APRIL 2002

Monday April 29, 2002

Security Council concerned over

delay of Jenin fact-finding team

NY, April,28, 2002 Wafa – Members of the United Nations Security Council yesterday voiced concern over the continued delay in the arrival of a fact-finding team mandated to develop accurate information regarding recent events at the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank, according to the President of the 15-member body.

The members "strongly support the Secretary-General in his efforts to ensure the immediate deployment of the fact-finding team to Jenin with full cooperation of Israel and the Palestinian Authority," Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation said in a statement to the press following a closed-door meeting. He stressed that the members "remain firm in their insistence on full implementation of Council resolution 1405 (2002)" which welcomed the mission, originally initiated by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Voicing full backing for letters sent by Mr. Annan to Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry and the Observer for Palestine, Nasser Al-Kidwa, the President said Council members "expect a positive report" from the Secretary-General by Monday.

"The position of the members of the Council has been conveyed to Ambassador Lancry," Ambassador Lavrov added. During their consultations, Council members were briefed by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast.

The Israelis murdered Eight Palestinians

and wounded dozens in a brutal attack on Hebron Monday

Hebron - April 29,2002-Wafa -Seven Palestinians were killed and dozens others injured in the West Bank City of Hebron in a fresh wave of the occupation army brutal attacks on our people, official sources and witnesses said Monday. In other incident, Nidal Ebayat, 28, was murdered in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

Accompanied by attack helicopters the occupation troops and tanks moved in from four directions and occupied more than half of the Palestinian part of the city, witnesses said. The occupation soldiers declared a curfew, confining Palestinians to their homes.

The raid on Hebron came few hours after H.E. President Yasser Arafat accepted a proposal by U.S. President George W. Bush for ending the siege on his headquarters compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah .

Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat adviser, said that H.E the President announced his acceptance of Bush's proposal at a meeting with U.S. and British consular officials at his office in Ramallah Sunday night.

H.E President Yasser Arafat on Sunday had phone talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, H.M King Abdullah II of Jordan, US secretary of state Colin Powell and the foreign ministers of the KSA and Spain.

During the phone conversation President Arafat discussed with the leaders and the politician the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the ongoing efforts to end the occupation government war on our people.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council began talks to discuss it's response to Israel's latest request for a delay to the U.N. fact-finding committee on Jenin waiting in Geneva since Wednesday.

Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman accused Sharon government of trying to make the committee meaningless. "They claim there is nothing to hide," he said. "What then is the explanation of all these obstacles in front of the committee to prevent it from starting its mission?"

In Bethlehem, no progress was reported in another day of negotiations aimed at ending a standoff between the people holed up in the Church of the Nativity (revered by Christians as marking the birthplace of Jesus) and the Israeli occupation forces outside.

The Chinese premier calls for Israeli withdrawal

BEIJING, April, 29, 2002, Wafa - Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has said Israel must withdraw troops from Palestinian land as soon as possible, Xinhua official news agency reported on Sunday.

"Facts prove that responding to force with further force is not the way to end conflict," Xinhua news agency quoted Zhu as saying in talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Zhu repeated earlier calls by Beijing, a long-time supporter of the Palestinians, for Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian areas "at the earliest possible date", it said.

"The only right and effective way to resolve the Middle East issue is to comply with U.N. resolutions and the principle of 'land for peace', as well as through political negotiation," it quoted Zhu as telling Hariri, in Beijing for a three-day official visit.

"China sincerely hopes that the majority of Arab states will unite to fight against outside forces," he added. Xinhua did not explain which forces Zhu was referring to.

"China for many years has strongly supported the just struggle of the Arab people, including the Lebanese people, to restore their legitimate rights and interests and to recover their lost land," Zhu was quoted as saying.

The Israeli war machine has increased

the suffering of the second time refugees

Jenin April 26^th 2002 Wafa; The Israeli war machine has increased the suffering of the Jenin Refugee Camp’s inhabitants by making them refugees for the second time.

At the time when the world is discussing their right of return to their own homes, and they developed hopes that their problem will find a solution, they were driven out of the Refugee Camp where the Israeli brutality has destroyed their 54 old dream by smashing the entire Camp and committing mass massacres against many of them yet to be counted.

2400 families became homeless living out their in the open where the UN various agencies have erected 50 big tents on the edge of the old camp as a new center for a new refugee camp.

So far 600 families are sleeping on the ground under the skies of the demolished Camp, where the rest have found a corner in some tent to shelter their children from the heat of the days sun and cold of the long dark nights.

The inhabitants of the Camp are very furious for inhuman conditions they are living in now tanks to the Israeli barbarism, but they are determine to survive, struggle and most of all defeat the hateful terrorist army of Israel and establish their own independent State.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC:

We cannot stand by and watch the unfolding

of a terrible injustice paid for with our tax dollars

Ramallah, April, 29 2002, Wafa - Rebecca Murray Kevin Skvorak, both US citizens, wrote from inside the besieged compound of President Arafat, an open letter and appeal to the US public in which they say: We are Americans who are addressing you from inside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat besieged compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

We entered the compound on April 21, in response to fears that Israel was preparing to launch a military attack against it. We joined 30 members of the international solidarity group who were already inside, peace activists from Israel, France, Britain, Denmark and Australia. We all hope with our presence to offer protection for the nearly 300 Palestinians who have been trapped inside the compound since the Israel Occupation Force, IOF, invaded Ramallah on March 29, 2002.

Inside the compound we have little food, scant ventilation, and overflowing toilets. We have only the clothes on our backs. There is not enough medicine for the injured and ill who are with us.

On April 27^th. the pipe that brought the compound an erratic water supply was destroyed by the IOF. Israeli soldiers have been demolishing buildings around us with explosives, and flattening vehicles with their tanks. During the past few days they have built huge barricades around the compound using the rubble and destroyed cars, topping them with razor wire.

We are here because we cannot be bystanders. We cannot stand by and watch the unfolding of a terrible injustice paid for with our tax dollars.

This is not a war between two armies. In this conflict one of the world’s most powerful armies is mobilized against a largely defenseless population, half of whom are children under the age of 15. American-supplied attack helicopters and tanks are used against a people who have already endured 35 years of occupation, and the loss of their homes, their land, their livelihood, their dignity and their human rights.

We deplore the killing of civilians on both sides of the conflict. We recognize that the Palestinians have a right to resist the occupation and the ongoing theft of their land for the construction of illegal Israeli settlements and "Israeli-only" by pass roads. We believe that both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to a secure existence. And we know there is only one way to get there: the occupation must be brought to an end.

"Injustice anywhere," wrote Martin Luther King, Jr., "is a threat to justice everywhere." We are appealing to all Americans of conscience to stand with us against injustice and violence, and for hope and security for both peoples. Please contact your elected representatives and the Bush Administration (tel. 202 456-1111) and call for a peaceful resolution of the siege in Ramallah, and the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as President Bush himself has demanded. Urge them to support the intervention of an international peacekeeping force to protect both Palestinians and Israelis, to be followed by negotiations conducted on the basis of United Nations resolutions and international law.

FOR A LASTING PEACE AND AN END TO THE VIOLENCE,

THE BRUTAL ISRAELI OCCUPATION MUST END!!

Houston, Texas, April, 29, 2002, Wafa – In a statement of Houstonians for Peace & Justice in the Holy Land, the group strongly condemn the Israeli atrocities and terror attacks on Palestinian civilians and the denial of their basic human rights including the right to liberty. 

In the statement the group says, Since the beginning of the Palestinian Uprising (Intifada), more than 40,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been killed or wounded by the Israeli military occupation. The Israeli soldiers are indiscriminately executing Palestinians, killing civilians and journalists. The Israeli government forces are demolishing civilian homes, rendering homeless hundreds of families (just like what happened in Jenin).

Furthermore, the Israeli soldiers are invading hospitals and schools, shooting at ambulances and doctors, and preventing ambulances from reaching their destinations while wounded women and children bleed to death in the streets and at Israeli checkpoints.

Facts:

Amnesty International has cited Israel of human rights violations numerous times.

Israel is in violation of 72 U.N. Security Council Resolutions, International Law and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Israel receives $5 billion per year in military and economic aid from the United States that is used to oppress and dispossess Palestinians.

We demand that the US:

• Cut off US Aid to Israel that enables it to use terror and US made weapons to massacre Palestinians, and expand illegal settlements on Palestinian lands.

• Send International Observers to protect the Palestinians from the Israeli terror.

• Stop the Genocide against the Palestinian people.

• Use all means necessary to halt Israel's terrorism & criminal acts against the Palestinians.

• End to the slaughter of innocent civilians and rampant destruction of Palestinian property by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

• Force Israel to withdraw IMMEDIATELY from the occupied Palestinians territories.

• End the brutal siege of the Palestinian population.

• End the illegal Israeli military occupation NOW!

ISM marches to Nativity Church

Bethlehem, April, 29, 2002, Wafa - A group of 20 internationals from the ISM, International Solidarity Movement, forced their way through barbed wire and fencing to gain access to Manger Square and proceeded to the Church of the Nativity. Their aim was to deliver food, water and medicine to those trapped inside the church.

As they walked in to the square a smoke bomb was let of by the entrance in an attempt to block the view of journalists.

As the group marched across the square some with hands in the air, others displaying banners proclaiming support for the Palestinian people and demanding an end to occupation, a tank was mobilized and troops rushed at them. They managed to get to the door of the church and sat in front of it, hoping that they could pass the aid through.

The soldiers rushed them, kicked away the foodstuffs and pulled, dragged and marched the peaceful protesters away.

They were then held, told to remain together and wait for military escort. As the ISM refuses to obey demands made by the Israeli occupation forces they continued to walk, in group formation, away from the area, circumnavigating soldiers who tried to prevent them. None of the group were arrested.

Desmond Tutu:

- Apartheid in the Holy Land

- Injustice and oppression will never prevail

London, UK, April, 29, 2002, Wafa - South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu accused the Israelis of treating Palestinians in the same way the apartheid South African government treated blacks, in a commentary published Monday in the British daily, The Guardian.

"I've been deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa," Tutu said during a conference this month in Boston, Massachusetts.

Extracts from the conference were published as a commentary under the headline "Apartheid in the Holy Land."

"I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about," said the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

"I say why are our memories so short? Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon?

"If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land?"

The archbishop went on: "You know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the U.S.] and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic, as if Palestinians were not Semitic.

"People are scared in this country [the U.S.], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what?

"The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust.

"Injustice and oppression will never prevail," Tutu declared.

"In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil!!" he said.

Sunday April 28, 2002

President Arafat: “The Israeli aggression targets the entire peace process”

Durban RSA April 28^th 2002 Wafa; Addressing the Durban meeting, of the Non Allied Movement (NAM) Foreign Ministers held in Durban, yesterday, President Yasser Arafat said: “The Israeli terror and aggression aim to fail the peace process, crippling all exerted efforts and peace initiatives, the Israeli government targets the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) by striking its legitimacy and demolishing its institutions”.

In His speech that was adopted as one of the Conventions documents, H.E. emphasized that the Palestinians are still committed to the peace process, “The peace of the brave”: “Therefore we appeal to you all to motivate all peace loving factors, to urgently move and actively intervene especially the UN Security Council, and the Quartet Committee, to stop the wild Israeli terror and occupation” H.E added.

H.E. stressed that the Israeli fascist and terrorist forces have assaulted the Holy Christian and Moslem places, as they have destroyed “Omar Mosque” adjacent to the “Nativity Church” in Bethlehem and other five mosques and one ancient Church in Nablus, and still besieging and shelling the asylum of the most ancient Holy Church in the world the Church of the Nativity.

H.E. concluded as saying that imposing International measures of sending International monitors and imposing sanctions and punishments, similar to other places in the world like against the Apartheid regimen in South Africa, will force Israel to comply with the related International resolutions that call for just, comprehensive, and enduring peace in the region of the Middle East.

Abu Redeneh:

“Israel insists to cripple all efforts to reach a settlement

for the nativity Church crisis”

Ramallah April 28^th 2002 Wafa; Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat’s media advisor said that the Israelis are continuing to cripple the efforts to reach a settlement for the crisis of the Nativity Church, which reveals their aggressive nature.

He added that the Israeli government prevented the assigned negotiating Palestinian team from reaching Ramallah to meet with President for further consultations concerning the crisis in hand; they only allowed MP Mr. Salah Ta’mari and the European envoy participating in the negotiations to enter the Presidential compound to meet with the President.

He emphasized that the Israeli government insists on proceeding with its aggressive practices and crippling every attempt to reach any settlement concerning all pending issues, and called on the international community to exert harder efforts to oblige Israel to implement the Security Council’s resolutions.

The occupation destroyed the official and Presidential vehicles

Ramallah -April 28,2002-Wafa - The occupation army bulldozers destroyed seven armored Mercedes cars that H.E. President Yasser Arafat uses in his presidential motorcade in Ramallah, official Palestinian sources reported Saturday. The sources said that big Israeli army bulldozers drove into the Presidential compound which know as ''Al Muqataa" and began to destroy the cars of the presidential convoy.

They added that the occupation army bulldozers also destroyed the presidential guards' utility cars and Cherokee jeeps that were parking in the special garage in H.E. President Arafat compound.

Meanwhile, minister of culture and Information Yasser Abed Rabbo slammed the Israeli occupation army for putting loudspeakers around the President compound. The use of those loudspeakers to produce annoying sounds directed at H.E. the President main office is "provocative and criminal Israeli army action," the minister charged.

The minister said that carrying out such an action "approves that Ariel Sharon had failed to get rid of the besieged President and break his determination to continue his struggle for the Palestinian independent state."

Dlamini-Zuma: "The Palestinian struggle is for self determination

and NAM has to voice strong solidarity with Palestine”

Durban -April 28,2002-Wafa-  South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Saturday, the Non Aligned Movement had to voice strong support and solidarity for the people of Palestine, and to the Palestinian leadership.

Speaking after the meeting of the Committee on Palestine at the International Convention Center in Durban on Saturday afternoon, Dlamini-Zuma said the movement should use every means at its disposal including its influence in the United Nations General Assembly to support Palestine in its hour of need." Dlamini-Zuma spoke in her capacity as chair of the ministerial meeting of the coordinating bureau of NAM, which is also meeting in Durban.

She said NAM had to express solidarity with the young people of Palestine as well as H.E. President Yasser Arafat, who is under Israeli occupation troops siege and "all the people of Palestine who are being humiliated and living under difficult conditions".

Dlamini-Zuma did not want to elaborate on the decisions reached by the committee during its three-hour meeting, saying the committee first had to brief the ministerial meeting of the coordinating bureau of NAM.

She said the decisions taken by the 15 member countries making up the Committee on Palestine would be released on Monday at the closing session of the ministerial meeting.

The committee did, however, express outrage over the situation and the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East.

"It is almost as if the whole region is being brought to a precipice," she said.

The committee outlined a number of steps to be taken to try and address the situation in the Middle East.

These will also be divulged on Monday after the ministerial meeting had been briefed.

"We are not a military block and therefore we cannot take military steps, but we are a solidarity organization of which the founding principle is the support of liberation struggles.

"The Palestinian struggle is for self determination and NAM has to voice strong solidarity with Palestine in its hour of need," Dlamini-Zuma said.

The committee has also resolved to use their voice in the UN General Assembly, because it did not have a real voice in the Security Council.

The coordinating bureau in New York has called for a meeting of the committee on Palestine at ministerial level. This committee met in Durban on Saturday afternoon and gave detailed attention to the current situation in the Middle East. It will report to the entire membership of the NAM on Sunday.

Members of the NAM security council caucus have also been invited to participate in the meeting along with Egypt and Jordan in their capacity as co-sponsors of the peace process.

In addition, the meeting will be attended by Lebanon in its capacity as the chair of the League of Arab States, as well as the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Amr Mousa.

The committee on Palestine was set up during the VII Summit Conference of Heads of States or Governments of the NAM, held in New Delhi in 1983.

The committee was set up to work with the various forces influential in the Middle East conflict to achieve comprehensive peace in the region.

Dlamini-Zuma is expected to address a plenary session of the ministerial meeting on Sunday morning.

President Thabo Mbeki will officially open the meeting on Sunday afternoon.

Foreign ministers and senior officials from 115 NAM member states started its three-day meeting in Durban on Saturday.

The meeting aims to discuss a number of critical issues facing the member states such as the violence in the Middle East. It will also finalize the agenda for the 8th NAM summit of heads of states and governments and look at progress made in implementing resolutions taken during the previous meetings.

FLORIDA RADIO TALK SHOW HOST ANDY MARTIN ISSUES CALL FOR

BOYCOTT OF TIMBERLAND PRODUCTS, SAYS NYSE COMPANY

SHOULD CHANGE NAME TO "MURDER, INC."

NEW YORK, April, 28, 2002, Wafa - Radio talk show host Andy Martin, who supports Palestinian rights, will host an Internet forum over WPBR-AM, Tuesday April 30th to issue a call for an international boycott of Timberland products. Martin will suggest the NYSE-listed company change its name to "Murder Inc." in light of CEO Jeffrey Schwartz' demand for support of Israeli storm troopers.

"I just threw my Timberland boots in the garbage," says Martin, "and April 30th I will issue a call for an international boycott of Timberland. I also think people should picket Timberland company stores.

"The CEO of Timberland wants to bring Israeli murderers to the United States to brag about the rape of Jenin. He spent 96 hours in Israel and becomes an expert. Palestinians have lived in the Holy Land for thousands of years and they are being dispossessed by Russian invaders who have no ties to the land.

"I suggest Mr. Schwartz change the name of his company to 'Murder Inc.' in honor of the Sharon junta and the IOF rampage in Palestine which vandalized Palestinian businesses, banks, insurance companies and government offices. "It is precisely Schwartz' stereotype that American Jewish businessmen seek to link their shareholders' money to Israeli politics that creates the underpinnings of anti-Semitism. We must not travel that road again, despite Mr. Schwartz' invitation. I think stockholders should condemn Schwartz' demand for Israeli propaganda experts to come to the United States. We already have AIPAC to do the job.

"Schwartz says Israel has not built a 'brand.' Israel's 'brand' has been built for fifty-four years. It is increasingly becoming a pale replica of the Swastika. Mr. Schwartz's views can be read in full in the Jerusalem Post for April 26th.

Judge for yourself. In my opinion, American businesses have no business encouraging Israeli lebensraum," says Martin.

Andy Martin is an American radio talk show host that supports Palestinian rights. Martin's forums have become the fulcrum of foreign policy analysis on the Internet.

He has traveled through the Middle East; his foreign experience includes Europe, Iran and Asia. His family has been involved in the Middle East for almost 100 years, since his grandfather, a British officer, served with Lawrence of Arabia.

Martin has been an adjunct professor of law and is a foreign policy consultant in the areas of military security and intelligence; he studied under the late Bernard Fall, was an assistant to U.S. Senator Paul H. Douglas and founded the Revolutionary War Research Center.

Martin's radio program, heard Monday-Friday over WPBR-AM, West Palm Beach, covers Florida issues from noon-1 P.M. and foreign policy from 1-2 P.M.

Tuesday April 23, 2002

President Arafat received Mr. Burns

Ramallah April 23^rd 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat received yesterday in the remaining Presidential HQ in Ramallah, Mr. William burns the deputy to the USA Secretary of State, accompanied by Mr. Ronald Schleicher the USA Consul General to Jerusalem.

Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh the media advisor to President Arafat clarified that the talks concentrated on the completion of the former talks with the USA Secretary of State during his visit to the area.

He added that President Arafat reiterated again to Mr. Burns that the Israeli Government should immediately and completely withdraw without any preconditions, from all the occupied Palestinian places.

He also said that Mr. Burns reiterated the USA Administration’s stand as per declared, by President Bush and Mr. Powell, and the necessity of joining the political path with the security path, in such a manner that meets up with the Palestinians’ demands.

A phone call between President Arafat and the Saudi Crown Prince

Ramallah April 23^rd 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat conducted last night, a coordination phone call with H.R.H. prince Abdullah Crown Prince of KSA, prior to H.H. departure to the USA for a diplomatic visit.

After H.E.’s briefing they discussed the current developments and the impact of the coming foreseen visit to the USA.

H.R.H. reiterated that the KSA will proceed exerting all possible efforts to promote the Palestinian interest.

Abu Redeneh welcomed the assignment of a fact finding committee to Jenin

Ramallah April 23^rd 2002 Wafa; Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat’s media advisor welcomed the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan’s declaration about assigning a fact finding committee to investigate the events of the Jenin Refuge Camp, hoping that the committee will commence its duties soon.

He also promised that the Palestinians leadership will fully cooperate with the committee and provide it with all the documents and the findings already documented.

Earlier Monday, Annan announced that former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari would lead the team, which would also include Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata, the former U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

Palestinian official Statement: “The occupation escalates aggression”

Ramallah April 23^rd 2002 Wafa; A Palestinian official spokesman said that according to Sharon’s directions, the occupation forces are escalating their aggression against the Palestinian population and their Leadership.

The occupation forces bombed last evening the Church of nativity, using sound, gas, and smoke bombs, and attempted to invade the Church leaving a huge fire in the Orthodoxy section above St. George Chapel, defying all international communities and Christian Churches and Organizations.

They are also tightening the siege around the Presidential HQ widening the fenced zone by demolishing more houses and buildings, digging more trenches and piling dirt stacks to hermitically block the HQ preventing any access.

In the rest of the major cities, tight curfew is still imposed including all the villages and the refugee camps, where the occupation forces are escalating their abuse to the inhabitants and intimidating them by shooting tank automatic and artillery fire towards the citizens and the their residential houses.

These attacks of arrogant violation to the sacred places of both Christians and Moslems followers, are clear indications on the attentions of Sharon’s Government and its terrorist army that insist on proceeding with committing their atrocities against the Palestinians.

An American Jewish Journalist:

“Israel has crossed all red lines”

Amman Jordan, April 23^rd 2002 Wafa; In a letter sent to the Jordanian newspaper “Alarab Alyaoum”, the American Jewish journalist Mr. Leez Ashbicl wrote that Israel has crossed all logical boundaries and Red Lines, and like many fellow Americans he does not accept this holocaust.

He said that he has been silent for a long time because he only suspected the events in the Palestinian lands but now after he is certain of the massacres took place against the Palestinians he can silent no more.

He also said that many Jews will consider him as a traitor, but he must express his feelings saying that he wonders why is he allowed to migrate to Israel, living there as a citizen but the native Palestinian that was born there and deported can not do the same?

He also wonders how many Palestinians; Israel has to kill in order to achieve security?

He expressed his fears when remembering the Israeli soldiers who take picture on top of the Palestinian dead and rubble, saying that he is certain that Sharon has proven beyond all doubts that he is a military, heartless and inhuman Tyrant.

UN secretary general announces members

of fact-finding team on Jenin refugee camp

New York, April, 23, 2002, Wafa - Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland, will head a fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations Security Council to develop accurate information regarding recent events at the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank, Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Yesterday.

In addition to Mr. Ahtisaari, who served in various high-level UN posts over the course of his career, the team will comprise former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). General Bill Nash of the United States will serve as Military Advisor while Thomas Peter Fitzgerald of Ireland will be the team's Police Advisor.

"The fact-finding team will start its work without delay," Mr. Annan told a news conference in New York. "It will first assemble in Europe this week and then travel to the region as quickly as possible."

The Secretary-General said the parties should assist the team in gathering information. "I expect the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to cooperate fully with the team and provide full and complete access to all sites, sources of information and individuals that the team will consider necessary to meet in the exercise of their functions," he emphasized.

Mr. Ahtisaari, who was present at the Secretary-General's news conference, declined to speculate on the team's work, but stressed that members would "go after all the necessary information."

Asked about the criteria for the selection of the team members, the Secretary-General said he had tried to put together a team with considerable experience. "The members of the team are highly respected and independent," he noted. "I hope that I have put together a team that everyone would accept as competent and the best that we could have put together."

To a question on why military and police advisers were accompanying the team, the Secretary-General stressed that the team had nothing to do with his recent call for sending a multinational force to the region. Rather, he said, "it is important to have someone who understands how military campaigns are mounted to be able to guide and work with the team… for them to have an appropriate understanding of what might have happened." The police advisor, he added, could consider issues of crowd control and related matters.

On the timetable for the team's activities, the Secretary-General said it was too soon to predict how long the work would take. "We first have to go to Jenin and then determine what needs to be done and make an assessment of how long it will take," he said, adding, "We would want to get the facts as quickly as possible.”

Journalists accuse Israel of media violation

Paris, April, 23, 2002, Wafa - Reporters Sans Frontieres, RSF, the international pressure group for journalists, has condemned Israel in the strongest terms for its "grim toll of attacks on press freedom”. In an outspoken statement, RSF accused Israel of taking a "racist attitude to the Arab media" and claimed its violations of press freedom were "deliberate”.

The policy of the Israeli authorities towards the international media, especially Palestinian journalists, must be condemned for what it is: a massive, deliberate and conscious violation of press freedom and an unprecedented low in the history of Israel," the organization said.

As the Israeli army began its retreat from the Jenin refugee camp, RSF published details of the journalists it claims have been wounded or held back by the authorities. RSF said seven journalists had been wounded, four detained, 15 arrested, 60 targeted by gunfire and 20 "roughed up or threatened" in the intense round of fighting in West Bank towns such as Jenin and Ramallah. RSF also said 10 Arab media offices were "occupied or ransacked" by the Israeli army.”

The figures show the brutality of the Israeli army and its discriminatory, even racist attitude towards the Arab media and Palestinian journalists," said RSF. "There has been repeated obstruction of working journalists, arbitrary arrests, physical threats and a determination to belittle and humiliate - an aggression that has led to several journalists being wounded by gunfire and one even killed. "These have not been blunders but a deliberate policy of hiding from the world the truth of the Israeli army's violence and abuses, which must be clearly condemned and met with international sanctions," it added.

Last week journalists covering the activities of the Israeli army in Jenin protested at their exclusion from certain areas in the West Bank. BBC reporter Orla Guerin came under fire! from the Israeli army while reporting from Ramallah.

Amnesty international: “severe findings of war crimes in Jenin”

Wafa April 23^rd 2002; In its released Bulletin yesterday, Amnesty international published the following report:

On their return from a research mission to Israel and the Occupied Territories, Amnesty International delegates presented today their preliminary findings during a press conference at the Foreign Press Association. Delegates interviewed eye-witnesses and met government representatives, including from the Israeli Occupation Forces. They visited Rumaneh village, Jenin city, Jenin City Hospital and Jenin Refugee Camp.

“The evidence compiled indicates that serious breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed, including war crimes, but only an independent international commission of inquiry can establish the full facts and the scale of these violations,” said Javier Z??iga, Director of Regional Strategy of the organization's International Secretariat.

The delegation received credible evidence of such serious violations including:

Failure to give civilians warning or time to evacuate Jenin refugee camp before Apache helicopters launched their first attacks.

Failure by the Israeli Occupation Forces to protect the people of the refugee camp, who are "protected people" under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians Persons in Time of War.

Extrajudicial executions.

Failure, for 13 days, to allow humanitarian assistance to the people in the camp who were trapped in the rubble of demolished houses or running out of food and water.

Denial of medical assistance to the wounded in the refugee camp and deliberate targeting of ambulances.

Excessive use of lethal force and using civilians as a "human shield".

Ill-treatment, including beatings and degrading treatment, of Palestinian detainees.

Extensive damage to property with no apparent military necessity.

Commenting on his preliminary findings following the autopsies he carried out in Jenin Hospital, Professor Derrick Pounder said:

“What was striking is what was absent. There were very few bodies in the hospital. There were also none who were seriously injured, only the 'walking wounded'. Thus we have to ask: where are the bodies and where the seriously injured are?”

“Delegates stressed that the UN fact - finding mission which was being set up was an important first step towards establishing the truth. However, an independent international commission of inquiry should follow without delay. This should have the means and the expertise necessary to carry out a serious and thorough investigation. The report of this investigation must be made public and those found responsible brought to justice”.

Niger first country to sever official ties with Israel

since outbreak of Palestinian Intifada

Niamey, April, 23, 2002, Wafa - Niger became the first nation to sever ties with Israel since the Palestinian uprising, with a top leader going on state television to angrily announce the break.

The move came after thousands filled the streets of capital, Niamey, over the weekend to protest on behalf of Palestinians and demand that relations be severed.

The country had renewed diplomatic relations with Israel in 1996, after a 23-year break following the 1973 Mideast war.

Lawal Kader Mahamadou, government secretary-general, accused Israel of "genocide" during Sunday night's broadcast.

"Palestine must live as a sovereign state," Mahamadou declared.

Niger would be the first to do so since the start of the Intifada, or uprising, she said.

Pro-Palestinian protests increasingly have broken out in capitals of predominantly Islamic nations across West Africa, AP reported.

Urgent action: protest Israeli violations

of human rights defenders' freedom of action

Paris, April, 23, 2002, Wafa - The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint FIDH and OMCT program, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Israel.

The Observatory has received information from several Israeli and Palestinian human rights non-governmental organizations denouncing systematic violations by the Israeli authorities of human rights defenders' freedom of action in the West Bank and in Gaza. Human rights defenders are not the only victims of human rights violations in a context where the entire population of the West Bank and Gaza is living a highly critical situation following the Israeli military operations conducted since March 29th in many parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. However, the Observatory is concerned that human rights defenders are targeted in such a manner so as render it impossible for them to continue to carry out some of their most important activities, such as collecting testimony and evidence of violations of human rights and humanitarian law .

Monday April 22, 2002

Official statement:

“The Palestinian Leadership falsifies Sharon’s

allegations about the withdrawal”

Ramallah April 22^nd 2002 Wafa, A Palestinian official spokesman said last night that the allegations of the Butcher Sharon about withdrawal from the Palestinian cities and places, are false allegations, used to improve Israeli’s image and to hide its war crimes committed against the Palestinian civilians, while the Israeli occupation forces are still practicing their crimes against the Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps, targeting the civilians, the buildings, the public and private facilities and the holy Christian and Moslem places, they are still invading the houses searching everything and looting every valuable items, arresting men and younger men leading them to concentration camps, and they are also still besieging the Presidential HQ in Ramallah and the Church of the Nativity in the City of Peace, Bethlehem.

Ramallah: The occupation Israeli forces are still invading houses destroying them, and destroying the remaining of the infrastructure, and imposing a military, one mile wide, cincture surrounding the Presidential HQ, closing all entrances from all directions also imposing a tight curfew, and using sound bombs intimidating the citizens.

They have incurred into Qalandia refugee camp and Deir Debwan village, covered by heavy tank and machinegun fire, brutally invading the privacy of the peaceful citizens destroying their property, looting the houses and arresting the males aged 14 and up.

Bethlehem: The City of peace is still under suffocating siege where an extremely brutal curfew is imposed on the City, and the Church of Nativity is suffering Israeli brutal treatment of bombarding it with sound bombs, launching extremely loud sirens to psychologically fight the people inside the sanctuary of the Church, consisting of the Priests, Monks, nuns, civilians and Palestinian tourism police, where their situation is deteriorating due to the lack of food, water, electricity, medications and communications.

The Israeli barbaric forces are preventing the admission of these substances as per agreed upon between the European delegation and the Israeli authorities, and preventing exiting the 2 dead for burial and the wounded for medical attendance.

The cities of Hebron Nablus and Tulkarem, are still under Israeli brutal and ugly abuse where the Butcher’s forces are imposing a very tight curfew, shooting intimidating rounds of shells, toward the residential houses causing numbers of casualties, while in Nablus a group of settlers gangs exploited the curfew in order to invade Yousef’s tomb but the citizens’ awareness prevented them from entering where the citizens tossing rocks toward the Jewish gangs forced them to flee away.

Jerusalem – Al’ezaria: the Butcher Sharon’s armed forces invaded the Palestinian Home Ministry and used it as military HQ after destroying all the archives and the equipments and stealing the rest.

Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, is targeted by the occupation barbaric forces who are randomly shelling the city, severely injuring 7 children.

Egypt and Jordan called on Israel to instantly pull out its

occupation forces from the occupied Palestinian territories

Cairo - April 22 ,2002, Wafa - Egyptian President Husni Mubarak and His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan called on Israel to instantly pull out its occupation forces from the occupied Palestinian territories and to stop practicing aggressions against the Palestinian people.

The two leaders stressed the importance of crystallizing an international stand to oblige Israel pull out of the Palestinian territories and end the occupation forces military siege imposed against the headquarters of H.E. President Yasser Arafat.

During their meeting in Cairo on Sunday, the two leaders stressed the necessity that the international community, particularly USA, shoulder their responsibility pertaining the Israeli occupation government brutal aggressions and practices against the Palestinian people, through working out a proper mechanism to afford protection to the Palestinians and pave the way towards re-launch of the peaceful negotiations anew.

H.E. President Mubarak and His Majesty King Abdullah II stressed that solutions to the current crisis should be based on the international legitimacy resolutions that insure restoration of Palestinian and Arab rights, in the forefront the Palestinian people's right to establish their independent state on their national soil.

They expressed the two countries' rejection to the ideas pointing out that the crisis could be tackled through a security dimension.

I AM A JEWISH PALESTINIAN

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, April, 22, 2002, Wafa - Clement Leibovitz, a Jewish Canadian, published the following article in a website in the internet, in which he says:

At the time of the cold war, the US president John Kennedy, stood at a podium in Oust Berlin, and proclaimed in German that "I am a Berliner".

At the time, no one could say that the sufferings of the East Berliners were close to those of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. No repression of the kind Israel inflicted on Jenin and other Palestinian cities, had been inflicted on the population of East Berlin.

With much more justification, and in total solidarity, I do proclaim that I AM A JEWISH PALESTINIAN. And I accuse the Israeli government of savagery and barbarism against MY OWN PEOPLE, the Palestinian people to which I belong AS A JEW.

I would not deserve to be JEWISH if I can remain silent to the hurt inflicted to my brothers and sisters, my people too, the Palestinians.

Sharon and his likes are not Jewish. They are racists criminals in conflict with the humanist Jewish traditions.

Had Einstein been alive, he would condemn them, as are doing so many Israeli members of their Israeli universities.

With all my love to the Jewish people, With all my love to the Palestinian people, my people Too.

Demonstrators Rally in solidarity with Palestinian Cause

Washington DC, April, 22, 2002, Wafa - Tens of thousands converged on downtown Washington yesterday to demonstrate for a variety of causes, but it was the numbers and passion of busloads of Arab Americans and their supporters that dominated the streets.

Eager to make their presence felt and their voices heard in the nation's capital as never before, Arab and Muslim families marched and chanted for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

Young men wore the Palestinian flag around their necks like a cape. and cardboard signs held by women and children denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Protesters shouted, "One, two, three, four: We don't want no Mideast war!"

"The message here is we must support the Palestinian people against a military occupation and an apartheid state," said Randa Jamal, a graduate student at New York's Columbia University who joined thousands at a pro-Palestinian rally near the White House. She said her cousins were killed in Ramallah, and her 16-year-old sister has been unable to attend school because of the Israeli occupation. "What they are going through," she said, "is crimes against humanity."

Three-Member Fact Finding Team Appointed To Investigate Jenin Killings

NEW YORK: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed a three-member fact-finding team to probe Israel's military assault on the Palestinian refugee camp at Jenin.

It is believed that Israeli soldiers massacred civilians in the West Bank camp.

The U.N. team is headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. Other members are Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata.

Annan said Monday the team is made up of officials who will establish the facts.

Israel agreed to the probe after the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to launch an investigation. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres says the army's hands are clean and it has nothing to hide.

The Palestinian U.N. observer, Nassar al-Kidwa, says the Palestinian Authority is pleased with the U.N. team. He said its three lead members are known for their integrity and credibility.

Earlier Monday, the human rights group Amnesty International said it has evidence of serious Israeli human rights abuses in the wrecked West Bank camp. At a London news conference, the group said it must be determined whether the Israeli army committed war crimes during its three-week offensive.
 

Preliminary findings of Amnesty International delegates' visit to Jenin

On their return from a research mission to Israel and the Occupied Territories, Amnesty International delegates presented today their preliminary findings during a press conference at the Foreign Press Association.

Delegates interviewed eye-witnesses and met government representatives, including from the Israeli Defence Forces. They visited Rumaneh village, Jenin city, Jenin City Hospital and Jenin Refugee Camp.

" The evidence compiled indicates that serious breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed, including war crimes, but only an independent international commission of inquiry can establish the full facts and the scale of these violations," said Javier Ziga, Director of Regional Strategy of the organization's International Secretariat.

The delegation received credible evidence of such serious violations including:

* Failure to give civilians warning or time to evacuate Jenin refugee camp before Apache helicopters launched their first attacks.

* Failure by the Israeli Defense Forces to protect the people of the refugee camp, who are "protected people" under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians Persons in Time of War.

* Allegations of extrajudicial executions

* Failure, for 13 days, to allow humanitarian assistance to the people in the camp who were trapped in the rubble of demolished houses or running out of food and water.

* Denial of medical assistance to the wounded in the refugee camp and deliberate targeting of ambulances.

* Excessive use of lethal force and using civilians as a "human shield".

* Ill-treatment, including beatings and degrading treatment, of Palestinian detainees.

* Extensive damage to property with no apparent military necessity.

Commenting on his preliminary findings following the autopsies he carried out in Jenin Hospital, Professor Derrick Pounder said :

"What was striking is what was absent . There were very few bodies in the hospital. There were also none who were seriously injured, only the 'walking wounded'. Thus we have to ask: where are the bodies and where are the seriously injured?''

"Delegates stressed that the UN fact - finding mission which was being set up was an important first step towards establishing the truth. However, an independent international commission of inquiry should follow without delay. This should have the means and the expertise necessary to carry out a serious and thorough investigation. "The report of this investigation must be made public and those found responsible brought to justice".

AI Index: MDE 15/058/2002: Publish date: 22/04/2002: For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web : http://www.amnesty.org
 

Annan Disturbed by Israeli Criticism

NEW YORK: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan rejected Israel’s accusations that the UN special envoy who visited the Jenin refugee camp was biased. Annan said that he is disturbed by such accusations of Terje Larsen, who strongly condemned the tragedy inflected by the Israeli army.

The Israeli government decided to cut its ties with Larsen and said that he will not be allowed to participate in the UN mission investigating the Israeli massacre.

Larsen had earlier described conditions in Jenin as "horrific beyond belief." He also called Israel's decision to block unrestricted search and rescue access to the camp as "morally repugnant."

But despite Israel’s criticism, Annan says he has full confidence in Terje Larsen, saying he has always worked with professionalism, objectivity and compassion.

Israel refuses to acknowledge any wrong doing in the camp, and Israeli Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar says the UN envoy's comments are "distorted, harmful, and one-sided."

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to send the investigative mission headed by Annan to the camp.

A top U.S. envoy, Undersecretary of State William Burns, has also toured Jenin Saturday. Burns says what happened there caused enormous human suffering for thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Sunday April 21, 2002

Presidential assignment of committees and councils

Ramallah April 21^st 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat formed an official Fact Finding Committee, assigned to investigate, collect and document all the remaining facts and evidences of the Israeli committed massacres and other violations, in all the occupied Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refuge camps, including the crimes committed against the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The committee chaired by Dr. Hassan Asfour and other key figures in the Palestinian community, is also ordered to cooperate with the UN committee according to UN Security Council’s resolution #1405.

H.E. also assigned an official committee to follow up the legal procedures concerning the Palestinian detainees in the Israeli detention centers.

The committee consists of the “detainees and the Liberated Affairs Ministry”, the “Prisoner’s Club”, the “Gazian POW and Liberated Society” and the “Alqanoon” (The Law – a Palestinian Human Rights Society).

President Arafat also formed a “High Aid Council” assigned to help the victims of the Israeli criminal military assault against the Palestinian civilian society.

The Council is assigned to estimate the damages and to distribute the donations to the harmed citizens and to secure the international funding to rebuild the destroyed houses, buildings and other facilities, and to rehabilitate the entire Palestinian society.

The Council consists of Minister, Governors, Mayors and key figures in the Palestinian society.

JIMMY CARTER:

“America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace”

ATLANTA, April, 21, 2002, Wafa – Former US President Jimmy Carter published an article in the NY Times Sunday, hereby are excerpts of the article:

In January 1996, with full support from Israel and responding to the invitation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Carter Center helped to monitor a democratic election in the West Bank and Gaza, which was well organized, open and fair. In that election, 88 members were elected to the Palestinian National Authority, with Yasser Arafat as president. Legally and practically, the Palestinian people were encouraged to form their own government, with the expectation that they would soon have full sovereignty as a state.

When the election was over, I made a strong effort to persuade the leaders of Hamas to accept the election results, with Mr. Arafat as their leader. I relayed a message offering them full participation in the process of developing a permanent constitutional framework for the new political entity, but they refused to accept this proposal. Despite this rejection, it was a time of peace and hope, and there was no threat of violence or even peaceful demonstrations. The legal status of the Palestinian people has not changed since then, but their plight has grown desperate.

Ariel Sharon is a strong and forceful man and has never equivocated in his public declarations nor deviated from his ultimate purpose. His rejection of all peace agreements that included Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands, his invasion of Lebanon, his provocative visit to the Temple Mount, the destruction of villages and homes, the arrests of thousands of Palestinians and his open defiance of President George W. Bush's demand that he comply with international law have all been orchestrated to accomplish his ultimate goals: to establish Israeli settlements as widely as possible throughout occupied territories and to deny Palestinians a cohesive political existence.

Tragically, the policies of Mr. Sharon have greatly strengthened criminal elements, enhanced their popular support, and encouraged misguided young men and women to sacrifice their own lives in attacking innocent Israeli citizens. The abhorrent suicide bombings are also counterproductive in that they discredit the Palestinian cause, help perpetuate the military occupation and destruction of villages, and obstruct efforts toward peace and justice.
 
The situation is not hopeless. There is an ultimate avenue to peace in the implementation of United Nations resolutions, including Resolution 242, expressed most recently in the highly publicized proposal of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah. The basic premises of these resolutions are withdrawal of Israelis from Palestinian lands in exchange for full acceptance of Israel and Israel's right to live in peace. This is a reasonable solution for many Israelis, having been accepted in 1978 by Prime Minister Menachem Begin and ratified by the Israeli Knesset. Egypt, offering the greatest threat to Israel, responded by establishing full diplomatic relations and honoring Israeli rights, including unimpeded use of the Suez canal. This set a pattern for what can and must be done by all other Arab nations.

East Jerusalem can be jointly administered with unimpeded access to holy places, and the right of return can be addressed by permitting a limited number of displaced Palestinians to return to their homeland with fair compensation to others. It will be a good investment for the international community to pay this cost.

With the ready and potentially unanimous backing of the international community, the United States government can bring about such a solution to the existing imbroglio. Demands on both sides should be so patently fair and balanced that at least a majority of citizens in the affected area will respond with approval, and an international force can monitor compliance with agreed peace terms, as was approved for the Sinai region in 1979 following Israel's withdrawal from Egyptian territory.

There are two existing factors that offer success to United States persuasion. One is the legal requirement that American weapons are to be used by Israel only for defensive purposes, a premise certainly being violated in the recent destruction of Jenin and other villages. Richard Nixon imposed this requirement to stop Ariel Sharon and Israel's military advance into Egypt in the 1973 war, and I used the same demand to deter Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 1979. (A full invasion was launched by Ariel Sharon after I left office). The other persuasive factor is approximately $10 million daily in American aid to Israel. President George Bush Sr. threatened this assistance in 1992 to prevent the building of Israeli settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

I understand the extreme political sensitivity in America of using persuasion on the Israelis, but it is important to remember that none of the actions toward peace would involve an encroachment on the sovereign territory of Israel. They all involve lands of the Egyptians, Lebanese and Palestinians, as recognized by international law.

The existing situation is tragic and likely to get worse. Normal diplomatic efforts have failed. It is time for the United States, as the sole recognized intermediary, to consider more forceful action for peace. The rest of the world will welcome this leadership.

Jimmy Carter, the former president, is chairman of the Carter Center, which works worldwide to advance peace and human health.  

Wolfensohn: “The Palestinians had lost almost half

their $4.5 billion in annual gross domestic product”

Washington-April 21, 2002, Wafa - The World Bank is seeking more than $700 million to fill a funding gap of a $1.7 billion humanitarian program for the Palestinians, Bank president James Wolfensohn told reporters in Washington.

"We are currently working on a $1.7 billion budget of which $900 million or a little more has already been funded," he told a news conference here on the eve of World Bank and IMF meetings.

"We will be having a meeting to try to raise the additional amounts."

The World Bank had provided $4.7 billion to the Palestinians since 1993, Wolfensohn said.

"There are no conditions in our approach to the Palestine situation other than practicality," he said.

World Bank regional director Nigel Roberts announced in Nicosia that a donor meeting was slated to take place in Oslo on April 24-25 to provide, as first priority, shelter, food, medicines, and the restoration of water and electricity.

If the violence and uncertainty persisted, the biggest impact would be a loss of jobs, Wolfensohn said.

The Palestinians had lost almost half their $4.5 billion in annual gross domestic product, mostly through the loss of most of their jobs in Israel -- 150,000 official jobs probably another 40,000 unofficial, he said.

"But really, the only long-term solution is peace and a re-establishment of trust and some interdependence between the two economies, and that is the thing that is being dramatically shaken over recent months," Wolfensohn said.

The World Bank had two plans for the West Bank and Gaza, he explained, an emergency plan to deal with food, shelter, health, trauma, water, and electricity, and a longer term reconstruction scheme.

American Jesuit in Bethlehem Risks Life to Say Mass.

Patriarch Sabbah: "This is not a war on terror," he insisted. "It is a war against occupation."

Bethlehem, April, 21, 2002, Wafa – Edmond Durst, an English teacher in the Bethlehem University, wrote a testimony from the darkness of the brutal curfew of the Holy City of Nativity, in which he says:

American Jesuit Peter DuBrul risks his life every day by breaking the curfew and walking from his apartment to Bethlehem University to say Mass in the town where Jesus was born. As head of the Department of Religious Studies, the 65 year-old Cincinnati native has taught at the university for nearly thirty years. He and his colleagues at the Vatican-sponsored Bethlehem University are quietly and defiantly refusing to leave. For the first time in its 26 years of operation, it was recently occupied by the Israeli army. Although western diplomats have offered to evacuate them, they ask, "What sort of Christian witnesses would we be if we left now?"

The university has not held classes since Israeli missiles smashed gaping holes into its newest buildings and blew apart classrooms. Now, like everyone else in the town, the university is also under a curfew imposed by the Israeli army as part of its determination to punish Bethlehem for its fierce resistance to Israeli Occupation. No one has been allowed out for almost three weeks, except for a couple of brief breaks to go shopping, and many of Bethlehem's Christian and Muslim inhabitants are without food or water. On one such occasion, Ali Farah, 60, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp was passing near the university in search of food for his family when he was killed by a gunshot in the chest by an Israeli sniper.

Twelve Christian De La Salle Brothers run the university; eight Americans, three Britons, and one Palestinian Brother. From the window of their community's living room, they can see the besieged Church of the Nativity, the site marking Jesus' birthplace. Last week, they watched in horror as heavy gunfire broke out around the church, with Israeli forces firing from all directions. A Greek Orthodox chapel caught fire, and those in the church who tried to extinguish it were shot at by Israeli soldiers, killing Khaled Abu Siam, 23, with a gunshot in the head. The church bell ringer Samir Salman, 42, was also shot dead while walking to his job. His body was later found in one of the church's inner courtyards.

"I think it would be devastating, if the Church of the Nativity was assaulted," commented Brother Mark, who came from the UK to teach English at the pontifical university.

Inside the Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity's holiest sites, 240 Palestinian militants and civilians, including women and children, fleeing the Israeli assault on the town have been claiming sanctuary for the past three weeks. Parts of the church have no electricity or water, and the body of a Palestinian policeman killed earlier in the stand-off is now said to be rotting in a cave within the compound.

About 40 monks in the church, mostly Franciscans, along with a few nuns who are tending to the wounded in the Holy Manger grotto, have volunteered to remain with the Palestinians to prevent a bloodbath.  Conditions were said to be deteriorating fast. Food has run out, and almost no water is left. Every night, the church is bombarded with ear-splitting noises from loud speakers hoisted above Manger Square as a kind of psychological warfare.

Michel Sabbah, the Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the Israeli army should withdraw and allow the people inside the church to leave freely. "These people are refugees," the Patriarch said. "They took refuge inside the church. For us, once they have taken refuge, they are human beings. They are no longer fighters.

"An exceptional situation was created that overrides all military codes. They should be allowed to leave unharmed and without threat of imprisonment."

So far, Israel has refused to allow church authorities to take part in the negotiations to end the stand-off. The Patriarch, a Palestinian, argues, "I am not for the Palestinians," he said.  "I am for the oppressed."

"This is not a war on terror," he insisted. "It is a war against occupation."

Edmond Durst taught English for more than twenty years at various universities in the Middle East

The Israeli A-G: Israel proposes declaring Larsen 'persona non grata'

Tel Aviv, April, 21, 2002, Wafa - There was growing criticism by Israel on Sunday of United Nation's envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, who made several statements last week concerning the Israeli forces’ operation in the West Bank. The brunt of the criticism came from the weekly Israeli government meeting, helding Sunday morning in Jerusalem, said Ha’arez newspaper.

The Israeli Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein said that Israel should consider declaring Larsen 'persona non grata.' Rubinstein added that he had looked closely at Larsen's statements in the past few days, and that they are "lies."

Israel war minister Ben-Eliezer, speaking on Israel Radio, launched an unprecedented attack on UN's special envoy to the Middle East, claiming that Terje Roed-Larsen, was "guilty of incitement".
Deploring the statements made by Roed-Larsen last week, Ben-Eliezer said that the envoy had "adopted the Palestinians' stance - hook, line and sinker. This is not the first time that Roed-Larsen's statements have caused consternation Israel."

On Saturday, Israel told the American administration it would object to the inclusion of three United Nations officials in the inspection team due to inspect the Jenin refugee camp. The three officials, Roed-Larsen, UNRWA Director-General Peter Hansen, and the body's human rights coordinator Mary Robinson, who have been strongly denouncing Israel over the past few days.

U.S. Middle East envoy tours the ruins of the Jenin camp

Jenin Refugee Camp, April, 21, 2002, Wafa - U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns toured the ruins of Jenim camp Saturday, and said that enormous suffering had been visited on Palestinian civilians there.

"I just think what we are seeing here is a terrible human tragedy," Burns, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, said in the camp's central square.

"It's obvious that what happened here in the Jenin camp has caused enormous human suffering for thousands of Palestinian civilians," said Burns, the most senior U.S. official to visit the camp.

Burns called for aid agencies to be granted free access to the camp. He would not comment on Palestinian accusations that troops had committed a massacre.

"I think it's vitally important, obvious to anyone who can see, to provide full and complete access to relief agencies so that they can do their work, so that they can get equipment and supplies here," Burns declared. "It's important that the United Nations is going to launch a fact-finding mission to try to find exactly what happened here with the cooperation of Palestinians and Israelis both," he added.

Saturday April 20, 2002

Families scrabble in the dust to find their dead

Jenin, 20 April 2002, Wafa – A live testimony By an American journalist, Justin Huggler, ADC Fresno, California, he says:

When they found the body it was in pieces and so they gathered it all up out of the rubble, great chunks of blackened, rotting flesh with bits of bone sticking out, and piled them up on a blanket. The smell made us retch and stumble away, gasping for clean air. The Palestinians said the putrefying flesh and bone was Mohammed Massoud Abu Sb'a.

The people of Jenin refugee camp returned to look for their dead yesterday amid the devastation that the Israeli army had made of their homes. The destruction was more complete than an earthquake, yet the Israelis have not allowed in any heavy lifting equipment, so the Palestinians dug out the bodies with their hands, scrabbling in the dust and heaving away the broken blocks.

Aid workers and human rights monitors have started to call this ground zero. The television pictures do not convey the devastation. You have to come here to walk over the dust and rubble that used to be people's homes, picking your way through the little pieces of their lives, the children's schoolbooks and discarded clothing. You have to smell the stench of death that clings to certain corners. The piles of rubble tower high above your head and the work of removing the bodies is nerve-racking and haunting.

Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nations envoy to the Middle East, visited the most heavily damaged area and described the scene as "horrific beyond belief". Israel's actions were unjustifiable, no matter what the military objective, he said, demanding that Israel allow unrestricted access to humanitarian agencies. "Jenin will for ever be a blot on the history of the state of Israel," he told Israel Army Radio.

The army is supposed to be removing the bodies, accompanied by the Red Cross, but when the curfew was lifted for a few hours the Palestinians returned in their droves to look for their own dead.

Despite the pullback of Israeli troops reported by witnesses, Jenin was still closed to journalists. We had to sneak in across fields, trying to avoid being seen by Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinians crawled into the wreckage, ducking under the perilously hanging piles of broken concrete. Someone was distributing masks to those digging to ward off the stench and the disease.

Moving around is still dangerous for Palestinians. Two men were brought into the hospital after being shot at. Ali Abu Salim, 65, had gone to a nearby village to see his grandchildren. As he tried to come home yesterday Israeli soldiers fired on the car, injuring Mr. Abu Salim in the arm and the driver, Yasin Khalil, in the buttock. Mr. Abu Salim told us his son Mohammed was killed during the Israeli onslaught on Jenin refugee camp.

One woman said she was seeking her two sons. It is possible they are among hundreds of young Palestinian men the Israeli army has detained. Or they could be in the rubble.

Another woman stopped us outside the hospital. Something had happened to her sister, but she would not explain what. "See what Sharon has done to us,'' she said hysterically.

Slowly the bodies are emerging. So far only 36 have been identified, said the director of the hospital, Dr Mohammed Abu Ghali. Four are women, one is a 13-year-old child. And the rumor persists that bodies have been removed. Israeli military sources have said it was the army's original intention to take the bodies away and bury them in a "special cemetery'' in the Jordan Valley. But now they say that the plan was dropped!!.

A large white lorry was hanging around Jenin yesterday. The Palestinians said it was a refrigerator lorry. Dr Abu Ghali said the Israel soldiers handed over five bodies, out of the back of the lorry, to the hospital authorities for burial. Hospital staff were burying the bodies they had identified in a makeshift cemetery behind the hospital. The grave was marked out with white stones. It was only a temporary resting place, he said. For now, amid all the destruction, there was nowhere else to put them.

The Security Council unanimously approved a supporting

U.N. fact-finding mission to look into Israeli military action in Jenin

UN, NY, April, 20, 2002, Wafa - The U.N. Security Council, with U.S. support, voted unanimously late Friday for a U.N. fact-finding mission on the devastation in the Jenin refugee camp.

The resolution says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was welcome to send a "fact-finding team" to gather information on recent events in Jenin, scene of the heaviest devastation since Israeli incursions into the West Bank camp some three weeks ago.

The United States had threatened to veto an Arab-drafted measure calling for a formal U.N. investigation of the "massacres" in Jenin. But then Washington presented its own milder text.

The resolution also expresses concern at "the dire humanitarian situation" of Palestinian civilians and "emphasizes the urgency of access of medical and humanitarian organizations to the Palestinian civilian population."

It also reaffirms previous Mideast resolutions demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian cities and outlines a blueprint to end the violence and achieve a peace settlement leading to a Palestinian state.

The Resolution 1405 (2002) Adopted Unanimously says:

The Security Council,

Reaffirming its resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973, 1397 (2002) of 12 March 2002, 1402 (2002) of 30 March 2002, 1403 (2002) of 4 April 2002, and the Statement of its President of 10 April 2002 (S/PRST/2002/09),

Concerned by the dire humanitarian situation of the Palestinian civilian population, in particular reports from the Jenin refugee camp of an unknown number of deaths and destruction,

Calling for the lifting of restrictions imposed, in particular in Jenin, on the operations of humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Stressing the need for all concerned to ensure the safety of civilians, and to respect the universally accepted norms of international humanitarian law,

1. Emphasizes the urgency of access of medical and humanitarian organizations to the Palestinian civilian population;

2. Welcomes the initiative of the Secretary-General to develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp through a fact-finding team and requests him to keep the Security Council informed;

3. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

“Each time the Bush administration has offered a substitute text to soften the language, in an apparent attempt to avoid using a veto and thereby further inflame tensions in the Arab world!!” Said Reuters.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said that "the secretary-general would hope that any fact-finding mission he sends would have full access to all areas of the West Bank."

Following a closed meeting yesterday when Annan asked the council to authorize a multinational force for the region, the council held an open debate over the Arab draft.  The Palestinian observer at the United Nations, Nasser al-Kidwa, in urging adoption of the Arab draft, said Israel "took all necessary stances to ensure the failure of [Powell's] mission, including refusing to withdraw from the cities … even worse, they refused to withdraw after the secretary's arrival."

He said Israel "has rejected your resolutions, … it persists in aggression, flaunting the will of the Security Council, international law and international humanitarian law. … The question now is, what does this august council intend to do?"

"The least that we can expect is for the Security Council to maintain seriousness in the level of respect of its resolutions and condemning the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli side," al-Kidwa said.

At a two-day open council meeting on the Arab-backed resolution which ended Friday, many of the 45 nations that spoke called for an investigation into the events at Jenin.

Many of the nations that spoke said the council needed to address Israel's defiance of its previous demands to withdraw from the West Bank cities and the plight of Palestinian civilians, especially in Jenin.

The Arab draft, now on a back burner, would also have demanded an end to the siege of President Yasser Arafat in his compound.

The Party of European Socialists

condemns the loss of civilian life and the

massive destruction of infrastructure during the repeated Israeli incursions

Brussels, April, 20, 2002, Wafa - The Party of European Socialists condemns in a statement, the loss of civilian life and the massive destruction of infrastructure and homes during the repeated Israeli incursions into the territories under Palestinian authority. Hereby are excerpts of the statement:

We, the PES call on Israel to take the following essential steps to end the cycle of violence. 

· The Israeli Forces must withdraw immediately from the West Bank.

· Israel must immediately allow humanitarian organizations and aid into all Palestinian areas and co-operate with the forthcoming inquiry by the UN Human Rights Commission.

· Both sides should return to negotiations based on the principle of 'land for peace', accompanied by the confidence-building measures set out in the Mitchell Plan, such as an end to settlements in the territories under Palestinian Authority.

· The most recent Resolutions (1043, 1402, 1397) of the United Nations Security Council must be fully observed and implemented in accordance with obligations of all UN members states under the UN Charter.

The PES urges the European Union to pursue every possible step to secure an end to the conflict.

· Member states should stand ready to contribute to a monitoring force in the region as part of any agreement reached between the two sides.

· Since the parties themselves do not seem able to end the deadlock, a strong international initiative is necessary. We urge the EU, US and Russia to find a common approach to a final status settlement and to secure the support of key Arab countries.

· The Association Council with Israel should insist on the observance of human rights and international humanitarian law, which is a condition of all EU agreements with third parties.

· The Council of Ministers should urgently agree to support humanitarian and medical aid to the Palestinian communities and to the regeneration of their neighborhoods.  This must include the renewal of an accountable, efficient and transparent Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli and Palestinian peoples will only achieve lasting security and justice on the basis of the legal right of Israel to peace within internationally recognized borders and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.  We welcome the endorsement by the Arab League of the Saudi proposals, which constitute a basis for negotiation to deliver those objectives.

UN envoy: Multinational force can help restore

trust between Israelis and Palestinians

Jerusalem, April, 19, 2002, Wafa - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposal for a multinational force in the Middle East would help restore trust between the Israelis and Palestinians that is essential for ensuring the security goals of both sides and restarting the political process, Mr. Annan's top envoy to the region said yesterday.

"Providing a credible multinational force would help address that most vital and most vulnerable of the institutions of peace - trust," Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said in his opening remarks to a press conference in Jerusalem.

Mr. Roed-Larsen said he shared the Secretary-General's view that the introduction of a multinational force would change both the "political and operational dynamics" in such a way that could underpin a ceasefire.

Commenting on the humanitarian situation of the Palestinians, particularly in the Jenin refugee camp, which he visited yesterday with Peter Hansen, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Mr. Roed-Larsen said what he had seen was "truly appalling," but noted that information on what had happened was as of yet incomplete.

The UN envoy stressed, that his primary criticism of the Israeli Government was that it did not act adequately to respond to the humanitarian situation in the camp.

Mr. Roed-Larsen said that his primary focus was ensuring that everything possible was done to save the lives of civilians and reduce their suffering. "Civilians in the camp are in desperate need of water, food, shelter, medical supplies and treatment," he said, calling for a lifting of the curfews and safe and unimpeded access for relief workers, as well as political and financial support to the humanitarian agencies working in the area.

As for the affect of the current situation on the Palestinian economy, Mr. Roed-Larsen said that it had moved from a relentless economic depression into "economic paralysis." At least 75 per cent of productive activities in the West Bank have come to a halt, and at least another three-fourths of the work force was now idle, resulting in dramatically reduced incomes, rising income losses and a sharply higher poverty rate.

The Governor of Jenin district:

“Israel uses the spinning doors policy” 

Jenin April 20^th 2002 Wafa; Mr. Zohair Manasra Jenin District’s Governor said that the Israeli forces are still occupying the entire district.

He told Wafa that the Israeli declaration on withdrawing from the district is an absolute false allegation. He added that the Israeli tanks are still speeding in the streets of the City, the villages and the Camp, shooting to all directions intimidating and endangering the lives of the confined citizens in their homes due to the imposed tight curfew.

He warned from provision disaster where the people have ran out of food and basic needs for maintaining the lowest level of life, emphasizing that Curfew and closure is worse than the occupation itself. 
 

Israel prevents an investigating delegation

from entering Israel  

Nazareth April 20^th 2002 Wafa, The Israeli Authorities have prevented yesterday, a group of international experts and doctors from entering Israel, and ordered them to fly back to Frankfort where they came from.

The team of international experts and doctors that have arrived in Tel Aviv Air port, were supposed to investigate the Israeli war crimes in Jenin and elsewhere in the Palestinian occupied lands.

The team included the internationally known figures of high reputation in their field: from the international center for rehabilitating the victims of torture Dr. Maria Kali (Greece) and Dr. Jeans Mudwig (Denmark), Dr. Kerstin Amersen (Denmark), Miss. Suzan Monroe (Australia) and Christen Papadoplo (Greece).

MK Dr. Azmi Beshara issued a statement in which he said that Israel has many crimes and massacres to hide.

Friday April 19, 2002

President Arafat Received the Jordanian

FM Carrying a Letter from the King

Ramallah April 19^th 2002 Wafa, President Yasser Arafat received yesterday, the Jordanian Foreign Minister Mr. Marwan Almoa’sher who conveyed a letter from the Jordanian Monarch, King Abdullah II, dealing with the latest developments. H.E. exchanged with the Minister the latest discussions with Mr. Powell in Ramallah and in Cairo.

Seven human rights organizations petition supreme court challenging inhumane detention conditions of over 1,400 Palestinians

Jerusalem, April, 19, 2002, Wafa - Today, seven human rights organizations submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against Itzhak Eitan, Commander of the Israeli Army in the West Bank. The petition demanded that the army observe minimum standards of humane treatment and provide appropriate and dignified conditions for Palestinian detainees from the West Bank, both before transporting them to Ofer camp, and during their detention in the camp. The petitioners also demanded that members of human rights organizations be allowed to enter Ofer camp in order to observe the detention conditions and the treatment of the detainees.

Ofer camp is located next to the town of Betunia, near Ramallah, in the West Bank. Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation army's attack on the Palestinian territories, the so-called "Operation Defensive Shield," over 5,000 Palestinians have been detained, most of them at Ofer camp. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians are currently being detained in the camp.

The petition was filed by HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Adalah, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), B'Tselem, LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, Addameer, and Al-Haq. In light of the terrible conditions under which Palestinian detainees are currently being held, Advocates Yossi Volfson and Tariq Ibrahim of HaMoked and Advocate Jamil Dakwar of Adalah requested that the Supreme Court hold an urgent hearing to address the petition.

The organizations based their petition on information obtained from detainees recently released from Ofer camp, who reported that they were subjected to physical ill-treatment before being transported to the camp and while at the camp itself. Detainees testified that before they were taken to Ofer camp, they were blindfolded, restrained with plastic handcuffs that cut off the circulation to their hands, and forced to sit in physically uncomfortable positions for hours at a time while exposed to the sun. While awaiting investigation and possible selection for transfer to Ofer camp, the detainees were denied food and water and were not permitted to use bathroom facilities. They were beaten, humiliated and verbally abused. Further, Israeli soldiers confiscated detainees' personal belongings, including ID cards, mobile phones and money. No report was made of what was taken, and the majority of the confiscated belongings were not returned.

At Ofer camp, the detainees reported being held in overcrowded conditions with inadequate protection from the external environment. They were forced to sleep on the ground or on wooden boards, without adequate bedding materials. The detainees did not receive sufficient food, and the food that they received was of poor quality. Moreover, few bathrooms were available, and the detainees were denied soap, hot water for bathing, toilet paper, and clean underwear. Medical treatment was denied to detainees who required it; they were given painkillers instead.

Detainees who were released were let go at locations far from their homes. Combined with curfews, besieged areas and other movement restrictions imposed on the West Bank by the Israeli army, and the fact that the army did not return most of the detainees' ID cards, it was extremely difficult for detainees to return to their homes.

In the petition, the organizations stated that the conditions under which Palestinian detainees are being held in Ofer camp do not meet the minimum standards for detention. Such conditions deprive the detainees of their humanity.

The petitioners stressed that the rights of the detainees to a minimum standard of treatment are part of the basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed to any citizen or resident in the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992). Detention does not negate the rights of the detainees under the Basic Law. The petitioners argued that the detainees should receive an even higher standard of care and respect for their rights, given that the majority of them are civilian noncombatants and were simply picked up during a mass arrest by the Israeli army. The petitioners stressed that Israel has failed to meet its obligations under the Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949), to which it is a party. The Geneva Convention (IV) requires that minimum standards of detention be maintained, and that the humanitarian rights of the detainees be protected.

In arguing for the right to enter Ofer camp to observe and report on the treatment of the detainees, the petitioners emphasized that effective, functioning human rights organizations are essential in the defense of human rights. It is vital for the detainees, the Israeli public, and the international community to allow human rights organizations to enter Ofer camp and other detention facilities. These organizations must have access to the detention facilities in order to be able to provide the essential information that is needed to facilitate scrutiny by the Israeli public and the international community.

Norway's largest labor organization calls for boycott of Israeli products

Oslo, April, 19, 2002, Wafa - Norway's largest labor organization, the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO), is calling for a boycott of all Israeli products. LO is a long-time supporter of Israel, but now has clearly lost patience with the Israeli government's ongoing aggression in Palestinian areas.

LO's proposed boycott is the latest in a series of moves aimed at protesting Israeli military attacks on the civilian Palestinian population. A local grocery store chain urged a similar boycott a few weeks ago, but it wasn't carried out.

Now LO officials want all Israeli products in Norwegian stores to be clearly marked. They're also calling for union members