Toys and terror in Jerusalem

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 20

Toys and terror in Jerusalem

By

GEOFF MEIN,

in Jerusalem

Tourists strolling through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City are suddenly confronted by a young man brandishing a pistol.

The crack-crack-crack of' small arms fire stops them in their tracks.

After an anxious pause, they realise that the sound came not from their tormentor’s gun, but from his mouth, which is breaking into an uncontrollable grin. The “victims,” from an American tour party, are not amused. With his toy pistol, the young Palestinian Arab is exploiting a wave of fear sweeping the Middle East, triggered by the American attack on Libya earlier this year. The momentum has been fuelled by continued Palestine Liberation Organisation threats to intensify terror strikes in Israel. Radio Cairo’s "Voice of Palestine” recently quoted a highranking P.L.O. official as saying that increased military activity in the “occupied lands” was the only way to achieve the establishment of an independent (Palestinian) State. It is difficult to gauge the impact of such pronouncements on the bulk of battle-hardened Israelis. Their defence forces continue to deal* ruthlessly with organised assaults from across the country’s borders. An apparent sea-borne raid was foiled in July when security forces sighted four suspected infiltrators in a dinghy 400 metres north of the Lebanese border, near the coastal town of Rosh Hanikra. In the ensuing flare-lit battle, the four Arabs were killed, but not before they had killed two soliders and wounded nine others. The Israeli Air Force responded in typically morale-, boosting fashion by bombing several “terrorist targets” on the perimeter of the Ein el-Hilwe refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

Yet even the most vigilant security system cannot prevent incidents such as the recent attack on a group of schoolchil-

dren in the West. Bank town of Jericho. A grenade was thrown from a rooftop as 20 students and seven accompanying adults gathered near a truck. Fourteen were injured; two seriously. Such acts, which are becomming more prevalent, stir the emotions of Israelis, from hardliners to those preaching compromise.

Dozens of Palestinian youths from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have reportedly been enlisted for sabotage strikes in Israel. Economic depression in many Arab villages and refugee camps has ensured a fertile recruiting ground. A Bank of Israel report blamed falling oil prices for the economic slump which has boosted unemployment in both areas. But an independent report, by the West Bank Data Base Project, attributed decline in the Gaza to a "system of discrimination and injustice.” It noted that the strip’s booming population, apalling health conditions, and deteriorating economy had made it “the Soweto of the State of-Israel,” and one of the most explosive areas in the territories.

Eighty per cent of the cities, villages, and camps in the strip lacked sewage systems. Inadequate alternative facilities had led to sewage outflows and cholera outbreaks. Infant mortality was four times that in Israel.

Negative processes in Gaza appeared to be inexorable, and the administrative, political, and economic supports for sustaining a system of discrimination were being reinforced and expanded, far from the public eye.

Conditions were described as beyond disgrace. Treatment was no longer a political problem, but a long-neglected moral imperative which could not be ignored. Israeli officials responded by accusing the report’s authors of lying. The infant mortality rate, they countered, was much lower than in neighbouring Arab States, and most babies in Gaza were now born in hospitals. The impending rotation of the Israeli premiership gives. Pales-

tinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip little cause for optimism. Under a pre-arranged agreement, the Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, is due to hand over power to his rival, Mr Yitzhak Shamir, in October.'Mr Shamir is known to oppose any erosion of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied territories.

The controversial Industry Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has declared that the establishment of new Jewish settlements in the territories will be a priority- of the Shamir Government after rotation.

A faint glimmer of hope is emerging, however, for those seeking greater autonomy — or a return of lands occupied since the 1967 war.

Israel’s Arab population is growing twice as fast as that of the Jews. By the end of the century, if present birthrates are maintained, Arabs will constitute 43 per cent of the population in areas currently under Israeli control.

An editorial in the "Jerusalem Post” suggested that the. only way to prevent the “looming Arab majority” was for Israel to give up heavily Arab-populated territories. This alone would ensure that Israel remained what it was set up to be 38 years ago: a democratic Jewish State.

Only such a State, the editorial concluded, would draw Diaspora* Jews to Israel and serve 1 as an antidote to the world-wide shrinkage of the Jewish population.

The high Arab birthrate is not the only demographic crisis ringing alarm bells in the ears of Israel’s politicians. Of equal concern to many is the dwindling number of Jews migrating to Israel. Fear of conflict and an uncertain future is nd doubt keeping many potential new Israelis away.

One of the State’s founding fathers, Mr Ya’acov Kazan, summed up the thoughts of many in a recent interview: “War stops people coming here, both because of fear and because of the perception — let us say it — that in the final analysis Israel is the only place in the world where the Jews are threatened with

annihilation.” The gap between Israel’s doves and hawks shows no sign of narrowing. Defence planners are rushing to produce a state-of-the-art jet fighter called the Lavi (which means “lion” in Hebrew). It is the biggest project ever undertaken in Israel, and will mortgage the economy for a generation to spending an estimated 5

per cent of gross national product.

While pilots boast that the Lavi will carry more bombs at a higher speed for a longer range than the American F-16, Israeli schoolchildren are smashing their war toys in a demonstration for peace. In exchange for toy pistols, tanks and soldiers, the children are given building sets, balls, and books.