JERUSALEM — The catalyst for a spate of violence here may have been an Israeli politician’s visit to a Muslim and Jewish holy site, but Israeli officials are holding Palestinian leaders directly responsible for the bloodshed.
More than 60 people were killed, mostly Palestinians, and more than 1,800 injured in rioting that touched off Sept. 28 when Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Bloody riots on the Temple Mount spread to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and parts of Israel, where Israeli Arabs launched their own actions against Israel.
Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, had said he believes the worst fighting was still ahead.
However, during a somewhat tumultuous meeting in Paris with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat came up with a plan to curb the violence, with Israeli troops withdrawing to positions held before the outbreak of violence.
In addition, Palestinians agreed to stay away from two flashpoints in Gaza and the West Bank.
Both sides also apparently agreed to allow the CIA to find ways to prevent the unrest from escalating.
The State Department, according to Associated Press, issued a “worldwide caution,” warning Americans to be vigilant about their personal security in the Mideast. These events “have raised the possibility that there may be protests in support of Palestinians throughout the Gulf region and elsewhere,” the department said.
At one point during the Wednesday afternoon meeting, Arafat stormed out, according to news reports, but he was persuaded by Albright to return.
The agreement was expected to be signed yesterday, during a meeting in Cairo hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
In Paris, Barak and Arafat also met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who warned that Israel was on the brink of “all-out war.”
Arafat had given three conditions for continuing the peace process: a cease-fire from Israel, the retreat of Israeli forces from the Palestinian autonomous zones and the mosques in Jerusalem, and the establishment of a commission of inquiry into soldiers’ conduct.
The commission would be made up of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and members of the European Union.
Israel had flatly rejected the last condition. “We don’t need a need a committee biased against Israel to investigate things,” Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin told Israel Radio on Wednesday.
In the meetings, Barak had signaled he was determined to reach a peace accord but said he held Arafat and the Palestinian Authority “responsible for the uprisings and the wave of violence.”
Barak was steadfast in supporting Israeli troops, who “defend Israeli citizens who cannot defend themselves alone.” But, “in the meantime, we hold out our hand to peace.”
The general consensus in the Israeli government is that Arafat orchestrated the riots in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for his own political purposes.
In contrast, riots in Israel proper were seen as spontaneous and led by street gangs.
Although similar confrontations have occurred in the past, the riots that began just before Rosh Hashanah were unprecedented in their magnitude and use of arms.
Palestinian police opened fire on Israel Defense Force soldiers in Gaza, Ramallah and Nablus. The IDF responded with live fire, the use of gunships and missiles.
As the fighting intensified Monday, Israeli troops rolled out tanks.
An Israeli Jewish man was shot and killed on the road to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, reportedly when he stopped to change a tire. The man, not immediately identified, was reportedly the first Jewish civilian killed in the clashes.
A brief cease-fire ended Tuesday as gunfire and street-fighting erupted again.
Toward the end of the week, the violence was limited to fewer sites. At least two Palestinians were killed Wednesday in heavy exchange of fire in the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip. Journalists were beaten up and cameras were damaged in a demonstration in downtown Jaffa.
In the meantime, Palestinians and Israelis exchanged heavy fire in several places in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli Apache gunships fired at Palestinian positions at the Netzarim area, reportedly in response to Palestinian attacks on an Israeli post.
Spirits cooled down Wednesday among Israel’s Arabs, and most roads were reopened to traffic.
Arsonists caused more than 100 forest fires in the Galilee over an area 2,000 acres. Earlier they set alight three factories and scores of vehicles owned by Jews.
Barak met Tuesday with a group of Arab Knesset members and agreed to set up an independent commission to look into the events leading to the violence.
A Palestinian official had assured Israel that Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem last week would not lead to violence, an Israeli cabinet member told the Knesset. Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said the head of the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, told him that as long as Sharon stayed out of mosques, the visit would pass peacefully.
Likud Knesset member Gideon Ezra said that had Knesset members been warned that “there is danger in the actual visit,” it would have been canceled.
The main points of confrontations in the territories were in the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip, the Beit-El junction near Ramallah and Joseph’s Tomb at the entrance to Nablus, a Palestinian town where a group of yeshiva students maintain a presence.
Israeli police officer Midhat Yussuf died in an exchange of fire in Nablus. Anger heated up inside Israel proper, following the broadcast of pictures of Palestinian Mohammad al-Darrah, 12, who was shot to death at the Netzarim Junction during an exchange between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian policemen.
On Tuesday, Israel admitted that Israeli bullets killed the boy.
“This was a grave event, an event we are all sorry about,” said the Israeli army’s chief of operations.
Saturday’s shooting of the boy was captured by French television and shown throughout the world.
Barak stopped short of criticizing Sharon for his visit to the Temple Mount, but one senior Israeli official told the New York Times, “It’s clear to everyone that it’s the Sharon show that created the original damage.”
Albright also criticized Sharon for his actions.
Sharon, meanwhile, said he shares no responsibility for the violence.
“This has nothing to do with me,” Sharon told the Washington Post. “It’s the result of a pre-planned campaign by Arafat.”