Ahmed Tibi, an adviser to PLO leader Yasser Arafat, said Israeli troops beat him with the butts of their guns. "We have been attacked by rifles, by pushing, we have been hit, women and children, by the Israeli soldiers," he said.
Other witnesses said the demonstrators had charged the Israeli troops guarding the disputed site near Bethlehem, throwing stones, knocking one of the border police unconscious and cutting another in the forehead.
The clashes deepened a quandary for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who is keen to keep sluggish self-rule talks from derailing. Arafat's Palestinian Authority has said that renewed settlement activity could destroy the peace process.
Troops pushed back the protesters, in some cases clubbing them, Tibi said. They arrested more than a dozen and imposed a curfew on nearby al-Khader.
Tibi said troops provoked the demonstrators.
"Soldiers invaded 200 meters inside the demonstration and started to hit people, and this is the reason why the situation exploded," he told reporters.
The army had banned demonstrations at the hilltop construction area, but hundreds of Jews and Arabs arrived at al-Khader on Friday to protest, urging Rabin to stop the bulldozers.
Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition by activists to reverse an army order outlawing demonstrations at the site.
Rabin has asked his attorney general to seek legal ways to stop the building. But while the examination goes on, so does construction. The planned building of 500 new housing units continued Friday on the stretch of land between the village al-Khader and the settlement of Efrat.
Settlers say the project was approved by the previous, pro-settlement, Likud government. Palestinian villagers say the land is theirs. "The army has behaved in a bad manner, by using force against the people who came to express their stand," said Israeli legislator Talab el-Sana, who was also jostled by troops as he stood linked arm-in-arm with Tibi.
Before the clashes, Arafat addressed the crowd by phone through a loudspeaker from his Gaza headquarters.
"My brothers, I appeal to you to continue this stand in defense of this land, for the sake of justice, for the sake of peace," he said.
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