He had faked his kidnapping...

JERUSALEM, 21-SEP-97 (Reuter) - An Israeli found nine days ago tied up

in an abandoned building said on Sunday he had faked his kidnapping during

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to unite the Israeli

people, police said.

Yaacov Schwartz, 63, was found by firefighters on September 12 at an

abandoned building in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. He was bound,

wearing an Arab headdress, and had a psalm book on his chest.

``According to him he did it according to an instruction he received --

not from any people but from his belief -- to create some sort of act in

the wake of the catastrophes that happened to Israel, the wave of

attacks...in order to unite the people around one goal,'' Moshe Karadi,

the officer in charge of the investigation, told Israel's Channel Two

television.

Israel conducted a massive manhunt for Schwartz who was missing for two

days, fearing he had been kidnapped by Islamic militants who wanted to

make their mark during Albright's debut visit to the region to salvage

peace moves.

Albright herself had persuaded Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's

police to join Israel's search for Schwartz, whose car was found abandoned

in southern Israel near the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip.

Karadi said Schwartz told police he abandoned his car and spent the two

days in a factory he owned in Tel Aviv before going to the abandoned

building in Ashkelon.

Firefighters found him after they answered a call saying there was a fire

in the building.

Karadi said police were still investigating the incident to find out if

other people were involved in faking the kidnapping. He said that Schwartz

maintained he acted alone.

Israel's Channel One television said that Schwartz was known to have

extreme right-wing sympathies.

Albright's visit to the region came on the heels of the second of two

attacks Israel pegs to Islamic militant suicide bombers that have killed

20 Israelis since July 30.

Karadi, asked if Schwartz would now stand trial, said that would be up to

the state attorney.

***

Palestinian Journalist...

HEBRON, West Bank 20-SEP-97 (AP) An Israeli soldier knocked down a Palestinian

journalist attempting to report on Jewish-Palestinian tensions, and

ordered him to leave a Jewish enclave because he was an Arab.

The incident happened Friday in the divided West Bank city of Hebron,

where Israeli forces guard about 500 Jewish settlers surrounded by more

than 130,000 Arabs.

Nasser Shiyoukhi, a reporter for The Associated Press, arrived at Avraham

Avinu, one of the small Jewish enclaves in downtown Hebron, with Rick

Bowmer of the AP and David Mizrahi of Agence France Presse.

The enclave has been the scene of frequent clashes and disturbances.

The soldier, who was on guard at the Avraham Avinu parking lot, shouted at

Mizrahi, ordering him not to park there "because you've got an Arab in the

car," Mizrahi and Shiyoukhi said.

Shiyouki showed the soldier his Israeli government press card and said "I

am a journalist. I have the right to be here. You are practicing

discrimination."

The soldier, who was armed, replied, "You are an Arab," pushed him roughly

and punched him on the right ear, knocking him down, Shiyoukhi and Mizrahi

said.

Israeli border police, who were also on guard at the lot, took Shiyoukhi

to a nearby police station, where he filed a complaint.

The soldier also filed a complaint accusing Shiyoukhi of striking him. All

three journalists denied this.

The army spokesman refused to comment on the incident while it is under

investigation.

***

Rounded up dozens of

Palestinians...

NABLUS, West Bank,21-SEP-97 (Reuter) - The Israeli army said on Sunday it

had rounded up dozens of Palestinians in villages in the northern West

Bank in a mass arrest campaign personally directed by the military

commander of the West Bank.

ISRAELI MILITARY CENSORS MADE DELETIONS FROM THIS REPORT.

---------------------------------------------------------------

``Security forces last night conducted a wide-ranging operation...during

which they arrested tens of Palestinians who are now being interrogated.

The operation was conducted as part of activities to deter and prevent

terror,'' an army spokesman said.

``Central Commander Major-General Uzi Dayan directed the operation,'' the

spokesman said.

Witnesses said the army imposed a curfew on one village at dawn, gathered

all male residents over the age of 16 at a local school and disconnected

all the village telephones.

``We have not seen anything like this in our village since 1967,'' a

village resident who gave his name only as Kaysar told Reuters.

``They gathered tens of men over the age of 16 in one school and the army

brought medical teams with them. They stormed the houses in the village

and took video pictures after searching each house. Apparently they are

looking for someone,'' he said.

Israel arrested scores of Palestinians belonging to the militant Hamas and

Islamic Jihad groups following suicide bombings in Jerusalem on July 30

and September 4 which killed 20 Israelis.

The identities of the five bombers in the two attacks and the organisation

that stood behind them remain unknown. Leaflets in the name of the Islamic

Resistance Movement Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks but doubt

was cast on their authenticity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters travelling with

him in Austria on Sunday that Israel was sure the attackers had not come

from abroad, as had been said in some reports.

``On that issue I can again confirm, 100 percent, that the suicide bombers

that committed the last two attacks came from the area of Yesha and did

not come from abroad,'' Netanyahu said.

The remarks were broadcast on Israel Radio. ``Yesha'' is the Hebrew

acronym for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, though sometimes Israelis intend

only the West Bank when they use the term. It was unclear what Netanyahu

intended. In the remarks broadcast he did not elaborate.

Israel has handed most of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank to

Palestinian rule under interim peace deals. Netanyahu did not say if the

bombers came from Israeli or Palestinian controlled areas.

***

Fouad doesn't live anymore...

By Danny Gur-arieh

JERUSALEM, 21-SEP-97 (Reuter) - Fouad Hadieh doesn't live here anymore.

That was what Israeli police told dozens of Palestinians including Hadieh

himself when the 48-year-old resident of Arab East Jerusalem tried on

Sunday to enter what he said was his home in the Ras al-Amoud

neighbourhood after a trip abroad.

Jewish settlers now live there. ``I will enter the house by force. It is

my house and all my belongings are inside,'' said Hadieh, charging that

Jews inside were squatters.

Hadieh decided later to file a formal complaint against the settlers whose

benefactor, U.S. Jewish millionaire Irving Moskowitz, says he bought the

land from two Jewish religious groups, insisting they were the rightful

owners.

Jewish families took over the house last Sunday. They were replaced on

Thursday by 10 Jewish seminary students under a deal cut between Moskowitz

and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hopes of defusing Middle

East tensions ignited by the takeover.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has called the deal a ``farce.''

The contradictory ownership claims reflect the convoluted history of an

area which in the last century has known Ottoman, British, Jordanian and

Israeli rule.

Moskowitz's lawyer Eitan Geva said Jewish groups bought the land in the

1800s but lost control of it when East Jerusalem came under Jordanian rule

in 1948.

At the time, Jordanian officials handed the area to the el-Ghoul family,

longtime residents of Ras al-Amoud, said Geva.

When Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war along with

the West Bank and Gaza Strip, much of the land once owned by Jews became

disputed property and in 1984 an Israeli court ruled the area in Ras

al-Amoud belonged to its original Jewish owners.

Hadieh said he had been living in the building with his wife and children

since 1988 under an agreement with the al-Ghoul family. He said he was

approached by settlers several years ago but never agreed to leave.

``He's been living there illegally since the court ruled the buildings

belonged to Jews. He doesn't have any rights there,'' Geva told Reuters.

But other lawyers said Hadieh may have gained squatter's rights by living

in the apartment for so long and could have a case if he never consented

to the settlers' entry.

``It was decided that his attorney will file a complaint tomorrow with

police for squatting (by settlers) and police will look into the issue,''

said a police spokesman after officers met with Palestinians in the

neighbourhood.

Palestinians say Jewish settlement activity pre-empts peace talks on the

final status of the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and the Gaza

Strip, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel, which annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 after the war in a move

unrecognised by the international community, insists Jews have the right

to settle anywhere in Jerusalem.

***

JEWISH BILLIONAIRE...

JERUSALEM (21-SEP-97) XINHUA - A Palestinian owner of one of the two

disputed buildings occupied by Jews in East Jerusalem's Ras Amud Arab

neighborhood today denied selling it to American billionaire Irving

Moscowitz.

Fuad Hadieh, who returned from Romania Saturday, said he had never sold

the house to Moscowitz and he had documents to prove his claim.

Accompanied by Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Minister of Islamic

Waqf Hassan Tahboub, Jerusalem's Mufti Ikramah Sabri and others, Hadieh

tried to enter the main building, but they were prevented by Israeli

police who clubbed them.

When 15 Jewish settlers took over the two buildings in Ras Amud last

Sunday, they claimed that the Palestinians living there were paid to

evacuate the houses. Moscowitz said he also intended to build 70 housing

units in Ras Amud to create a Jewish settlement.

In his comments, Hadieh said the documents possessed by the settlers were

forged because he had never signed anything to sell the house.

Upon the police's advice, Hadieh is considering petitioning to Israel's

High Court of Justice to retake the house. He would be likely to file the

petition Monday.

The takeover of the two buildings in East Jerusalem has sparked strong

protests from the Palestinian side and Arab countries which warned against

the collapse of the peace process if the settlers would remain there.

Under a compromise agreement reached between representatives of the

government and settlers aimed at calming the situation, the settlers

evacuated the houses Thursday night to be replaced by religious Jews who

will open a seminar there.

The PNA has denounced the deal as a "trick" aimed at maintaining the

Jewish presence in the disputed Arab East Jerusalem occupied by Israel

since the 1967 war.

Meanwhile, Palestinian and Israeli peace activists continued their daily

protests near the site which was under the watchful eyes of a large

presence of Israeli police. The joint peace movement Peace Now has set up

a protest tent near the disputed houses, demanding the small group of

fanatic Jews evacuate the Arab neighborhood to save the peace process.

***

Muslim Militant Killed

in Lebanon

TRIPOLI, Lebanon 21-SEP-97 (Reuters) - One person was killed and three wounded

Sunday after security forces fired on militants trying to stop them

closing down a television station run by Muslim fundamentalists, security

sources said.

The sources said security forces fired on members of the al-Tawheed

movement who had begun gathering outside the al-Hilal television station

Saturday.

One source said the security forces opened fire after Muslim

fundamentalists hurled rocks at them.

After the shootings, security forces fired tear gas at al-Tawheed members

and took control of the television station building.

They then closed down al-Hilal and al-Tawheed's Sawt al-Haq radio station.

The sources said negotiations had begun between with the al-Tawheed Muslim

fundamentalist movement but that the situation was still tense.

Trouble began Saturday after police sealed off the unlicensed al-Hilal

television station in the northern city of Tripoli.

Hundreds of al-Tawheed members and their supporters gathered, vowing to

prevent the closure of the station.

The move against the al-Hilal television station is part of a government

crackdown on unlicensed private television and radio channels.

Late last year, a law was implemented under which the government ordered

dozens of Lebanon's many private radio and television stations to close

and licensed only a handful of stations, mostly owned by government

officials.

***

Held for Dealing with Israel

BEIRUT, 20-SEP-97 (Reuter) - Two employees of a Christian television station

based in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon who were arrested by the Lebanese

army are being held for allegedly dealing with Israel, security sources

said on Saturday.

On Friday, The U.S. owners of the station, Middle East Television (METV),

said the two -- journalist Shakeeb Aghaa and electrical engineer Butros

Khoury -- were stopped at an army checkpoint in the south, questioned,

blindfolded and taken to a Ministry of Defence prison in east Beirut.

The security sources said the men are under investigation for dealing with

Israel, which is prohibited in Lebanon. They declined to elaborate on the

case.

METV is owned by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) of Virginia

Beach, Virginia. It transmits from Marjayoun, which is also the

headquarters of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) and lies in an

area outside Lebanese government control.

CBN said on Friday that neither of the men had ever done anything against

the Lebanese government.