Middle East Death Comes to an Occupied Land

When Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin visited the occupied West Bank last week, he was taken to task by a local Palestinian Arab. "If the (Jewish) settlers start beating our boys, Israeli soldiers watch and do nothing," complained Abdullah Sa'afin, 24. "But if one of our boys throws a stone, we get live bullets directed at the chests of our children."

The remark was prompted by the death of a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy named Ramadan Zeitun, who was shot last week during disturbances at the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus. At first it was assumed that the boy had died after Israeli soldiers fired into a crowd of rioters. Later it appeared that he may have been shot by a carful of local Israeli settlers. Either way, his death symbolizes the confusion and chaos that beset the West Bank as it undergoes the worst round of violence there since the spring of 1982.

The latest bloodletting erupted two weeks ago when 200 Palestinian Arab students at Bir Zeit University, 25 miles north of Jerusalem, launched a demonstration against the Israeli occupation. Specifically, they were objecting to a temporary roadblock that had been erected by the Israelis. When Israeli soldiers advanced, the students threw stones, and the soldiers responded with tear gas and then bullets. Two students, both of them 22, were killed instantly. The next day a 14-year-old was shot dead at the Balata refugee camp, where three days later Zeitun was killed. Skirmishes flared as soldiers fought running street battles with youthful Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Israelis set up additional roadblocks, checking identity cards and searching for arms.

At the United Nations, the Security Council condemned the shootings by a vote of 14 to 0, with the U.S. abstaining. The Israeli government, maintaining that its forces had only acted in self-defense, expressed disappointment that Washington had not vetoed the resolution. It also charged that the mass demonstrations were the result of efforts by the Palestine Liberation Organization to stage a comeback in the region at the expense of Jordan's King * Hussein. Said one senior official in Jerusalem: "The P.L.O. feels frustrated that it is not succeeding. It has been thrown to the wolves by Hussein, and it's afraid of seeing its grip lessened in the West Bank. After all, there has been a major attempt by Hussein to restore his own influence in the territory."

That effort began last February shortly after the split between Hussein and P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat, who had failed in their efforts to pursue a joint peace strategy. The collapse of that coalition has deepened the existing political divisions among the 1.3 million Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Declaring that his aim is to "revive the Palestinian economy," the King announced several weeks ago a contribution of $34 million toward a $l billion, five-year development plan for the West Bank. Among the goals are a rebuilding of factories, schools and other basic services.