Palestinians demand reopening of main street

Hundreds of Palestinians protested Friday in Hebron to demand the citys main street be reopened after an 18-year closure by the Israeli military on security grounds.Shuhada Street was partially closed to Palestinians after a Jewish extremist from a nearby settlement gunned down 29 Muslim worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, on February 25, 1994.Six years later, at the outset of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, the army declared it a closed military zone, restricting Palestinian access to residents of the immediate area, on foot only.An AFP correspondent at the scene said about 500 people had joined the march towards Shuhada Street, carrying Palestinian flags and huge banners reading End the apartheid.But they were blocked by troops, who broke up the march by firing tear gas, sound bombs and a foul-smelling liquid known as skunk, he said.Five demonstrators were arrested and another five injured, one of whom was Arab Israeli MP Mohammed Barakeh, who was hit in the leg by a stun grenade, witnesses and a statement from his office said.The military said troops were called to break up illegal gatherings in the city.On February 25 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a doctor from Kiryat Arba settlement, gunned down 29 worshippers as they prayed at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, before being shot dead himself.He was a member of a banned racist group, which advocates the forcible expulsion of all Arabs from the biblical Greater Israel.