Angry Riots on the West Bank

The United Nations Security Council this week was scheduled to debate the problem of growing disorders on the Israeli-occupied West Bank. What made this particular confrontation of rhetoric interesting was that Israeli delegates would join in the talk--as would representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The debate will thus mark the first time that officials of the Jewish state have participated in a Security Council debate in which the P.L.O. is also involved.

In Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Yigal Allon insisted that the decision to join the debate "does not mean even a hint of recognition" of the P.L.O. Nonetheless, it was a notable change in tactics for Israel, which boycotted last January's Security Council debate on Middle East problems precisely because the P.L.O. was admitted as a full participant. This time Israel was aware that the P.L.O. would claim to represent the increasingly restive 650,000 Arabs on the West Bank who have lived under Israeli rule since the Six-Day War.

Holy of Holies. The reason for the debate was a storm of demonstrations, strikes, riots and other political protests that spread through West Bank cities and towns last week. The initial focus of the Arab discontent was a religious issue: a decision handed down two months ago by a Jerusalem magistrate, Ruth Or, that Jews had a right to pray on the Temple Mount, the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon and hence Judaism's holiest site. It is also the site of Al Aqsa mosque, revered by Moslems as the third most sacred spot in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. Previously, Israel's Chief Rabbinate had forbidden Orthodox Jews even to set foot on the Temple Mount, lest they accidentally commit sacrilege by stepping into the ancient temple's lost Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could enter. But some militant Orthodox Jews chose to challenge the Moslems' monopoly of the mount by praying there, thus triggering the court decision.

Furious over what they labeled an attempt to "take over our holy places," Arab students in the West Bank city of Nablus abandoned their classes and took to the streets, singing pro-P.L.O. songs. Student strikes spread to other towns. Arab businesses closed. Six mayors and five city councils of important towns on the West Bank resigned.

Warning Shots. Violence erupted when rock-throwing crowds confronted baton-wielding Israeli soldiers. In the worst incident, soldiers fired warning shots into a crowd of demonstrators, wounding three young Arabs, one critically. Disagreement on how to handle the troubles split the Israeli leadership. Defense Minister Shimon Peres rejected the idea of any stiffer military measures, but Premier Yitzhak Rabin, in a private talk with Peres, declared: "I don't care if we have to put the entire army in the West Bank. I want quiet and order, and I want it now."

Observers differed on whether the West Bank disorders stemmed principally from local discontent or were the work of P.L.O. provocateurs. In either case, the unrest seemed to threaten the much heralded municipal elections scheduled to be held in 25 West Bank communities next month. Yet the long-term effect could prove beneficial. "At least Israel is debating in the same forum as the P.L.O ," noted an Egyptian official. "Now perhaps something can be organized where they can get to the guts of the problem."

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