force, especially in Jerusalem.
Police were stoned near the
Herod Gate and Lions Gate
entrances to the Old City. There (
were further incidents of rock-
throwing on the West Bank. A
Molotov cocktail was thrown at an
Israeli army officer in Jenin but he
was not hurt.
Meanwhile, a Jewish settler
from Shiloh on the West Bank was
taken into custody Sunday on
suspicion of murder. The arrest
followed the discovery over the
weekend of the body of 17-year-
old Mohammed Abdullah Suhweil
who lived in a nearby Arab village
His family had reported that he
and several other teen-agers were
kidnappted by Jewish settlers from
Shiloh last Friday after a stone-
throwing melee.
Israeli sources said that the level
of violence on the West Bank
seemed to be abating for the time
being. But new flare-ups are
11 h i l < 1111 Se* Strike, page 25.
ATLANTA JEWISH FEDERATION
$6,200,000—1982 CAMPAIGN GOAL
HELP THE COMMUNITY MEET ITS GOAL