Nablus re-opens shops to defy Israeli curfew

PALESTINIANS BROKE an Israeli military curfew yes- terday, opening their shops and thronging the streets in their thousands in defiance of the army. The curfew is supposed to be in force 24 hours a day in Nablus, but yesterday the narrow lanes of the old city were so packed with people it was impossible to move.

"We destroyed the curfew," said Mahyoub Abu Salaeh, the manager of a petrol station. "We need to eat and we can't stay at home and eat."

When news broke that there had been a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, a ripple of excitement ran through the crowded market. People gathered around radios to hear. When they heard no Israelis had been killed, some were openly disappointed.

Seven people were injured when the Palestinian bomber blew himself up. It was the first major militant attack in Jerusalem since two bombings that killed 26 people in June and led Israel to reoccupy West Bank towns. Since then, Nablus has been under curfew for 38 days.

The Israeli authorities claim it is the only way to prevent militant attacks. In 38 days, the curfew has been lifted only six times, for a few hours for people to buy food. People have been unable to work or send their children to school. West Bank towns have for months been under an Israeli military closure order that prevents people getting their produce out of town to sell, or going to work in Israel.

Now people have taken matters into their own hands, defying the curfew for four days in a row. The protest was started by local people in the old city. Then the Palestinian Authority governor called on everyone to join and the defiance spread. The Israeli soldiers have so far done nothing.

There was nervousness on the streets yesterday. Two Jewish settlers were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen just outside town yesterday morning, and many feared the army might act. When three Israeli vehicles sped through town, people ran for cover. The army has fired on those breaking curfews before. Yesterday the vehicles passed quietly.

"We broke the curfew because we have no work and we're fed up," said Imad Zakato, a butcher. Great sides of meat hung outside his shop in the burning 38C (100F) sun. The Palestinians are not allowed to sell their own products but they are allowed to buy Israeli produce.

"We are dead already," Zekeriya Abu Said said when we asked if he was scared. "We don't have anything. What are we scared of?" Mr Abu Said, a livestock merchant, said he had lost so much money during the curfew that he sold his wife's gold.

"I used to have good job," he said. "I made at least $2,000 [pounds 1,275] a month. But now I have spent every penny I made in the last two years." Mr Abu Said has kept one cow. "A cow is more valuable than gold," he says. "I drink the cow's milk every day. I cannot eat gold."

Nawal Assous walked two miles from her home village with her son aged seven, to beg a little money from the mayor. When he gave her 100 shekels (pounds 13.50), she began her walk home delighted.

"The Israelis have changed tactics," the mayor, Ghassan Shakah, said. "Instead of tanks they have imposed sieges and curfews in our cities to destroy the economic infrastructure. They believe the reaction will be chaos, an explosion towards the Palestinian Authority. I told them many times, be careful, the explosion could be against you."

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