MAY 2002

Monday May 15, 2002

Address of HE Yasser Arafat President of the State of Palestine Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization President of the Palestine National Authority At the Palestine Legislative Council

Ramalla – Palestine 15 may 2002, Wafa - In H.E. President Yasser Arafat address at the Palestine Legislative Council, PLC, H.E. said, Peace was and will continue to be our strategic choice. We will not give up the choice of peace between us and the Israelis. In peace there is a common interest for both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. In addition, all alternatives to peace that the Israeli government has resorted to in order to wipe out the choice of peace, the peace of the brave, which I have signed with my late partner Rabin, who was assassinated by these extremist forces, have proven to be a failure and void.

We have extended, and we are still extending our hand to just peace, the peace of the brave, the peace that will realize security and justice for both the Palestinians and the Israelis, as well as for the Arab region, the Middle East and the whole world, H.E. added.

The Israeli aggression against our people is existent, continuous and escalating as long as occupation and settlements are sitting on our land and laying prone on our people. In this bloody and ongoing steadfastness and persistence (it is enough to see Fares Audeh and young girl confronting an Israeli tank with a stone), we are in a great need to review our planes and policies in order to rectify and correct our march towards national independence in all honesty, sincerity faithfulness and firmness, H.E. said.

We have lately declared, and we declare it today, that we reject the operations that target the Israeli civilians as well as what the Palestinian civilians, H.E. affirmed.

H.E. added, Allow me, sisters and brothers, to raise with you, in honesty and with full responsibility, the issue a quick preparation of elections, to conduct the elections wherever possible on all official and popular levels, to adopt free elections as the basic means to choose the leadership whether in the institutions of national society or in the organizations, or in the unions and in the trade unions, and in the popular institutions as basic instruments of building civil society, to abide by the principle of separation of powers in the judicial, legislative and executive branches, to maintain national unity and human rights.

This is the hour, sisters and brothers, of work and construction. It is the hour of change and reform in spite of all attempts that try to obstruct national reconstruction and the birth of our independent State of Palestine, with Holy Jerusalem as its capital, H.E. concluded.

Hereby is the full text of H.E. important speech:

In the name of God, most compassionate, most merciful

We will, without doubt,

Help Our apostles and those

Who believe, (both)

In this world’s life

And on the Day

When the Witnesses

Will stand forth

Sadaqqa Allahu Al Athim

Brother Ahmad Qure’ – Abu Ala

R. H. speaker of the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC)

Respected sisters and brothers, members of the PLC

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure and honor to address you today as you are convening this important meeting of the elected PLC. It is the Council that has carried, and is carrying, alongside the Palestine National Council (PNC), on their shoulders, the heavy burden and the historic responsibilities, as our steadfast, persevering and persistent Palestinian people are passing, in a firm and unswerving manner, through this long overdue transitional period from occupation to independence and from slavery to freedom. It is our fate, it is the fate of our generation, it is as well the fate of our people, to endure all this sufferingو because our demand, our objective and our dream is genuine freedom and total independence in the independent State of Palestine, with Holy Jerusalem as its capital.

Allow me dear members of the PLC to commemorate this day, the 15^th of May the anniversary of the catastrophe of our Palestinian people. We will remember the sufferings of our Palestinian people and their pains, as they stand steadfast in the face of all these difficult circumstances and historical challenges, to wipe them out off the political and geographic map in the Middle East Region. This is the great people who are defending their holy land, their Terra Sancta, their Christian and Islamic holy places. It is the people who are recording this heroic epic waged by the heroic Palestinian people and all their militant forces, in order to gain their freedom and independence, and so that out children and generations can live in security and peace in a free and independent homeland, far away from occupation, settlement, oppression, assassination and detention, that take place in an unprecedented manner in contemporary international community, where our people are the only people the world over who are still living under occupation.

Peace was and will continue to be our strategic choice. We will not give up the choice of peace between us and the Israelis. In peace there is a common interest for both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. In addition, all alternatives to peace that the Israeli government has resorted to in order to wipe out the choice of peace, the peace of the brave, which I have signed with my late partner Rabin, who was assassinated by these extremist forces, have proven to be a failure and void. As you see, the Israeli military solution has not, will not and can not - despite all what the Israeli occupation forces have perpetrated in terms of killing, undermining, destitution and destruction of the infrastructures of our official, educational, health, social, security and other institutions- has not, will not and can not change an inkling in our determination to achieve independence, sovereignty and freedom. It can not also change an inkling in our readiness to accept the peace of the brave which was done at the Madrid Conference and the agreements that were signed to achieve a just comprehensive and permanent peace, especially after accepting the Saudi initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah at Arab Summit Conference held recently in Beirut, as well as the recent meeting at Sharm Sheikh among President Mubarak (of Egypt), Crown Price Abdullah Al-Saud and President Bashar Assad (of Syria).

We have extended, and we are still extending our hand to just peace, the peace of the brave, the peace that will realize security and justice for both the Palestinians and the Israelis, as well as for the Arab region, the Middle East and the whole world, let it be know to everyone. It is the peace for this land, the land that is sacred to all. In all honesty and with full responsibility, I would like to assure you, today, that the talks we had at Camp David were very difficult, critical and sensitive and engulfed, all important and basic issues. Despite the tireless and good offices made by President Clinton and his team, we could not, however, reach an agreement on these basic issues. As you know, we have continued these talks at Sharm-Sheikh which were sponsored by President Mubark. And then in Paris we continued these talks whose last session was attended by President Chirac. Progress came at the negotiations in Taba (let us refer to the press conference convened by Abu Ala’ and Shlomo Ben Ami). We were supposed to continue these negotiations after the Israeli elections. You have all lived the experience and suffered with your people and with your Authority, as a result of what took place, before and after, especially in the face of the actions undertaken by the Israeli army and in the face of its plans, such as the Israeli Field of Thorns, prepared and planned against our unarmed people and whose explosive spark was the storming of the Holy Mosque of Jerusalem. It was a blatant action that provoked the worshippers at the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque. This provocative storming was followed by shooting at the worshippers as a result of which many victims, martyrs and injured persons, from among our people fell.

Brother speaker of the PLC,

Sisters and brothers, meof the PLC,

In the face of this unjust aggressive war against our people namely, the field of thorns, the one hundred days battle, the Oranium, the rolling operation, the colored operation, the defensive shield, our masses in every city, refugee camp, village and in every town, were steadfast in the face of occupation, siege, massacres and aggression.

Our masses and our Palestine National Authority have suffered huge sacrifices over the last two years, so much so that no city or a refugee camp or a village or a house or a hut was spared. None was not an Israeli military target, of their tanks and air planes, or a target of their strangulating siege imposed on our towns and villages. Israeli occupation military check points were erected everywhere. Israeli bombs hit school-children and mothers. They destroyed homes over their inhabitants. History is the witness on what happened to the Jenin refugee camp and in Jenin itself. The Israeli crime against our people will remain witness whether they were perpetrated against our people in this heroic refugee camp of Jenin or in that of Balata, or Askar, or Nour Shams, Aida, or Fawar, in Dheisha or in Amari, in Qaddura or in the other refugee camps; whether these crimes were perpetrated in Nablus or in its Old City where the Israelis destroyed one of the oldest churches and mosques, and where our brothers, the Samaritans meet and of whose presence among us we are proud; whether in Ramalla or in Bethlehem, or in the Church of the Nativity, that is holy to both Moslems and Christians; whether in Gaza or in Jabalia, in Khan Younis or in Deir Al-Balah, in Rafah or in its refugee camp, in Abassan or in Beit Hanoun, in Tulkarem or in Qalqilya or in Hebron; in the presidential headquarters in various district and governorates or in the total destruction of the Gaza International Airport; or in the destruction of the airplanes, the seaport, the ministries, the broadcasting and television station, or in dissecting the Gaza Strip into separate and divided cantons.

Sisters and Brothers, the road to freedom, independence and dignity was never paved or spread out with flowers and roses. Indeed it is paved with steadfastness, perseverance, resilience, persistence and the capability to confront aggression and the aggressors. The conspiracy against your people and your homeland, to deprive us of our freedom, independence and state has never stopped. Its chapters are still unfolding. Ever since the night of 29 March last, we are being subjected to a comprehensive Israeli aggression with all sorts of weapons, be they tanks, airplanes, missiles, including the internationally prohibited weapons. Yet we had nothing but to be steadfast and patient in the wake of this military siege of our towns, refugee camps, the presidential headquarters in Ramalla, the holy Church of the Nativity and the Mosque of Omar in Bethlehem. Despite lifting the siege off the presidential headquarters and the Church of the Nativity in the most difficult of circumstances, I would like to remind you that the agreement reached with the US and the European representatives was that the occupation forces should start by lifting the siege first off the Church of the Nativity. Despite that, the Israeli government, continues its daily penetrations and aggressions in all areas indifferent to the increasing international condemnation of its aggressions and crimes. Indeed, the Government of Israel has forbidden the arrival of the international investigation committee to investigate the crime committed by the occupation army against our people in the Jenin refugee camp. It has furthermore, put incapacitating conditions in front of the international conference. I would like to greet President Bush who has called for the establishment of the independent State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly which we both attended together. He is the first US President to declare this position.

I know, dear sisters and brothers, that there are some remarks on what has been agreed upon concerning the brothers in Ramallah and Bethlehem, in terms of lifting the siege and withdrawing the occupation forces. I bear full responsibility for all that has happened, especially that what has been done was international, US, European, Russian and UN proposals and assurances in the wake of these critical and difficult circumstances, which you know and in which I do not want to delve in, as a result of the situation and the circumstances which you all know. I leave it to you to assess these developments in sincerity, honestly and openness. There is no march in which there are no mistakes. I want you to assess it faraway from emotions and effects, so that we will be honest in confronting what our people and our cause are facing on all levels.

Brother speaker of the PLC,

Sisters and brothers, members of the PLC,

The Israeli aggression against our people is existent, continuous and escalating as long as occupation and settlements are sitting on our land and laying prone on our people. In this bloody and ongoing steadfastness and persistence (it is enough to see Fares Audeh and young girl confronting an Israeli tank with a stone), we are in a great need to review our planes and policies in order to rectify and correct our march towards national independence in all honesty, sincerity faithfulness and firmness

Be sure We shall test you

With something of fear

And hunger, some loss

In goods or lives or the fruits

(Of your toil), but give

Glad tidings – to those

Who patiently persevere,-

Who say, when affected

With calamity: “to God

We belong, and to Him

Is our return”:-

In this regard, we have lately declared, and we declare it today, that we reject the operations that target the Israeli civilians as well as what the Palestinian civilians are exposed to as has happened in Jenin or in “Jeningrad”. Palestine and Arab public opinion have arrived to this conviction, that these operations do not serve our aims. Indeed they incite many and big segments of the international community against us, an international community that has created Israel and provided it with money, arms and protection which is controversial. I call upon your esteemed Council to stop at this dangerous issue which is controversial in our Palestinian and Arab arena. Let us remember the Houdaibiyya Conciliation Accord out of our concern for the national and pan-Arab interest of our people and nation, and out of our concern for strengthening international solidarity with your people and your cause. I call, as well, upon your Council to sponsor a comprehensive in-depth national dialogue on all our political issues which are of precedence to our national, pan-Arab and international concerns, the quintessence of which is the consolidation and pivotization of our national struggle, in all its forms, in order to realize our people’s dream of establishing the independent State of Palestine, with Holy Jerusalem as its capital, on our land, occupied in 1967, as was decided by our PNC at the declaration of Independence and establishment of the Independent State in its meeting in Algiers in 1988.

Brother speaker of the PLC,

Sisters and brothers members of the PLC,

Following this Israeli aggression, our internal situation and political system require from us to make a comprehensive review of all aspects of our national life. You know that we have established our political system on the basis of democracy and free and fair elections that were surprised by leaders from all over the globe. We have established our security institutions, National Security Forces and police within the framework of a preconceived concept that the intermediate phase, mentioned in Oslo, will come to an end in 1999. Following that we will review the political, administrative and security structures of our state. Yet things developed in a totally different direction following the refusal by the Government of Israel to uphold and carry out the agreements. Ever since that time, it has waged this unjust war against us and against our land, people and Christian and Islamic holy places.

Allow me, sisters and brothers, to raise with you, in hoand with full responsibility, the issue a quick preparation of elections, to conduct the elections wherever possible on all official and popular levels, to adopt free elections as the basic means to choose the leadership whether in the institutions of national society or in the organizations, or in the unions and in the trade unions, and in the popular institutions as basic instruments of building civil society, to abide by the principle of separation of powers in the judicial, legislative and executive branches, to maintain national unity and human rights. As a result of the experience in building the Administration and the Authority I call for the revision of all of our administrative, ministerial and security apparatus formations, after some shortcomings appeared here and there, which can not be kept concealed from public opinion who is scorched by the fire of Israeli occupation. We have all exerted efforts in construction and work. We might have committed an error here or there, in this or in that responsibility. But we have upheld the trust and maintained the national objectives at the forefront of which is independence, freedom and the independent State of Palestine, with Holy Jerusalem as its capital,

And to enter your Temple

As they had entered it before, ….

When I speak thus, I mean all occupied Arab territories in accordance with the Madrid conference.

Brother speaker of the PLC,

Sisters and brothers, members of the PLC,

This holy land is a trust that we uphold. We will always be trustworthy to the blood sacrificed by our martyrs, prisoners, injured persons and detainees.

Now, while we are facing this strangulating siege, ongoing aggression and historical, fateful and difficult circumstances, the target and dream are approaching, in spite of all the sufferings, sacrifices and pains. I insist on presenting a comprehensive and a new formula of our national situation and that of the Authority, its administration, ministries and security apparatuses, in order to reconstruct on a more solid, firm, strong and correct basis, and in a manner which realize our national aspirations of independence, freedom, and the independent state of Palestine.

This is the hour, sisters and brothers, of work and construction. It is the hour of change and reform in spite of all attempts that try to obstruct national reconstruction and the birth of our independent State of Palestine, with Holy Jerusalem as its capital.

Let our PLC be a workshop to review the whole march, its positive as well as its negative aspects, in order to rebuild our political system on firmer bases of democracy, rule of law, independent judiciary and rebuilding our various apparatuses and institutions including the economic, financial and infrastructural ones, so that they be the firm basis for our people on the road of independence and freedom.

In the name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful

He said: “O my people!

See ye whether I have

A Clear (Sign) from my Lord,

And He hath given me

Sustenance (pure and) good

As from Himself? I wish not,

In opposition to you, to do

That which I forbid you to do

I only desire (your) betterment

To the best of my power;

And my success (in my task)

Can only come from God.

In Him I trust,

And unto Him I look.

“Glory to the God in the highest and on earth peace to men of goodwill”

President Arafat:

"Peace was and will remain our strategic choice

and we will not give up the choice of peace"

Ramallah -May 15,2002-Wafa - About eight million Palestinians at home and in the Diaspora today observed the 54th annual anniversary of the

Palestinian Nakba, the seizure by the occupation of Palestine and the resulting expulsion and dispersal of the bulk of it's people from their ancestral homeland.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, carrying placards and shouting slogans affirming the right of some four million Palestinian refugees to return to their native hometowns and villages in what is now” Israel."

"Denial of right of return means victory for racism and apartheid," read one large placard in Ramallah.

At noon local time, Palestinians observed three minutes of silence during which verses from the Holy Qura’an were recited in honor of more than 200,000 Palestinian martyrs who lost their lives defending their country.

Afterward, H.E. President Yasser Arafat delivered a speech in the PLC, in which he called for reforms of the Palestinian National Authority to prepare for new elections.

"I call for a review of all our administrative, ministerial and security forces,"  President Arafat, wearing his trademark black and white headdress,

told lawmakers gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah in a speech on the most emotionally charged day of the Palestinian calendar, "It is the time for change and reform," H.E said, calling for reevaluation of "all aspects of our national life''.

"Allow me to propose to you the speedy preparation of elections and to implement whatever is possible'' the President added, in his speech which broadcasted live on Palestine Television.

President Arafat also took responsibility for any mistakes the Palestinian leadership had made and said, they must be rectified.

President Arafat blasted the Israeli occupation government brutal aggression against the Palestinian people during the 19-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, but said the struggle for an independent Palestinian state would continue and that peace remained his "strategic" goal.

H.E. said that the government in Israel had tried to wreck the interim peace deals reached with the Palestinians but that he remained committed to seeking a lasting peace agreement.

"They have tried to abolish the peace deals. They tried with the military option of their occupation forces," President  Arafat said.

He added that the Palestinians' will would not be broken in their uprising against occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

''Our dream is real freedom and complete independence in the state of Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital. Whoever likes it or not, it is our aim to

have that," H.E said.

"Peace was and will remain our strategic choice and we will not give up the choice of peace." the President added.

A Palestinian committee to immediately rebuild

the destroyed Jenin refugee camp

Ramallah -May 15,2002-Wafa - H. E. President Yasser Arafat chaired last night in Ramallah the weekly meeting of the Palestinian leadership.

An official statement issued after the meeting said that the President ordered the forming of a Palestinian committee to immediately rebuild the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West

Bank.

The statement said that President Arafat nominated Cabinet Minister Azzam El Ahmed to chair the committee and start filed work.

"The committee would study also the needs of the residents who gave big sacrifices for the sake of freedom and national independence," said the statement.

The Palestinian leadership said a vote by Israel's Likud party ruling out the prospect of a Palestinian state represented "a refusal by Likud and the Israeli government of a just peace".

Sunday's vote was a "serious decision", the leadership said, and a rejection of "a just peace between two peoples, founded on the principle of an exchange of land for peace, and of United Nations resolutions".

Meanwhile President Arafat has issued a law proposal on judicial independence which had been discussed and

presented by the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC).

The statement said that H.E the President ordered the publication of the law in the local newspapers and the implementation of it as soon as possible.

The leadership members expressed satisfaction after the law was approved, the statement added.

President Arafat received the Lutheran Churches

and the Israeli bereaved families representatives

Ramallah May 15^th 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat separately received the representatives of the Lutheran Churches, Mr. Yitzhak Frankelthal the representative of the Israeli bereaved families, and a delegation of the “Christ Peace Society” – Pax Christy - headed by Bishop Diego Yona.

President Arafat briefed His guests with the latest developments in the Palestinians Occupied Lands.

During the meetings they discussed the Palestinian situation and the means to stop the Israeli aggression.

Mr. Frankelthal said that the only way to end the conflict in the region is by achieving peace through immediate return to the negotiations.

PREPARATION OF JENIN REPORT WILL TAKE ABOUT SIX WEEKS

NY, May 15, 2002, Wafa - The UN Secretariat is drafting letters to both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, requesting information for the report that is being prepared by the Secretariat on the recent events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities [as requested by the General Assembly in its resolutions of May 7.] The letters will go out in the next days.  

The United Nations expects said that the preparation of the report will take about six weeks. The report will be prepared by UN Secretariat staff and presented by the Secretary-General. There will be no progress updates as the report is being prepared.

Israeli settlers confiscated 5000 acres in the center of the West Bank

Al Bireh May 15^th 2002 Wafa; a group of Israeli settlers have been active for the past few days round the clock in barb wiring vast Palestinian agricultural lands north to Ramallah-Al Bireh towards Nablus.

This illegal action that undergoes protected by the Israeli occupation forces, aims to take over lands in zone “A” which is under Palestinian total control, creating a territorial sequence of illegal disputed Jewish settlement in the heart of the Palestinian populated areas in the West Bank, connecting “Ma’aleh Libona” to “Ariel” according to “Alon” plan that aims to separate the Palestinian Occupied Lands into small territorial cantons surrounded by Jewish settlements.

Mr. Esam Abdurrahman the head of the “Public Committee for Protecting the Palestinian Lands” (PCPPL) said that the 5000 confiscated acres belong to the villages of Ramallah, Al-Bireh, and Salfeet are part of the most valuable lands in the West Bank for its richness in water resources and fertility, he added that these lands are the main and only source of income to the farmers families in many villages in that area.

He said that Sharon’s government attempt to change the demographical situation imposing a new status quo by pushing the Palestinians away into small overcrowded areas forcing them to leave their homeland.

The Palestinian peasant farmer Hassan Abu Alia said that a Jewish settler called “Boaz” and his three brothers lead this campaign under the brutal protection of the invading Israeli occupation forces where they shoot any Palestinian that attempts to reach his land, grove, field or farm, chasing them away, meanwhile they are taking over and stealing the mature crops for their benefit and use, depriving the Palestinian farmers from their means of living.

Israeli soldiers imprisoned for refusing to take part in human rights violations

Geneva, may, 15, 2002, Wafa - On the International day of the Conscientious Objector on 15 May Amnesty International draws attention to the rising number of Israeli soldiers and reservists imprisoned for refusing to perform their military service in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This rise is the result of a growing concern of conscripts, soldiers and reservists about some of the actions taken by the Israeli Forces in the Occupied Territories.

"Israel must recognize the right to refuse military service on grounds of conscience as recognized under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is a party," Amnesty International said. "We call on the Israeli Army to take the concern of its own reservists, soldiers and conscripts seriously. It is a message to halt actions which breach human rights standards and international humanitarian law."

A total of 460 reservists have so far signed a letter issued in January 2002 stating: "We shall not fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people."

An earlier open letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in September 2001 was signed by 62 school students approaching the age of conscription. In explanation of their refusal to perform military service the letter said: "We strongly resist Israel’s pounding of human rights. Land expropriation, arrests, executions without a trial, house demolition, closure, torture, and the prevention of health care are only some of the crimes the state of Israel carries out, in blunt violation of international conventions it has ratified."

One of the signatories, Igal Rosenberg (18), has just started a fifth prison sentence for refusing military service. He served a first 21-day prison sentence from 3 to 21 February; then a 28-day sentence from 26 February to 22 March; then a 14-day prison term from 10 to 22 April 2002; on 29 April he was sentenced to another 14 days. On 13 May 2002 he received a fifth prison sentence of 14 days.

Conscientious objectors in Israel are imprisoned for weeks and sometimes months, normally after unfair trials. In many cases they serve multiple prison sentences. Since the beginning of the Intifada at least 114 conscientious objectors have been imprisoned with about 20 of them serving prison sentences at present.

First Sergeant Rafram Haddad (26), a reservist with the military police, was sentenced on 29 April 2002 to 28 days imprisonment for refusing to serve as a guard at Megiddo Military Prison, where Palestinians are held for long periods of time without trial. Rafram Haddad is an active member of the Jerusalem peace community.

On 25 April 2002, Shay Biran, Yiftah Admoni, Alon Dror and Tomer Friedman received prison sentences of 28 days after refusing to serve as guards at the Ketziot Prison (also known as Ansar III) in the Negev desert, recently reopened to hold hundreds of Palestinians detained during the recent occupation forces operations in the Occupied Territories. All four serve in the Nahal Brigade, which consists mainly of youth movement graduates. Shay Biran and Tomer Friedman had previously seen active combat duty in the Occupied Territories. Each of the soldiers defended his decision in detail.

Amnesty International calls on the Israeli government to release immediately and unconditionally all those who have been imprisoned because they refused to serve in the Israeli army for reasons of conscience or profound conviction.

Background:

A person who for reasons of conscience or profound conviction arising from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian, philosophical, political or similar motive refuses to perform armed service or any other direct or indirect participation in wars or armed conflicts and is imprisoned as a result of his/her refusal to serve is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience unless such a person has also refused to perform alternative civilian service of comparable length. There is no such alternative civilian service in Israel.

Events and developments in the Palestinian Lands during the past 24 hours

Ramallah May 15^th 2002 Wafa; Below is a list of major events on the Palestinian arena during the past 24 hours

• The invading Israeli occupation forces arrested yesterday 8 civilian citizens from Jenin district, that were in a public vehicle on their way to the City of Jenin, Israeli soldiers stopped their vehicle and ordered them to stretch on the ground to searched them, then they led them to unknown destination.

• Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat’s media advisor said that despite the USA and International efforts for the peace process, the Israeli government is proceeding with its violations and atrocities against the Palestinians tampering with the peace in the region, therefore he calls upon the USA and the International community to confront the Israeli arrogance and refusal to submit to the peace efforts.

• President Arafat received a letter from the Egyptian President Housni Mubarak that was handed to him by the Egyptian Minister Mr. Omar Suliman.

• The Palestinian Stock Exchange marker climbed up by 5.3 points reaching 176.22 points, where 62800 shares of 4 companies were dealt at the volume of 50131 JD (Jordanian Dinars).

• The Palestinian citizen Raghda Bdair was severely injured in her house in the Namsawi (Austrian) Neighborhood in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip and was evacuated to the hospital where her condition stabilized. The invading Israeli occupation forces opened their artillery fire towards the residential areas east to Khan Younis where many houses were totally destroyed and some were partially destroyed and became unsafe for human living.

Monday May 14, 2002

Phone calls between President Arafat

and Mr. Powell and President Mubarak

Ramallah May 14, 2002, Wafa; President Yasser Arafat conducted yesterday; two important phone calls with Mr. Colin Powell the USA Secretary of State, and President Mubarak of Egypt.

Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat's media advisor said that H.E. discussed with them the Palestinian situation resulted of the Israeli devastating incursions and continuous occupation to many Palestinian populated areas, they discussed the Arab and the International efforts to stop the Israeli aggression, they also exchanged ideas about possible measures to save the peace process in order to return to the negotiations.

Torture, ill-treatment under scrutiny at UN in Geneva

Geneva, May, 14, 2002, Wafa - Amnesty International has submitted a briefing on torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians by members of the Israeli Forces and the General Security Services to the Committee against Torture (CAT) which is due to discuss the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories on today.

The Committee against Torture last considered Israel's implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment in November 2001. Amnesty International is concerned that the recommendations made by the CAT then have not been implemented but that the human rights situation has deteriorated.

During the latest large-scale and prolonged Israeli incursions into Palestinian refugee camps and other residential areas, thousands of Palestinians have been arrested, held in prolonged incommunicado detention and subjected to cruel and degrading treatment. The CAT has previously stated that administrative detention without charge or trial, which has recently increased enormously, might constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

In its conclusions in November the committee had stated that the policies of house demolition and closures in some instances could amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Amnesty International considers the nature and severity of the suffering inflicted by the systematic practice of house demolitions without absolute military necessity, closures and the use of human shields is so grave that they may amount to torture as defined in Article 1 of the Convention against Torture.

Article 2 of the Convention against Torture states that: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Two U.S. Students in Israeli prison

Jerusalem, May, 14, 2002, Wafa - The Israeli occupation forces detained two American Birzeit University students from Bethlehem on Thursday, May 2, 2002, and transferred them to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, where they were detained for five days before transferring them to Ramleh prison.

The two US citizens, Nathan Musselman, who enrolled in the Palestine and Arabic Studies Program at Birzeit University in the Fall of 2001/2002, and Nathan Mauger, who enrolled in the Spring of 2002, are studying Arabic.

They were among several Internationals from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who went to Bethlehem on May 2, and posed as decoys to allow another group to get into the Church of the Nativity and deliver food and medical supplies to the people besieged inside the Church. As the original group was entering the Church, the Israeli occupation forces surrounded the decoy groups and forcefully arrested the members.

Allegra Pacheco, the detainees' lawyer, said that both Musselman and Mauger were denied access to legal council, and were given deportation orders but no deportation hearings. The occupation forces refused to divulge any information to the detainees, and kept moving them from one place to the other without telling them where they were being moved. According to Pacheco, when one of the detainees asked a policeman where they were taking them, the policemen replied: "You are going to Heaven!"

What Pacheco is trying to do is to reverse the deportation order, and allow both Musselman and Mauger to leave voluntarily from the country. This though, does not mean that they will be able to ever come back to the country, Pacheco explained, even if they leave on their own accord and not through a deportation order. "There are no legal grounds for the deportation order," Pacheco said.

Tony Aschettino, an ISM member working from Bethlehem, said that Mussleman and Mauger were moved to Ramleh prison on Monday, May 6, and have both been on a hunger strike ever since.

Events and developments

in the Palestinian arena during the past 24hours

Ramallah May 14^th 2002 Wafa; below is a summery of the events took place during the past 254 hours:

• The 15 years old boy Salem Sami Sha’er, died yesterday as a result of wounds sustained on the 7^th of May when he was targeted by the Israeli snipers who shot him in the chest. Sami was evacuated by an ambulance to Egypt for further medical attendance where he died.

• Using three tanks to protect a bulldozer the invading Israeli occupation forces destroyed 50 acres of agricultural lands and destroyed a livestock’s farm near Khan Younis. Later on the Israeli occupation forces invaded the city of Deir Albalah and arrested 8 Palestinian citizens.

• The Israeli occupation authorities commenced establishing a new settlement in an occupied military post near Ramallah where they have positioned several caravans in order to use them for erecting a new settlement.

• For the second time a group of settlers call themselves as “The settlements’ Guardians” have opened their fire towards a herd of camels killing several of them dragging one into their settlement near Jericho. Mr. Wael Natheef the head of the protecting committee from the settlers’ assaults against the Palestinian civilians, said that the Jewish settlers often steal cattle, sheep and camels including barb wiring lands annexing them to their settlements.

• The Israeli special assassination force killed this morning Colonel Khaled Abu Kheran the head of the local intelligence department and his assistant Ahmad Za’era, in Halhoul near Hebron, when the Israeli snipers opened their automatic gun fire towards them as they were in their houses and during the incursion many Palestinians were injured and many were arrested and taken to unknown places.

12 Palestinians from Deir Alghoson near Tulkarem in the West Bank were arrested by the Israeli occupation forces after ransacking their houses vandalizing the contents and destroying every everything.

Monday May 13, 2002

President Arafat inspected the hardest-hit areas

in the ongoing Israeli military offensive

Bethlehem- May 13,2002-Wafa -Thousand of whistling and cheering Palestinians surged the manger square in Bethlehem today to welcome H.E. President Yasser Arafat who arrived to the city, the first stop in his trip today to three of the hardest-hit areas in the ongoing Israeli military offensive, biblical Bethlehem, the heroic Jenin refugee camp and the city of Nablus.

Shortly after his arrival here, President Arafat toured the Christianity's holiest shrines in the world, the Church of the Nativity which had been targeted by the occupation troops during its occupation to the city.

In Ramallah and before getting on the Jordanian air force helicopter - which the President is using in his tour, HE denounced a decision by Ariel Sharon's Likud Party early Monday to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.

"This is the destruction of the Oslo agreement," President Arafat said of the vote. The Oslo agreements are a set of interim peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians negotiated in the mid-1990s.

Today’s trip, is the first official one to President Arafat since the occupation army lifted its siege of H.E. office complex in Ramallah.

President Arafat last left the Palestinian territories on Nov. 25 - 2001. In early December, his helicopters were destroyed in Israeli occupation air strikes.

On his part Jenin's governor Zuhair Manasrah told Wafa "This is a very important visit after what happened in this camp."

H.E President Arafat compared last month's the resistance in the Jenin refugee camp to the devastating World War II battle of Stalingrad that destroyed the former Soviet city and killed more than 600,000 people. "Jenin has turned into Jeningrad, instead of Stalingrad. Remember something like that, Stalingrad? Now, Jeningrad," the President told CNN shortly after the occupation troops lifted their siege of his Ramallah office.

Israeli occupation troops had staged a barbaric massacre in Jenin during their on going war on the Palestinian people.

President Arafat During his visit to the Church of Nativity:

“This place will be in our hearts and minds forever”

Bethlehem - May 13,2002-Wafa - Wearing his trademark black and white headscarf and ringed by jostling crowd of black-robed priests, happy people and journalists, H.E President Yasser Arafat on Monday ducked into the candlelit grotto which built on the spot Christians revere as Jesus' birthplace.

''This place will be in our hearts and minds forever," H.E told reporters as HE walking arm-in-arm with priests, examined the church compound and the 4^th century shrine which is built above the grotto and was the scene of a 39-day standoff, during which Palestinian freedom fighters and civilians took shelter inside the church from the occupation soldiers.

H.E walked through a courtyard where a bullet-scarred statue of the Virgin Mary stands. Mattresses, pots and chairs were still strewn in the yard. Upstairs, in a medieval cloister ringing the courtyard, President Arafat saw some burned out rooms. Fires erupted twice during the siege, due to the occupation tanks shelling.

Asked by reporters about his impressions of what he saw at the church, President Arafat said, "Real tragedy. This cannot be accepted by the world."

Church bells rang throughout the President visit, while Palestinian pipe and drum band in red berets played before the President got into a black Mercedes limousine.

President Arafat, who is a Muslim, went on to the nearby St. Catherine's Roman Catholic church where he was led to a carnation-bedecked altar by members of the clergy and took a deep bow.

"It's good for the people of Bethlehem to have their president back," said Father Amjad Sabbara, a Catholic priest who was one of those cooped up inside the besieged church during the Israeli occupation in the city.

US peace activist in Israeli jail collapses from hunger strike

Ramleh, May, 13, 2002, Wafa - An American activist held in an Israeli jail has collapsed nine days into a hunger strike protesting his detention, his lawyer said.

Trevor Baumgardner from Seattle, Washington, was among a group of pro-Palestinian activists who attempted to enter the Church of the Nativity compound in Bethlehem on May 2. Ten made it into the church in defiance of Israeli troops. Thirteen other members of International Solidarity Movement - a group devoted to focusing attention on the Palestinians - were arrested, nine of whom have been deported. The remaining four, all U.S. citizens, are on a hunger strike in an Israeli jail, AP reported.

Allegra Pachecco, an American-Israeli human rights lawyer who was representing the group, identified the three American activists imprisoned with Baumgardner as Thomas Koutsoukos from Lake Forest, Illinois, Nathan Musselman from Roanoke, Virginia and Nathan Muegher from Spokane, Washington. On Saturday, her clients informed her that Baumgardner, who has refused to drink water since Tuesday, had collapsed.

Georgina Reeves, a spokeswoman for the group, said three activists from the group arrested Friday have already been deported.

The ``peace marathon'' this year

in solidarity with the Palestinians

Athens, Greece May 13,2002-Wafa - Thousands of peace activists took part in a marathon-length rally Sunday to support the Palestinian People and their legitimate right to establish a free state on the land of Palestine.

Demonstrators, waving banners and Palestinian flags, portraits of H.E President Yasser Arafat followed the ancient route that gives the 26.2-mile marathon race its name.

``We want Sharon's dirty war to stop and for there to be an independent Palestinian state,'' said Nikos

Constandopoulos, head of the small Left Coalition party which helped organize the rally.

Members of a Palestinian community in Athens joined the march together with Israeli peace activists who flew to Athens for the event.

The ``peace marathon'' is held every year and has been dedicated to various causes.

Events of the Past 24 Hours on the Palestinians Arena

Ramallah May 13^th 2002 Wafa:

• President Yasser Arafat received yesterday a delegation of 11Canadian Parliament Members headed by Mrs. Carolyn Barsh. H.E. briefed his guests with the latest developments in the Palestinian Occupied Lands under the Israeli escalated aggression and attacks on the Palestinians and their sacred places. The Canadian delegation is visiting the Palestinian Occupied Lands upon an invitation from the Palestinian Home in Canada and will visit Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin area and the Gaza Strip.

• The RSA Foreign ministry condemned the Israeli refusal to accept the UN resolution to sent a “Fact Finding Committee” to Jenin Refugee Camp and the UN for canceling the related resolution # 1405, the Ministry also condemned the Israeli attacks against the Palestinians saying that military actions will not achieve security to Israel and peace will never be established unless the independent Palestinian State is established on the Occupied Lands with sovereignty, and only then both side will enjoy peace.

• With the participation of Pop John Paul II’s representative, and many Patriarchs and their clergy including thousands of Christian worshipers of various congregations, and Moslem guests, special thanking prayers were held in the center of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, after the withdrawal of the invading Israeli occupation forces.

• The Israeli occupation forces, stationed at the sniping post of “Gani Tal”, illegal Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, opened yesterday, their machinegun fire towards the “Alrabwat” area west to Khan Younis, damaging many residential houses and terrorizing the inhabitants especially the children.

• Without obtaining a special permit from the Israeli civil administration in Beit El, Palestinian journalists and media workers are not allowed to attend their duties in the area between Jerusalem and Ramallah, The Israeli military new restriction orders stated. According to Palestinian media workers, who said that the only authority active in this area, is the PNA said that these orders are indications to revive the infamous Israeli Civil Administration that was terminated according to Oslo Agreements.

• The Israeli security authority permitted publishing the names of the four Jewish terrorists that booby trapped a vehicle placing it near the Girls School in “Turi” Neighborhood in east Jerusalem setting the time to explode at 07:30 AM. Their names are: “Ofer Gamliel” (42), “Yarden Morag” (25), Shlomo Dveir (22), and “Yosef Bin Baroukh (22) from the illegal Jewish settlements of “Giva’at Ma’on” and “Bat Ayen” that are built over Palestinian soil. The school consists of 1500 Palestinian girls.

• The invading Israeli occupation forces opened heavy machinegun fire towards the Villages of Salem, Azmout and Deir Alhatab near Nablus, targeting the citizens, and other military groups chased the citizens while attempting leaving or entering their villages that are suffering a long 42 days of tight and suffocating curfew, where many student and ill people are forced to move to the city of Nablus.

• After arresting six citizens of the same family from Khan Younis, the Israeli military authority handed evacuation orders to 5 families in order to demolish their houses, and ten citizens’ ID cards were confiscated by the Israeli soldiers, no reasons or explanations were provided for those actions.

Monday May 12, 2002

A phone call between President Arafat and President Chirac

Ramallah May 12^th 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat conducted yesterday, a discussion round with the French President Mr. Jacques Chirac.

Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat's media advisor said that they have discussed the current events on the Palestinian arena, and the necessity of the continuation of the French and the European efforts alongside with the International efforts exerted to stop the Israeli aggression and restore the peace process.

Mr. Abu Redeneh added that President Chirac said that France will continue its support and exert more efforts in supporting the Palestinian rights and the peace process.

Leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria have affirmed

the genuine desire of the Arabs for peace

Sharm El-Sheikh-May 12,2002-Wafa - The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria have affirmed the genuine desire of the Arabs for peace and their disapproval of all forms of violence.

This was disclosed in a joint communiqué issued last night at the end of a tripartite summit meeting between crown prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the deputy premier and commander of the national guard in the KSA , Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The communiqué said the three leaders reviewed the regional and international situation notably the deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and its repercussions on the regional and global security. They also reviewed the stance of the US vis-à-vis the latest developments in the region and the current events in the occupied Palestinian territories in the light of a briefing made by crown prince Abdullah on the outcome of his recent visit to Washington and his talks with president George w. Bush and other senior US officials.

The three leaders reiterated their adherence to the peace initiative endorsed by the Arab summit, held last march in Beirut, and affirmed that the initiative should be a base for any Arab move towards the realization of a just and comprehensive peace within the framework of the international legitimacy.

Tens of Thosands Rallied in Tel Aviv Against the Occupation

"I am tired of these wars. Let (peace) come already,"

Tel Aviv  -May 12,2002- Wafa - Challenging Sharon government's policy of brutal  occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, Israelis crowded Tel Aviv's central square Saturday night in the biggest rally by Israel's resurgent peace camp during nearly 20 months of the ongoing barbaric aggression.

 About 60,000 Israelis turned out for the demonstration, waving flags and banners reading, "Leave the territories, for the sake of Israel."

Amid heavy security and police cordons that diverted traffic several blocks away from the square, the event attracted a broad mix of Israelis from all over the country, including families with small children, hippy characters carrying guitars and many of Tel Aviv's cafe-culture residents.

  Zeev Hertzog, 60, felt that as the aggression on the Palestinian escalates, eventually more Israelis would come out on the streets to protest the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, "Unfortunately it must get much worse before it will get much better," he said.

  The rally featured Israeli entertainers, literati and politicians, who expressed sharp criticism of Sharon leadership.

Singer Yaffa Yarkoni, who performed at the rally, said she received death threats beforehand but still decided to participate. As Yarkoni, 76, an icon of five decades of Israeli song who set off a firestorm recently by expressing solidarity with reserve soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, came on stage, she was met by a cheering crowd.

  Yarkoni, who was weeping as she left the stage, told Israel Radio she felt emotional because of the words of the song she performed, which called for the end of war.

  "Is it possible, I hope it will be, that it will happen already, I am tired of these things," she said, echoing the words of a song. "I am tired of these wars. Let (peace) come already," she said.

  On his part the writer Amos Oz called for the immediate establishment of a "peace party." Oz described Ariel Sharon as "miserable leader" and called for  his replacement.

In a plea to Jewish settlers living in the occupied Palestinian territories, Oz called on them to leave the settlements and relocate to needy towns inside Israel. "Come home," he said, "we will accept you."

  "I believe this occupation is very bad for us as Israelis," said a 44 years old Tali, who came with her two sons from Kibbutz Gazit, a collective farming village near the line between Israel and the West Bank. "We've become a violent society," she complained.

Muasher: “The Arab-Israeli conflict is facing an important turning point

and Sharon has to realize that”

Amman May 12,2002-Wafa -Foreign minister of Jordan Marwan Muasher affirmed that the Arab-Israeli conflict is facing an important turning point and Sharon has to realize that time has come to end this conflict politically.

In statements to Jordan News Agency Petra, Mr. Musher said that King Abdullah's visit to Washington is very important because the Arab-Israeli conflict is experiencing a real crisis.

Asked about the US stand from the Jordanian initiative, Muasher pointed that President Bush said that he realizes that establishing a Palestinian state is necessary and there must also be a political track and not a security one.

Muasher quoted the King as saying that the only solution that might bring hope to the Palestinians on establishing their state is moving to the final status negotiations according to the previous agreements adding that the US president fully realizes the nature of the coming stage.

A CALL TO DEFEND AND STRENGTHEN BELGIUM'S

UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION LAW

Brussels, May, 12, 2002, Wafa - Amnesty International, Lawyers without Borders, The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), Human Rights Watch, INDICT, and the Belgian Human Rights League will convene a press conference on Tuesday 14 May 2002 in support of all victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity who are seeking justice in Belgium's courts.

Victims of many nationalities have attempted to bring their victimizers to justice in the Belgian courts. The 1993 Belgian law relative to Universal Jurisdiction for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide gave Belgian tribunals the legal jurisdiction, encoded in International Humanitarian Law and the IV Geneva Conventions, to pursue any person accused of such grave violations of international law regardless of the nationality of the accused or the victims and irrespective of whether the parties were ever on Belgian soil. This initiative marked a revolutionary advance in international criminal justice and gave hope victims of war crimes as well as all those who strive for the global implementation of justice. Given that the recently ratified International Criminal Court will not have retroactive jurisdiction for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed before 1 July 2002, national courts' implementation of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction is crucial for attaining justice for war crimes
committed before that date.

Belgian's important and inspiring legal initiative is now under serious threat. On 16 April, the Court of Appeal of Brussels interpreted the 1993 law in a manner clearly contrary to the will of the Belgian legislature by stating that the presence of the accused parties on Belgian soil is one of the preconditions of the Criminal Instruction Code concerning the jurisdiction of Belgian courts. The implementation of this decision would render null and void most of the suits lodged in Belgium under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. It would halt the legal pursuit on behalf of the families of the UN troops and Belgian civilians killed in Rwanda as well as the pursuit of those responsible for assassinating Belgian priests in Guatemala. The Court of Appeal's decision would make it virtually impossible for victims to seek justice for grave breaches of international law.

The press conference will feature speeches by victims and plaintiffs, among them survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, who lodged a case against Ariel Sharon and other Israelis and Lebanese in a Belgian court in 2001. The final pre-trial hearing for that case will be heard in a Belgian court on 15 May, the day after this press conference.


This press conference will be the first of many events in a campaign to mobilize public opinion to defend and strengthen the 1993 Belgian Universal Jurisdiction Law. All those who support the principle of Universal Jurisdiction and the Belgian law of 1993 are urged to hold candlelight vigils before Belgian Embassies and Consulates throughout the world in support of the defense and strengthening of this law.

Events of the past 24 hours in the Palestinian arena

Ramallah May 12^th 2002 Wafa;

• The Israeli invading occupation forces took over the village of Rommana near Jenin and stationed in the central school area, where the children were terrorized.

• The Israeli occupation forces invaded the Town of Ya’abad near Jenin using many tanks and armored vehicles, arrested 4 citizens, burned a private vehicle and blasted the elementary School main gate, and invaded it.

• 73 citizens were held against their will at a roadblock near Al Birah-Ramallah, by Israeli soldiers who found the time for their amusement to abuse and humiliate 73 Palestinian workers, students, employees and pupils for at least 4 hours, before they were released, one of the released said that the soldiers were very brutal with them, ordering them to sit half naked under the sun for four hours,

• The Palestinian Central Statistics Bureau published a study revealing that 2,250,000 Palestinians are living below the poverty line, and half of the Palestinian families have lost over half of their income compared with the income before the beginning of the Intifada, the information is based on a survey conducted between January 19^th and February 21^st this year, and since the survey was conducted before the recent Israeli incursion the situation must be a lot worse today.

• Izz-Edin Talal Alhelu (12) bled for 12 hours due to wounds resulted by Israeli bullets yesterday east to Gaza, before he died, Dr. Hasanain Moawiya the head of the emergency of the Gaza hospitals said that the boy’s life could have been saved if the Israeli soldiers did not prevent the ambulance to evacuate Izz-Edin sooner to the hospital, he added that it seems that the killing was intended.

Monday May 11, 2002

President Arafat discussed the

situation with President Mubarak over the phone

Ramallah May 11^th 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat conducted yesterday, discussions with the Egyptian President Mr. Housni Mubarak.

They have reviewed the current situation under the escalated aggression, attacks and settlers invasions into Palestinian lands widening their illegal settlements on the expense of the Palestinian civilian citizens.

Brief of the events of the past

24 hours from the Palestinian arena

• After the Friday prayers, and addressing the crowds, President Arafat said that our people are strong enough to stand up protecting our rights, and sacred places.

• In a Rally protesting against the occupation in Albira City, the terrorist Israeli occupation forces opened their automatic machinegun fire and tossed smoke and gas bombs at the Palestinians, two were wounded by the Israeli bullets and scores were injured due to inhaling tear gas and other types of bombs.

• Dr. Moawiya Hasanain head of the emergency in Gaza Hospitals said that the two Palestinian boys: Ahmad Fares Sokkar (10) was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper’s bullet, while the 14 years old boy Ahmad Alhelu (14) was hit by another bullet that penetrated his abdomen causing big hemorrhage where his condition was described as critical.

• The Israeli occupation forces heavily shelled the Palestinian security station number 18, east to Gaza City, using tank shells, and causing severe damages.

• “There is no difference between the West Bank’s soil and the Gaza Strip’s”, said Suleiman Abdullah one of the deportees from the Nativity trapped people, he also said even though they have high moral, the hating Israeli soldiers beat us throughout the way from Bethlehem to Beit Hanoon passage, and the soldiers broke his friend’s arm only for asking for a sip of water. About the 38 days siege on the Church of Nativity, he said, that they have eaten tree leaves in order to survive.

• The criminal Israeli occupation forces invaded west Hebron, Rommana Village near Jenin and arrested three citizens, they have also invaded Azzoun village near Qalqilya, and several areas in Ramallah and Albira where the two adjacent cities became one big detention cenret, in which the citizens are restricted to narrow areas, entering and exiting this jail is forbidden.

Monday May 10, 2002

President Arafat received Mr. Muratinos, Mr. Vdovin and others

Ramallah May 10^th 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat separately received yesterday, Mr. Miguel Angel Muratinos the European envoy to the peace process, Mr. André Vdovin the Russian Envoy to the peace process, Mr. Nigel Roberts the International Bank representative to the PNA, Mr. Pier Bobar the UNICEF representative to the PNA and a European parliament Delegation.

H.E. briefed his guests with the latest developments under the Israeli escalating aggression where its forces created piles of destruction all over the Palestinian occupied lands.

H.E. reviewed the International Bank’s report with Mr. Roberts, and the efforts exerted by the Bank and the donating European Countries to restore the Palestinian destroyed infrastructure.

On his part Mr. Vdovin tolled the press that he reviewed the dangerous situation in the Middle East referring to the necessity of the Israeli immediate withdrawal from all the Occupied Lands, he also referred to the meeting of the Quartet committee held recently in Washington, USA, saying that immediate actions were agreed on in three paths: the Security, the political and the rebuilding of the Palestinian institutions and the infrastructure.

Galaway: “The Palestinians will triumph,

because they have the right cause, own the land and the history”

Gaza May 10^th 2002 Wafa; Addressing the participants in a meeting at AlShawa Cultural Center in Gaza City, Mr. George Galaway the British MP, said Thursday: “The Palestinian people will triumph because they own the right cause, the Land and the history”.

He also said that the Palestinian so called violence that Israel fills the International media with, is nonsense because it’s the violence of the oppressed against the oppressor, it is the violence of the victim that attempts to defend himself against the vicious USA supported criminal forces of Israel, how can a child tossing a rock towards a gunship Apache Helicopter, be blamed or accused?

He said Britain has a special responsibility to try harder than the others to salvage something for the Palestinian people in recognition of their role in this disaster, but instead of doing that, Britain is doing less than the rest.

He called on the International community to stand against the devastating Israeli military force. "We must impose a boycott against Israeli and American products." Mr. Galaway said.

Answering a question about his opinion about the Jenin Refugee Camp whether it is a Massacre or a war crime? He said that the Israeli refusal to accept the investigating committee assigned by the UN Secretary General; is a solid evidence that the Israeli government has suspicious crimes to conceal, and if the crimes and the massacres committed in this Camp are considered self defense then the human dictionary must be rewritten.

AI: “Reprisals are not the answer to the human rights crisis”

London, UK, MAY, 10, 2002, Wafa - Amnesty International urges the Israeli Government to respect their obligations under international human rights law, to ensure that the measures taken to protect the lives of Israeli civilians, are consistent with its obligations to respect human rights and international humanitarian law.

The organization reminds the Israeli government that reprisals against protected persons and property are prohibited by the 4th Geneva Convention.

Amnesty International also repeated its call on the international community to deploy experienced impartial monitors to Israel and the Occupied Territories, with the aim of ensuring the protection of the human rights of all people - Palestinians and Israelis.

UN team: International presence could protect civilians on both sides

Tel Aviv, May, 10, 2002, Wafa - Cornelio Sommaruga, the former president of the Red Cross picked by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to be one of three members of a fact-finding panel to Jenin, says the commission members were disappointed they were not allowed to visit, but wasted no time during their 10-day wait in Geneva, before Annan disbanded the panel, to begin their work. Israel prohibited them from arriving in the country to examine the events at Jenin.

"We wasted no time," Sommaruga said in a telephone interview with Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper, from the time the team was assembled until they were disbanded ten days later. They interviewed witnesses who reached Geneva from Jenin, including representatives of non-government organizations and UNWRA, the UN agency responsible for the refugee camps.

He said the team was "very disappointed. There was expectation in the world, in Israel and the Palestinian Authority for a neutral view of the events." He said that the Israeli government's refusal to accept the team "was such that it raised international suspicions that Israel was trying to hide something."

As for members of the Israeli government claiming panel members were human rights experts and therefore biased, Sommaruga said, "I think that it is impossible to dispute the impartiality of the members of the team. Each one of us represented a different culture and expertise. We proved, in various missions, our professionalism and commitment. Our professional advisers were also very frustrated by that."

Perspectives on the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, HB Sabbah:

Why have the Israelis still not decided to make peace?

Jerusalem, May, 10, 2002, Wafa – His Beatitude Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah issued the following perspectives on the Mideast conflict in which HB says:

1. We believe in God, Almighty and merciful, who can do what men have not been able to do up until now. True peace is a gift which God alone can give. Therefore, we invite all believers to persevere in prayer and to remain strong in their faith and in their hope: one day, we will see better days in this land blessed by God, made holy by God, and regarded as holy by the three religions that live together in it, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

We mourn all the victims, Palestinians and Israelis. We share deeply the sorrow of their parents, their relatives and their friends. We are concerned for every human being. We are for the defence of every human life, of the dignity and the security of each and every human being, whether Palestinian or Israeli. We believe that only the ways of peace can lead to peace.

Present situation

2. The State of Israel exists and has the right to exist and to live in security. The State of Palestine does not exist still, yet it has the same right to exist and to live in security.

3. The State of Israel occupies territories of another. Palestinians are under Israeli military occupation, with all that, that implies regarding the deprivation or limitation of freedom and suffering and humiliation.

Palestinians have the right to see the end of Israeli military occupation of their territories, occupied in 1967, and to create on them their independent state. As long as the occupation lasts, they have the right and the duty to claim their land and their freedom and to organize resistance in order to reach this goal. But we affirm again, that in this resistance, only the ways of peace can lead to peace.

The root of the conflict

4. The conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is not basically a question of Palestinian terrorism that threatens security or the existence of Israel. It is a question of Israeli military occupation that started in 1967, which provokes Palestinian resistance, which then threatens the security of Israel.

To go on speaking about Palestinian terrorism, without seeing the right of the Palestinians to their freedom and to end the occupation, is condemning oneself not to see reality, and to remain impotent in reaching a solution.

5. Therefore, one must very simply take away the cause so that the effect, i.e. violence, exists no more. In vain one will struggle against the various expressions of violence through condemnations, reprisals or a declared war, but as long as the cause is there the effect will be there, as long as there is occupation, the cycle of violence will continue. On both sides, fighters and innocents will continue to be killed.

To put an end to occupation

6. As the cause of all violence is the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands, once the occupation is ended, violence will cease. If Israel has a sincere will to put an end to all violence, the way to take is not war or reprisals, but a rapid and serious action which puts an end to the occupation.

Therefore, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community must return to negotiations, but in a new and sincere way, in order to put an end to occupation.

7. Some people insist on the necessity of issuing declarations that condemn violence. Condemning violence is necessary. But to take away its cause, i.e. the occupation, which produces it is more efficient. In the same way, to call Palestinian violence terrorism and Israeli violence legitimate defense, renders futile any declaration or condemnation and makes impossible all cessation of violence. Therefore, better than condemnations of violence, what we need is an action which puts an end to all forms of violence, by putting an end to its primary cause, the occupation.

Peace, mutual recognition and security

8. What do the Palestinians want? They want their freedom, their land and their independent state. What do the Israelis want? They want their security inside secure borders, protected from all attacks or threats. The two requirements are interdependent. Palestinian independence, after the end of the occupation, will bring the cessation of all violence, and hence the security of Israel.

But, instead of putting an end to the occupation, the Israeli government maintains it and follows ways – reprisals, and, recently, the declared war – which just lead to the opposite of security, i.e. to more Palestinian reaction and violence, and hence to more Israeli insecurity. Oppression and humiliations imposed upon the Palestinian people can only produce violent Palestinian reactions that threaten the security of the Israeli people and fill its soul with fear and hatred.

9. If the Israeli government wants truly security, the violent repression that it has used until now is not the good way. In fact, its violence has only given birth to new forms of Palestinian violence. Therefore, the security of the Israeli people remains threatened. Therefore, it should embark on the other way, which surely will produce security: to declare its sincere will to end the occupation and to start, as soon as possible, serious and rapid talks in order to put an end to it.

Questions

10. Why have the Israelis still not decided to make peace? Indeed, making peace is in their hands. They alone can put an end to the occupation, and hence open the way towards peace. Why have the Israelis refused until now to give back to the Palestinians the Territories occupied in 1967, and which are only 5000 km² or 22% of the entirety of historic Palestine, of which the State of Israel today has 78%?

a. Is Israel still preserving the dream of having all Palestinian territories, but having them empty, without Palestinians? After one hundred years of conflict, it is time to realize that this dream is an impossibility. Today, three million Palestinians live in the Occupied Territories. Israel must accept to deal with this living Palestinian reality and should not think any more of suppressing it or confining it in any disguised form of occupation or apartheid system.

b. Israel does not trust the Palestinians? It fears that they will not be able, once they have their independent state, to be peaceful neighbors? This supposition is unfounded. Manifestations of Palestinian hostility today are not due to inborn hostility against the Israeli people, but rather an statement of the resistance of the Palestinian people to what it considers as tentative to dispossess it or to send him from his land. Once the war is over, the hostility will be over.

Looking towards the future

11. If Israel truly does not believe that the end of hostilities is a possibility within the soul of Israelis and Palestinians, then the region is condemned to permanent war and violence. It will be an absolute deadlock for the region and for the survival of Israel in the region. The only way out of this deadlock is to believe in peace and to build it by means of the ways of peace and not through means of violence.

12. Israel will always be surrounded by Arab countries, including Palestine. Until now, Israel did not succeed to have normal relations with them. The reason is that the policy followed so far by Israel and the international community, with the pretext of protecting the new State of Israel, while maintaining injustices against the Palestinians, have caused and nourished hostile feelings in all Arab countries. If one truly wants to protect someone, one does not surround him with enemies, but rather with friends.

Present policy should then be changed, in order to transform neighboring countries into friends. This transformation is not an impossibility. It is enough to implement justice for the Palestinians, to put an end to the occupation and to create the State of Palestine. Once the Palestinians are satisfied, once they are free and independent in their state, they will become friendly to Israel. Once the Palestinians a friendly with Israel, the other Arab peoples will be just as friendly. Only in this way, Israel, surrounded by friends, will live within its desired security.

The proposition of Saudi Arabia to have a general peace with Israel, adopted by the Arab summit of Beirut, in March 2002, is a sign and an invitation to Israel: the Arab countries are ready to initiate peace with Israel as both state and people.

13. The United Nations have already taken all the decisions required to resolve the problem. Nevertheless, the international community lacks the courage and dares not take the necessary measures in order to implement its own decisions, as had been done in various other places. Again, in order to guarantee peace in the region, world policy must change in order to deal with peoples on the basis of justice and equal respect for all.

Events of the past 24 hours in the Palestinian arena

Ramallah May 10^th 2002 Wafa;

• The invading Israeli occupation forces invaded the Alram north to Jerusalem and conducted arrests campaign, eyewitnesses said that the Israelis were seen dragging one citizen from a residential building to unknown destination, the soldiers also set several roadblocks where they stopped the Palestinian drivers ordering them to undress in the streets.

• The Invading Israeli occupation forces are ambushing the citizens at the entrance of Albira leading to Ramallah north, and chasing them, restricting their movement, and detaining many of them in the open.

• Ten of the Intifada injured were transported to Jordan for further medical treatment, for their severe conditions that cannot be treated under the Israeli shelling and destroying of the hospitals and the medical equipments.

• Mr. Nabil Abu Redeneh, President Arafat media advisor, said that rapid connections with International governments and organizations are undergoing in order to prevent the Israeli planned attack against the Gaza Strip.

Monday May 9, 2002

President Arafat received Mr. Muratinos,

Mr. Galaway and the Swiss representative

Ramallah may 9^th 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat separately received yesterday in the Presidential HQ in Ramallah, Mr. Miguel Angel Muratinos the European envoy to the peace process in the Middle East, Mr. Nicholas Lang the Swiss representative to the PNA, and Mr. George Galaway heading a British Parliament Delegation.

H.E. briefed his guests with the latest developments in the region and the Palestinian critical situation due to the Israeli barbaric Nazi war raged with the approval of the USA, against defenseless citizens defying the International will including the USA Administration and the European constant calls on Israeli to cease aggression and withdraw.

Addressing the press, Mr. Galaway who heads the UK Foreign Affairs committee in the House of Common for the Labor Party, the British-Iraqi committee and the coordinator of the Emergency Committee of the Palestinian and the Iraqi Affairs, said that they have come to express their solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada and its Leadership.

He added that the war criminal Sharon insists on destroying Oslo Accords, and this delegation have arrived in Palestine not to check on the truth because they know the truth, but to inform the Palestinians that they are not alone and millions of people are with them and support them.

About President Arafat, he said: “President Arafat is the strong and calm man we familiar with, H.E. told us that all the Palestinians need is the International active support, to oblige the Israeli government to stop its aggression and return to the negotiating table, because peace is important to both our peoples, the Israeli and the Palestinian and to the rest of the world”.

He also said that they are visiting Nablus the twin city to British cities, in order to evaluate the damages and the destruction of this historical and archeological site, and as for Bethlehem, he said that the Israeli government has broken every agreement on the issue, between President Arafat and the mediators, which proves that Israel is the side that violates agreements and continues breaching them.

Mr. Galaway promised to pass his impressions on to the British Parliament and people.

President Arafat conducted many important phone calls

Ramallah May 9^th 2002 Wafa; President Yasser Arafat conducted phone calls with the RSA President Thabo Mbeki, the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the Turkish Prime Minister Mr. Bulent Ecevit, the Egyptian President Mr. Housni Mubarak, and H.H. Prince Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani the Qatari Emir.

H.E. briefed them with the latest Israeli military attacks and the continuous aggression against the Palestinian defenseless civilians and their Leadership and the Palestinian institutions.

UNDP to help rebuild Palestinian central institutions

NY, Wafa, May, 9, 2002, Wafa - The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has earmarked US $1.5 million for a recovery program for the Palestinian Authority's institutions. The program will not only focus on physical damages to buildings and equipment, but also on strengthening staff through training and policy advice. An existing program, the "Coalition for Accountability and Integrity," will also contribute to ensuring transparency in the Palestinian Authority.

"Without an efficient and transparent Palestinian public administration, there will be no foundation for peace in the occupied Palestinian territories," said Timothy Rothermel, Special Representative of the UNDP Administrator, Program for Assistance to the Palestinian People. "I think it is in the interest of all parties in the conflict to have an administration that is able to provide its people with basic social services, education, free trade and all the factors that an open, democratic and prosperous society depends on," he said.

UNDP officials estimate that the Palestinian Authority's central institutions in Ramallah suffered damages to buildings and office equipment worth approximately $16 million during the recent Israeli incursions. "The dollar amount only reflects physical damage and does not include invaluable public records from various ministries, including the Ministries of Health, Education and Public Works," said Mr. Rothermel.

A detailed damage assessment for the entire West Bank and Gaza is being carried out by UNDP and other UN bodies, the World Bank, the European Union and the Governments of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States. The assessment is undertaken in cooperation with Palestinian central and local institutions, and is scheduled to be presented on 15 May.

$70 million needed for Palestinian refugees in West Bank, Gaza Strip

Amman, Jordan, May, 9, 2002, Wafa - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has identified an extra US$70 million to meet the emergency humanitarian needs of refugees in the West Bank and Gaza created by the recent Israeli military incursions into the occupied Palestinian territory.

At a meeting of 28 donor and host countries in Amman, Jordan today UNRWA told donor representatives that the US$70 million was an initial estimate of the needs that is in addition to US$ 117 million requested in January to fund the Agency’s 2002 emergency programs. The Agency has so far been promised only US$46 million for the January appeal.

UNRWA has had to draw on its existing, over-stretched, resources to tend to the wounded and supply food, medicine and water to areas affected by the recent strife. Extra funds are now needed to replenish the Agency stocks of food and medicines and to cater to the longer-term needs of the Palestine refugees. UNRWA confirmed to the donors that the United Arab Emirates has pledged to fund the re-building of the 800 shelters and camp infrastructure destroyed in the centre of Jenin camp. The cost of that rebuilding and repair work is likely to reach US$35 million.

Mr. Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, told donor representatives: “The challenges facing the refugees are immense. After 18 months of closure and hardship the recent Israeli invasion has led to large-scale destruction of shelters, water supplies, electricity lines and sewage lines. There has been a wholesale destruction of civic infrastructure with the result that a large portion of the refugee population finds itself without the basic services and means of support for the minimum standards of life. The refugees urgently need the support of the international community.”

The Agency also described to donors the extreme difficulties it faces in carrying out its humanitarian work because of the access restrictions imposed by Israel’s military authorities. Food distribution is being continually hampered in both the West Bank and Gaza by movement restrictions placed on UNRWA deliveries. The almost complete closure of commercial entry points to the Gaza Strip to containers delivering UNRWA’s food commodities has caused particular concern. Many donor delegations underscored the importance of Israeli’s compliance with its obligations under international law to allow the Agency humanitarian access and to ensure the safety and security of UNRWA and other relief workers.

Mr. Hansen added: “It is particularly disturbing that donations intended for humanitarian aid have had to be spent on storing that aid at Israeli ports rather than distributing it to the needy. Already we have had to cancel the distribution of emergency food aid planned for May 11 because the food cannot be brought into Gaza. That aid is intended for the very poorest of the refugees, people who cannot afford to go without UNRWA assistance.”

Donor delegations commended the staff of UNRWA in the occupied Palestinian territories for the extraordinary efforts they were making to deliver humanitarian assistance to refugees in the midst of the conflict and at great personal risk.

UN general assembly calls for report on Jenin refugee camp,

other Palestinian cities

NY, May, 9, 2002, Wafa - The General Assembly has requested, in a resolution, that the Secretary-General “present a report, drawing upon the available resources and information, on the recent events that took place in Jenin and in other Palestinian cities.”

On the basis of this resolution, the Secretariat will review available information. It will also request the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to provide information.

The report will be prepared by the Secretariat.

The scope of the report called for in the General Assembly resolution covers “Jenin and other Palestinian cities.” This is broader than the scope called for by Security Council Resolution 1405 which specified only “recent events in the Jenin refugee camp.”

"We hope that the parties will cooperate fully with us as we prepare this report," the Spokesman said. "We will prepare the report as expeditiously as possible, bearing in the mind that we will need to gather and review all available information, and that we hope that the parties will provide us with information."

When asked about the composition of the team to produce the report, the Spokesman said it was a Secretariat team and that Department of Political Affairs (DPA) would take the lead. The team would be composed primarily of personnel of DPA. It would include at least one person who had been assigned by that Department to the fact-finding team in Geneva. He said the team would use all information available, including information gathered by the fact-finding team before it was disbanded.

From Daheishe to Shatila – Occupation, Exile and Displacement

Jaffa, May, p, 2002, Wafa - On Tuesday, May 14th (on the eve of the 54th anniversary of the Na’kbah) at 20:00 The Arab Cultural Association, Filmmakers Against the Occupation and Andalus Publishing will host an evening dedicated to the themes of occupation, exile and displacement.

The evening will include a screening of “Frontiers of Dreams and Fear”, a documentary film by the Lebanese director Mai Masri. 

Following the screening Dr. Jamal Zahalka and Dr. Sami Shalom Shitrit will discuss the film and Elias Khouri’s novel “Bab al-Shams” (The Sun Gateway).

The evening will take place at The Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa, 10 Mifratz Shlomo St., Old Jaffa.

The Arab Cultural Association  will host additional screenings throughout the month in Nazareth, Haifa and Rahat among other locations. 

Frontiers of Dreams and Fears

Mai Masri once again strikes a heart-felt blow for the Palestinian cause with her hour long documentery follow up to “Children of Shatila” The film follows two 14 year old Palestinian girls through several months in their lives – Mona from Shatila refugee camp in Beirut and Manar – whom Mona gets to know over the internet – of Bethlehem’s Dheisha camp. Shot in the aftermath of the surprising Israeli retreat from Southern Lebanon and the return of the Palestinian Intifada, the film accompanies the two girls on their extraordinary journey to the borders of exile separating them from their homeland and from each other.

“With dignity, compassion and poetry Mai Masri expresses an exiled people’s will to survive, rebel, dram and hope”.       

Bab Al-Shams

by Elias Khoury

Bab Al-Shams (The Sun Gateway), most likely the most important novel written on the Palestinian ‘Nakbah’.  The grand epic published in Beirut in 1998 has been hailed to much acclaim receiving significant literary prizes. Currently in its third Arabic edition, Bab Al-Shams has been translated, thus far, into French, named Le Monde Diplomatique's 2002 book of the year and has been worked into a script by Egyptian director Yusri Nasralla.

"This is a novel that breaks the silence around the Nakbah-the silence of those who were ashamed, for five decades, to tell the story of their loss and humiliation; and the silence of those who have never been willing to listen to the story that haunts their subconscious, let alone talk about it.

'Jewish Underground' admits spate of attacks against Arabs

Jerusalem, May, 9, 2002, Wafa - Leaflets signed by a terrorist group calling itself the "Jewish Underground," and which have been distributed in the settlements in recent days, take responsibility for attacks against Arabs over the last 18 months, Israel Army Radio reported Thursday.

In the leaflets, the "Jewish Underground" terrorist group, takes responsibility for the killing of eight Palestinians, as well as for the planting of a pipe bomb in the yard of an East Jerusalem school, Soor Baher, in March.

The leaflets call on the public to join the “underground” terrorist group, and participate in attacks on Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel, saying that "their time has come."
 

Jewish terrorists threatend Arab MK

Jerusalem, May, 9, 2002, Wafa - Israeli police arrested a former Kach activist early Thursday after he threatened and chased United Arab List MK Talab A-Sana at a Jerusalem restaurant.

A group of supporters of the outlawed terrorist group spotted the Arab MK at a restaurant in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market around 2 A.M. Five of them went into the restaurant and one began chasing after A-Sana, who ran further into the restaurant. Police called to the area arrested the man on suspicion of threatening the MK and disturbing the peace.