Palestinian detainees will not vote
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Dan Izenberg, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 6, 2005
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The High Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that the 8,000 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli prisons will not be able to vote in the January 9 Palestinian Authority chairmanship elections.
The High Court rejected the petition served Monday by PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs Hisham Abdel Razek and Otion Musalah and Ahmed Kamil, inmates in Shikma Prison in Ashkelon.
The three High Court judges ruled that the few days that remain until the vote are insufficient to prepare ballots at the prisons, Army Radio reported.
However, the judges noted that they recognize that the petition raises serious questions on important principles.
Human rights attorney Zvi Rish, who represents the three, said that his clients had been told by the Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had decided not to let the prisoners vote because they had 'already made enough concessions to the PA by allowing east Jerusalem residents to vote and therefore did not intend to grant the request of the Palestinian prisoners.'
Rish wrote that before submitting the petition, Abdel Razek had met with Israeli officials and tried to convince them to allow the prisoners to vote, but had not received any answer from them.
Meanwhile, Musalah and Kamil had written one letter to Ezra and President Moshe Katsav and another to Sharon, Mofaz and Ezra. They did not receive replies to either one.
The petitioners accused the government of preventing the prisoners from exercising their basic right to vote.
Israeli bar on voting slammed
Thursday 06 January 2005
A Palestinian government official has criticised as illegal an Israeli supreme court decision to bar Palestinian prisoners from voting in Sunday's presidential elections.
"There is no legal basis to this decision. It's illegal and a political decision. This court merely supports the Israeli government's policy in refusing to let the prisoners participate in this election," the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs, Hisham Abd al-Raziq, said on Thursday.
Israel's High Court of Justice rejected an appeal filed by Abd al-Raziq that Palestinians held in Israeli jails be allowed to vote in Sunday's ballot to elect a successor to Yasir Arafat.
"It's a fundamental right for all Palestinians to participate in this election. This decision violates Palestinian human rights, but we will work to guarantee the participation of all prisoners in the parliamentary elections," he added.
Legislative elections are to be held across the Palestinian territories next June.
Reforms urged
In another development, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday that Palestinians must introduce reforms before progress can be made on reviving the Middle East peace process.
Britain is to host a meeting in March on Palestinian reform, which Blair says could ease the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and lay foundations for a return to the road map for peace.
But some senior Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya, have attacked the meeting and demands for reform, arguing instead for a full-scale peace conference with Israel.
"If Europe is going to put in money," Blair said, "we need to know that money will be properly used, there will be changes in security and political structures of the Palestinian Authority."
'Enough sympathy'
"I think the Palestinians have had enough sympathy - it's not sympathy they need, they need someone to act, and that's what I'm trying to do," Blair said.
He acknowledged Palestinian concern over the meeting but argued that reforms by the Palestinians were needed first, backing the position of Israel and the United States.
"We are not going to get a peace conference with the Israelis until we do the preparatory work. It's not going to happen," Blair said.
The London meeting will attempt to make those preparations and clear the way for final status negotiations, which is what
the Palestinians want, he said.
January 7, 2005
Killing a Teen With Down's Syndrome
New Year, Old Story
By GIDEON LEVY
A quiet weekend: The Israel Defense Forces managed to conduct two operations in Gaza during a four-day period starting last Thursday and continuing through this past Sunday. This is how the New Year's celebration there looked: 10 Palestinians killed, including two teenagers, one of whom was mentally disabled; 30 Palestinians injured, including a cameraman from Channel 10; and another 14 homes demolished. While Israel was collecting food contributions for Sri Lanka, residents of Khan Yunis sat on the sand near their destroyed homes, eating a paltry lunch.
On Sunday, after the operations ended, five Qassam rockets hit Sderot and mortar shells were fired at the Erez industrial zone, seriously injuring a 25-year-old worker, Nissim Arbib. Operation "Purple Iron" had not ended yet and "Autumn Wind" had not yet begun to blow, and suddenly "Purple Rain" poured down upon the Erez checkpoint. There was a faint boom and then a mortar shell fell near us, in the adjacent industrial zone. Shlomi Eldar, a reporter for Channel 10, was on his way to meet with the Palestinians who were firing the mortars from Rafah, and we were going to meet the victims of "Purple Iron" in Khan Yunis. "See you this evening," we said, but by the time evening came, Eldar had already brought his cameraman, Majdi al-Arbid, to the hospital in serious condition. An IDF sniper shot him from a range of 300 meters in Jabalya, despite the fact that he held a television camera in his hand--or perhaps because of this. Eldar, an experienced and honest reporter, is convinced that the photographer did not pose a risk to the sniper, who saw the camera and nonetheless shot without warning, intending only to injure the cameraman. He was hit by a bullet in the groin, two steps away from Eldar. Long hours passed before Eldar and the Channel 10 team managed to persuade the IDF to allow the bleeding photographer, whose life was at risk, to be rushed to a hospital in Israel. The IDF is investigating.
On the way out of Erez, near Beit Hanun, there is a tank and a bulldozer, digging up the only access road. It is hard to know whether this is the end of "Purple Iron" or the beginning of "Autumn Wind," which began and ended on Sunday. How are people supposed to enter and exit Erez now?
Munir's atonement
The motorcade of candidate Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is making its way through the streets of Gaza. Abu Mazen injured his finger the previous day when a bodyguard closed the door of his car on his hand. Another candidate, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, is delayed at the Erez checkpoint on his way to another election rally. Entry into the Gaza Strip is now only barely possible, via muddy paths. In the evening, dozens of tanks were already lurking in the dark groves on the side, making this route also fearfully dangerous. Munir, a Palestinian taxi driver, quotes from the Yom Kippur kapparot (atonement) prayer he learned when he worked as a youth in the Tikva (Hope) market in Tel Aviv. In the Al-Amal (Hope) neighborhood of Khan Yunis, there is a lot of destruction from the previous night. "This is my exchange, my substitute, my atonement," Munir mumbles, waving an imaginary rooster above his head, a remnant of his happy childhood in the Tikva market.
The loudspeaker barks out: "Stop." The loudspeaker barks out: "Go." And again: "Stop." And again: "Go." The defense forces, which can see but cannot be seen, are amusing themselves with dozens of cars waiting at the Abu Huli checkpoint, on the only road spanning the Gaza Strip, near Kfar Darom, opposite the road to Gush Katif, below the road to Kissufim. A huge traffic jam. It is another one of the places where the occupation looks so frightfully ugly, with invisible soldiers and the hoarse loudspeaker. All of the drivers hurry to roll down their windows in submission, to make sure they hear the soldier's command. Sometimes, the road is completely blocked for days and there is no passage between Khan Yunis and Gaza City, or between Rafah and Jabalya. A. calls from Cairo: He has been stuck there since the Rafah crossing was closed. No one knows how long the crossing will remain closed.
"You were a son of the camp," says the voice on a different loudspeaker, at the mourners' tent for one of the Palestinians killed in the Khan Yunis camp. Nothing compares with the bleakness of this camp. Barefoot children tramp around in the mud. Water leaks through the asbestos roofs of the shacks. Hundreds of men sit on the ground idly, day after day, year after year. The well-tailored image of the leftist candidate, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, which peers down from the election posters, seems disconnected from reality.
In the nearby Al-Amal neighborhood, life had been more hopeful. Some of the more successful residents of the camp moved into reasonable-looking apartment houses. But the nearby settlements of Neveh Dekalim and Ganei Tal put an end to their Palestinian neighbors' hopes of finally living in human conditions. During the night, the bulldozers had come and destroyed a group of buildings under construction. Only a pile of rubble remains now in an empty lot, next to a wide strip of sand that was cleared during a previous operation. From every window, one sees the Jewish settlements or, more precisely, the terrifying guard towers that surround them. From here, the disengagement looks further away and more long-awaited than ever. No one talks about the disengagement in Khan Yunis, nor about the upcoming Palestinian elections. On Sunday, everyone was busy assessing the damages of the latest operation of killing and destruction--"Purple Iron"--which ended during the night. Hundreds of stunned residents are poking in the sand, a familiar sight. An apartment-bunker
The Sabahi family's three-story apartment building is home to 30 people. Soldiers took over the building for operational purposes. Last Wednesday night, the residents of the building were ordered via loudspeaker to vacate their apartments. On Sunday morning, we entered the building with one of the residents, Osama Sabahi, to see what the soldiers left behind. Sabahi, a pharmacist, was devastated by what he saw: His spacious apartment on the top floor was destroyed beyond recognition. The soldiers had made giant holes in the walls, using these as lookout posts and firing positions. The furniture was upended, clothes were scattered and the sights we encountered in the bathroom are unfit to print. Sabahi says that NIS 600 that he kept in the dresser were gone. (The IDF Spokesman's Office: "We are not familiar with this claim.") But why did the soldiers take the blue flour jar from the kitchen to the children's room? No one knows. Boxes of Tnuva chocolate milk were scattered everywhere. What would the soldiers think if someone did this to their homes?
Osama Sabahi's aunt, Maryam, lives on the first floor. She is about 60 years old and is mentally ill. When they evacuated the building, they left her behind. The pharmacist says that the soldiers took her up to the third floor and left her there for two days before allowing the Red Crescent to evacuate her. The tiny playground below, the only one in the area, is partly destroyed. It was built several months ago and this is the second time the IDF has damaged it during the war against the Qassam. The entrance to the Sabahi's home is also completely destroyed. Piles of stones and the remains of the iron gate block the entrance to the home that was transformed into a military post. Osama says that he is afraid to bring his family back there. There is no electricity and no water, and his small children are liable to fall through the holes in the walls, three stories above ground. Even before the latest operation, the apartment looked like a bunker: The windows facing Ganei Tal were filled with bricks about four years ago to protect against Israeli snipers. It is not recommended to peek out from these windows--the wall of the building is full of holes and an Israeli flag flutters in the wind on the tower across the way. The plant nurseries of Ganei Tal look like a shimmering sea from the window.
A table was prepared down below. Neighbors spread trays of rice, yogurt and eggs on the sand--the first meal for the new homeless. There are also humanitarian efforts under way here, in the Al-Amal (Hope) neighborhood of Khan Yunis, in the backyard of Ganei Tal and Neveh Dekalim.
The IDF Spokesman's Office: "Before the entry of an IDF force into an inhabited Palestinian building, which is only done for operational purposes, the soldiers are instructed to avoid harming the residents and damaging property. Nonetheless, buildings may suffer damage--only in accordance with operational needs. In addition, the residents of the homes are given the opportunity to collect items of value from the home before the soldiers enter. It should be noted that the forces have operational documentation of the activities in the homes." A new memorial poster
The new memorial poster displays an unusual-looking face. This shack on the alley of sand and mud in the Khan Yunis camp is the home of the last shaheed (martyr) from last weekend's operations, Ahmed Tuman. Afflicted with Down Syndrome, he was 17 when he died. His mother and sister, dressed in black, enter the meager guest room. Only their sad eyes are visible through their veils. An asbestos roof over our heads, the wind whimpers and the rain pounds. The mother, Sabha, and the sister, Ibtisam, speak about Ahmed: He studied at a special education school run by the Red Crescent and he loved to go to weddings, to dance, to sing and to do impersonations. He specialized in imitating Yasser Arafat and Sheikh Yassin, but was also not afraid to imitate residents of the camp--he was a local Yatzpan (a popular Israeli comedian). He especially liked posters of "martyrs." On the day of his death, he still managed to hang up a poster of the last member of Iz al-Din al-Qassam (Hamas military wing) to be killed. Here it is on the wall, pasted with brown tape, alongside the new poster--on which he himself appears.
Last Thursday, his father locked Ahmed in his room before going to the market. The father was concerned that his mentally disabled son would venture out into the street. They always locked Ahmed in when the IDF was in the streets, but when the father returned from the market and opened the door, Ahmed managed to get around him and run outside. It was 9:30 in the morning and Ahmed made his way toward his sister's home in the nearby Al-Amal neighborhood. She pleaded with him to return home and Ahmed told her that he was not afraid and went back out into the street.
He went down the street leading to the main road, where tanks and snipers awaited him. Perhaps he began fleeing when he noticed them. Perhaps he provoked them. Perhaps they shot at him for no special reason--the street was empty and no one witnessed the shooting. They sprayed his body with bullets from a distance of about 30 meters, shooting from the welfare ministry building where the snipers were positioned or from the tank deployed alongside it. Here is the hospital's death report: A bullet to the head, a bullet in the heart, a bullet in the ribs, many pieces of shrapnel in the right leg, shrapnel in the hip. He remained sprawled in the street, bleeding, for an hour before his body was taken away.
The IDF Spokesman's Office does not think that Tuman died: "On Thursday, December 30, while IDF forces in the Khan Yunis area operated against the launching of mortars and Qassam rockets, a Palestinian approached an IDF force. The force fired warning shots according to regulations and when [the Palestinian] did not halt, shots were fired at his legs and he went away." On the other hand, it appears that the spokesman's office may believe that Tuman, who suffered from a serious mental disability, was involved in planting explosives. According to the IDF statement: "It should be noted that during the operation, the IDF hit a number of Palestinians involved in planting explosives against IDF forces." In response to the delay in evacuating Ahmed, the office says: "We do not know of any incident in which the IDF delayed or prevented an ambulance from accessing and treating the injured."
Ahmed's cousin, Hadil, who is paralyzed, somehow manages to stretch out her hand and wave Ahmed's memorial poster, as if to say--"Look what my cousin did." The two cousins shared a special love for each other. H., Ahmed's older brother, is afraid. He has worked for the past year and a half in the fields of the Ganei Tal settlement, growing spices. His wages are NIS 48 [$10] per day, more than his co-workers who started later and earn only NIS 35 [$7.50]. H. is now worried that his employers will not accept him back at work because his mentally disabled brother was killed by the soldiers. He told his employers that his mother was hospitalized.
Gideon Levy writes for Ha'aretz.
Is it just election rhetoric or is he Arafat incarnate?
Arafat's Heir
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, January 7, 2005; Page A19
Has no one learned anything?
... ... ...
Abbas signals desire for peace
Candidate opens door for talks with Israel after elections, softening his former hard-line stance.
By Mohammed Daraghmeh / Associated Press
NABLUS, West Bank -- Front-running candidate Mahmoud Abbas called Thursday for peace talks with Israel after this weekend's Palestinian presidential election, a sharp contrast to days of hard-line campaign pronouncements that included his labeling Israel the "Zionist enemy."
Abbas changed his tone in an unlikely place -- the West Bank city of Nablus, a stronghold of militant groups and semiautonomous armed gangs that rule refugee camps and neighborhoods, and carry out bloody attacks on Israelis.
Abbas said that after Sunday's election he would welcome peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- vilified by many Palestinians because of harsh Israeli measures during the conflict.
"After the elections, we will start negotiations," Abbas said. "Ariel Sharon is an elected leader and we will negotiate with him. We will put the road map on the table and say that we are ready to implement it completely."
The internationally backed road map, which envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, was presented in June 2003. Implementation quickly stalled because Palestinians failed to disarm violent groups and Israel did not dismantle dozens of unauthorized West Bank outposts and freeze construction in veteran settlements.
Militants appeared ready to give Abbas a chance. Ala Sanakra, a local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Abbas' Fatah movement, said Abbas wants to negotiate a cease-fire with Israel. Sanakra said his militants would go along if Israel stops its military activity.
During the campaign, Abbas, 69, has worked hard to expand his constituency, trying to attract younger, more militant Palestinians with hard-line statements identifying with gunmen and backing the right of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants -- about 4 million people -- to return to the homes they lost in the 1948-49 war after Israel's creation.
Such stands are anathema to Israel, which demands implementation of the road map provision to eliminate the groups responsible for attacks against Israelis.
Palestinians Extend Voting by Two Hours
Palestinians Extend Voting by Two Hours, Citing Heavy Turnout and Confusion in Jerusalem
Jan. 9, 2005 16:26 | Updated Jan. 9, 2005 16:46
Jerusalem Arabs stay away from polls
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Etgar Lefkovits, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 9, 2005
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In a stunning vote of no-confidence in the
corruption-riddled Palestinian Authority, the vast
majority of Arab residents of east Jerusalem stayed away from city polling stations Sunday, choosing not to cast a ballot in the landmark post-Arafat Palestinian elections.
According to an arrangement with the Palestinian
election committee, only 6,000 of the estimated
120,000 eligible Arab residents of east Jerusalem were permitted to cast ballots at one of six post offices in the city, with the vast majority of Jerusalem Arabs slated to vote at special polling centers just outside the city, prompting some confusion and disarray at city polling places Sunday.
Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said Sunday that it was the Palestinian Elections Committee who decided that only 6,000 Jerusalem Arab residents would vote in the city, and not police.
In fact, despite the campaign efforts of the seven
Palestinian candidates to bring out the vote in the city, by mid-afternoon, only several hundred Arab residents of Jerusalem had cast a ballot
in Jerusalem, Palestinian election officials said,
with the number expected to reach several thousand by day's end.
Indeed, at several balloting locations in the city, there were more foreign election observers,
journalists and police forces out than voters.
At the make-shift post office set up just inside
the Jaffa Gate not one person had voted by noon, a
Palestinian election official stationed there said.
He noted that several dozen Arab residents had tried to vote in the five hours since the polling station opened at 7 a.m. but their names were not
on the list of registered voters slated to cast their ballots at the site, and so were turned away without voting.
"The result is known, Abu Mazen is going to win so why bother vote?" asked one Arab resident, who
declined to give his name, as he took in the scene
near the Jaffa Gate polling station under a warming winter sun.
Another resident, who also requested anonymity, said that he wanted to vote for Abu Mazen but was told that his name was not on the list of voters, and could only cast a ballot outside the city.
"Who has time for this? We have to make a living," the resident said.
But, confusion aside, the vast majority of Jerusalem Arab residents clearly wanted no part in the Palestinian elections, eager to maintain their status as 'neutral' Jerusalem residents, and determined not to lose the economic benefits that living in the city afforded them.
Caught in the middle between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem's 230,000 Arab
residents have largely stayed on the sidelines of the violence that have rocked the city over the last four years, preferring instead to focus on their jobs, and the social benefits Israel offers them as city residents, such as health care, unemployment pay, and social security.
While all of Jerusalem's Arabs are eligible for
Israeli citizenship, only about 10,000 are citizens.
The rest have chosen to retain the Jordanian passports they used before 1967, but carry permanent resident ID cards.
In the one and only previous Palestinian legislative elections, held in 1996, about 10 percent of Jerusalem's Arab residents actually
turned out to vote, with speculation rife in the city for weeks now that the vast majority of Jerusalem Arab voters would not participate in Sunday's vote either.
Throughout the day, Jerusalem police prevented several dozen right-wing Jewish demonstrators, including MK Uri Ariel (National Union) and Jerusalem city councilman David Hadari (NRP) from getting anywhere near the Jerusalem polling stations, prompting several makeshift makeshift protests a few blocks away from the balloting.
"In what other country do you see balloting for
another state taking place on your own sovereign
territory?" asked protester Meital Beiton, 28, who, together with a group of Jerusalem students, was holding a poster which read 'Sharon will disengage from Jerusalem' near Jaffa Gate.
In the morning, three Arab residents of Jerusalem were detained for questioning for passing out fliers calling on fellow Arabs not to vote, police said.
In the commercial heart of east Jerusalem, a coterie of Abu-Mazen posters and PLO fliers hung on Saladin Street, the site of another city polling station.
Seven postal windows were set up to receive voters, who cast their ballots into red postal boxes, though throughout the morning hours no more than three or four people were seen voting at any time. In contrast, two windows opened for regular postal business had long lines.
One placard posted on the street, which could have
just as well been placed there by either Arabs or
Jews, read: Israel: A banana republic."
"Are you kidding?" an Arab taxi driver in the city
responded when asked if he was going to vote. "To
bring a corrupt [Palestinian] authority here. "This is just what we are missing."
Israel Escalates Military Aggression against Voters all over the Territories
EAST JERUSALEM, January 9, 2005 (WAFA)-As Palestinian presidential elections kick off, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalates military aggression against Palestinian voters in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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In East Jerusalem, IOF built up three checkpoints in several key neighborhoods and bodily searched Palestinian voters, witnesses said.
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They added that Israeli soldiers arrested a number of citizens at a newly-erected checkpoint in the city, leading them all to an unknown spot.
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In the West Bank City of Qalqiliya, IOF erected a military checkpoint at the eastern entrance of Jet village and searched cars and travelers, hindering the movement of voters into and out of the village.
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Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that IOF opened heavy fire at a school turned a polling station in the Gaza Strip city of Khanyounis, spreading fear and panic among voters.
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"this shooting is a clear breach of Israeli premises to ease military procedures during the electoral process", voter Abu Ahmed Qudieh said "In spite of the nonstop Israeli measures, me and all voters of Khanyounis City will cast our votes, whatever the consequences might be".
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On his part, Fathi al-Shazli of the Egyptian Observation Team condemned the Israeli shooting against a polling station in Khanyounis as well as the Israeli disregard of its obligations and promises, asking Israeli peace lovers to pressurize their country to change its policy against the Palestinian people.
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In a press release, Central Election Commission (CEC) condemned the Israeli soldiers' harassment practiced against its employees in the Palestinian cities, accusing Israel of not keeping its promises to ease the movement of Palestinian voters and international observers.
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In the meantime, Israeli troops stationed at Netzareem Israeli colony, south of Gaza, critically wounded al-Sa'afeen 17 in the waist, according to medics.
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A.D (16:28 P) (14:28 GMT)
Jan. 9, 2005 2:28 | Updated Jan. 9, 2005 16:34
Abbas heading for landslide win
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Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 9, 2005
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Palestinian election day kicked off Sunday morning as nearly 1.8 million eligible voters prepared to vote for a successor to Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, amid complaints by the PA that Israel had broken its promise to ease restrictions to allow a free vote.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian election officials estimated that nearly 30% of eligible voters had cast their votes by 3:00 p.m.
Turnout in the West Bank has also been slow but officials are expecting the turnout to improve in the afternoon and evening hours.
Three hours after voting stations opened, PA Central Elections Committee Secretary-General Rami Hamdallah said, "Everything is going smoothly up until now. No incidents have been reported".
Hamdallah noted that the committee has yet to receive any reports about people who were unable to vote because of the security problem and remaining Israeli checkpoints across the West Bank.
For Sunday's election, the West Bank has been divided into 11 electoral districts and the Gaza Strip into five. About 2,000 polling stations will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Election frontrunner and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) cast his vote near the Mukata in Ramallah Sunday morning.
"I'm happy because I've exercised my right to vote," said Abbas, the candidate of Arafat's ruling Fatah movement. "The election is going well and that indicates that the Palestinian people are heading toward democracy."
He said that he was pleased with reports of high turnout. Israel eased travel restrictions and took other measures to facilitate the voting in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
"The obstacles exist, but our people's will is stronger than any obstacle. I've heard about a high turnout, particularly among women and that's good and that's an honor for our people," he said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) voted at his hometown of Abu Dis north of Jerusalem.
Eve of election opinion polls showed Fatah candidate Abbas slated to win between 51 and 69 percent of the vote. His most serious challenger, anti-corruption activist Mustafa Barghouti, was trailing by some 30 points.
The five other candidates - Tayseer Khaled, Bassam al-Salhi, Sayyed Barakeh, Abdel Karim Shubair and Abdel Halim Ashqar - were expected to get only a small percentage of votes between them.
Abbas and Qurei, who met separately in Ramallah with former US president Jimmy Carter and other international monitors, also complained that Israel was trying to hamper the election.
Qurei said that Israel's decision to suspend its military operations in Palestinian cities for only 72 hours was a message that it is not interested in peace.
"This is a clear message that Israel does not want to open a new page with us," he added. "Nor does it want to restore mutual confidence that was destroyed over the past four years."
Again, Israeli officials rejected this charge, and stressed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon anticipated meeting with the election winner in the near future to discuss the potential for coordination on the disengagement plan.
Guardian of British Distortion
Irresponsible coverage like The Guardian's leaves Israel reviled in Great Britain;
A new, comprehensive poll of British opinion on foreign nations was just released by The Telegraph. The results: Israel is considered by Britons the #1 'least deserving of international respect,' the 'least beautiful country,' the country Britons would 'least like to take a holiday in,' and would 'least like to live in.'
How did this British animosity toward Israel come about, with Israel ranked worse than Egypt, India, China and 20 other countries?
Today's (Jan. 5) UK media coverage of an incident in Gaza goes a long way toward explaining it. The Guardian announced a horrific IDF act of child killing:
seven children on their way to pick strawberries were mistaken for Palestinian militants and killed by Israeli tank shells... The tanks used anti-personnel shells, which throw out thousands of metal darts in a deadly cloud... The attack took place near Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, from where militants had been firing mortars at Israeli positions on the Gaza border...
The Guardian report 1) presents as established fact a 'mistaken killing' of innocent Palestinian children, 2) reverses the actual series of events ― IDF response named first, Palestinian mortars second, 3) describes the Israeli civilian target of the Palestinian mortar fire as an Israeli 'position' ― falsely implying a military target, and 4) calls the IDF response an 'attack,' while the Palestinian mortar fire (against civilians) receives no such derogatory description.
Here's what actually happened, according to an altogether fair report from The New York Times:
The troubles began when Palestinians fired four mortar rounds in the morning, wounding an Israeli civilian in an industrial zone on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said. One shell nearly hit a school bus carrying children in northern Gaza, the military added.
Soon afterward, an Israeli tank fired on a group of Palestinians believed to have been responsible for firing the mortars from farmland on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, the Israeli military said. Seven Palestinian youths working in a strawberry field, ages 11 to 17, were killed, according to relatives, witnesses and Palestinian officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital...
Col. Avi Levy, a brigade commander in northern Gaza, told Israel radio that "we understand that the fire actually hit that cell [of Palestinian terrorists]." But he acknowledged the possibility of civilian casualties. "In the event that our fire hit civilians, then this is the place to protest against terrorists who fire mortars from the midst of civilians."
Note that the Times account acknowledges 1) who started the violence ― Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians, 2) the IDF claim that its tanks actually struck the mortar-firing terrorists, and 3) the all-important issue of terrorists firing mortars from the midst of Palestinian civilians, thereby endangering innocents' lives.
Now we understand the results of the UK public opinion poll. Years of reports such as today's from the Guardian have left Britons with a highly distorted understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
HonestReporting asks: How much longer will an irresponsible UK media continue to deceive the British public by blaming Israel for all the region's woes?
The "vile propaganda" were quotation from the 'Jerusalem Post', which is - as far as I know - not too "puerile tommyrot".
But when you say so.
EAST JERUSALEM, January 9, 2005 (WAFA)-As Palestinian presidential elections kick off, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalates military aggression against Palestinian voters in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip......
