Palestinians burned photographs of CIA Director George Tenet and set fire to US and Israeli flags in a rally held in Nablus on Friday, where thousands protested against a US-brokered truce aimed at ending the Palestinian uprising.
"We do not want the CIA's intervention," shouted many of the 2,000 people from the Palestinian Fateh faction, and from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups, according to a Haaretz report.
The demonstrators invaded Joseph’s Tomb, painting its dome green and placing Palestinian and Hamas flags on the building, Israel Radio reported.
Meanwhile, Palestinian police in the West Bank town of Qalqilya prevented about 3,000 demonstrators from approaching an Israeli checkpoint where stonethrowing clashes often erupt.
Palestinian officials accused Israel of failure to lift the siege it has imposed on the Palestinian towns.
Both sides traded accusations of violating the cease-fire agreement, said reports.
In the West Bank town of Halhul, according to Haaretz, demonstrators tried to remove Israeli blockades, throwing stones at the troops. The soldiers fired rubber coated metal bullets at the demonstrators, but no injuries were reported.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, Reuters reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 88 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. The latest suicide bombing raises that toll by at least 20. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 450 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s. The most recent Israeli tank attack raises that death toll to at least 453.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
