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US, EU Reject Sharon’s Dismissal of Quartet’s Role, 'Roadmap'

WASHINGTON - The United States and the European Union have reconfirmed their commitment to the so-called “roadmap” for peace being drafted by the international diplomatic "Quartet" on the Middle East, despite Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon labeling it a non-starter.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday Washington remained committed to the so-called “roadmap” for peace being drafted by the international diplomatic "Quartet" on the Middle East, which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

"We remain committed to the work of the Quartet and we remain committed to the roadmap we believe provides a way forward," Powell told reporters, rejecting Sharon's dismissal of the group and its plan to create a Palestinian state by 2005.

Powell moreover said he hoped to put "new energy" into Middle East peace efforts after next week's Israeli elections that forced the delay of an international plan of action.

Powell said he believed there was a chance to breathe new life into the process once Israel's January 28 election is over.

"We look forward to moving ahead with our efforts when the Israeli election is over," he said.

"I think there will be an opportunity to put new energy into the peace process and to do something about the terrible situation that is affecting both people, both the Palestinians and the Israelis," he said.

Last month, Sharon persuaded Washington to delay drafting a final version of the roadmap until after the Israeli election, despite calls from Europe, Arab states and the European Union for the plan to be agreed upon as quickly as possible.

Then, in an interview published over the weekend by the US magazine Newsweek, Sharon said the quartet was destined to fail.

"Oh, the quartet is nothing! Don't take it seriously!" Sharon said.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said Sharon “tricked” the international community.

Similarly Europe reconfirmed its commitment to the Quartet’s peace plan and insisted Monday that an international "roadmap" for Middle East peace remained on the table.

The European Union's executive Commission also hit back at remarks by Sharon accusing the EU of siding with the Palestinians against Israel.

European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said the Quartet "remains a very useful tool in trying to find a way out of the current situation and the fruitless killing that continues.”

"It has not, however, been abandoned. It is still there," Udwin insisted, adding: "We still need a plan that takes us from our aspiration to have a two-state solution within three years," she said.

Sharon also criticized EU countries, in a press conference Sunday, for failing to back his calls for Palestinian elected president Yasser Arafat to be removed from any position of influence.

Udwin retorted: "The support that we give to the Palestinian Authority is designed to enhance Israel's security, rather than the reverse, and we deny that we are in any sense unbalanced or that we fail to understand the situation."

Egypt in the meantime is hosting inter-Palestinian talks aimed at restoring calm and boosting chances to revive peace talks with Israel. The talks were scheduled to officially begin on Wednesday.

Palestinian officials said Egypt has been trying to obtain a Palestinian pledge for a moratorium on suicide attacks in return for the application of a "roadmap" for peace drafted by top US, UN, EU and Russian officials.

The “roadmap,” based on a speech by US President George W. Bush last June, foresees a Palestinian state being established by 2005, but its adoption has been delayed until after Israeli elections on January 28.

Meanwhile, US Middle East envoy William Burns arrived in the Syrian capital on Monday at the start of a regional tour, the US embassy in Damascus said.

An embassy official said Burns, who is assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, would hold talks Tuesday with Syrian officials on latest the developments in the region.

But the spokesman, Frederick Jones, gave no details on the envoy's tour.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

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Nablus – Another Nakba – January 2003

Sharon Dismisses EU as Biased, Snubs 'Quartet' Mediating Role

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Israel’s Prime minister has blasted the EU as a biased peace broker, charging that the Europeans need to be more ‘balanced’ in their stand on the Middle East conflict, while he rebuffed the role that the ‘Quartet’ has been playing in mediating peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ariel Sharon’s comments came at a press conference following remarks he made to Newsweek where he trashed the ‘Quartet’ of Mideast peace mediators, comprising the US, EU, UN and Russia, as “nothing,” Ha’aretz reported Monday.

The Israeli PM also said the ‘Quartet’, including the Europeans, had to realize that ousting Palestinian president Yasser Arafat was a prerequisite to reaching any progress.

“To the European side I said, ‘Your attitude towards Israel and the Arabs and the Palestinians should be balanced,’” Sharon told reporters.

“’When it will be balanced you are mostly welcome to participate. But at this moment the relations are unbalanced’... They [the Europeans] don’t understand that in order to move things forward Arafat should be removed from any influential position.” He added.

The Israeli PM’s comments came following soaring relations with Britain after the Israeli PM banned a Palestinian delegation from attending a London peace conference hosted by the British Prime minister, Tony Blair.

Sharon gripped the opportunity to commend his ally, Washington, with whom he said the Jewish state sees “eye to eye”.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday morning that the US is the only ‘Quartet’ member with which Israel shares the vision of the Middle East likely to bring peace, Ha’aretz reported.

“Within the forum known as the Quartet... Israel and the US see eye to eye on the suitable interpretation of and the appropriate methods for implementing President Bush’s speech, in contrast to the position of the other Quartet members,” the PMO said.

“The State of Israel’s view is that the US and Israeli vision are the only actual understandings which are likely to result in peace in the Middle East.”

Israeli PM Trashes Roadmap

Nonetheless, the Israeli PM trashed the US-backed ‘roadmap’ to peace, which was formulated by the ‘Quartet’ as a means with which the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be resolved, with the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005 as a means.

Sharon’s senior advisor, Ra’anan Gissin said the premier saw the roadmap as “not realistic” and that “there is nothing in that program that can be implemented.”

Palestinian chief negotiator, Sa’eb Erekat said in effect Sharon was sabotaging any international effort to get the region out of the whirlpool of bloodshed, saying “his real intention is to ... make it impossible for any future negotiators to discuss peace.”

The Israeli PM’s elections rival, Labor Party chief Amram Mitzna said Sharon’s latest statements reveal “his true face [which] is ‘no’ to peace, ‘no’ to territorial compromise, and ‘no’ to agreement with the Palestinians.”

“Ariel Sharon is not ready to withdraw settlements, to separate from the Palestinians or to give up the illusion of Greater Israel,” he added.

The Palestinian minister of Information and culture, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said Sharon’s comments put the onus on the Americans to prove the Israelis wrong, The Guardian reported.

“The Americans cannot prove they are serious about a Palestinian state as long as they protect Sharon,” he said.

Sharon meanwhile said he was unconcerned at comments made by the US deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, who said that following an attack on Iraq, Washington will focus on resolving the conflict, most notably the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Wolfowitz’s remarks are clearly substantial given the fact that he is one of the leading Jewish members of the Bush administration and a firm supporter of the Jewish state.

Sharon Proposes ‘Another’ Plan

In the interview with Newsweek, Sharon dismissed ‘Quartet’ efforts aimed at resuscitating the peace process and said that another plan should be used to resolve the conflict instead.

Sharon’s plan mainly calls for stripping President Arafat from his power and post, appointing a prime minister to head a Palestinian administration and carrying out reforms.

His plan also includes recognizing a Palestinian state, which has no final borders and no weaponry. All external borders-- entry and exit points-- will be controlled by Israel, as is the case now. Moreover, Israel will have the right to fly over Palestinian territory, as it deems necessary.

“Israel will control the external borders and will have the right to fly over the territory.” Sharon told Newsweek.

EU officials say they have been pressing for the appointment of a Palestine prime minister but argue that as long as Arafat has legitimate power to commands popular support among Palestinians he cannot simply be ousted.

Sharon’s views will be put to the test in the January 28 general elections, where his Likud party will be challenged by Labor, whose leader Mitzna favors direct negotiations with the Palestinians.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Powell reaffirms U.S. support for Mideast quartet

By Reuters

The United States on Monday reaffirmed its support for the "quartet" of international peace envoys whose Middle East peace efforts were dismissed as "nothing" by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and said that the United States plans to push ahead vigorously with the Quartet road map.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington remained committed to the peace plan developed by the group - composed of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - and hoped to revive the peace process after the January 28 elections.

Once the election is over, "I think there will be an opportunity to put new energy into the peace process and to do something about the terrible situation that is affecting both people -- both the Palestinians and the Israelis," he told reporters after attending a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on terrorism.

The quartet has been trying to devise a road map for ending a deadly cycle of violence that had its beginnings in a Palestinian uprising for statehood.

Its plan, based loosely on a speech by U.S. President George W. Bush, is expected to be published some time after the elections. It aims to establish a viable Palestinian state within three years in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

But Sharon on Sunday dismissed the Quartet's work as irrelevant.

"Oh, the quartet is nothing! Don't take it seriously!" he said in an interview published in the U.S. magazine Newsweek.

"Israel's view is that the United States and Israeli vision are the only practical interpretations which could lead to peace in the Middle East," Sharon said in a statement issued later by his office.

But Powell said Washington was "fully supportive of the quartet, which we helped create."

"We have worked very hard to develop a road map that we believe will give us a way forward and will lead us on to a path that will result ultimately in the creation of a Palestinian state," he told reporters after attending a high-level meeting of the 15-nation UN Security Council.

"That is President Bush's objective, and we look forward to moving ahead with our efforts," he said.

Sharon, whose rightist Likud party leads in opinion polls ahead of next Tuesday's election, said he backs his own peace plan, which would allow for a Palestinian state with temporary borders only after "terrorism" stopped and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was turned into a figurehead.

Sunday January 19, 2003

PM: I see 'eye to eye' with U.S., but Europeans 'unbalanced'

By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz Service and Agencies

Israel and the United States see eye to eye on Middle East peacemaking, but the Europeans need to be more "balanced" in their attitude to the conflict, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday.

Speaking at a press conference after a Newsweek interview quoted him as saying that the "Quartet [of Middle East mediators] is nothing!" the prime minister said that the European Union, which along with the United Nations, Russia and the U.S. comprises the group of peace-brokers, needed to realize that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had to be removed in order for any progress to be made.

"To the European side I said, 'Your attitude towards Israel and the Arabs and the Palestinians should be balanced,'" Sharon told reporters.

"'When it will be balanced you are mostly welcome to participate. But at this moment the relations are unbalanced'... They [the Europeans] don't understand that in order to move things forward Arafat should be removed from any influential position."

Sharon aide Ra'anan Gissin said Sharon believed the Quartet's plan is "not realistic... There is nothing in that program that can be implemented."

U.S. and European diplomats in Israel declined to comment on Sharon's remarks.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat accused Sharon of sabotaging efforts to revive peace talks, saying "his real intention is to ... make it impossible for any future negotiators to discuss peace."

Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna said the latest Sharon statements reveal "his true face [which] is 'no' to peace, 'no' to territorial compromise, and 'no' to agreement with the Palestinians."

Mitzna said in a phone interview that if he were prime minister he would "go much quicker and more substantially forward" than what the road map requires of Israel, "because I believe that separation from the Palestinians, which will lead to separation from terrorism, is tremendously important."

The Prime Minister's Office said Sunday morning that the U.S. is the only member of the quartet with which Israel shares the vision of the Middle East likely to bring peace.

"Within the forum known as the Quartet... Israel and the U.S. see eye to eye on the suitable interpretation of and the appropriate methods for implementing President Bush's speech, in contrast to the position of the other Quartet members," the PMO said.

"The State of Israel's view is that the U.S. and Israeli vision are the only actual understandings which are likely to result in peace in the Middle East."

In the interview, Sharon dismisses the importance of the quartet and suggested that another peace plan would resolve the conflict with the Palestinians than the one being proposed by the group of Mideast mediators.

Sharon outlined his peace plan as follows: "First, Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat should be removed from an influential position. Secondly, a prime minister should be appointed. Third, reforms should be undertaken, mostly in the security organizations. Then there are problems on the financial side. I think our estimate of Arafat's property is about $2 billion. Once the reforms have been completed, there should be free and democratic elections."

"I am ready, if [the Palestinians] have taken steps against terror, to recognize a fully demilitarized Palestinian state without final borders - having only police equipped with light weapons. Israel will control the external borders and will have the right to fly over the territory. Now we come to phase three: if there's no terror whatsoever, then we will have to decide about the final borders.

Wolfowitz: U.S. to focus on settlements after war with Iraq
In his first public comments regarding U.S. policy in the Middle East on the "day after" the anticipated war in Iraq, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said the administration will intensify its focus on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In an interview in the Washington Post on Friday, Wolfowitz said, "Our stake in pushing for a Palestinian state will grow" after the war, and he noted that he preferred "concrete steps, like dealing with the settlements" over the advancing of diplomatic issues as part of a "process."

Wolfowitz is the most senior Jewish member of the political and defense branches of the current U.S. administration. He is considered to be the architect behind the current closing in on Iraq, a clear supporter of Israel, and a leading member of the Jewish right in Washington, which includes Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith, and the National Security Council adviser on the Middle East, Elliot Abrams.

Wolfowitz has family, including a sister, in Israel, and is well-acquainted with many members of the government, including Nathan Sharansky and former ambassador to Washington, David Ivry.

Several months ago, Wolfowitz represented the administration at a pro-Israel rally, and enraged Jewish activists and the Christian right when he emphasized the need for a political solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.

In a discussion with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Wolfowitz stressed that "the Israelis have to be kept out" of any U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

During the previous Gulf War, Wolfowitz held the No. 3 spot at the Pentagon, and he was dispatched to Israel while the country was under attack from Iraqi ballistic missiles.

A senior diplomatic source surprised by Wolfowitz's comments on the settlements, attributed them to his desire to rally Arab and European support for the war against Iraq.

"There is no other way to explain it," he said, since the administration has yet to present Israel officially with its expectations on "the day after."

The dominant opinion in Israel is that even after the war in Iraq, the U.S. administration will not rush to pressure Israel into making diplomatic concessions, because there will be other priorities, and President George Bush will be facing an election year and will need the Jewish vote.

However, reports have reached Jerusalem about comments on the settlements made by Elliot Abrams, who is the administration figure for preparations for "the day after." Abrams, known for his sharp criticism of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, has asked, "What do they [the Israelis] want with these settlements?"

In recent weeks the administration's diplomatic focus has been the "road map" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the U.S. has not finalized the document's contents with its Quartet partners - the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - on said when final version will be presented. The Europeans are pressing for its completion immediately following Israel's January 28 elections, while the Americans would like to see a government in place before they proceed.

Saturday January 18, 2003

Latin Patriarch abandons trip after 'exaggerated' security check

By Ha'aretz Service and The Associated Press

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, the highest ranking Catholic clergy in Israel, abandoned a trip to the Vatican in response to an "exaggerated" security check at Ben Gurion International Airport despite his diplomatic passport, church officials said Saturday.

The Vatican was slated to file an official complaint with Israel, regarding the incident, said Father Shawki Baterian, chancellor of Jerusalem's patriarchate.

Government spokesman Ra'anan Gissin, said in response that no one had diplomatic immunity at Israel's airports when it came to security checks in light of recent terror attacks around the world.

Security agents at the airport x-rayed Sabbah's luggage three times, opening it and rummaging through it in plain view of other travelers, Baterian said.

Sabbah, a Palestinian, had his luggage x-rayed for past trips, but never opened, Baterian said. He was held up by the check by about 45 minutes and was not treated with respect as he stood by waiting.

At first Sabbah, 70, agreed for agents to x-ray and then open his bags, to just glance at their contents, Baterian said. But when they began searching through the bags, Sabbah was angered and decided not to travel.

"Security undertook a lot of measures that were a little bit exaggerated and the patriarch said he couldn't continue this procedure," Baterian said. "The patriarch is a diplomatic man and a man of peace and no one in Israel needs to do these things."

Gissin said Israel is engaged in a "war of terror" and security measures at the Tel Aviv airport were the same as those around the world.

"There are attempts to smuggle weapons in and weapons out and that's why there is tight security," Gissin said. "No one is exonerated."

Sabbah has frequently criticized Israel in speeches, and recently he said the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands was the root of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. In his Christmas speech last month, the patriarch called for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to step down because they haven't been able to make peace.

Israel Destroys More Civilian Homes in West Bank

By Khalid Amayreh

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The Israeli occupation army demolished two more Arab homes in the West Bank overnight, brining to more than 60 the number of homes demolished since the beginning of this year.

Palestinian sources said Israeli occupation troops dynamited a home at the village of Beit Fajjar, south-west of Bethelehem and another at the town of Qabatya, suoth of Jenin in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli army alleged that the two homes belonged to families of two Palestinian resistance activists who had been involved in attacks targeting Israeli soldiers.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army demolished and sealed with concrete several homes in East Jerusalem, alleging that the homes belonged to relatives of resistance activists.

Also today, the Israeli occupation army demolished a Palestinian home in Beit Hanoun, North of the Gaza Strip. The home belonged to Palestinian resident Khader Abu Hjeil.

A tight military siege continues to be imposed on the town. Deep ditches are dug around it and sand piles have been placed at the entrance in order to restrict entrance and exiting.

The Israeli army destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes during the past two years.

Last week, Gretta Duisenberg, the outspoken wife of European Central Bank chief Wim Duisenberg, described Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories as "inhuman" and accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of provoking violence.

"The power of the Israeli government to humiliate (Palestinians) like that -- I cannot stand it ... If you see it yourself, it's more inhuman," Reuters quoted her as saying.

Duisenberg, 60, was also quoted by a Dutch newspaper last week as saying that the Israeli occupation was worse than Nazi Germany's occupation of the Netherlands.

Israel claims the practice of home demolitions is aimed at deterring Palestinian resistance attacks on Israeli occupation targets.

As a result of the draconian measure, tens of thousands of men, women and children have become homeless.

House demolition by an occupying power is considered a war crime under international law.

Israel to Use Targeted Killings in U.S., Friendly Countries: Report

WASHINGTON - As the U.S.-led war on terror continues unabated, Israel is exploiting the situation for its own good under the pretext of security and "anti-global jihad".

Israel is championing a more aggressive approach to the war on terror that will include targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, Chicago Sun-Times quoted former Israeli intelligence officials as saying Thursday, January 17.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forbidden the practice until now, said the Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The new Israeli policy was confirmed by several U.S. foreign policy and intelligence officials.

With the appointment of Meir Dagan, the new director of the Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence service, Sharon is preparing "a huge" budget increase for the spy agency as part of "a tougher stance in fighting global jihad," one Israeli official said.

Since Sharon became prime minister, Tel Aviv has limited its practice of "targeted killings" to the West Bank and Gaza because "no one wanted such operations on their territory," a former Israeli intelligence official said.

Another former Israeli government official said that under Sharon, "diplomatic constraints have prevented the Mossad from carrying out 'preventive operations' on the soil of friendly countries until now."

He said Sharon is "reversing that policy, even if it risks complications to Israel's bilateral relations."

"What Sharon wants is a much more extensive and tough approach to global terrorism, and this includes greater operational maneuverability," a former Israeli military intelligence source agreed.

Does this mean assassinations on the soil of allies? "It does," he asserted.

"Mossad is definitely being beefed up," a U.S. government official said of the Israeli agency's budget increase.

He declined to comment on the geographic expansion of targeted killings.

An FBI spokesman only said: "This is a policy matter. We only enforce federal laws."

A congressional staffer with knowledge of intelligence matters said, "I don't know on what basis we would be able to protest Israel's actions."

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Friday January 17, 2003

Palestinian Minister Shakes off Corruption Claims with Transparent Work on Finances

RAMALLAH - The European Commission praised Palestine National Authority (PNA) efforts to achieve transparency in its finances, with Israeli claims that corruption prevails in the PNA and that money is being used to finance what it calls terrorism.

The Palestinian finance minister, Salam Fayyad, who participated in Tuesday’s London talks on reforms, has been praised for his work with signs of international approval becoming apparent.

“I wish that all the countries in this region had a finance minister like that,” the Commission’s representative in the Israeli-occupied Jerusalem, Jean Breteche, said. “Even the Israelis are backing him.”

The first-ever full budget Fayyad presented to the Palestinian legislative council (parliament) last December garnered widespread appraisal. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials called it “the most transparent budget in the world,” The Independent said.

The minister’s bookkeeping and administrative capabilities, which were put to the test the second he was assigned his post, proved worthy. He lured amazement when he managed to put together a full budget, despite choking Israeli restrictions on movement and regular raids, which meant officials were under curfew and could not get from one place to another

The first step Fayyad made when he took up his post was to put all PNA financial accounts under one umbrella—a single account, which is easy to access and to follow-up on items with.

This meant that donors had a clear idea where their aid was going, Fayyad, a former IMF employee said.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle

Thursday January 16, 2003

Belgium amending law to enable Sharon trial

By Yossi Melman, Ha'aretz

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt says he is not opposed to a proposal to amend the country's laws in a way that would allow Ariel Sharon to be indicted for war crimes.

Verhofstadt made his comment on Tuesday on the efforts of several politicians in Belgium's senate to amend and broaden the country's war crime laws. Under the proposal, originally sponsored mainly by left-wing politicians in the senate, Belgium's 1993 "Universal Law" would be expanded to apply to any person suspected of war crimes, "no matter where the suspect may be located."

The proposal won backing in the senate by all its parties. It then was moved to the state council, a body supposed to review the legal status of proposed bills, and evaluate their compatibility with Belgium's constitution.

The council approved the proposed amendment and the bill returned to the senate, where it passed on first reading. Second and third reading votes will be carried out next week, and the senate will apparently fully approve it. Belgium's government also supports the law, and now the Prime Minister has clarified that he doesn't oppose it.

Last June, a Belgian appeals court ruled that Ariel Sharon cannot face trial in the country on war crimes charges. Only suspects who dwell in Belgium can face trial for war crimes committed beyond the country's borders, the court found.

Israeli officials expressed consternation about Verhofstadt's position. Belgium's Prime Minister visited Israel over a year ago, when he was acting chairman of the European Union.

He met Sharon and the sources say that the meeting created the impression that Verhofstadt had reservations about legal proceedings which were then being carried out in Belgium against Israel's prime minister. The sources claimed that Belgium stands out as one of Europe's countries most hostile toward Israel.

On Sunday, Belgium's ambassador to Israel was called to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, where he was informed of Israel's concerns regarding the proposed new bill in Belgium.

Israel Closes Two Palestinian Universities

CCUPIED JERUSALEM - While vociferously protesting plans by some European and North American academic institutions to boycott Israeli universities, Israel on Wednesday closed down at least two Palestinian universities.

The Israeli state-run radio quoted an Israeli army spokesperson as saying that the occupation army closed down the University of Hebron and the Polytechnic Engineering College, both in the southern West Bank town.

The front gate of the Polytechnic Institute was closed with an iron bar.

Troops surrounded the school and imposed a curfew on the neighborhood.

The radio didn’t say how long the two institutions of higher learning will remain closed.

The spokesman said the two colleges were closed because many of their students were active in the Palestinian resistance movement.

Last week, Zionist groups in Europe and North America denounced plans by a French University to boycott Israeli academic institutions for taking part in repressing the Palestinian people.

-[IAP News (iap.org).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

UN Officials Stress Importance of London Talks on Palestinian Reform

LONDON - Attending the London conference on Palestinian reform today, the senior United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Terje Roed Larsen, described the talks as an "invaluable" meeting that helps to move the process forward.

Even though the Palestinian delegation was not able to attend the conference hosted by the United Kingdom, Roed-Larsen, who is the UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said the meeting was important because it facilitated a "clear and sensible discussion" about the progress on reform and what is still needed.

The talks also send a strong message to Palestinians, Israelis and the international community that the UK Government, working closely with the Quartet - which comprises the UN, United States, Russian Federation and European Union - remains focused on and committed to the road map process towards a just and comprehensive settlement for the Middle East, according to Roed-Larsen.

In New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a press conference today that the decision by the Israelis to bar a Palestinian delegation from traveling to the London meeting was unfortunate.

"[They] should have been allowed to attend the conference to hear from others what is expected from them and to be given support for reform of the Palestinian Authority," he said.

"And I personally wish they had been allowed to go. I believe each time you bring parties together to discuss solutions it is a positive step."

As for the seemingly endless cycle of violence, the Secretary-General said that he thought it was a tragedy the bloodshed continues. "This is why the Quartet has been very active in trying to work out a road map that will operationalize the objective of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side as everyone has embraced," he said.

"But you can only get there if you take concrete steps and define what is demanded of each of the parties. That road map is ready and I hope we'll be able to put it on the table and to the parties formally as soon as possible, perhaps next month or so and press ahead with the peace effort."

Asked if the current focus on the crises surrounding Iraq and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has undermined the peace initiative in the Middle East, the Secretary-General said that on the contrary, it has underscored the urgency of doing something about the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

"It is even more important today than ever that the international community energetically tackle the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and this is what I hope that the Quartet will do in the coming months," he said.

-[United Nations News Center.] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Human Rights Watch Slams Israel’s 'Willful, Unlawful' Killings

WASHINGTON - The American Human Rights Watch’s latest annual report slammed Israel for the killing of Palestinian civilians “willfully and unlawfully,” and for using them as “human shields,” while some 4,500 Palestinian men and teenagers are in detention and often complain about “ill treatment during arrest and interrogation.”

Israel’s policy of “liquidations”—extra-judicial assassination-- of some 148 Palestinian activists was singled out as unjustified when arrest should have been the appropriate measure.

Human Rights Watch said at least 46 civilian bystanders had also been killed in these operations, “in violation of Israel’s obligation under humanitarian law to minimize civilian casualties.”

It stressed that the reoccupation of the West Bank since June 2002 and frequent military raids on the Gaza Strip have restricted freedom of movement and caused severe destruction of infrastructure resulting in the deterioration of the humanitarian situation and rampant poverty.

Detainees in Ofer Protest Bad Conditions

In another matter, the Palestinian human rights group, LAW, said that Palestinian detainees in the Ofer detention center, west of Ramallah city, have complained of poor treatment from the prison’s administration, including preventing medical treatment.

In addition, LAW noted that several prisoners suffering from long-term illnesses have not been given appropriate treatment by the prison administration.

One of the sick detainees suffering from epilepsy told LAW that he has not been given appropriate medicine.

He added that the prison’s doctor insists he makes an appointment with the hospital, and that the doctor has not shown any genuine interest in his case.

The human rights group added that most detainees do not have adequate winter clothing, nor does the administration provide for these for them.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Tuesday January 14, 2003

London Conference on Palestinian Reform to Open Today

LONDON - A British-sponsored conference on finding ways to reform the Palestinian Authority is due to begin in London Tuesday despite Israel's refusal to allow Palestinian delegates to attend.

Palestinian officials say they plan to take part in the conference via telephone and video-hookup from the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon barred the Palestinian delegation from attending the conference after two suicide bombings in Tel Aviv on January 5 killed 22 people and injured 100 others.

Israel also ignored a British appeal to reconsider its decision. British Prime Minister Tony Blair initiated the conference. Representatives from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, the so-called Mideast peace quartet, are to attend the meeting.

Israel's travel ban is also preventing Palestinian officials from attending a meeting in Ramallah to consider a new Palestinian constitution.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat accused Israel of trying to prevent any forward movement in the peace process.

Meanwhile, Israeli public opinion polls show Prime Minister Sharon's Likud Party is recovering its lead over the opposition Labor Party ahead of January 28 parliamentary election.

Results from the latest opinion surveys published Monday show the scandal-plagued Likud Party winning as many as 33 seats in the 120-member parliament, while Labor Party slipped to 20 seats.

115 Palestinian Youngsters Under 18 Killed in 2002

According to a death toll by The Associated Press, 115 Palestinian youths were killed by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) during 2002.

Jihad Faqueh, 11, was killed on November 25 while hurling stones at Israeli jeeps in the West Bank city of Nablus.

IOF soldiers retaliated by firing tear live rounds at the group of boys, as well as gas canisters, and rubber-coated steel pellets. Jihad was fatally hit in the chest.

He was one of 115 unarmed Palestinians children aged less than 18 who were killed in 2002, an increase of more than 50 percent from the year before, according to an AP count.

The news agency says that the toll underlines the Israeli military’s failure to quell riots without killing civilians, particularly minors. Most of the youngsters killed in 2002 were stone throwers or bystanders hit by Israeli army fire.

Others were killed when IOF assassinated or attempted to assassinate Palestinian activists. International outcry was hurled on Israel last year when nine children were killed after Israeli F-16 fighter jests slammed missiles at a residential building in an overcrowded Gaza Strip neighborhood. The missile was aimed at a Hamas leader, who was also killed in the deadly attack.

The Israeli government often alleges that Palestinian gunmen often hide behind civilians while shooting at occupation soldiers.

“The rate of Palestinian children killed at the hands of Israeli soldiers is alarming and requires immediate international intervention,” said Sa’eb Erekat.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say no Israeli soldiers have been tried for “improper use of force” in cases involving the killing of children.

Military Onslaught is Smoke Screen for Sharon’s Scandal

PNA Cabinet minister and chief negotiator Sa’eb Erekat meanwhile accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of using military might to divert Israeli and world attention away from a $1.5 million loan scandal, which followed a previous poll-rigging scandal.

The scandals have caused a large fallout in the Likud party poll results, adversely affecting Sharon's once comfortable lead.

“These operations were an attempt by the Israeli Government to escape corruption accusations and influence the Israeli electoral campaign by perpetrating more killings, destruction and state terrorism in the territories,” Erekat told the AFP.

“Sharon is trying to distract attention from the financial scandal he is facing by sending his tanks into Palestinian areas, by killing more Palestinians and by demolishing more Palestinian homes,” he further said.

This came following Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s call for halting all attacks inside Israel before upcoming Israeli general elections.

In a statement on Friday, the Palestinian leadership urged the “Palestinian people to show their restraint and not allow themselves to be dragged along by the Israeli escalation and provocation on the approach of Israeli elections.”

Israeli ‘Defense’ Minister Shaul Mofaz had previously pledged to step up its offensive against Palestinians, including more ‘operations’ such as the Gaza onsluaght in Gaza on Sunday.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle

5 Reasons to Stop US Military Aid to Israel

1. Israel Is Illegally Occupying Palestine

Under UN Resolution 242, Israel is required by international law to withdraw from all the territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem. The United Nation's General Assembly has repeatedly condemned Israel's occupation of the territories as illegal (see UN resolutions 338, 1397, and 1402, among others). Israel's continued occupation of Palestine, sanctioned and maintained by the US, is one of the most serious obstructions to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

2. Israel Systematically Violates the Human Rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories

"You must end the illegal occupation."
Kofi Annan, addressing Israel in a meeting of the UN Security Council, March 12, 2002

Each day, Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza violate articles of the 4th Geneva Convention on Human Rights, an agreement that governs wartime rules of engagement and to which Israel is a signatory. Palestinian homes and agriculture fields are routinely demolished to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. Israeli soldiers regularly arrest and detain--often for years-- Palestinians without due process. According to Amnesty International, members of the Israeli security forces regularly use torture and prolonged incommunicado detention against Palestinians.

3. Israel is an Apartheid State

"I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and West Bank could describe events in South Africa." -- Archbishop
Desmond Tutu

Israel has developed an elaborate system of racial discrimination, embedded in its legal system, rivaling Apartheid South Africa's laws. These laws include the Law of Entry, the Law of Return, the Citizenship Law, the Military Service Law, and a host of legally sanctioned, discriminatory rabbinical rulings. Palestinians are denied various welfare benefits, access to many jobs, and the leasing of homes and land controlled by government bodies. Electricity, sewerage, and roads are provided free to Israeli households, whereas many Palestinian communities in Israel, and especially in the Occupied Territories, have existed for decades without adequate services. Laws governing land ownership such as the Law of Acquisition of Absentee Property and the Law for Acquisition of Land blatantly discriminate against Palestinians. Indeed, land ownership in Palestine is more unjust than it ever wasin South Africa; at the height of apartheid, black people nominally `controlled' 13 percent of the land, whereas in Israel the Palestinians control only 2 percent of the land.

Blockades, which allow settlers free movement but restrict Palestinians have lost 100,000 workers their jobs. The Israeli government issues identification cards and car number-plates, color coded, which restrict travel for non-Jews. Palestinians in the West Bank are routinely prevented from traveling to the Gaza Strip because they have to travel through

`Israeli' territory. No significant industry has been permitted to develop in the West Bank or Gaza. Consequently, Palestinians are concentrated in the lowest paying jobs and form a super-exploited labor force for Israeli capital.

The occupied territories import 93% of goods but export a mere 7% of what they produce. Palestinian exports to Western Europe are banned so as not to compete with Israeli exports. Ninety percent of Palestinian workers must travel to Jewish towns for employment.

4. US Military Aid to Israel Violates US Law

The US Arms Export Control Act (AECA) strictly forbids the government from giving military assistance to any country that violates internationally recognized human rights.
The State Department's 2001 human rights report states: "Israeli security units often used excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators including live fire ... impeded the provision of medical assistance to Palestinian civilians by their strict enforcement of internal closures, which reportedly contributed to at least 32 deaths. Israeli security forces harassed and abused Palestinian pedestrians and drivers who were attempting to pass through the more than 130 Israeli- controlled checkpoints ..."

Under the AECA, "the President is required to report to Congress promptly upon the receipt of information that a substantial violation of AECA may have occurred." The US government is fully aware of the Israeli army's human rights violations, as the above quote from the State Department shows. The US government has eroded its own credibility as an impartial mediator by continuing to arm Israel without restriction and allowing these weapons to be used against civilian populations in violation of US law.

5. US Military Aid to Israel threatens US Security and Global Stability

US funding of Israel's human rights abuses fuels resentment towards the US. While the rest of the world strongly condemns Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, our government provides the political, diplomatic and material means for the occupation to continue. Such actions by the US government provoke anti-US sentiment throughout the world, ultimately jeopardizing the safety of people living in the US. The US can build its own security only by gaining the trust and respect of the international community.

Source: http://www.stop-us-military-aid-to-israel.net

Monday January 13, 2003

"Israeli Occupation Worse Than That of The Nazi's": Dutch Activist

By Khaled Shawkat

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch peace activist wife of the European Central Bank (ECB) chief Wim Duisenberg was given a warm reception from dozens of the Muslim community in the Netherlands following her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Greta Duisenberg, the founder of the “Stop the Occupation” committee, slammed the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories as inhuman and accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of provoking violence.

Greta’s solidarity visit to the occupied Palestinian territories triggered a fierce media and political campaign against her, sparked by official and unofficial circles close to the Zionist lobby in the Netherlands, the Israeli Ha’aretz daily newspaper said.

“The power of the Israeli government to humiliate [Palestinians] like that - I cannot stand it... If you see it yourself, it's more inhuman," Greta said. “If [Israelis] want really to have peace, they should stop confiscating land all the time for all those settlements. It goes on and goes on and that's not logical."

Emerging from a meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the ECB president's wife asserted that Israel should "give back the occupied territories" and said that Arafat hates killing, underling that “there should be peace and the military situation of the Israeli government should stop because their actions are terrible."

"I did ask [Arafat] about the suicide bombings and he's absolutely against it," Duisenberg said.

"He even told me that yesterday he prevented two attempts."

She blamed Israel for the violence afflicting the region, saying that Sharon "always provokes [violence] in my view... and then he blames the Palestinian people."

The Israeli occupation was worse than Nazi Germany's occupation of the Netherlands, Greta was quoted by a Dutch newspaper as saying.

Duisenberg had earlier in the week said he was 100 percent behind his wife, but the Simon Wiesenthal Center called Friday, January 10, for him to either resign or be fired if he supports what it claimed anti-Semitic comments by his wife over the past year, the daily added.

Gretta Duisenberg denied again Saturday, January 11, that she was anti-Semitic, asserting she only opposed Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"If [Israelis] want really to have peace, they should stop confiscating land all the time for all those settlements. It goes on and goes on and that's not logical."

Arab Women festival will lionize Greta

Meanwhile, Wafa’ Bobnad, Chairwoman of the sponsor committee of Arab Women festival, scheduled on March 6 through 9, said that the festival would lionize Greta in the closing ceremony.

"This praise comes in appreciation from the Arab and Muslim community for her pains-taking efforts, which serve best the Palestinian cause, and to assert that all Arab and Muslim women in the Netherlands are rallying behind her in her uphill struggle against the brutal campaigns launched by the Zionists and their followers," Bobnad said.

Bobnad added that the festival would also honor a number of Arab women, who provided significant services to the Arab minority, in particular, and the Dutch society, in general.

In April 2002, Duisenberg hung a Palestinian flag from the balcony of her house in Amsterdam.

In June, she founded "Stop the Occupation," and when a Dutch radio interviewer asked her how many signatures she hoped to collect on a petition of support for the organization, she responded: "Six million" and laughed.

Her remarks prompted a Jewish lawyer, Abraham Moszkowicz, to file a complaint with the Dutch attorney general accusing Duisenberg of anti-Semitism.

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

London Meeting to Go Ahead, Palestinians to Join by Phone

LONDON - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday, January 10, that he would hold telephone talks next week with senior Palestinian officials after an Israeli ban prevented them from attending a London meeting in person.

"I am holding a telephone conference on Tuesday with senior members of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian civil society," Straw said in a statement released by the Foreign Office in London, reported Agency France-Press (AFP).

The Palestinians involved in the telephone conference include Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath, and Finance Minister Salam Fayad, Straw said.

Israel and Britain have been at loggerheads since Monday, January 6, when the Israeli government put a travel ban on the Palestinians in response to a double bombing which killed 23 people plus the two bombers the day before in Tel Aviv.

"I regret the Israeli decision to prevent Palestinians from traveling to London to discuss this agenda," he said.

"The prime minister (Tony Blair) and I will next week go ahead with a meeting on Palestinian reform, and discuss with key Palestinians and international partners how to give new momentum to Palestinian reform," said Straw.

Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon turned down Thursday, January 9, a written plea from Blair to overturn the ban.

"This is an important initiative. The reform agenda matters too much for us to allow it to become stalled. It is vital to the search for peace," Straw said.

The statement did not mention how many, if any, international representatives -- originally invited to London next week to attend a face-to-face meeting with the Palestinian delegation -- would be involved in the telephone conference.

"We are holding consultations with leading Palestinians who are committed to reform as well as with the Quartet (Russia, the U.N., the U.S. and the EU) and other interested parties," Straw said without specifying when and where.

"The prime minister and I are also meeting participants here, including the Palestinian general delegate, Afif Safieh," he added.

Safieh, the Palestinian Authority's representative in Britain, said nothing had been finalized due to the travel ban.

"The formula is still under discussion between our two parties, most simply because we are trying to act after Sharon has torpedoed the initiative," he told AFP.

"Unfortunately I cannot give anything more precise because it's an idea in the making," said Safieh.

Straw said Tuesday's talks would help the Palestinians prepare for the implementation of a "roadmap" drawn up by the Quartet with the aim of realizing a full Palestinian statehood by 2005.

Delegates would discuss political, judicial, administrative, economic and constitutional reform.

Discussion of the current violence will focus on the impact the security context has on reform efforts, rather than on detailed measures to stop killings in the region.

"We will take stock of our next steps after the Israeli elections and intend to have a further meeting as soon as the Palestinian delegates are allowed to travel," the statement said.

"We will help whenever we can to move the process forward and deliver security and justice for Palestinians and Israelis," it concluded.

Britain's ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles, was likely to meet Sharon over the weekend, Blair's official spokesman said earlier Friday, without confirming when.

Cairo, Riyadh and Amman consult on London conference

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher consulted Friday with his Saudi and Jordanian counterparts Prince Saud al-Faisal and Marwan Moasher about the London conference, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

Maher spoke by phone with Prince Saud and Moasher on "the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and (British) Prime Minister Tony Blair's invitation to the conference in London," it said.

Maher stressed that "for Egypt any discussion on Palestinian reforms cannot happen independent of a halt to Israeli attacks."

Egypt has not yet indicated if it will participate in the London conference.

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Worldwide Palestinian Population Reaches 9.3 Million

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - According to the latest census by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, Palestinians in Palestine and the Diaspora have reached 9.3 million.

The report showed that the population of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Al-Qods (Jerusalem) has topped the 3.6-million-figure.

There are 2.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, 1.3 million in the Gaza Strip and more than one million in Israel proper.

This means that 4.6 million Palestinians are still living in their ancestral homeland, more than a hundred years after the start of Zionist colonization and more 56 years after the creation of the Zionist state.

There are nearly five million Israeli Jews living in occupied Palestine today or about 52% of the total population of mandatory Palestine.

An additional 4% of the population are neither Arabs nor Jews who immigrated to Israel from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Israel dreads the ''demographic problem'' in Palestine which has prompted many fascist-thinking Israelis to demand ''radical solutions'' for the problem, including expulsion, apartheid, perpetual occupation and domination by Jews of non-Jews or even outright annihilation.

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Israeli Commander Implicated in Massacres Negotiates Loans with U.S.: Fisk

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defense Amos Yaron has been sent by Israel to the United States to hold negotiations with the Bush administration to grant Israel $8bn (£5bn) in loan guarantees.

Israel has sent to Washington one of the former army officers implicated in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian civilians to persuade the Bush administration to grant the money, Robert Fisk of the Independent wrote.

Yaron was the Israeli military commander in Beirut when the Israeli troops entered the refugee camps and slaughtered up to 1,700 Palestinian refugees.

He ordered flares to be dropped over the camps, at the request of the militiamen, and Israeli soldiers blocked the exits to prevent civilians from leaving the area.

Civilians trying to flee the carnage pleaded with Israeli soldiers to allow them to leave the area. On Yaron's orders, they were sent back into the camps – in many cases to their deaths.

The Israeli officers later claimed they didn't know the Palestinians were being murdered, even though individual Israeli soldiers had warned their commanders that the civilians were being slaughtered.

Yaron was appointed to the post of Defense Ministry director by the former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak. The two men are accompanied to Washington by the Israeli Ministry of Finance accountant general, Nir Gilad, the British famous writer wrote.

The Israeli team is negotiating the new loan with Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council but little has emerged about their visit in the American press.

Israel is pleading for the money – along with an additional $4bn in military aid – on the grounds that a U.S. invasion of Iraq will provoke further attacks against Israel.

It argues that some of the aid should be given to anti-missile defense systems for El Al airliners. (Alleged) Al-Qaeda members tried to destroy an Israeli civilian aircraft with missiles at Mombasa last year, but narrowly missed it.

The Israeli delegation to Washington is led by Dov Weissglass, from the private office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who was found "personally responsible" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre by the Israeli Kahan commission of inquiry in 1983.

The U.S. response is likely to be made public within a month – before the expected invasion of Iraq. The State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, has refused to talk about the negotiations, save for a passing remark that "we always try to help our friends and allies to the best of our ability".

The Bush administration has never referred to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, nor to Mr. Sharon's role in the killings.

Israeli officials accompanying the delegation said they believed the U.S. would respond favorably to their loan request when their country was facing a global recession as well as "terrorism''.

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Saturday January 11, 2003

Why We Shouldn't Really be Surprised at Ariel Sharon's Unorthodox Financial Situation

By Eddie Taylor

NEW YORK (PalestineChronicle.com) - There hasn't been too much scope for schardenfraude during the reign of Ariel Sharon. His ability to deflect, ignore, sidestep and refute the mountain of accusations about his criminal activities when general in Israel's army (Qibya, Sabra, Shatilla, Jenin, Gaza City; we all know the list by now) has stupefied the authors of the charge sheet laid against him. The fact that Israel is now drawing map of countries that senior officials, such as Lieutenant General Shaul Mofaz, should avoid for fear of prosecution is of scant consolation to those who live under permanent fear of IDF slaughter.

So it is with a great pleasure that the world can now witness the increasing discomfort and, one hopes, political implosion of the Israeli leader as his financial affairs finally reach the light of day.

Tax evasion for Al Capone, a parking ticket for Son of Sam, and now vote buying and improper loan guarantees for the serial war criminal.

Of course, it doesn't take too much digging to find that our Ariel has a history of dubious connections.

One of Ariel's earliest financial backers and purchaser of the Negev desert ranch he still calls home, is Meshulam Riklis. Riklis, now honorary chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition, was also the main influence behind the young Sharon's decision to abandon the army and enter politics in 1973. Riklis was described by Ha'aretz in December 2001 as one of Israel's most prominent mafia operatives, while Forbes magazine has repeatedly unveiled his resume of unscrupulous asset stripping, deliberate foreclosing and subsequent creditor ducking.

Then there is Betsalel Mizrahi, another prominent mobster. The links to Sharon go way back to the 1970s, when the agriculture minister was conducting the notorious West Bank land-grab policies that facilitated illegal private purchases of Arab lands for the purpose of creating Israeli enclaves. This was achieved through real estate companies that, if the Jeffrey Steinberg's investigations are to be believed, are little more than fronts for Israeli organized crime.

Another of the proposed key players in the development of West Bank land was Max Fisher, the self-styled Jewish-American philanthropist. Interestingly, in 1978, at the height of Sharon's settlement push, one of Fisher's companies was United Brands. Drug enforcement agencies in the US claimed at the time that United's fleet of ships was the vehicle for one fifth of all cocaine imports from South America into the United States. Fisher, of course, still meets with Sharon today, providing financial support to fulfil the stated aim to import more than one million former Soviets (Jewish or otherwise) into Israel and the West Bank within the next 10 years.

Israel's extradition laws, or lack thereof, coupled with the automatic citizenship to any Jew (one grandparent counts) wherever they may have previously resided, has meant that the Jewish homeland has become something of a beacon for corrupt businessman fleeing legal proceedings. And many of them have, how shall we say, "come into contact with" Ariel Sharon. Former Knesset member and forged-art collector Sami Flatto-Sharon (no relation, at least in the familial sense) didn't like having to pay tax in France and, once in Israel, immediately began sharing several "business" contacts with the sainted leader - the
aforementioned Betsalel Mizrahi included.

Hopefully, it will take more than a cabinet reshuffle to save Sharon this time. If not, one wonders the degree of conviction the Israelis can proclaim Yasser Arafat an unsuitable partner for peace. After all, corruption and terror seem to be the very qualities you need to lead the "only democracy in the Middle East."

Eddie Taylor is the Managing Editor of http://www.profilemagazines.com  

[Palestine Chronicle (palestinechronicle.com).]

London Meeting to Go Ahead, Palestinians to Join by Phone

LONDON - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday, January 10, that he would hold telephone talks next week with senior Palestinian officials after an Israeli ban prevented them from attending a London meeting in person.

"I am holding a telephone conference on Tuesday with senior members of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian civil society," Straw said in a statement released by the Foreign Office in London, reported Agence France-Press (AFP).

The Palestinians involved in the telephone conference include Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath, and Finance Minister Salam Fayad, Straw said.

Israel and Britain have been at loggerheads since Monday, January 6, when the Israeli government put a travel ban on the Palestinians in response to a double bombing which killed 23 people plus the two bombers the day before in Tel Aviv.

"I regret the Israeli decision to prevent Palestinians from traveling to London to discuss this agenda," he said.

"The prime minister (Tony Blair) and I will next week go ahead with a meeting on Palestinian reform, and discuss with key Palestinians and international partners how to give new momentum to Palestinian reform," said Straw.

Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon turned down Thursday, January 9, a written plea from Blair to overturn the ban.

"This is an important initiative. The reform agenda matters too much for us to allow it to become stalled. It is vital to the search for peace," Straw said.

The statement did not mention how many, if any, international representatives -- originally invited to London next week to attend a face-to-face meeting with the Palestinian delegation -- would be involved in the telephone conference.

"We are holding consultations with leading Palestinians who are committed to reform as well as with the Quartet (Russia, the U.N., the U.S. and the EU) and other interested parties," Straw said without specifying when and where.

"The prime minister and I are also meeting participants here, including the Palestinian general delegate, Afif Safieh," he added.

Safieh, the Palestinian Authority's representative in Britain, said nothing had been finalized due to the travel ban.

"The formula is still under discussion between our two parties, most simply because we are trying to act after Sharon has torpedoed the initiative," he told AFP.

"Unfortunately I cannot give anything more precise because it's an idea in the making," said Safieh.

Straw said Tuesday's talks would help the Palestinians prepare for the implementation of a "roadmap" drawn up by the Quartet with the aim of realizing a full Palestinian statehood by 2005.

Delegates would discuss political, judicial, administrative, economic and constitutional reform.

Discussion of the current violence will focus on the impact the security context has on reform efforts, rather than on detailed measures to stop killings in the region.

"We will take stock of our next steps after the Israeli elections and intend to have a further meeting as soon as the Palestinian delegates are allowed to travel," the statement said.

"We will help whenever we can to move the process forward and deliver security and justice for Palestinians and Israelis," it concluded.

Britain's ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles, was likely to meet Sharon over the weekend, Blair's official spokesman said earlier Friday, without confirming when.

Cairo, Riyadh and Amman consult on London conference

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher consulted Friday with his Saudi and Jordanian counterparts Prince Saud al-Faisal and Marwan Moasher about the London conference, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

Maher spoke by phone with Prince Saud and Moasher on "the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and (British) Prime Minister Tony Blair's invitation to the conference in London," it said.

Maher stressed that "for Egypt any discussion on Palestinian reforms cannot happen independent of a halt to Israeli attacks."

Egypt has not yet indicated if it will participate in the London conference.

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Friday January 10, 2003

Sharon Rebuffs Blair Over Conference

LONDON/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Britain said yesterday Israel had rebuffed Prime Minister Tony Blair’s personal plea to let Palestinians attend Middle East peace talks in London next week but vowed that dialogue would go ahead “in one form or another”.

In a sign of growing tension between the two countries, Blair’s spokesman said Israel had delivered its response after postponing a planned meeting between the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Britain’s ambassador.

The rebuff places the conference, which had been scheduled for next week, in doubt, although Downing Street said it would go ahead later this month with the Palestinians participating by video link.

Sharon’s office contacted Downing Street directly on the issue, although the British ambassador is scheduled to meet the Israeli leader only today to deliver Blair’s request in person. The Israeli Cabinet took the decision to prevent members of the Palestinian Authority traveling to London from the Occupied Territories in response to the bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

“The Israeli position remains unchanged and we equally are committed to continuing the process of dialogue with the Palestinians and we will be reflecting on how we can continue to do that as soon as possible, within the original time span,” Blair’s spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Supreme Court decided yesterday to overturn a ban on two Israeli Arab MPs running in the elections, defusing fears of a creeping “apartheid” in the Jewish state, but relations between the two communities remained tense.

Ahmad Tibi as well as Azmi Bishara and his Balad party, had been disqualified last week by the Central Electoral Commission on the grounds that they supported “Palestinian terror”.

The Supreme Court’s 11 judges also allowed former extremist anti-Arab activist Baruch Marzel to run on the ultranationalist Herut party list, rejecting the Labor Party’s appeal against the commission’s decision to validate his candidacy.

Tibi, who will run for the Communist party Hadash, was accused by the commission of “supporting terrorist organizations which commit anti-Israeli attacks”. Tibi told reporters the Supreme Court’s verdict had “put an end, albeit temporarily, on the right wing’s attacks against the minority”.

A corruption scandal embroiling Sharon turned Israel’s election campaign into an open race yesterday after opinion polls showed support for his front-running Likud party plummeting. The scandal has fired up a lackluster campaign in the run-up to voting in which opinion polls had originally forecast the extreme right-wing Likud would crush its main opponent, the center-left Labor Party. (Agencies)

-[Arab News (arabnews.com).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Thursday January 9, 2003

Duisenberg: Israeli occupation worse than Nazi occupation of Netherlands

By Reuters

AMSTERDAM - A Dutch Jewish group on Friday called on European Central Bank chief Wim Duisenberg to distance himself from "disturbing and highly controversial" statements by his pro-Palestinian wife during a visit to the Middle East.

Europe's top central banker waded into an escalating row over his activist wife Gretta Duisenberg earlier this week after she met Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and urged Israel to stop occupying the West Bank and Gaza strip.

Gretta Duisenberg, head of Dutch group "Stop the Occupation," has been attacked by the Israeli and Dutch governments as biased. Her mission has reportedly split over concerns its message was being obscured by the Duisenberg commotion.

The Duisenberg controversy deepened on Friday when she was quoted by a Dutch newspaper comparing Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza with Nazi Germany's occupation of the Netherlands during World War Two.

"With the exception of the Holocaust, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian areas is worse than the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands," she was quoted as saying in an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad daily newspaper.

"The cruelty of the Israelis has no limits. That they are blowing up houses of Palestinians is not rare. The Nazis never went that far during the occupation of the Netherlands," she reportedly told the Algemeen Dagblad.

Gretta Duisenberg, who last year created a storm of controversy and received a death threat after she flew a Palestinian flag from her Amsterdam family home, could not be reached for comment.


Wim Duisenberg earlier this week lent support to his wife in a letter to Dutch foreign minister who had criticized her use of a diplomatic passport for her trip, saying that he was 100 percent behind her.

The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), one of the most prominent Jewish organizations in the Netherlands, called on Wim Duisenberg in an open letter to clarify whether he supported his wife's controversial remarks.

"These statements by your wife are disturbing and highly controversial," CIDI said.

"The ECB derives its strength from operating independently from any political debate. But if we take your remark in your letter that you are 100 percent behind your wife at face value, we must conclude you approve," the group said.

The United States, Israel's guardian ally, this month joined a chorus of international criticism at Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes which have been denounced as "collective" punishment by Palestinians and human rights groups.

The Organization of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands said Gretta Duisenberg's comments had not served the peace process in the Middle East but had polarized opinions. It roundly condemned comments in the newspaper interview.

"It's a disgrace. It's really an insult to those Jews and non-Jews who perished...," a spokesman said.

Cheshin pulls plug on PM's press conference broadcast

By Gideon Alon, Anat Balint, and Amnon Barzilai, Ha'aretz 

The political arena was in an uproar last night after Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin, acting in his capacity as chairman of the Central Elections Commitee, ordered all three television stations, Israel Radio and Army Radio to turn off the live broadcasts of a press conference by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The press conference was billed as Sharon's response, "with documents and facts," to the recent allegations about a $1.5 million loan granted to Sharon's sons by his long-time friend Cyril Kern to help them pay back illegal contributions to Sharon's campaign for the Likud leadership in 1999.

But a few minutes into the live broadcast, Cheshin decided that Sharon's opening speech - before he began answering questions from the press - was actually election propaganda, as the prime minister launched into an all-out assault on the Labor Party, charging that it had conspired "with those that help it" to topple the government, and that the conspiracy began when the party quit his government last fall.

The law explicitly forbids the electronic media - television and radio - to broadcast election propaganda for 60 days before the elections, and as chairman of the CEC, Cheshin has the authority to decide on his own what is and is not campaign propaganda. Thus Cheshin did not need to ask Sharon to cease his press conference, which in fact continued for another half hour; he merely ordered all three television stations and both radio stations to cease their live broadcasts.

Likud campaign manager Ehud Olmert responded that Cheshin's decision "to gag the prime minister" fit into the overall "conspiracy" against Sharon. "He's been tainted and smeared for ten days. Labor calls him a mafioso and the head of organized crime in Israel. Therefore, even if he were to speak differently, Labor would have attacked his performance." Olmert added that "obviously, for Likud supporters, gagging Sharon only sharpens their sense of solidarity. The more the press deals with this, the more it will strengthen the Likud."

Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz said that Labor would demand equal time for its leader, Amram Mitzna, to respond to Sharon's allegations against Mitzna personally and Labor in general. Mitzna was in London yesterday for a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Labor's line last night, as expressed by outgoing Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, is that Sharon should "either go to the police and answer all their questions or resign. A Labor Party prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, resigned over a much less serious matter."

The dramatic cutaway from the press conference shocked the audiences at home watching - and the news stations themselves.

Channel Two News Company CEO Shalom Kital said: "There was clearly electioneering in the speech, but we were waiting for him to reach his responses to the accusations. Oddly, when he finally reached the relevant information, we were asked to turn off the broadcast."

At Army Radio, Avi Benayahu, the commander of the station, added: "I think the public was anticipating the prime minister's speech to get answers, and so was the media. I think the prime minister tried to give answers. But I'm in no position to intervene in a decision made by the justice and the minute he gave the order, we obeyed."

Asked why he allowed the Sharon broadcast to go on as Sharon attacked Labor and its candidate, Amram Mitzna, Channel One's director, Yossi Meshulam, replied: "It's up to the judge. We aren't the censor."

Court lets Bishara, Tibi and Marzel run for Knesset

By Moshe Reinfeld, Ha'aretz 

Eleven Supreme Court justices yesterday overturned the Central Elections Commitee's decision to disqualify Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara and Bishara's Balad Party from running in the January 28 elections. However, it upheld the decision to allow far-right candidate Baruch Marzel to run, as well as the decision to disqualify Likud candidates Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Feiglin on technical grounds.

The justices unanimously voted to uphold Mofaz's disqualification and to reverse that of Tibi. Only one justice, Edmond Levy, opposed Feiglin's disqualification. Seven justices supported allowing Bishara and Balad to run, while four were opposed: Shlomo Levine, Tova Strasberg-Cohen, Yaacov Turkel and Levy. In Marzel's case, the judges also split 7-4, with Levine, Strasberg-Cohen, Dorit Beinisch and Ayala Procaccia voting against a Marzel candidacy. The panel, which was headed by Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, will issue the reasons for its decisions at a later date.

The court's most sensitive rulings concerned the Arab politicians. The CEC disqualified Balad and Bishara for rejecting Israel's character as a Jewish state, in violation of the Basic Law on the Knesset. The CEC also contended that in speeches delivered in Syria and Umm al-Fahm, Bishara supported armed attacks by terror groups. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein supported the CEC's decision on Balad and Bishara, but he objected to its decision to disqualify Tibi on account of his public support for Yasser Arafat, which it viewed as supporting terrorism.

Tibi said yesterday that he was extremely pleased with the decision, praising the court for "blocking the anti-democratic avalanche of the right-wing."

"It is not easy to be an Arab in the state of Israel, especially over the past two years, and especially the last few weeks," he said.

Added Bishara: "There was no legality whatsoever in the [original CEC] decision." Bishara also accused the right-wing political parties of presenting the original complaints against the Arab candidates in order to get publicity. He called on Rubinstein "to draw personal conclusions" from the court's rejection of Bishara's ban, which Rubinstein had strongly advocated, even submitting material from the Shin Bet security service to bolster the case against him.

Bishara, Tibi and Marzel were all challenged on the basis of Article 7 of the Basic Law on the Knesset, which states that candidates for Knesset cannot oppose the Jewish and democratic character of the state, preach racism or support armed attacks by an enemy state or terrorist organization.

Marzel, a past leader of the outlawed Kach movement, told the CEC that he had abandoned Kach's positions and now follows the political line advocated by Herut, the most right-wing party in the outgoing Knesset. He said after the ruling that he would "fight hard against the Arabs in the Knesset," and during a victory tour in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, praised the late Meir Kahane, founder of Kach, as "a great Jew."

Although disappointed with the ruling, Moshe Feiglin said he was happy that "the same body that approved the candidacies of those responsible for the murder of Jews didn't approve my candidacy." Feiglin, elected to a slot on the Likud list by the party's Central Committee, was blocked from running because he was convicted of sedition for his civil disobedience campaign against the Rabin government in the early days of the Oslo agreement. Since the court defined this as a crime of "moral turpitude," the conviction precluded him from running for elected office.

Mofaz said that he honored and respected the court's decision. The court agreed with the chairman of the CEC, Justice Mishael Cheshin, that Mofaz was not eligible to run because he will not have been out of uniform for the requisite six months by the time the Knesset elections take place.

Israel Asks South Africa to Investigate Sharon Loan

Delia Robertson

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has received an official request from the Israeli attorney general to investigate a large loan made to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by a businessman living in South Africa. At issue is whether Sharon used the loan to repay an illegal political contribution to his 1999 political campaign.

South African justice minister Penuell Maduna is reviewing the documents received from Israel and is expected to announce his decision on the request to further investigate the loan by the end of next week. His spokesman said the Israeli attorney general has asked that the matter receive urgent attention.

The businessman who made the loan, Cyril Kern, told VOA he lent money to Sharon's sons who needed the funds for the family farm that they manage for their father. Kern said he and Sharon are close friends who maintain frequent contact and that his assistance was no more than that given between longstanding friends. He said the loan, reported to be $1.5 million, has been repaid with interest.

Kern has known the Israeli leader since 1948, when the two served together in Israel's army. He said that he is a British citizen and that he has no interest in Israeli politics.

But reports from Israel say the money may have been used as collateral for bank loans taken out by Sharon to repay illegal contributions to his Likud party's 1999 election campaign. Foreign political funding is illegal in Israel.

The report of the loan was disclosed earlier this week by the left of center Ha'aretz newspaper and comes only weeks ahead of general election in Israel. Since the disclosure, Sharon's Likud Party has slipped significantly in the polls but still leads other parties.

Sharon has dismissed the allegations as political libel with the aim of unseating him as prime minister. He says he will demonstrate his innocence in a television address scheduled for later Thursday.

-[VOANews (voanews.com).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Wednesday January 8, 2003

Israelis Kill Palestinian Teenager to Demolish Home

NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli occupation soldiers shot dead a Palestinian early Wednesday, January 8, in the village of Saida, near Tulkarem, in the north of the West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said.

They said Ahmad Ajaj, 18, was on the roof of a building near a house which the soldiers were in the process of demolishing when one of the Israelis opened fire on him, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Earlier another Palestinian was shot dead in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

Aiman Ahnadok, 30, was shot in the head in Khan Yunis, only a few hundred meters (yards) from the Neve Dekalim Jewish settlement, AFP said.

The latest deaths took to 2,842 the number of victims in the 27-month intifada or Palestinian uprising, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinians.

Since August, Israel has blown up more than 100 houses in the West Bank in what it says is a bid to dissuade resistance fighters. The policy has been strongly criticized by human rights groups who see it as collective punishment.

“See This Sound Bomb?”

On Tuesday, January 7, Israeli occupation troops stopped two taxis near the West Bank town of Ramallah, forcing the passengers out and throwing a percussion grenade at them and a tear-gas grenade into one vehicle, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

The soldiers in an armored personnel carrier (APC), stopped a communal taxi carrying around 10 passengers and forced them out.

When an AFP reporter traveling in the taxi told one of the soldiers in English he was a journalist, the soldier held up a sound bomb and said: “I don’t care. See this sound bomb? The pin is pulled and I just have to take my finger off.”

Then another soldier stopped a second taxi, which was not carrying passengers, and threw a tear-gas grenade inside after forcing the driver out.

After making the crowd wait half an hour longer, the first soldier threw the sound bomb at them and the troops sped away in their armored vehicle, the journalist said, adding that the crowd fled but no one was hurt.

The incident took place on a dirt track near the illegal Jewish settlement of Beit El used as alternative road by Palestinians prevented from traveling freely on the main roads.

On December 3, a 95-year-old Palestinian woman was killed when Israeli troops fired on her car in the same area.

-Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Pop Quiz on the Middle East (Revised)

By James J. David

The original Middle East Pop Quiz was published by Charley Reese back on February 8, 1998. Since then, there have been many additions to the quiz which I have added. With many thanks to Charley Reese and hoping he makes a full recovery from his recent illness, I present the updated version.

Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.

Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections?
Answer: Israel.

Q: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?
Answer: Israel.

Q: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)?
Answer: Israel.

Q: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated?
Answer: Israel.

Q: In what country in the MiddleEast was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated?
Answer: Israel.

Q: In what country in the Middle East did theman who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 171 American sailors?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union?
Answer: Israel.

Q: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon?
Answer: Israel.

Q. What Middle East country allows American Jewish murderers to flee to its country to escape punishment in the United States and refuses to extradite them once in their custody?
Answer: Israel

Q. What Middle East country preaches against hate yet builds a shrine and a memorial for a murderer who killed 29 Palestinians while they prayed in their Mosque?
Answer: Israel

Q: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders?
Answer: Israel.

Q. Which country in the Middle East deliberately targeted a U.N. Refugee Camp in Qana, Lebanon and killed 103 innocent men, women, and especially children?
Answer: Israel

Q: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S. vetoes?
Answer: Israel.

Q. Which country in the Middle East receives more than one-thind of all U.S. aid yet is the 16th richest country in the world?
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East receives U.S. weapons for free and then sells the technology to the Republic of China even at the objections of the U.S.?
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East routinely insults the American people by having its Prime Minister address the United States Congress and lecturing them like children on why they have no right to reduce foreign aid?
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East had its Prime Minister announce to his staff not to worry about what the United States says because " We control America?"
Answer: Israel

Q. What country in the Middle East was cited by Amnesty International for demolishing more than 4000 innocent Palestinian homes as a means of ethnic cleansing.
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East has just recently used a weapon of mass destruction, a one-ton smart bomb, dropping it in the center of a highly populated area killing 15 civilians including 9 children?
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East routinely kills young Palestinian children for no reason other than throwing stones at armored vehichles, bulldozers, or tanks?
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East signed the Oslo Accords promising to halt any new Jewish Settlement construction, but instead, has built more than 270 new settlements since the signing?
Answer: Israel

Q. Which country in the Middle East has assassinated more than 100 political officials of its opponent in the last 2 years while killing hundreds of civilians in the process, including dozens of children?
Answer: Israel

Q.. Which country in the Middle East regularly violates the Geneva Convention by imposing collective punishment on entire towns, villages, and camps, for the acts of a few, and even goes as far as demolishing entire villages while people are still in their homes?
Answer: Israel

James J. David is a retired Brigadier General and a graduate of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, and the National Security Course, National Defense University, Washington DC. He served as a Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division in the Republic of Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and also served nearly 3 years of Army active duty in and around the Middle East from 1967-1969.)

Netanyahu: Likud will expel Arafat if party wins elections

By Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz Service and Agencies

If the Likud wins the coming elections it will remove Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat from the region, Army Radio quoted Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying Wednesday.

"If you want to continue with Arafat, vote for Labor," Netanyahu told a Likud conference. "If you want to get rid of Arafat, vote for Likud, because that is what a Likud government will do."

Arafat is indeed "irrelevant," Labor Party Chairman Amram Mitzna said earlier Wednesday, but Israel must nevertheless conduct negotiations with him.

Speaking to students at the College of Administration in Rishon Letzion, Mitzna said that Arafat "is irrelevant, both to us and to the Palestinians. Nevertheless, we must speak with whatever leadership the Palestinians choose."

Mitzna therefore reiterated that if he is elected prime minister, he will negotiate with Arafat.

"We are living in a country in which not one single thing is run as it should be," Mitzna continued. "It is possible to distance the government from corruption, it is possible to connect the public with the leadership.

"We are living in a country that is abandoning its residents. We have no security, because we are not building a fence due to political considerations. To return to ourselves, we must give up our delusions and the biggest delusion of all is the Land of Israel. When there are no diplomatic initiatives, there is no economic growth and therefore we are not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel."

Mitzna also attacked Shinui, calling it "a party without a path, that is anti almost everything: anti-Haredim, anti-Arab, anti-women, anti-kibbutzniks. This is a bubble that will burst the day after the elections. Shinui would sit in a government with [far-rightist representatives Avigdor] Lieberman and Effi Eitam as long as there were no Haredim in it."

Tuesday January 7, 2003

Police probe how and why $1.5M from mystery man
got to PM Sharon's sons

By Baruch Kra, Ha'aretz Correspondent

The State Attorney's office has asked the South African Justice Ministry for help in an investigation of how and why Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received $1.5 million from a South African citizen to serve as collateral for a loan his sons Omri and Gilad took out to pay back a company from which Sharon received illegal campaign contributions during his primaries campaign for the Likud leadership. The state's written request implies that Sharon and his son Gilad deliberately deceived the State Comptroller and the police when they were questioned about how Sharon intended to repay the money, as ordered by the State Comptroller.

The Prime Minister's Office last night chose not to comment on this report.

In October 2001, the State Comptroller issued a report on shell companies that allegedly financed Sharon's campaign for the party leadership in 1999. The suspicions against Sharon were that he violated the party financing law, which is not a criminal offense.

However, Ha'aretz has learned that other suspicions, far more serious, have been raised about Sharon and his sons: the three are suspected of allegedly receiving bribes, fraud and breach of trust, as well as deceiving the State Comptroller and police. The Sharon family has not yet been questioned about the new suspicions.

The origins of the affair are in the campaign Sharon ran against Benjamin Netanyahu for the Likud leadership in May 1999. State Comptroller Justice Eliezer Goldberg issued a report in October 2001 covering all the election campaigns of the year, and revealed that payments to various professionals who worked for Sharon's campaign were channeled through shell companies, including a company called Annex Research, established before the Sharon campaign by Sharon's attorney - and now his bureau chief - Dov Weisglass.

Sharon was instructed by the State Comptroller to repay NIS 4.7 million to Annex, out of a total of NIS 5.9 million that the company paid to Sharon campaign professionals. According to the letter sent to the South African Justice Ministry, a few days after the Goldberg report was issued, on October 4, 2001, Sharon handed over a first check of NIS 500,000 to the company. Immediately after that, says the document, Gilad and Omri Sharon, the prime minister's sons, began seeking the rest of the sum.

To that end, Gilad Sharon went to the Leumi Bank branch in Sderot, where the family accounts are kept, and on October 22 asked for a NIS 4.2 million loan, the remainder of what his father was supposed to pay back to Annex Research. In exchange for the loan, it was agreed that Gilad would mortgage the family-owned Sycamore Ranch. The loan was granted, and the next day, the prime minister handed over NIS 4.2 million to Annex research.

But when the bank began processing the mortgage application, it discovered that it is impossible to mortgage the ranch because it is leased property owned by the Israel Lands Administration. The bank demanded an alternative arrangement to the mortgage, or the money back, so the Sharon family had to find another solution - and found it in South Africa.

A police investigation learned that a South African man named Cyril Kern transferred $1.49 million to Gilad and Omri Sharon, on January 15, 2002, from a bank account in Austria, through the JP Morgan Bank in New York, and into the Sharon brothers' account in a Discount Bank branch on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard.

With that money in hand, the Sharon brothers could take another loan to pay back the one taken from the Sderot branch of Leumi. The Kern money served as collateral for a NIS 4.2 million loan the brothers took on April 30, 2002, from Discount Bank in Tel Aviv. That same day, the money was transferred from the Discount branch in Tel Aviv to the Sderot branch of the Leumi bank and the original loan was repaid. The Sharon family's loan from the Discount Bank is due by April 30, 2003.

While all this was going on, the police were investigating the shell companies, and eight days before the sons took the second loan, Prime Minister Sharon was questioned by national fraud squad police at his official residence in Jerusalem. He was asked, among other things, if he repaid the money to Annex Research, as ordered by the State Comptroller, and how he did so. Sharon is now suspected of lying to the investigators when he said that he took a loan from the Leumi bank branch in Sderot and in exchange mortgaged the Sycamore Ranch, hiding from the police the information about the money his sons received from Kern.

The document sent by the Israeli Justice Ministry to the South African Justice Ministry includes suspicions the prime minister was not fully forthcoming during the questioning that took place on April 22 at his residence. "On April 22, it was already known to all involved that it was impossible to mortgage the ranch in exchange for the loan," says the letter, "therefore, the ranch could not be mortgaged to pay back the hundreds of thousands of dollars borrowed from the Sderot bank. Despite this, when Sharon was asked by the police how he organized the large payment to Annex, he replied that the payment was made possible as a result of mortgaging the ranch. Mr. Kern was not mentioned, nor was the money that was transferred or loaned by him."

In response to various questions, Sharon referred the police investigators to his son Omri. For example, when asked about Annex's sources of money, Sharon replied: "It's financial sources? I never dealt with those financial issues. I think there is one person who might know, and that's Omri." When his interrogators argued that Omri had chosen to remain silent, Sharon responded: "Look, Omri's a big boy; he needs to decide by himself."

The letter to the South African Justice Ministry also describes suspicious activity by the other son, Gilad. After paying back the Sderot loan, Gilad was asked to sign a statement clarifying the source of the money paid to cover the loan, as required by the money laundering law. "It must be noted," says the letter to the South African Justice Ministry, "that Gilad Sharon tried to avoid signing the document in the bank, according to which he received the money from a lender named Cyril Kern. In effect, Gilad only signed the declaration after the Israeli police began its investigation and began asking questions at the aforementioned banks (Leumi in Sderot and Discount in Tel Aviv - B.K.)." Indeed, the signature on the declaration regarding the source of the money came only four months after the money was paid back.

In its letter to the South African Justice Ministry, the State Attorney asks the South African authorities to question Kern, since the police and prosecution in Israel have no information about him - or even proof he exists. The state attorneys make clear in their letter to South Africa that the suspicions are that the financial connection between Sharon and Kern are illegal, and that Sharon is suspected of receiving bribes, fraud and breach of trust. "The purpose and circumstances of the `loan' (quotation marks in the original - B.K.) by Mr. Kern must be clarified by an Israeli police investigation," says the letter.

As far as is known as of last night, the South Africans have yet to respond to the Israeli Justice Ministry request.

Ha'aretz contacted a man by the name of Cyril Kern in South Africa, who confirmed that he has a personal connection with Sharon. Asked by Ha'aretz about the loan, the man responded "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm afraid that too many stories are coming up in Israel right now." Are you a businessman? he was asked. "I am very sorry, I am an honest citizen and I am not interested in continuing this conversation," he answered.

Labor looks to exploit police probe on Sharon family

By Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz Correspondent

The Labor Party's campaign staff Tuesday discussed the possible implications of the report published by Ha'aretz regarding a police investigation into alleged improprieties surrounding a $1.5 million loan received by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's sons from a South African friend of the family.

According to one of the campaign leaders: "This is our only chance. A daily focus on these types of scandals is the only way to continue to chip away at the Likud's strength and, on the other hand, build up the strength of the Labor Party."

Party chairman Amram Mitzna had already referred to Sharon as "the Godfather" and his sons as "the Family" in earlier statements. Mitzna called on the prime minister to resign Tuesday, saying that with each new suspicion of corruption, "Sharon is slowly losing his legitimacy." He also called on Sharon to resign or else give his own version of the alleged events.

The campaign staff decided Tuesday to incorporate the allegations disclosed in the Ha'aretz report in its election advertisements and in campaign speeches by senior Labor officials. The party has already prepared an advertisement focusing on Sharon and his son Omri, who is a candidate on the Likud's Knesset list. (Omri's name has appeared prominently in reports of alleged vote-buying schemes and other suspected improprieties surrounding the Likud central committee's election of the party's Knesset slate.)

The commercial shows the prime minister insisting that his son Omri is not involved in any of the alleged misdeeds of the central committee. The advertisement then displays headlines linking Omri to former convict Shlomi Oz, who resigned last week from the Likud central committee.

Another commercial will focus on a report published by Yedioth Ahronoth about a lucrative "consulting" job provided to Sharon's other son, Gilad, by the contractor David Appel. Ariel Sharon was serving as foreign minister at the time, and Appel was seeking to close a deal on purchasing a Greek island for development of a gambling resort.

"It's a shame that the Sharon does not look after the future of our children like he looks after the future of his children," one Labor Party leader quipped Tuesday.

Jingle to a miserable failure

By Yoel Marcus, Ha'aretz

As election broadcasting kicks off today, Israel is like the kid from the old joke whose father smacks him in the face for getting an "A" in singing. "All these `Fs' on your report card," bellows the father, "and you're still in the mood to sing?"

Over the next 20 days, Israel will be listening to jingles and slogans composed by the finest songwriters and advertising pros. The country is collapsing - and they'll be serenading us with promises and dishing out dirt in rhymed couplets.

Did we say collapsing? Has anyone noticed how popular this word has become in the last few months? The governor of the Bank of Israel is talking about it; the heads of the economy are talking about it. It's all over the place. Some other terms that have become part of the public lexicon in the Sharon era are "banana republic" and "shades of Argentina."

With the recent discovery of corruption in the form of vote-buying, for cash or its equivalent pilfered from the public purse, the 1977 rallying cry, "With the corrupt, we're fed up!" has resurfaced as: "Racketeer, get outta here!" The father, the son and the scent of moolah. The godfathers, the deals, the ex-cons past and present, the buying and selling of votes: A country in the midst of social, economic, political and military turmoil, now suffering from moral rot for good measure - and they're singing jingles.

Things are happening to us that are hard to digest: A local Tel Aviv paper reported last weekend that Yossi Beilin and Avigdor Lieberman took part in a debate that ended with these far-left and far-right politicians concurring on two issues. Neither of them is sure that the State of Israel will exist 20 years from now, and both agree that Sharon is less interested in coming up with a solution than in sitting tight. This is tough stuff, corroborated by a recent survey showing that 50 percent of Israel's secular young people do not think they'll be living here in 10 years.

With grim forecasts like these, do the jingles and campaign slogans stand any chance of convincing us to put our trust yet again in Sharon, the patriarch of false election promises?

The corruption that has suddenly erupted like molten lava only adds to the miserable failure of our prime minister as the leader and chief executive of this country. Sharon's rise to power was the fulfillment of a personal dream, a way of thumbing his nose at all those who thought he was not worthy of promotion or cut out for any job beyond the one he was already doing.

He was not fit to be chief of staff, and won the defense portfolio only because Ezer Weizman ran off, leaving an empty chair. He was fired in the end, but not before causing damage that made our lives hell for 18 years. He became prime minister without a clear doctrine, and has no programs lined up in any sphere.

Looking back, the highest death tolls since the Yom Kippur War in 1973 were recorded during Sharon's two terms in public office - as defense minister and as prime minister.

Sharon has all the trappings of a leader: He projects credibility; he gives the impression of having the power and the know-how to reach decisions. But in his 22 months as prime minister, he has done everything except lead the country.

True, a person can get sick of reading, writing and hearing about Sharon's election pledges to bring peace and security. But what can you do? Instead of wiping out terror, he has dragged the country into an almost full-scale war with the Palestinian Authority and the reoccupation of Gaza. His orders to step up the battle against terrorism have created a situation in which Hamas has lost its monopoly on terror. Now, every young Palestinian is a potential suicide bomber.

Blowing up houses, humiliation, violation of human rights, excessive force - all these have produced a cycle of hatred that is very hard to break. Because of Sharon, the prospects of a settlement are further away than ever. He has turned Israel into an occupier in the eyes of the world, ostracized and undesirable wherever it turns. Go figure out the mentality of a public that allowed this man to win a landslide victory.

The wave of corruption and vote-buying, paid for with the money and assets of the state, has left a trail all the way to the door of his house - and this at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are sunk in poverty and unemployment. The "blind goats" would do well to wake up from their illusions and make sure the slide in the surveys continues.

A person who is prepared to sacrifice the security and economic well-being of the country, and has no qualms about corrupting public morals to stay in power, is not worthy of being prime minister.

PNA Names Official Palestinian Delegation to London Despite Israeli Bar

RAMALLAH - The Palestine National Authority (PNA) has named the official Palestinian delegation to the meeting due on January 13 in London, despite an Israeli decision to bar the senior Palestinian officials from holding talks with Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

In a letter to the British Consul General in Jerusalem, Geoffrey Adams on Monday, PNA Minister of Culture and Information, Yasser Abed Rabbo named the official Palestinian delegation members to attend the London conference as follows:

Yasser Abed Rabbo: Head of delegation

Nabil Sha’ath: Minister of Planning and Cooperation

Sa’eb Erekat: Minister of Local Government

Nabil Qassis: Minister of Tourism and Antiquities

Hani al-Hassan: Minister of interior

Salam Fayyad: Minister of Finance


Blair, who had invited President Yasser Arafat to send a Palestinian delegation for a meeting at the English capital, said the meeting was aimed at discussing the peace process and internal reforms within the PNA.

This summit is an integral part of the reform process the ‘Quartet’ of peace mediators-- comprising of the US, EU, UN and Russia-- have been pressing for.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

In Rafah, 22 Home Demolished

By Kristen Ess in Rafah

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - (PalestineChronicle.com) - Staying home for Palestinians in Rafah is not only a necessity; it has become a prime act of resistance. Last night Israeli Apache helicopters shot missiles into Rafah. This is a city that the Israeli's have demolished nearly 700 homes in.

Israeli soldiers in heavily armoured tanks are shooting at the hundreds of Palestinian children who peer around corners of their devastated refugee camps to watch the construction of the separation wall. The wall is 8 metres high and 10 metres deep. The house demolition is somehow justified by the Israeli government as a necessity for the construction of this apartheid wall.

But even so, the house demolition is spreading far away from the wall, further into the city.

In Block J Israeli soldiers climbed atop houses abandoned by Palestinian families because of the danger and shot into the houses that people still lived in. The Israeli military wired some of the empty houses with explosives and blew them up. They shot tank shells and tank bullets into the houses and throughout the camp. They destroyed 10 houses in one small area.

All told they destroyed 22 in one night. Palestinian families spent the morning moving their belongings from their homes. The destruction of the row of houses in front of another is the demolition order, because once the row in front of you is gone, you are next. The actual demolition comes without warning now. Just a single tank shell fired straight into your house and you must run. Grab your children and scatter into the night. The demolitions have been coming around 2 am lately, but day before yesterday Israeli soldiers spent the day grinding into the middles of the camp.

One family took a stand by pitching a tent amidst the destruction where their house once was. International activists joined the family and another returned to their home. International activists also took over a home that a Palestinian family had to vacate because of the constant Israeli shooting. The Palestinian man who stayed in the one room left standing in his home, the kitchen, is now homeless. An Israeli bulldozer plowed through his kitchen.

Somehow able to convince many in the international community that the occupiers are the victims of the occupied, the Israeli military government is undertaking the most successful propaganda campaigns in history.

Palestinians who stay home, defying arbitrary house demolition orders, are considered fighters now. And at the same time, Palestinians must beg Israeli permission to leave their homes or their towns, to control their water or electricity, to harvest their crops, to go to work or school, to live. This is a military occupation, illegal under international law, condemned by international law, but is allowed to continue.

[Palestine Chronicle (palestinechronicle.com).]

Monday January 6, 2003

PNA Welcomes Mitzna’s Pledge to Negotiate 'Without Preconditions'

RAMALLAH - The Palestine National Authority (PNA) on Friday welcomed the Israeli Labor party chief Amran Mitzna’s pledge to re-start peace negotiations with the Palestinian side "without preconditions" if he wins the general elections later this month.

"I would re-start the peace negotiations without preconditions," Mitzna said about Palestinian-Israeli talks, which have been suspended since January 2001, while also refusing to rule out direct talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

"If (Arafat) telephones me after the elections it's obvious I would answer him. The important thing is that there are no preconditions for negotiations," he said.

Mitzna added that the negotiations would be conducted along the lines of "large themes" discussed during the Camp David summit.

In July 2000, the then US president Bill Clinton hosted the Camp David summit, which was attended by Arafat and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.

PNA chief negotiator Sa’eb Erekat on Saturday welcomed Mitzna’s pledge to resume negotiations without conditions and his willingness to deal with the elected president of the Palestinian people.

In a statement, Erekat stressed that re-starting negotiations from where they ended in Taba in 2001 is a cornerstone for the resumption of final-status talks, so as not to waste more efforts and time.

The shortest path to peace and security is the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, withdrawal from the territories Israel occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and solving the Palestinian refugees’ issue according to UN resolution 194, Erekat added.

Mitzna said that his government would present a peace plan close to the one presented by Clinton about six months before the failed summit.

That plan called for the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing about 96 percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

He also reaffirmed his intention, if elected, to unilaterally withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip and dismantle isolated Jewish settlements in the West Bank, whatever the outcome of negotiations.

Israeli President seeks new strategy

Meanwhile, Israeli President Moshe Katsav on Friday made a powerful call for a "new strategy" to end more than two years of violence that has cost close to 3,000 lives.

He suspected the solutions offered by the Israeli left and right in their election manifestos were redundant.

“I don't see a solution to the problem of terrorism coming from the left nor the right. We need a new strategy," Katsav, a former member of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party, told army radio.

"The time has come to examine whether Israel is heading in the right direction," Katsav said without indicating what this new direction might be.

Mitzna trails Prime Minister and the leader of rival Likud party Ariel Sharon by a wide margin in the polls for the January 28 elections despite the fact Sharon's right-wing party has been hit by a cash-for-votes scandal.

A new poll shows the Likud Party would win 31 seats in the Jan. 28 elections, compared to a poll three weeks ago that found it would receive 41 of the Israeli parliament's 120 seats.

The poll, published Thursday in the Ha’aretz daily, indicated Likud and its hard-line allies could still form a majority coalition after the election, giving Sharon another term in office. Israelis do not vote directly for prime minister, casting their ballots for parties instead.

The scandal is distracting attention from what was expected to be the main campaign issue -- more than two years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. Sharon has directed an escalating military crackdown on the Palestinians, ruling out negotiations until violence stops. Mitzna of Labor, favors restarting peace talks immediately and drawing Israel's borders unilaterally if negotiations fail.

The Ha’aretz poll interviewed 527 people and had a 4.3 percent margin of error.

A poll of 1,367 respondents in the Ma’ariv daily predicted Likud would win 34 seats. The poll gave no margin of error.

Likud has been gradually slumping in polls since police began investigating allegations of bribery, payoffs and other corruption during the party's selection process for candidates for parliament.

The party has also faced charges that criminal figures have infiltrated the party's 2,940-member central committee, which picked the candidates in a November 28 vote.

Despite the corruption charges, Likud is still leading, with its closest rival, Mitzna's Labor Party, predicted to win 22 seats, according to the Ha’aretz poll.

The Shinui Party, campaigning on clean government and opposition to benefits for ultra-Orthodox Jews, would be the third-largest faction, winning 14 seats, the poll predicted.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, widely expected to lose many of its 17 seats, is slowly gaining support in the polls, up to 11 seats, three of them apparently from disgruntled Likud voters, Ha’aretz found.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Tibi to 'Arab Israelis': Participate En Mass in Upcoming Polls

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - "Arab Israeli" parliament member Ahmed Tibi -- banned from running in Israel’s upcoming election along with fellow Arab MP Azmi Bishara -- called on 'Arab Israelis' Saturday to participate “en masse” in the Israeli polls in order prevent a victory for right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“Anyone who doesn't vote to express his anger at the disqualification (of Arab MPs) is giving a present to Sharon and to the right,” Tibi told a crowd of some 10,000 Arab Israelis gathered in the northern town of Nazareth to protest Israel’s decision to ban him and Bishara from running in the parliament election.

The decision was taken earlier this week by Israel’s right-wing dominated electoral commission, which barred both leaders from running in the January 28 elections on grounds that the two held “anti-Israeli” positions.

Demonstrators carried banners denouncing the commission’s decision, which will be contested next week in the Supreme Court by both Tibi and Bishara.

“The right wants to prevent the Arabs from voting in order to guarantee a victory for Sharon and his camp,” Tibi told the crowd.

“They want to remove the Arabs from the Knesset (Israel’s parliaments) as a prelude to banishing them from the country,” he added.

For his part, the Arab Israeli deputy Mohammed Barakeh said, “The attempts by the (Israeli) authorities to isolate the Arabs from political life will fail.”

“On the contrary, their mass participation in these elections is going to be a first,” he said.

Shhweki Khatib, chairman of the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee said during the Nazareth rally that “disqualifying the Arab lists and MKs continues policies of hostility toward Arabs in Israel, and damages what is left of Israeli democracy.”

Khatib called on demonstrators to rally in front of the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem on Tuesday while the High Court reviews the decision to disqualify the Arab candidates.

In another Nazareth rally, thousands of Balad supporters demonstrated against the decision to disqualify its list and party leader Bishara. Speakers attacked Israel’s political establishment, and Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein whose goal is to keep Bishara out of the Knesset, they said.

“We face a dangerous turning point in relations between the Arab public and the state of Israel,” Bishara warned.

Israel’s Arab community counts 1.1 million people and represents about 17 percent of the voting population. The outgoing parliament includes 10 Arab-Israeli lawmakers out of a total of 120 deputies.

Meanwhile in West Jerusalem, Peace Now activists protested in front of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Residence against the disqualification Tibi and Bishara, Israel Radio reported.

On Friday, hundreds of Arabs and Jews met at Yafia, near Nazareth, to express their condemnation of the electoral committee’s decisions.

Among the participants invited by Khatib were Meretz MKs Mussi Raz and Hussniya Jabara, who joined Knesset colleagues from Hadash and the Arab parties.

Also attending were academics and delegates from various Israeli activist groups such as Peace Now and Ta’ayush.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Belgium: New Evidence of Mossad Involvement in Scientist’s Murder

BRUSSELS - Belgium said it is considering reopening the case of a Canadian scientist murdered in Brussels twelve years ago after finding new evidence that the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, were directly involved in the slaying of Dr. Gerard Bull, Ha’aretz said on Sunday.

According to the Belgian daily, Dernier Heure, Belgian police and the State Prosecutor said they had reliable information that a Mossad agent was one of Bull’s assassins. The “reliable sources” they took the information from revealed the agent, who was a member of an “elite unit”, had an item of jewelry belonging to Bull with him.

Belgium is considering sending an investigative team to the Central American country from which they received the information to probe the evidence.

A Canadian astrophysicist and metallurgist, Dr. Bull previously worked for the Canadian Defense Ministry and for the USA, during which he was working on building a cannon to launch satellites into space.

After that, he moved to Brussels where he worked as a consultant to several artillery corps of numerous countries. During the 1980s Bull helped Iraq with a project to develop a long-range cannon.

According to the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, on 22 March 1990, Bull was shot dead from close range at the entrance to his home. The two assassins escaped without taking his briefcase or any of the documents and jewelry he was carrying.

Investigators as well as members of Bull’s family suggested Bull was in contact with Israel’s intelligence services, where he provided them with inside information about the Iraqi super-gun project.

One theory was that the Mossad assassinated him for failing to provide accurate information about the Iraqi program.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

PA Warns Fatah Against Believing It Is Above Law

RAMALLAH - The Palestine Authority (PA) on Saturday warned Fatah, the largest Palestinian political party, against violating the law, “mistakenly believing it was above the other factions.”

The PA Ministry of Interior warned Fatah “against falling into the trap of mistakenly believing it was allowed what is not allowed to others.”

The Ministry in a statement regretted that “armed and masked” members of Fatah celebrated the Palestinian National Day on January 01.

“The Ministry of Interior regrets the meaningless and misplaced armed shows and is surprised at insisting on showing armed and masked elements during the celebrations of the Fatah Movement.”

The ministry, headed by Hani al-Hasan who is a leading member of Fatah Central Committee, stressed in its statement that the Palestinian “law is above all and the ministry of interior will enforce it without prejudice on all citizens regardless of political affiliation.”

The ministry summoned a number of Fatah officials “for accountability” and formed a committee representing the national security services and the interior ministry to probe non-civilians who do not abide by the law.

The ministry warned those “who consider the rational management as weakness,” indicating that “the national motives lead us to reach a formula which ensures the enforcement of law by understanding and consensus, but whoever contradicts this method will be dealt with differently within the framework of (effective) laws.”

Military shows on national occasions by Palestinian factions have increasingly become a source of popular complaint and led in many cases to tragic incidents. But more important they have facilitated the infiltration of the Israeli Occupation forces (IOF) undercover units and agents.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Sunday January 5, 2003

Gretta Duisenberg’s Delegation Arrives in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PC) - Gretta Duisenberg, wife of the President of the European Central Bank, and well-known for her firm stance against the Israeli occupation, arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday, accompanied by the other three members of her delegation.

Uncertainties concerning the Israeli authorities’ permission for the group to pass through Tel Aviv’s airport security, ended as the delegation went through customs unhindered, and reached Jerusalem without any significant delay.

The bombings in Tel Aviv on Sunday give rise to new concerns about the abilities of the group to pass through the checkpoints in the occupied territories, due to Israel’s expected toughening of traveling restrictions in the West Bank.

According to Tariq Shadid, one of the members of the delegation, the group remains “determined to realize as many of the planned meetings with humanitarian and social organizations, as possible.”

Gretta Duisenberg has embarked on a 6-day journey to the West Bank and Gaza, despite the recent expulsions of other peace workers by the Israeli authorities.

Mrs. Duisenberg, wife of European Central Bank president Wim Duisenberg, gained international attention for her support for Palestinian human rights, when she kept a Palestinian flag hanging from the balcony of her Amsterdam residence for six weeks, under heavy criticism from pro-Zionist groups, in May 2002.

Recently, in December 2002, Gretta Duisenberg received a Human Rights Award from the Belgian “League for Human Rights”, for her efforts in bringing attention to Palestinian human rights.

On her journey, she is accompanied by accomplished Dutch writer Anja Meulenbelt, who recently published a book called “A Mirror Doesn’t Lie”, a compilation of several articles by progressive Israeli writers and analysts about the backgrounds of the Israeli occupation. Also traveling with her are Mrs. Duisenberg’s secretary and media-expert Hans de Boer, and Dutch-Palestinian surgeon Dr. Tariq Shadid.

Asked earlier whether they are expecting to be allowed in by the Israeli authorities, Dr. Shadid said: “This, indeed, is a matter that is impossible to predict. There is definitely a chance that Israel will try to sabotage this peaceful mission, in the same way that it has sabotaged many other efforts that attempt to draw attention to the humanitarian disaster that Palestinians are suffering from, due to the suffocating military siege of the West Bank and Gaza. However, there is also a chance that Israel will realize that there is a limit to the extent to which it can afford to damage its media image. The more delegations and groups it denies entry to, the more it is likely to confirm the growing impression that the Sharon administration is continuously attempting to curtail efforts at displaying the reality of life under Israeli occupation.”

Israel has recently refused entry to 6 Belgians who were among a 12-member group planning to take part in a four-day "World Social Forum" in Ramallah, under the pretext that they "were likely to disturb the peace", according to a government spokesperson quoted in Ha’aretz.

Also, Angie Zelter, a British peace and human rights activist was expelled from Israel on Thursday, January 2, under the pretext that her presence was a threat to national security, her lawyer said.

On the journey, Mrs. Duisenberg’s group will meet with several social and humanitarian organizations working in the occupied territories, as well as with attempting to get a complete picture of how the Israeli occupation is affecting the life of ordinary Palestinians.

-Palestine Chronicle (palestinechronicle.com)

Friday January 3, 2003

Israel Expels Prominent British Rights Activist

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - A British peace and human rights activist was expelled from Israel Thursday, January 2, under the pretext that her presence was a threat to national security, her lawyer said.

"Angie Zelter was deported this afternoon, after a Tel Aviv district court approved the government's decision to deny her access to the Israeli territory," Shamai Leibowitz told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We appealed the decision to the Supreme Court but the judge refused to even hear the case," he added.

The 52-year-old activist, who founded the UK-based anti-nuclear organization Trident Ploughshares and is now involved in setting up the International Women Peace Service-Palestine, arrived in Israel on Sunday to testify in a criminal trial against a settler who assaulted her near Hebron in August.

"When she was denied entry at the airport, she tried to fight the deportation order, but airport security wrapped her up in a blanket and she was forced onto a departing airplane," Leibowitz said.

As she continued to shout for help, the pilot refused to take off and a Tel Aviv district court judge finally scheduled a hearing, he explained.

"The Israeli authorities are in a state of paranoia and think mistakenly that by preventing international activists from entering the territory, they will bring security, when the opposite is true," Leibowitz charged.

"These activists are trying to spread non-violent ideas among the Palestinians, and the Israeli authorities are paradoxically supporting more violence," he added.

Zelter was a co-winner of the 2001 Right Livelihood Award -- better known as "The Alternative Nobel Prize" -- together with the Israeli pro-peace group Gush Shalom.

On Friday, December 27, Israel also expelled eight Belgians heading to a Palestinian social forum in Ramallah.

The expulsions came after the Belgian government "took steps" Thursday, December 26, to seek permission for their entry into Israel via Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

The Israeli daily Ha’aretz quoted a government spokesperson said that the interior ministry had information that the foreigners, among them six women, "were likely to disturb the peace".

The Belgians were among a 12-member group planning to take part in a four-day "World Social Forum" in Ramallah, Palestinian sources said.

Israel has in recent weeks banned scores of foreign anti-globalization activists seeking to express solidarity with the Palestinian people from entering its territory and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Likud Party Losing Political Ground, Survey Says

TEL AVIV - A new survey in Israel shows the ruling Likud Party is losing ground in upcoming parliamentary elections due to an internal vote-buying scandal.

An Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz published the survey results Thursday, which predict Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party winning 31 parliament seats. A similar poll three weeks ago forecast the party would win 41 seats.

The slide is linked to allegations that Likud activists gave money to members of the party's central committee in exchange for spots on the party's list of candidates for parliament. Israel's Attorney General has ordered an investigation into charges of fraud.

Despite the drop, Likud is still on track to win more seats than any other party in the January 28 election. Thursday's poll says the Labor Party would finish second, with 22 parliamentary seats.

The survey also predicts the centrist Shinui party will win 14 seats, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party will take 11 seats. The left-wing Meretz party is expected to carry nine seats.

The survey was conducted by the Dialogue company, which sampled about 520 Israeli voters.

-[VOANews (voanews.com).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Israeli Soldiers Tell Palestinian Villagers 'We will do to you what the Nazis did to us'

DURA, West Bank - The estimated 25,000 people of this small town have been subjected to a fresh wave of “nightmarish terror” at the hands of the notorious Israeli border police unit whose largely undisciplined soldiers abducted and brutally murdered a Palestinian teenager in Hebron Monday night.

For two consecutive days, hundreds of soldiers, backed by military vehicles, two military trucks, and several large bulldozers, rampaged through the town, opening fire and stun grenades in all directions.

On Wednesday, the force held some 200 Palestinian youths inside the town’s only cultural Center for 10 hours during which the soldiers did, as one hostage put it, “what all Israeli soldiers do in the absence of television cameras.”

“They beat each and every one of us without any reason, they started cursing our religion and making other blasphemous remarks. Afterwards they, using large hammers, smashed all the windows and doors of the building. Then they smashed all the 30 computers, which had been donated from a European country. In short they were Gestapo in real life,” said Musa Abu Salameh, one of the hostages.

Abu Salameh also testified that the soldiers also stole at gunpoint 28 cellular telephones, large amounts of money and other valuable things from the hostages.

“They told us not to expect help from anybody, and when one of us told the officer that what they were doing was wrong, the officer said laughingly ‘what right, what wrong, what God…I’m God.”

When Other Palestinians walked toward the building to know what was happening to their sons, the soldiers didn’t hesitate to open fire, injuring several people, including 11-year-old Jihad Abu Arqoub, from whose belly doctors at the Princess Alya hospital in Hebron extracted two bullets.

As dark-fall neared, the soldiers began scouring through the town, blowing the sirens of their jeeps and shouting obscenities at the Palestinians.

Earlier, the huge bulldozers sealed all entries to Dura by dumping huge piles of dirt across the streets.

The draconian, medieval measure effectively meant that Dura became cut off from the rest of the West Bank and practically isolated from the rest of the world.

In real terms, the sealing of the town also meant that nobody, not even an ambulance, could move either into or out of the town. In shot, if some needed urgent hospitalization, he or she would have to die because “the army says so.”

Earlier this week, the Israeli army dynamited four homes belonging to the families of Palestinian resistance activists, three of them already dead.

Abed Elqiq, whose cousin’s home was among the homes demolished narrated that one of the Israeli officers who oversaw the destruction of the homes told the grieving women at the site that “we will do to you what the Nazis did to us” half a century ago.

“Ok, if you want call us Nazi, we are Nazi, but we have the upper hand and we can kill you and destroy your homes and nobody in this world can ask us ‘why’. And we are happy about it.”

-[IAP News (iap.org).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

Palestinian People Mark National Day, Arafat Renews Peace Message

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Tens of thousands of Palestinians on the eve the National Day marked the 38th anniversary of the launch of the modern Palestinian revolution against the Israeli occupation of Palestine on January 1, 1965, led by President Yasser Arafat, who addressed the celebrating masses with a renewed message of “peace and security in the Holy Land.”

“I call for peace and security in the Holy Land this year, based on international resolutions and agreements,” Arafat told a crowd of 70,000 supporters massed in Gaza City on Tuesday.

The central Gaza City rally was one of the largest shows of support for the veteran leader since he returned from exile in 1994.

Arafat addressed the huge crowd by a live televised broadcast from Ramallah in the West Bank, where he has been besieged by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for more than a year, since December 2001.

Some other 10,000 Palestinians gathered Wednesday in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis to mark the National Day.

Several thousands staged a similar demonstration in the streets of the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Speaking at a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah to mark the 1965 founding of Fatah, Arafat also said the Palestinian people “extended a hand for peace”' with Israel and welcomed a recent call by international mediators for a truce.

He reiterated his opposition to attacks on Palestinian and Israeli civilians in an uprising against occupation in which at least 2,020 Palestinians and 675 Israelis have been killed.

“I appeal to our people and say that we are against any act of violence against Israeli civilians and against Palestinian civilians despite the ugly and brutal crimes of the occupation army and settlers against our Palestinian civilians every day,” Arafat said.

The international community widely regards settlements built on Palestinian occupied lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as illegal.

“The ghost of war that overshadows the Middle East represents today an open chance for the government of Israel and its occupation army to pursue its destructive war against our Palestinian people and against our holy Islamic and Christian places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem,” Arafat added.

“How can peace be achieved while occupation and military escalation is continuing on our land and against our people and cancerous settlements are crawling day by day onto our land,” he said.

President Arafat welcomed a US call for an immediate ceasefire with Israel, but said he fears Israel will use a war with Iraq as an excuse for more attacks on Palestinians.

Washington has called for the Palestinian president to be replaced by leaders “not compromised by terror” and for an overhaul of PNA. Arafat denies encouraging violence.

In a live New Year’s Eve broadcast on Palestinian television, Arafat called on “the whole international community to solve in this coming year the crisis both locally and internationally, using negotiations and peaceful methods, especially in Iraq.”

“The government of war wants to use this (the Iraq crisis) to continue its war against the Palestinians,” he said, in a reference to the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Arafat also on Tuesday asked for UN peacekeepers to be sent to the territories controlled by the Palestine National Authority (PNA) and said he feared Israel would exploit any war with Iraq to crack down harder on his people.

“There is a United Nations force in Lebanon, another on the Golan Heights and a third in the Sinai desert. Why shouldn't they also be in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?” he told the Belgian daily Le Soir in an interview.

“The European Union and the little countries among its members can play a huge role in getting this intervention force created. I seriously hope they will continue to not stand by with their arms folded,” he said.

Arafat said he feared that Sharon and his “Defense” Minister Shaul Mofaz would make new raids on Palestinian territory if there was a US-led war with Iraq, adding that such a conflict would “completely change the situation” in the Middle East.

“My fear is that Sharon and Shaul Mofaz will take advantage of the situation to create a new fait accompli in the territories,” he said.

“I fear they will launch new operations while the world’s attention is elsewhere. That’s why I am again insisting that the international community sends observers in soon,” the president said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told Israel Army Radio on Tuesday that Israel and President Bush are wrong to insist that Palestinians remove Arafat as their leader before they can be allowed to establish a state.

“I know the Israeli position ... but you also know the position of the vast majority of the international community that until there is a new leader, since he is the only elected leader, we have to deal with him,” Annan said, as quoted by the AP.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle.

U.S. concerned about Israel's policy of home
demolitions

By Ha'aretz Service

A U.S. State Department spokesman said that the United States is concerned about Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Saturday.

The spokesman said that Washington acknowledges Israel's right to defend itself against terror attacks, but is worried about reports that in one of the demolitions two innocent civilians were killed.

The spokesman added that the administration is also concerned with the fact that people are being displaced from their homes during the demolitions, and that their property is damaged. Such actions harm trust between the sides, the spokesman said, and called on Israel to weigh the results of demolitions.

Thursday January 2, 2003