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ORCHARD LAKE ROAD, NORTH OF MAPLE
ORCHARD MALL • WEST BLOOMFIELD
Arraba, West Bank (JTA)
— The courtyard of the
elementary school in this
Palestinian village was fill-
ed last week with exhil-
arated youths, chanting na-
tionalist slogans in front of
walls covered with Palestin-
ian flags and portraits of
Palestine Liberation Organ-
ization leader Yassir Arafat.
It was a rare phenomenon
in the territories — not only
because the crowd of several
hundred mainly youthful
Palestinians blatantly ig-
nored the official Israeli ban
on political gatherings, but
also because it was a con-
spicuous local expression of
support for the peace con-
ference in Madrid and the
pro-PLO delegates par-
ticipating in it.
In terms of internal Pales-
tinian politics, the
significance of the rally, one
of several held in various
parts of the West Bank, was
that it came in response to a
general strike in the ter-
ritories staged successfully
by Palestinian rejectionist
groups.
The strike was called to
protest the "surrender" of
the Palestinian delegation
and Arafat's wing of the
PLO to American and Israeli
dictates.
Arafat supporters have
claimed that the near total
observance of the strike was
more a result of fear of
violence by the hard-liners
than an indication of agree-
ment with their line.
Arraba has long been a
stronghold of Arafat's Al
Fatah wing of the PLO. But
pro-Arafat rallies were also
held elsewhere throughout
the territories.
In Ramallah, hundreds
took part in processions
through the streets of the
city, following the speech in
Madrid by the head of the
Palestinian delegation,
Haider Abdel-Shafi. A noisy
motorcade of cars tooting
their horns set out on the
main road from Ramallah to
Jerusalem, while Palestin-
ians on foot covered military
jeeps with olive branches, as
smiling border police looked
on.
In Arraba, army soldiers
were not on the scene, and
for a while it almost seemed
as if the rally were taking
place inside an already in-
dependent Palestinian enti-
ty. Only a small force of
soldiers manned a regular
checkpoint at the entrance
to the village, a mile from
the center of town.
Speakers at the rally,
mostly local activists of the
Shabiba, the outlawed youth
movement of Al Fatah, out-
did each other with nation-
alist speeches. They ex-
pressed support for the
Madrid peace conference,
but at the same time stress-
ed their determination to
continue the intifada and
the armed struggle against
Israel.
As if to prove they meant
business, during one of the
speeches, a car drove into
the school courtyard, carry-
ing two youths on its
bumper, each brandishing
an Uzi submachine gun.
To the cheers of the crowd,
they strode up to the
podium, rifles in one hand
and olive branches in the
other, imitating Mr. Arafat's
gesture in his famous 1974
speech to the U.N. General
Assembly.
As a reporter tried to leave
the scene, a local youth
pounded on the car window
to ensure that he would not
leave with the mistaken im-
pression. "Don't get us
wrong. The message that
should come out of here is
one of peace, not war," he
said.
Nevertheless, it is clear
that, along with new hopes
for peace, the rifles and
pistols are out there in the
territories, and they are be-
ing used more than ever in
the past. This week two
Israelis, a mother of seven
and a father of four, paid
with their lives as another
segment of the Palestinian
population made its views on
the peace process starkly
clear.
Bid Lost
To Improve Jail
Jerusalem (JTA) — Con-
victed nuclear spy
Mordechai Vanunu lost his
bid to improve conditions at
Ashkelon prison, where he is
serving an 18-year sentence
for allegedly disclosing
Israel's nuclear weapons
capabilities to a British
newspaper.
The High Court of Justice
rejected his complaint last
week.
Mr. Vanunu, once a
technician employed at
Israel's nuclear facility at
Dimona, was lured from
London to Rome in 1988 and
kidnapped by Israeli agents,
who brought him to Israel.