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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 12, 1986 Page 3
Four Palestinian Arabs killed
West Bank violence most serious in years
by Yaacov Ben Yosef
Special to I he Southern Israelite
JERUSALEM — The West
Bank has flared up in violence
once again, as four Palestinian
Arabs have been shot and killed
by Israeli soldiers this past week.
The soldiers were trying to quell
disturbances in what some have
described as the most serious
uprising on the West Bank in
several years.
On Monday, a 12-year-old
Palestinian youngster was killed
and six other youths wounded in
the third straight day of wide
spread disturbances on the West
Bank. Trouble has been reported
in the Gaza Strip and East Jerus
alem as well.
The boy was killed at the
Balata refugee camp near Nablus
when troops opened fire to dis
perse some 100 youngsters who
had stoned the soldiers.
The old campus of Bir Zeit
University, site of student clashes
with Israeli troops last week at
which two students were killed,
was closed Monday until Jan. 3.
On Sunday, Arab and left-
wing Israeli students, demonstra
ting in protest against the Pales
tinian Arab killings, were tear
gassed by Israeli police at the
Mount Scopus campus of the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Such Israeli-Arab violence on
Israeli campuses is rare indeed.
Also on Sunday five israelis
and one Palestinian were hurt in
disturbances around the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Demonstrators hurled stones
at Israeli vehicles and security
forces, burned tires and erected
stone barricades in various loca
tions around the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. At times Israeli sold
iers dispersed crowds by shoot
ing into the air.
The Palestinian Arabs them
selves are not very clear about
why they are demonstrating but
Israeli analysts believe that much
of the reason has to do with
efforts by the Palestinian Libera
tion Organization to show a
presence in the wake of renewed
attempts by Jordan to assert
itself on the West Bank.
Moreover, recent Palestinian
victories over Amal in Lebanon
have reinvigorated the PLO on
the West Bank. The demonstrat
ing Palestinians appear disturbed
that Israel is siding with the
Amal forces in Lebanon.
There was concern among some
Israeli leaders that the West
Bank disturbances could harm
the prospects for renewing the
recent peace initiatives in the
Middle East. Sources close to
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
Yaacov Ben Yosef
said he looked upon the West
Bank situation this week as
“grave” and “regrettable.”
It was Peres as prime minister
for the past two years ending
in October who had tried to give
the peace process new impetus,
first with Jordan, then with
Egypt. Since Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir has taken over
in late October there have been
no new developments with regard
to that peace process.
Meanwhile, another controv
ersy has tongues wagging in
Israel. It concerns the decision by
Justice Minister Avraham Sharir
to set free William Nakash, a 25-
year-old man who was convicted
of killing an Arab in Becancon,
France, in 1983. The French
wanted Nakash, who became an
Israeli citizen, extradited, but
Sharir indicated that, though
there was an extradition treaty
between Israel and France, he
had a right not to invoke it. And
on Friday he chose to set Nakash
free.
Some Israelis are angry at the
French for refusing to extradite
Abu Daoud, a Palestinian Arab
terrorist who masterminded the
1972 Munich terror attack against
Israeli Olympic athletes. He had
been arrested by the French in
1977, and despite pleas by Israel
to continue holding him or to
extradite him to Israel, he was
put on a plane to Algeria.
Nakash was due to be released
on Friday, but critics of Sharir
managed to put off his release
until the Israeli Supreme Court
holds a hearing on the case. On
Tuesday morning the court was
to decide whether to free Nakash
pending the outcome of its hear
ings. On Friday, Supreme Court
Justice Aharon Barak gave Sharir
seven days to explain why he
should not extradite Nakash.
The hearing deals with Na-
kash’s imprisonment in Israel
but not with the decision against
extradition.
In April 1985, Moshe Nissim,
then justice minister, ordered the
attorney general to begin extra
ditions proceedings against Na
kash.
Sharir has passed word that he
had refused extradition out of
fear that the PLO would carry
out its threats to revenge
Nakash’s deed by killing him.
But some Israeli politicians were
aghast at the decision.
The current attorney general,
Yosef Harish, has reportedly
opposed Sharir’s decision. For
mer Finance Minister Yoram
Aridor also said that it was
inconceivable that Nakash should
“remain a free man in Israel.”
Sharir has had trouble from
senior attorneys in the attorney
general’s office. They do not want
to defend Sharir’s decision before
the Supreme Court inasmuch as
they are opposed to what Sharir
has decided.
The main hearing before the
Supreme Court on the merit of
Sharir’s decision is expected to
be held only early next week.
Nakash was arrested March
17, 1985, while allegedly prepar
ing to take part in a highway
robbery. Checking records, police
found out that the French had a
warrant out for him.
Vrba: Story of Holocaust should be retold
by Maurice Samuelson
LONDON (JTA)—The man
who provided the Allies with
their first full eye-w itness account
of what was happening inside
Auschwitz complained here that
“many major war criminals are
still at large” and that “the pres
ent generation has to be taught
all over again exactly what
happened.”
Dr. Rudolf Vrba, who was
interviewed by the Jewish Tele
graphic Agency, was one of two
Slovak Jews who escaped from
Auschwitz on April 7, 1944. Their
report, including a description of
the preparations to exterminate
Hungarian Jewry, eventually
shattered the “conspiracy of
silence” about the Holocaust.
But Vrba has never forgiven
the Jewish leaders of Hungary
for the slowness of their reaction
at a time when thousands of their
brethren were being sent daily to
their deaths.
Although he was one of the
key witnesses of the Holocaust,
he believes that his uncomprom
ising criticism of the wartime
Jewish leadership was the reason
for his being debarred from ap
pearing as a prosecution witness
in the Eichmann trial in Israel.
His personal experiences
nevertheless became world fam
ous in 1964 when he described
them in a popular book, entitled
“I Cannot Forgive,” which at the
time ran into 15 editions.
Twenty-two years later, he has
decided that it is time to tell the
story again, and the book, re-named
“Escape From Auschwitz,” has
just been republished in paper
back in the United States. “Escape
From Auschwitz-I Cannot For
give." by Rudolf Vrba and Alan
Bestic; Black Cat Books, Grove
Press, New York; 359 pages;
$3.95.)
Now 62, Vrba lives in Van
couver where he is a pharmacol
ogy professor at the University of
British Columbia. In Canada, he
has been the major witness in
court cases against neo-Nazis
trying to write off the Holocaust
as a Jewish invention. He also
sits on an official commission
which sifts evidence about alle
gations of Nazi war criminals
still living in Canada among its
East European emigre communi
ties. “There are too many of
them,” he said.
But he is also deeply con
cerned by the number of present-
day youngsters, including Jewish
students, who express bafflement
at how the Holocaust could have
happened. “With every new gen
eration, the truth has to be
explained over again,” he said.
His dramatic escape from
Auschwitz and his desperate
attempt to alert the world was
the highlight of his life. Neverthe
less, his subsequent life was far
from dull. He spent the rest of the
war in a distinguished Slovak
partisan unit against the Germans.
It was then that he changed his
family name Rosenberg to Vrba—
the Slovak for willow. “It bends
with the wind but never breaks,”
he said. After the war, he became
a student in Prague and embarked
on a distinguished scientific
career.
During the Slansky trials of
the early 1950s, he narrowly
escaped arrest after coming under
suspicion because of his acquain
tance with one of the other main
Jewish defendants, Artur Lon
don, who died in Paris last month.
He was then a student and believes
he was spared because of the
authorities’ reluctance to antag
onize other university students.
In 1958, after attending a
scientific conference in Vienna,
he decided not to return to Cze
choslovakia. Instead, he went to
Israel and 16 months later moved
to Britain where he worked at the
Medical Research Council.
In 1961, Vrba submitted evi
dence to the Israeli Embassy in
London for use in the trial of
Adolf Eichmann. In Jerusalem,
however, two of the three judges
of Eichmann decided that his
presence at the trial was not
necessary.
They justified their decision on
grounds of expense. But Vrba
thinks they feared his presence
would have been used to revive
the painful controversy over the
attempts to persuade Eichmann
to “sell” Jewish lives in exchange
for trucks and money, cf which
Vrba was harshly critical.
A happier sequel of his great
escape occurred more recently at
the dedication of a plaque in
Vancouver to honor the Swedish
humanitarian, Raoul Wallenberg.
It was unveiled by Per Anger, a
former Swedish Ambassador to
Canada, who in 1944 had been
Wallenberg’s principal associate
in trying to save H ungarian Jews.
Wallenberg had been posted
to Hungary as a direct result of
Vrba’s report on Auschwitz. Per
Anger was the man who had dis
patched that report from Buda
pest to the Swedish government
which passed it on to the Allies.
With a traditional elegance, the style of this lounge
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INC.
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