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Palestinians Vow To Continue Struggle As Israel Kills Worker
by Judi Rever
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Palestinians vowed to pursue their struggle against Israel despite losses sustained during nine weeks of violence that claimed another life Saturday, but the Jewish state said its military and economic strength would ultimately prevail over its Arab neighbor.
Violence has seethed through the Palestinian territories and spilled over into Israel since late September, sending 300 people, mostly Arabs, to their graves and shredding hopes of peacemaking.
On Saturday, an Israeli soldier shot dead an electrician while he was working in a building near an Israeli outpost in the West Bank town of El-Bireh near Ramallah, witnesses said.
Shidah el Musa al Jafari, 27, was shot in the neck while using an electric drill the soldier mistook for a gun, the witnesses said.
The Israeli army said only that the soldier had seen an "armed Palestinian" and opened fire.
The human and economic devastation from the daily bloodshed appears only to have hardened resilience on both sides.
"Despite the human, material and economic losses, and the return of a punitive policy [by Israel], the Palestinian people remain determined to continue the struggle against Israel," the Palestinian leadership said Friday after a meeting with leader Yasser Arafat.
An official with Arafat's political and military faction Fatah said that the Intifada, or uprising, launched in late September has shown Israel that its occupation of the territories has come "at a high price."
"The Intifada has already achieved some results," said Marwan Barghouti, who is accused by Israel of being a prime instigator of the unrest.
"It has already made it difficult for settlers to stay in occupied areas, and some of them have left the settlements already. As well, Israel is increasingly divided over the issue.
"The Intifida has proven to the Israelis that the occupation has come at a very high price," the official said.
Israel has blamed Palestinian leaders for inciting the violence, which broke out on September 28th when angry Arabs started rioting and pelting stones at Jewish targets after Israel's hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited a disputed holy site in east Jerusalem.
The following day, Israeli troops cracked down with gunfire, killing seven Palestinians.
On Friday, Israel said it was prepared to stay the course and would eventually win favor with the international community.
"If we are patient enough, the world will understand, or realize, that the use of violence is a Palestinian choice," said a senior Israeli security official during a press briefing in Jerusalem.
Israel has been widely condemned for using excessive force against Palestinians, many of them young stone-throwers on the frontline of the conflict who have been shot in the head or chest by Israeli soldiers.
International critics have also decried as "illegal" the state's continued presence in the territories and east Jerusalem, areas seized by Israel in the 1967 war.
But the Israeli official said the international community would eventually understand that there was not some "kind of mysterious Israeli interest to eliminate the Palestinians or to carry out massacres or genocide, whatever is being said by the Palestinian media or spokesmen."
He also said Israel was stronger than the Palestinians, and could withstand more.
"It is no secret we are stronger, we have more capabilities, we have a variety of ways to fight. Even if we take the simple fact of ammunition, the Palestinian like ammunition and spend a lot, so this can influence the situation," the official said.
Another "advantage is that Israel is economically stronger, and we can sustain this conflict although we prefer not to fight. This conflict is something inconvenient but is something we can bear for months and years if it is needed. We are not sure if the Palestinians can do that," he said.
Israel's sealing off of the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the start of the uprising has dealt a devastating blow to the Palestinian economy, causing losses of $774 million, according to a recent report by the Palestinian Authority.
Hardest hit by the Israeli blockade are the Palestinian industrial, agriculture and tourism sectors, which have incurred $438 million in losses, the report said.
In other violence on Saturday, an unarmed Palestinian leaving a gas station at the flashpoint Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip was shot and slightly injured by Israeli troops, witnesses and hospital officials said.
But an army spokesman denied Israeli troops had opened fire at the spot.
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