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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 suite has endured time to prove its quality. INC. DISTINCTIVE FURNITURE 674 Miami Circle Atlanta NE 30324 Phone: 404-2319253