West Bank

It was just before 11 on a mild and sunny morning, not much more than two weeks since the end of war in the Persian Gulf, and life in this Israeli- occupied Palestinian city had the look and feel of prewar normality. The sidewalks were full of people, smiling and chatty. The shops were full of customers, buying blue jeans and sneakers, bread and sweets. The streets were full of Israeli soldiers, patrolling Ramallah in jeeps and armored vehicles, all covered with heavy wire mesh to protect against stones thrown by roving young men in black vinyl jackets.

The funerals of three Palestinian workers shot and killed by Israeli soldiers brought cries for vengeance yesterday from fellow Palestinians - and grim promises from Israel that force will be met with force. "Blood leads to blood!" white-scarved Palestinian schoolgirls screamed as they marched through the winding streets of Dura, the hometown of three laborers slain Tuesday night at an Israeli roadblock on their way home from jobs in Israel. The deaths set off the West Bank's worst day of violence in months, leaving 32 Palestinians and an Israeli border policeman hurt in clashes yesterday.

The tax man came calling on Jabra Salsaa yesterday. When he left, he took with him a television, a typewriter and the electric organ on which Salsaa has practiced his favorite arrangements of Bach and Haydn for the last 20 years. Like hundreds of other residents of this picturesque Palestinian town, Salsaa, 53, the organist in the local Roman Catholic Church, has refused to pay taxes to the Israeli military government for two years running. And like the other tax rebels, he has paid dearly for his defiance.

The attack against Libya excites praise and condemnation. But the United States would better serve the cause of peace by paying full attention to the matter of the West Bank of the Jordan River, home of Palestinians and at present very much a part of modern Israel. Unrest over the West Bank and Gaza is the basic underlying cause of antagonism between Islamic countries, Israel and the West, which erupts as terrorism. The Arab world may recognize Israel's right to exist if the West Bank can be restored to neutrality or independence with Palestinian residents returned to their homes.

The Palestinian mayor of the West Bank city of Nablus was shot early today by an unidentified gunman, Israel Army Radio reported. The radio said the mayor, Zafer Masri, was killed in the attack. Military sources who spoke on condition they not be identified said Masri was seriously wounded in the shooting, which they said occurred as he drove in his car through Nablus. A police spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the report because "it was a security matter.

I don't think it's fair for Jewish leaders to accuse non-Jews of being anti-Semitic simply because they oppose Israel's role in the occupied West Bank. Because their people were once victims of the Holocaust doesn't give Israel carte blanche to create a holocaust of their own. Israel's brutality has world leaders denouncing their actions left and right. During Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to the United States, he publicly stated that the Palestinians have as much right to that as Israel.

Enraged by the slaying of an Israeli, Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank yesterday nearly drowned out Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's homily for the victim. Settlers chanting, "Revenge!" and "Traitor!" pounded on the roof and windows of Shamir's car as he left the funeral of U.S.-born Frederick Steven Rosenfeld near the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Three Palestinians have been arrested and are suspected of killing Rosenfeld, the army said yesterday. The incident was the most serious abuse of an Israeli prime minister in years.

When Natalie Rosenfeld moved to East Talpiot 14 years ago from England, it looked like a modern, attractive suburb of Jerusalem, a nice place to start a family. When Jamil Salhut was born in Gebel-el-Mukawber 39 years ago, his hillside village had been home to his people for many generations. Natalie Rosenfeld, a teacher of English and mother of four, and Jamil Salhut, a writer and teacher of Arabic, live on the same hillside, separated by less than 30 yards but also by all the fears and prejudices that have marked Jewish and Arab relations for centuries.

Jimmy Swaggart, with 350 followers, on a week's tour of the Holy Land, told Jewish settlers on the West Bank yesterday that God is on their side. But the disgraced preacher warned his audience that no one should put much stock in his endorsement because "I might do more harm than good. I'm a bit controversial. " Piped up a listener: "So are we. " Replied Swaggart: "That's why we're such good friends. " He cited the Old Testament prophet Amos as the authority for Jews' rights to the biblical lands.

Talk about things going from bad to worse! That's what's happening during these summer doldrums in home video. This week, there's an unusual foreign film that's worth a look but not much else, unless you count a pair of two- star movies, which start to look good when you see the one-star alternatives. WEDDING IN GALILEE (1987) (Kino) $79.95. 113 minutes. Makram Khouri, Anna Achdian, Tali Dorat. An extraordinary and timely work from an unusual source - Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The late Yasir Arafat's powerful moneyman is the target of the highest-profile Palestinian corruption probe to date, facing allegations he siphoned off millions of dollars in public funds, the chief investigator said Wednesday. Anticorruption campaigners lauded the case against the shadowy former aide, Mohammed Rashid, as a sign of the maturing of the Palestinian political system, although the probe also appeared to be tinged with political intrigue. Rashid, who has in the past denied wrongdoing, made veiled threats on a website to disclose purported secrets about the rise to power of Arafat's successor, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad replaced almost half of his West Bank-based cabinet on Wednesday, a clear sign that efforts to end the Palestinian political split are stuck. A unity deal reached in February was to have ended five years of separate Palestinian governments, one run by Fayyad in the West Bank and the other by the Islamic militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was to head an interim unity government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.

N. Korea's harsh threat to South PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea's military warned Monday of imminent "special actions" that would reduce South Korea's conservative government to ashes within minutes, sharply escalating the rhetoric against its southern rival. The threat from the North's military leadership comes amid concerns that North Korea may be plotting another provocation in the wake of an unsuccessful rocket launch condemned by the U.N. Security Council as a violation of a ban against missile activity.

HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli security forces swiftly evicted dozens of Jewish settlers from an illegally occupied building in this volatile West Bank city on Wednesday, ending a weeklong standoff that had threatened to spill over into broader violence. The raid caught the settlers off guard. Only a day earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had moved to block the eviction order. Settler supporters in Netanyahu's hard-line government condemned the surprise raid, a key political ally threatened to quit the coalition, and settler leaders vowed retaliation.

JERICHO, West Bank - Palestinian officials said Saturday that they planned to give Israel a deadline to accept ground rules for negotiations, and suggested that a "no" would allow them to shelve Mideast talks until the Israelis agreed to the condition. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is to spell out the requirements in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki. He said he did not know how long Netanyahu would be given to respond.

HERE'S WHAT WILL make news in Philly this week: SCHOOLS Supe-search hearing The Philadelphia School District will continue its series of community forums as part of the search for a new superintendent with three meetings this week. The meetings, organized by the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, are all at 6:30; tonight at West Philadelphia High School, Wednesday at Strawberry Mansion High School and Thursday at Edison High School.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel must halt settlement-building and present detailed proposals for a border with a future Palestinian state, visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, as he tried to persuade the Palestinians to continue low-level talks with Israel that the international community hopes will evolve into serious talks. Ban praised Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas for his leadership and publicly backed him on key issues, including the demand for a freeze of settlement-building on occupied lands the Palestinians want for their state.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the leadership race of his Likud Party over his ultranationalist rival early Wednesday, hours after his government approved new incentives to entice people to move to West Bank settlements. Altough Netanyahu was expected to win decisively, a relatively strong showing by rival Moshe Feiglin suggested that many Likud voters consider the prime minister too soft on peacemaking with the Palestinians. Likud spokesman Yigal Movermacher said Netanyahu won more than 75 percent of the vote.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel is proposing essentially to turn its West Bank separation barrier into the border with a future state of Palestine, two Palestinian officials said Friday, based on their interpretation of principles Israel presented in talks this week. The officials said Israeli envoy Yitzak Molcho told his Palestinian counterpart that Israel wants to keep east Jerusalem and consolidate Jewish settlements behind the barrier, which slices close to 10 percent off the West Bank.

I am coming to the University of Pennsylvania this week to incite violence against the State of Israel - pro-Israel groups and commentators have contended - and, along with hundreds of students and other speakers who will attend the 2012 National Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Conference, to engage in an "act of warfare. " Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, we are coming together to push forward an inclusive movement that supports nonviolent action to promote the human rights of the Palestinian people, because only full respect for these rights can lead to peace.