Israel holds Palestinian leaders responsible
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - The catalyst for a spate of violence here may have been an Israeli politician's visit to a Muslim and Jewish holy site, but Israeli officials are holding Palestinian leaders directly responsible for the bloodshed.
At least 55 people were killed, mostly Palestinians, in rioting that touched off Sept. 28 when Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Bloody riots on the Temple Mount spread to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and parts of Israel, where Israeli Arabs launched their own actions against Israel.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright commuted back and forth between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Paris Oct. 4 before a three-way meeting was held that afternoon.
A tentative meeting was also set between Barak and Arafat in Cairo Oct. 5, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Barak and Arafat also met with United Nation's Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who warned that Israel was on the brink of "all-out war."
Arafat gave three conditions for continuing the peace process: a cease-fire from Israel, the retreat of Israeli forces from the Palestinian autonomous zones and the mosques in Jerusalem, and the establishment of a commission of inquiry into soldiers' conduct.
The commission would be made up of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and members of the European Union.
Israel flatly rejected the last condition.
In the midst of the meetings, Barak signaled he was still determined to reach a peace accord but said he held Arafat and the Palestinian Authority "responsible for the uprisings and the wave of violence."
The consensus in the Israeli government is that Arafat orchestrated the riots in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for his own political purposes.
In contrast, riots in Israel proper were seen as spontaneous and led by street gangs, with no clear guiding hands.
Palestinian police opened fire on Israel Defense Force soldiers in Gaza, Ramallah and Nablus. The IDF responded with live fire, the use of gunships and missiles.
As the fighting intensified Oct. 2, Israeli troops rolled out tanks.
An Israeli Jewish man was shot and killed on the road to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, reportedly when he stopped to change a tire.
The man, not immediately identified, was reportedly the first Jewish civilian killed in the clashes.
Toward the end of the week, the violence was limited to fewer sites. Journalists were beaten up and cameras were damaged in a demonstration in downtown Jaffa.
In the meantime, Palestinians and Israelis exchanged heavy fire in several places in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli Apache gunships fired at Palestinian positions at the Netzarim area, reportedly in response to Palestinian attacks on an Israeli post.
Arsonists caused more than 100 forest fires in the Galilee over an area 2,000 acres. Earlier they set alight three factories, and scores of vehicles owned by Jews.
A Palestinian official had assured Israel that Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem last week would not lead to violence, an Israeli Cabinet member told the Knesset. Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said the head of the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, told him that as long as Sharon stayed of mosques, the visit would pass peacefully.
Israeli police officer Midhat Yussuf died in an exchange of fire in Nablus. Anger heated up inside Israel proper, following the broadcast of pictures of Palestinian Mohammad al-Darrah, 12, who was shot to death at the Netzarim Junction during an exchange between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian policemen.
On Oct. 3, Israel admitted that Israeli bullets killed the boy.
Barak stopped short of criticizing Sharon for his visit to the Temple Mount, but one senior Israeli official told The New York Times, "It's clear to everyone that it's the Sharon show that created the original damage."
Sharon, meanwhile, said he shares no responsibility for the violence.
"This has nothing to do with me," Sharon told The Washington Post. "It's the result of a pre-planned campaign by Arafat."
JTA correspondent Joshua Schuster in Paris contributed to this report.
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