The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 20, 2000 - 7 Battle erupts after c JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli combat helh- copters, attempting to rescue Jewish settlers trapped on a rocky West Bank hillside, traded heavy fire with Palestinian gunmen in a five- hour shootout yesterday. Two people died and at least 18 were wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared it a "gross violation" of a truce announced two days earlier. Both the Palestinians and the Israelis said the other side fired first. The settlers said Palestinian gunmen start- ed the battle, but the Palestinians claimed the settlers fired first on unarmed olive pickers. ^ The firefight amid the barren rocks of Mount Ebal, overlooking the West Bank town of Nablus, came on the eve of today's deadline imposed by both sides for ending three weeks of violence that has left more than 100 dead, the vast majority Palestinians. -. zThe dead were a Palestinian and an Israeli settler, Rabbi Binyamin Erling, head of a rab- binical college in the settlement of Eilon Moreh. He bled to death awaiting rescue. The wounded included 15 Palestinians and at least three Israelis, according to Palestinian doctors and Israeli security officials. A PH&TO "This is a very grave incident and a gross Israeli medics rush a wounded settler into a Tel Aviv hospital yesterday. Israeli combat helicopters violation by the Palestinian Authority," Barak 'traded heavy fire with Palestinian gunmen while trying to rescue Jewish settlers. said in a statement issued after the battle ended and the settlers were evacuated. The shootout appeared to be a serious threat to the deal announced Tuesday at a Mideast summit in Egypt, where President Clinton read a statement saying that both sides would work to stop the violence. Trouble broke out when about 40 Jewish settlers tried to travel to the hillside to observe Joseph's Tomb, a holy site in Nablus recently ransacked by a Palestinian mob. Despite a military ban on tours, the settlers received army permission for their excursion, said Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, the regional comman- der. He called it a "grave error" by the army and said it would be investigated. The settlers came under fire from a Pales- tinian refugee camp, and Israeli helicopter gunships soon joined the fray in an attempt to protect some 40 settlers, including women and children, and evacuate the wounded, according to Israelis. Two helicopters hovered, unleashing machine-gun fire on Palestinians darting for cover behind the huge stones on a mountain nicknamed the "accursed moun- tain" for its stark landscape. Palestinians returned antiaircraft fire, a first in the four-week conflict. The settlers scattered across the hill- side, making it difficult for the Israeli ease-fire forces to reach all of those trapped. Sever- al of the wounded Israelis could not be evacuated immediately due to the heavy Palestinian fire. Both Israeli television stations broadcast nonstop coverage of the gunfight, running footage caught at its outbreak repeatedly and maintaining phone contact with the settlers. One settler, pinned down by the gunfire, was interviewed on his cellular telephone by Israel's Channel 2 TV "Under fire for five hours straight," said Elazar Mizrahi, the staccato of automatic fire audible in the background. "There are still gunshots. Hiidil g. Others 30 meters (yards) from me. We came to tour the area. I'm hid- ing behind a rock. I can't leave here." The battle died out after dark, while Israel moved tanks and armored personnel carriers to the outskirts of Nablus. Tanks had been moved away just a day earlier in an effort to reduce tensions. Nablus has remained extremely tense despite the military's withdrawal from the holy site. The settlers have vowed to return to the tomb, though it is in the middle of the restive Palestinian city. After the truce was announced in Egypt, the two sides agreed Wednesday to wait 48 hours, until around midday Friday, to deter- mine whether it was working. Confusion keeps Buchanan off ballot REFORM 'ontinued from Page 1 iecieved ceitifications fron two separate self-pro- cained party chairs, one nominating Buchanan and the other nominating John I lagelin. The party split ensued w hen then-Reform Party Chairwoman Diane McKilvey and mem- bers of the Natural Law Party tried to merge the tvo parties. The Reform Party's executive committee sub- sequently voted to remove McKilvey from her osition and appoint Mark Forton to chair the darty, Buchanan deputy press secretary Wes ZjIderson said. Hagelin, who was already a presidential can- didate for the Natural Law Party, returned to be heir candidate. Forton is challenging incumbent Sen. Spence .braham in Michigan, and McKilvey now is working for the Natural Law Party. "The Reform Party has been taken over by Bush 'with an extreme right wing political agenda," Natural Law Party spokesman Bob Roth said. Anderson said the party has had trouble get- irig Buchanan 's name on the ballot in 15 states but no trouble in another 14 states. "But the other 14 weren't Bush's campaign co- chairs like (Miller) is," lie said. "The Reform Party has been taken over by Bush with an extreme right wing political agenda." - Bob Roth Natural Law Party Spokesman But Boyd said Miller's political affiliation has nothing to do with Buchanan being barred from the ballot. "This is not a political issue and we reject any accusation that it is," Boyd said. "This is elec- tion law." "There are rules that have to be followed and these rules have worked for years, and had the Reform Party of Michigan complied with the rules this would not have happened," Boyd said. Boyd said Miller sent several letters to both sup- posed Reform Party chairs to clear up the confusion but they were never able to resolve the issue. Buchanan appealed the secretary of state's decision, but the courts - all the way up to the Supreme Court - upheld M iller's decision, Boyd said. The Reform Party split has left some party members disillusioned, leading M ichigan Reform Party Treasurer Ron Woodhouse to resin earlier this weck. Woodhouse described the events surrounding the Reform and Natural Law parties as a "fias- co. "I feel that they both did wrong, both fac- tions," Woodhouse said, addin_ that the future of the party seems "dim." But others feel the Reform Oarty will only get stroner as a result. "For the media, it didn't help, it makes you look kind of silly," Anderson said. But the split helps "get rid of the dead weight" of the party, he said. Buchanan has until Nov. 3 to submit a declara- tion of intent in order to allow Michigan voters to cast a ballot for him, Boyd said. In addition to Forton, the only Reform Party members on the statewide ballot are Board of Education candidates Helen Ditzhazy and Mary Ann Lessner and University of Michigan Board of Regents candidate Nick Waun, a student at the University's Flint campus. NOBODY DOES BREAKS BETTER! tickets & travel 7 Fab 24-Mar 31, 2001 - *SPRING BREAK SPECIALS! Cancun & anama Cit FL Jamaica From $389! Air, Hotel, Free Meals, Drinks! Award Winning Company! Plan- Goup - Go Free!! Florida Vacations $129! (South Padre TX springbreaktravel.com 1-800-678-6386. SPRING BREAK Vacations! Best Prices Beach F) Bes ,guaranteed. Cancun, Jamaica, Bahamas & Florida. Book Cancun and get free meal plan. Earn cash , go free! Now hiring campus reps. Destin FL 1-800-234-7007. endlesssummertours.com. **MSU & PSU TIX 4 SALE** Singles/pairs Scott 973-9812 *EARLY SPECIALS! Spring Break Bahamas Party Cruise! 5 Days $279! Includes Meals, Parties! Awesome Beaches, Nightlife! Departs From Florida! 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"We didn't ever understand what affirmative action was and (BA MN) taught it to us," Bell said. Schools "get oovernment money fog the amount of minority students they have, and most important, everybody deserves the right to education whether they're black, white, Hispanic, Asian or rich or poor" Andv Lee, a leader of Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience, traveled to Ann Arbor with 120 fellow Michiuan State students to show his support for abrimative action. Lee said he believes the lawsuits against the University are monumental. "I think the lawsuit is going to go all the way to the Supreme Court," he said. "That decision will effect how aifirma- tive action is viewed across the country." University students who passed the rally on their way to classes, had vastly differing reviews about the rally's pres- ence and about affirmative action in oeneral. LSA senior Samantha Menke who BUSH Continued from Page 1 ought to just privatize Social Security" Gore said Wednesday. "I think it's irresponsible for the vice president of the United States to scare seniors by suggesting they would lose their benefits," Bush press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday. "Gover- nor Bush has made it clear there will be no reduction in benefits for retirees." Bush's plan to attract young voters by offering them the option of private retirement savings accounts may not have the impact he'd like on a genera- tion so fai from retirement that it does not often consider Social Security a top priority. "( t inL t c;tntt ieAderchin " watched the rally on er way to class said she is glad to se i the support of affirmative action by the University community. "I's a really cool par of our Universi- tv that people are able io do this all the time and that the Univetsity supports it. LSA junior John Rbbison said he favors affirmative action in education, but not in the working world. "After school, everyone's basically on an equal playing field.' Some students were mire vocal about their feelings against affirmative action. LSA freshman Ricky DeNardis said he did not agree with the Michiian Stu- dent Assembly's sponsorship of the rally and Affirmative Action 102, a 10-day series intended to inform tudents of the issues surrounding, affirmative action. "I think this rally is a disgusting waste of MSA money" he said. "It shows you how liberal MSA is when they should be bi-partisan." . Other students simply found the rally to be a disturbance to their' classes held in Mason Hall during the rally. LSA junior Claire Cameron had an Italian class in Mason Hall during the rally. "This was disruptive. The (Cass Tech) band was disruptive;' she said. "I don't think they shouldbe able to have things like this in the Oiag, espe- cially on Tuesdays and Thursdays from1 I to 2." thing about this the system is going to go bankrupt." Bush supporter Ricky De ardis, an LSA freshman, is one young yoter who is thinking about his Sociaf Security benefits. "Governor Bush said everything that voters our age should pay attention to,' DeNardis said. "This is going to effect us for the next 40 to 50 years. There's no way that the current Social Security can last to the point where we will receive benefits." After leaving Michigan yesterday, Bush headed directly for New York to tape an appearance on the "La Show with David Letterman," which I red last night, and a segment for a -'turday Night Live" political special. Gire was also in New York yesterday to apar on Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and Howard University Law Prof. Frank Wu participate in the the National Day of Action for Affirmative Action in the Law Quad yesterday. Jesse Jackson visits La -w Quad to rally foraffrmative action r5j'jt bre~&k Panama City Beach Florida from $99 per person Sandpiper Beacon beach resort the "fun place"! 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"It's about patterns of exclusion based upon gender, race, sexual orientation or physical disability, which makes affirmative action a majority, not a minority, issue," he said. "Once you get beyond just defin- ing it as race, you begin to see that politically we begin to gain the momentum." Jackson told The Michigan Daily after his speech. "America has benefited from more people of color and more women being trained." Law Dean Jeffrey Lehman spoke after Jackson about the powerful impact that Jackson's speech had on the pending lawsuit against the Law School. Two lawsuits wxere filed in 1997 against the University by the Wash- ington DC.-based Center for Indi- Literature, Sciences and the Arts. "The litigation is a defining moment for this law school and for this university, Lehman said. "The principal claim of the plaintiffs in the litigation is that we as a public institution ought to be colorblind in our admissions process, even though American society is not colorblind," he said. "I want to say today that that is not the law of the Utited States." Jackson has taken a deep interest in the lawsuits and the fate of affir- mative action at the University. "This law school, which has been so broad-based in its output, is now threatened by the suit," Jack- son said. Engineering senior Kyle Kenta- la, who attended the speech, said she came to because affirmative action is a national issue and Jackson is a nationally recognized figure who is well-versed on the subject. "The biggest message anyone could get out of this is to get out and vote,' said Kentala, a member of the campus' Defend Affirmative Action Party. "It's not a matter of voting I I I