Word: ramallah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...prominent West Bank mayors visiting Washington for a two-day conference on Palestinian rights scarcely encouraged that hope. Fahd Qawasmi of Hebron and Karim Khalaf of Ramallah told their American audience that Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza overwhelmingly support the P.L.O. "as our representative" and would refuse to deal with Israel until they regained sovereignty over their ancestral lands...
...move that seemed designed to improve the atmosphere for Strauss's visit, Israel made two significant gestures that affected the West Bank. The first was the reopening of Bir Zeit College near Ramallah, which was closed last May because of student demonstrations in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The other was the shelving of plans to put Nablus residents, including its mayor, on trial for taking part in antisettlement protests. In an effort to convince Strauss that the settlements are essential to Israel's security, Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon took the ambassador and his wife Helen...
...Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian residents went on strike, businesses were shut down for the day and schools were ordered closed for another week by the military government. Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij declared the occasion "a day of shame for Begin, Sadat and Carter," and Ramallah Mayor Kharem Khalef called it "a day of mourning in the history of the Palestinian people...
Arab reaction was swift and defiant. In the West Bank towns of Ramallah and Halhul, students stoned Israeli soldiers; the soldiers retaliated with arrests and beatings. Near the village of Sinjil, Arab youths stoned Jewish settlers belonging to the religious nationalist Gush Emunim (group of the faithful). The angry Jews invaded the Arab school in Sinjil, seized the principal and marched him to their settlement for "questioning." In the midst of this unrest, the Israeli government established a new "outpost"-the forerunner of a civilian settlement-at Nueima, northeast of Jericho. The settlement will be the 51st on the West...
These factional tensions require West Bank political leaders?whatever their private feelings?to insist publicly that only the Palestine Liberation Organization can negotiate with Israel on their behalf. Says Ramallah's Mayor Karim Khalaf, 41: "The P.L.O. is Palestine and Palestine is the P.L.O. Without the P.L.O. there will be no negotiations at all." Israel, meanwhile, still flatly rejects any idea of P.L.O. participation in negotiations. Both Washington and Jerusalem want negotiations on the future of the West Bank and Gaza to include Jordan's King Hussein?a prospect the West Bankers view with mixed feelings. Many moderates believe that...