Rioters attack Jaffa mosque

By Margot Dudkevitch, David Rudge, and Maia Ridberg

TEL AVIV (June 3) - Police arrested scores of Jewish protesters yesterday who vented their rage over Friday night's deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv by attacking the nearby Hassan Bek Mosque. Seventeen people were injured - most of them police - as protesters scuffled with police and border policemen who tried to disperse them as they threw stones, bottles, and metal rods at the mosque.

Demonstrators, repeatedly repelled by police, maneuvered to another side of the mosque which stands on its own in a square.

Worshipers inside the mosque started throwing stones back at the demonstrators, and were later removed by special police units.

In the afternoon, police reinforcements surrounded the mosque and succeeded in preventing the mob from entering Jaffa to clash with Arab residents.

Police also closed Jaffa's Rehov Yeffet to traffic after Arab residents began stoning Israeli vehicles. At the corner of Herbert Samuel and Yonah Hanavi Streets, Israeli protesters threw stones at the Abulafia bakery and later set it afire.

Demonstrators also stoned several Arab vehicles in front of the mosque and set at least one on fire.

Earlier, several hundred people gathered outside the Defense Ministry offices in Tel Aviv during a special Saturday morning meeting of the security cabinet.

Many held aloft placards urging the government to abandon all restraint in responding to the seemingly endless wave of terror attacks both inside the Green Line and in the territories.

As the day grew hotter, the protesters' tempers only worsened. Channel 2 reported that an ambulance arrived outside Hassan Bek to treat overheated protesters. Some of the demonstrators at the Defense Ministry drank from water bottles, but most screamed angry slogans.

"We have to attack them and attack them hard!" screamed protest organizer Oren Buta as he pointed his finger in the air and wiped sweat from his face. After the demonstration at the Defense Ministry, he moved on to the Hassan Bek mosque to join protesters there.

Many demanded complete "separation from the Arabs."

"We have to make a border, close them there, so they will die inside. We don't want them," said Etty Koren of Tel Aviv, whose husband standing beside her held a sign with the words: " We demand revenge." Etty and her husband Eyal then went to join the protest in Jaffa after spending the morning at the Defense Ministry.

Eleven-year-old Chen Palatche, who held a sign condemning Arafat, expressed a very direct message to the government by replacing the word "revenge" on his poster with "war."

"I want to be at war against the Arabs so they won't kill us anymore," said Chen, who came from his home in Ramat Gan with his parents, Dorit and Chai, and sister, Mor. Dorit brought her children to support the protesters and express her anger over the security situation.

Her two sons are combat soldiers in the army, and although she lost sleep over their service, the terrorist attacks worry her more, she said. "I do not let my children out on Friday night.

We are tired of living like this. We want security so that our children can go outside without us worrying."

Most of the protesters stood across the street from the Defense Ministry behind the blue police fences. When cabinet secretary Gideon Sa'ar came outside, protesters and journalists gathered around him to hear an official statement that the security forces will act in every way possible to defend its citizens.

But protester Yitzhak Croiterer attempted to interrupt the statement with shouts condemning the government. "You should be embarrassed," he said, adding: "Resign."

The demonstrators were further incensed by the cabinet's decision to continue Israel's unilateral cease-fire for the time being to see if Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat will bow to international and especially US pressure and take concrete steps to end the violence.

Security forces prevented the demonstrators from entering the grounds of the ministry, and the demonstrators dispersed after the conclusion of the cabinet meeting. From there many went to the site of Friday night's attack while the crowd's mood turned from bitterness and frustration to outright rage.

Just before night fell, a crowd of several hundred people tried to force through police lines to enter Jaffa itself but were turned back by the policemen, including members of riot-control and special units.

Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said police did their utmost to prevent the angry protests and called on the public to refrain from taking the law into its own hands.

"I strongly condemn the throwing of stones and call on the public to refrain from taking the law into their hands. Police have received orders to deal swiftly and harshly with lawbreakers," he said.

Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg called on citizens to show restraint, saying the government is responsible for security and for deciding on responses. Anyone who tries to take the law in his own hands, he added, only disturbs the work of police and harms internal security.

As night fell, the atmosphere in the region was still fraught with tension and large forces of police remained on duty to be ready to deal with any renewed disturbances.

Away from the protests, the coffee shops normally full and lively on Shabbat in Tel Aviv were quiet. Zohar Tal, who works at Cafe Basel on Saturdays, attributed the quiet to the terrorist attack and the heat.

Nina Gilbert contributed to this report.

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