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Netanyahu holds ground; Palestinians protest
No change in position ahead of Clinton meeting
April 3, 1997
Web posted at: 10:38 a.m. EST (1538 GMT)Latest developments:
- Palestinian protest turns violent
- Mock funeral for peace process
- Reports: Clinton will ask Israel for concessions
- Netanyahu to meet Jordan's King Hussein
- James Baker criticizes U.S. Middle East vetoes
- Related stories and sites
(CNN) -- Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas on Thursday to break up a stone-throwing protest by dozens of Palestinian university students in Bethlehem. The clash followed a march by about 200 Palestinians to denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Senior Palestinian officials said that President Bill Clinton -- who meets with Netanyahu in Washington on Monday -- must get Israel to stop building Jewish settlements if the peace process is to proceed.
A L S O Israel won't seek extradition of jailed Hamas leader
"We are not interested in a show of negotiations without substance," said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Cabinet.
Netanyahu, however, reiterated that he would not freeze settlement construction in the West Bank or in disputed East Jerusalem.
An Israeli settler was injured meanwhile when he lost control of his car and crashed into a ditch after coming under a hail of stones thrown by Palestinian protesters near the West Bank city of Hebron, the army said.
Mock funeral for peace process
In the Bethlehem protest, about 200 Palestinians marched through the West Bank town, bearing a mock coffin carrying models of doves covered in blood and signs reading "Killed by Netanyahu".
The demonstrators also carried a coffin bearing the words "Peace Process." There have been daily protests on the West Bank since Israel began construction on March 18 of a new Jewish neighborhood in historically Arab East Jerusalem.
The students held aloft banners calling for "stepping up the intifada and the military struggle" against Israel and an end to peace negotiations. The intifada was the 1987-1993 Palestinian uprising in which stones and rocks were used against Israeli troops in the occupied territories.
Following the demonstration, several dozen students broke through a Palestinian police barricade and began throwing stones at Israeli troops guarding the tomb of biblical matriarch Rachel.
The troops replied with rubber bullets and tear gas until Palestinian police arrived to drive back the protesters.
1.5M/14 sec. large frame QuickTime movie 605K/14 sec. small frame QuickTime movie Reports: Clinton will ask Israel for concessions
Israeli media reported that Clinton will ask Netanyahu for major concessions -- perhaps a freeze in Jewish settlement activity -- if the United States is to adopt Israel's proposal to speed up talks on a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians. The reports also said Clinton would press Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat for a clampdown on militants.
But U.S. Embassy official Richard Roth said in Tel Aviv that reports Clinton will demand a freeze on building what Israelis call the Har Homa neighborhood in East Jerusalem were "premature" and that Clinton had not decided what approach to take.
Netanyahu to meet Jordan's King Hussein
Netanyahu plans to fly to Minnesota on Sunday to see Jordan's King Hussein in an effort to win his support for trying to resolve the big issues in an intense negotiation blitz of six to nine months.
Hussein, who met Clinton and held talks with senior U.S. officials in Washington this week, will be at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, undergoing prostate treatment.
James Baker criticizes U.S. Middle East vetoes
On Wednesday, former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker criticized the Clinton administration for having vetoed two United Nations Security Council resolutions last month calling on Israel to halt the new settlement in Arab East Jerusalem.
"I am disappointed that my government saw fit to veto Security Council resolutions after standing up and saying that it opposed settlement activity," he said.
"It seems to me that those actions send very conflicting signals," Baker added, referring to Israel's plans to build 6,500 homes for Jews on a site between Jerusalem and Bethlehem captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The United States said at the time of the vetoes that while it opposed the Israeli action, the United Nations was not the appropriate forum for dealing with issues that should be settled directly between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Baker, who was President George Bush's secretary of state when the Middle East peace process was launched at a 1991 Madrid conference and was a frequent critic of Israeli policy, made his comments during a visit to the United Nations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Israel approves expansion of West Bank settlements - April 2, 1997
- Netanyahu, Arafat trade barbs as Mideast tensions mount - April 2, 1997
- 2 dead, 7 wounded in Gaza explosions - April 1, 1997
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