I NEWS I Palestinians Show Olive Branches, Uzis 4240 WOODWARD (at 13%2 Mile Rd.) Royal Oak 313) 549-0134 CONSULTANTS IN OPHTHALMOLOGY, PC is pleased to welcome a new associate SHELDON L. GONTE, MD 802 Mutual Building 28 W Adams, Detroit 962-8941 Medical Village, Suite 18 31815 Southfield Road, Birmingham 647-5603 SATURDAY APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE FAMILY EYE CARE • CATARACT SURGERY • LASER SURGERY SHELDON D. STERN, MD SUSAN S. THOMS, MD Stop in and see our New INFINITI Showroom at 525 S. Hunter, Birmingham 499/525 S. Hunter Blvd., P.O. Box 3017 FEED Birmingham, MI 48009 611/ERY 313-645-5930 — COMPANY CA) 66 INFINITI FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 199 1 bookpeople VISIT US AND SEE WHY TRUE BOOKPEOPLE SHOP BOOKPEOPLE HRS: Mon.-Fri. 10-9 Sat. 10-6, Sun. 12-5 851-9150 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.