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November 2002 News http://www.aljazeerah.info |
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Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Israelis suffer two attacks in Kenya Arab News MOMBASA, Kenya, 29 November 2002 — In what a senior Israeli diplomat immediately dubbed a “wake-up call from hell by Al-Qaeda,” two Israeli targets were simultaneously attacked in Kenya yesterday. If that judgment is correct, these would be the first direct attacks on Israelis by Bin Laden’s group. (See also edit, analysis on page 18) A suicide bomb attack blew up a Mombasa hotel full of Israeli holidaymakers, killing 15 including the three bombers, just minutes after two missiles narrowly missed an Israeli airliner taking off from the nearby airport. Kenyan officials also swiftly blamed the Al-Qaeda network. However, a previously unheard-of group calling itself the “Army of Palestine” sent a claim of responsibility to the Reuters news agency, saying the attacks were carried out to mark the anniversary of the 1947 UN resolution partitioning Palestine between Arabs and Jews. There was no confirmation of the claim. Kenyan police said they were questioning two people seized near the scene of the hotel blast. According to Kenya’s Police Commissioner, Philemon Abong’o, nine Kenyans believed to be hotel workers, three guests believed to be Israelis and three suicide bombers not yet identified were those killed in the blast. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has tasked the Mossad intelligence services with investigating the attacks, adviser Zalman Shoval said. Witnesses spoke of Israeli tourists and other survivors streaked with blood and dust staggering to the beach from the shattered Israeli-owned Mombasa Paradise resort hotel, screaming for water. Wreckage of the bombers’ car, which blew up in the hotel lobby, was left 15 meters from the smoldering rubble of the entrance to the Israeli-owned hotel. A human jaw lay on the ground near the mangled metal. Some 140 Israeli tourists had just stepped off the targeted Arkia flight and checked into the hotel. Many were having breakfast in the dining room overlooking the beach when the blast occurred. “Half of us had finished checking in at reception and had gone up to our rooms when the blast happened. I didn’t see anything, I just heard this huge explosion and all the windows blew in,” said guest Bitton Shalom. “It was a big bomb, at least ten kilos of TNT, and we rushed out of our bedrooms,” Bitton said. “Around 7:30 a.m., we heard a massive explosion. The entire building shook,” witness Kelly Hartog wrote on the website of Israel’s Jerusalem Post newspaper. “I saw people covered with blood, including children.” Minutes before the hotel blast, missiles were fired at an Israeli Arkia airliner carrying 261 passengers as it took off from Mombasa’s airport. “About two kilometers from the airport, two missiles were fired at the aircraft from a white Pajero (jeep) by some people who are suspected to be of Arab origin. Both missiles missed the aircraft,” police spokesman Kimgori Mwangi said. Ezra Gozlan, a passenger sitting at the back of the plane, said he saw a missile fly over the wing moments after take-off. “All the wheels were in the air and then we heard the explosion. It (the missile) went about one meter above the wing,” he said. The plane landed safely in Israel, escorted by Israeli air force jets. “We spotted two white smoke trails passing us on the left side, from the rear to the front, and disappearing after a few seconds,” pilot Rafi Marik said. A Kenyan security source said it was believed the attackers used shoulder-borne missile launchers. Investigators said they did not rule out a link between the crash of a light plane which took off from Mombasa early yesterday, killing at least one person and injuring seven, and the two attacks on Israelis. The light aircraft carrying tourists crashed in southwest Kenya after taking off from Mombasa.
Attack on
Israelis in Kenya kills 15, Qaeda blamed
Shooting, grenade attack kill
6 Israelis OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 29 November 2002 — At least six Israelis were
killed in a shooting and grenade attack at a crowded polling station
during Israel’s Likud party leadership primary yesterday, a police
spokesman said. Another 21 people were wounded, three of them seriously,
the radio quoted police sources as saying. Five Israelis died in the initial spree and the sixth victim succumbed
to his wounds five hours later. Likud central committee member Mordechai
Abraham was also killed in the shooting. In Hebron, Israeli Army fire killed a three-year-old Palestinian boy
yesterday, Palestinian medical sources told AFP. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, defeated Foreign
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an election for the leadership of the
ruling Likud party, according to television exit polls late yesterday.
Computer projections also showed Sharon won by a big margin. A Channel One exit poll gave Sharon 61 percent of the votes compared to
37 percent support for Netanyahu among the 305,000 Likud members. Channel
Two put the figures at 58 percent for Sharon and 40.5 percent for
Netanyahu. Two Palestinians, who sprayed automatic gunfire and threw grenades at
people queuing up to vote, were shot dead by police, spokesman Ofer Sivan
old AFP. Israel threatened a tough response saying, “The war of terrorism they
launched against us leaves us with no other choice but to destroy them
before they destroy us,” Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin told
AFP. In a press conference later, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused Arabs
of trying to influence the campaign for the general elections in Israel in
two months. “Terror will not dictate the agenda of the State of
Israel,” he said. “There is no doubt that one of the reasons for this upsurge in
terrorist activity is probably an effort to try and disrupt the electoral
process in Israel and Israeli democracy,” Gissin charged. Sharon held
security consultations with top ministers, including Netanyahu after the
attacks in Kenya, Israeli public radio reported. The gunmen went on a shooting spree in the town of Beit Shean, a
bastion of support for the rightist Likud party close to borders with the
West Bank and Jordan, witnesses said. The attack caused panic among Likud
voters and activists gathered at the polling office. “There were rounds
and rounds of fire,” Udi, a witness, said in a radio interview. “We
have friends and neighbors who were killed.” The turnout for the primaries of Israel’s right-wing Likud party had
only reached 30 percent at 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT), following the shooting
attack. Finance Minister Silvan Shalom told Israeli public television that
the low turnout could be explained by the fact that “the people are
scared of going out to vote following the Beit Shean attack.” The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, said it carried out the raid to avenge
the killings on Tuesday of two Palestinian commanders in the Jenin refugee
camp in the West Bank. But the Palestinian leadership issued a statement
in Gaza City, condemning the attack and extending condolences to the
families of the victims. “The situation here is that they infiltrated and fired
indiscriminately hundreds of bullets and hit many people,” said the
town’s mayor, Pini Kabalo. Witnesses said one of the Palestinians wore an explosive belt but it
did not detonate. Police said one of the attackers tossed a hand grenade
that failed to explode. Police said the Palestinians targeted the polling office where Likud
voters were casting ballots. Among the wounded were three adult sons of former Likud Foreign
Minister David Levy, who lives in the town.
Sharon
defeats Netanyahu in Likud leadership vote Sharon projected Likud winner after attacksJordan Times, 11/29/02
TEL AVIV (R) — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won his Likud Party's leadership election on Thursday, according to television exit polls, after a vote overshadowed by deadly attacks on Israelis in Kenya and northern Israel. The exit poll on Israel's Channel One television gave Sharon 61 per cent of the votes compared to 37 per cent for hawkish Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among the 305,000 members of the right-wing Likud Party. A Channel Two poll put the figures at 58 per cent for Sharon and 40.5 per cent for Netanyahu. Victory would be Sharon's first step towards retaining the prime minister's post he has held for almost two years. In a general election set for Jan. 28, Likud is widely expected to beat the centre-left Labour Party because Israelis have shifted to the right in the face of Palestinian gun and suicide bomb attacks in a two-year-old uprising for freedom. Security is the burning issue for Israeli voters, a point underlined by a car bomb suicide attack in Kenya that killed three Israelis and a Palestinian gun rampage in northern Israel that killed six. The Likud ballot went ahead despite the early morning suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya's Indian Ocean resort of Mombasa that killed at least 12 people. Two of the three dead Israelis were children. Minutes before the suicide bombers struck at the Paradise Hotel, missiles nearly hit an Israeli airliner taking off nearby. The Arkia Boeing 757-300 with 261 people on board landed safely in Tel Aviv. While Israel was reeling from the attack on a holiday spot where many Israelis have sought a respite from violence at home, two Palestinian fighters went on a shooting spree at a Likud polling station in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean. Six people were killed and 34 wounded before the attackers were shot dead. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fateh movement, said it carried out the attack to avenge the deaths of two resistance commanders in the West Bank on Tuesday that they blamed on Israel. In the West Bank city of Hebron, a three-year-old Palestinian boy died of shrapnel wounds. The boy's father said Israeli occupation soldiers shot him while he was standing in a window. Israeli military sources alleged an explosive device thrown at soldiers patrolling the area hit the wall of the boy's home and caused his wounds. They said soldiers did not return fire. At a Tel Aviv news conference before the Likud results were in, Sharon accused the Palestinian Authority, Arab states and "terror organisations" of using violence to influence Israeli elections. The 74-year-old premier sidestepped questions on which political party he believes they want to see in power in Israel. Opinion polls had predicted Sharon would crush Netanyahu, 53, in a contest that pitted a veteran war horse against a former prime minister who tried to outflank him on the right by opposing the notion of a Palestinian state. Sharon has had to juggle conflicting pressures to both look tough before the Jan. 28 general election and avoid an intensification of the conflict with Palestinians that could harm US efforts to win Arab support for possible war on Iraq. At the news conference, Sharon urged Likud members to vote as normal on Thursday despite the latest attacks. Political commentators said a low turnout would work against him. In Beit Shean, a paramilitary border policeman and a veterinarian, who said he carries a gun because of the precarious security situation, told Israel Radio they ran to the scene of the attack to confront the gunmen. "I did what I had been taught to do: I fired at the first terrorist, and he fell, and then I turned and fired at the second and also hit him," said the border policeman, Eran David. Dr Amit Dadon said he bolted out of his nearby clinic and arrived as the second gunmen hit the ground. "He lifted his head and looked around. I put two bullets in his head," the veterinarian said.
US sends wrong signal on Israel aid — Arab official Jordan Times, 11/29/02 CAIRO (R) — An Arab official said on Thursday that sending extra US military aid to Israel was not the right way to resolve the Middle East conflict and he criticised Washington for considering such a step. Hesham Youssef, spokesman for the Arab League's secretary general, made the comments after this week's news that US President George W. Bush was considering a new aid package for Israel, including cash and equipment for its military. “At a time when Israeli forces are attacking Palestinians and there is a siege over almost all the cities in the occupied territories, I don't see that the right approach now is to consider giving Israel additional... military assistance,” Youssef told Reuters. “It sends a message to Israel that what they are doing is acceptable. This is a very strange message at this particular point in time, when Israel is not complying with (UN) Security Council resolutions that require Israel to withdraw its forces to its positions in September 2000,” he added. Israel is seeking up to $4 billion in extra military assistance and $8 billion to $10 billion in loan guarantees to help battle its worst economic slowdown, sources said. “We are really surprised because this request is being considered,” Youssef said. Israel, whose economy has been battered by a global slowdown and two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence, is already the top recipient of US foreign aid, receiving close to $3 billion in mostly military assistance each year. “It raises question about the US attitude towards the situation in the region and how balanced they are in doing with different parties. If there is anybody who needs assistance it would be the Palestinian people not Israelis,” he said. He said Palestinians were suffering more with massive unemployment and other hardships because of the conflict, raging since September 2000 when Palestinians launched an uprising against Israeli occupation.
Hodeiby elected leader of Muslim Brotherhood Jordan Times, 11/29/02 CAIRO (AFP) — The Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egyptian politics, has named an 83-year-old traditionalist as its new spiritual leader, who has authority over branches abroad. Maamoun Al Hodeiby, 83, told AFP on Thursday he was elected late Wednesday to replace Mustafa Mashhur, who suffered a stroke and died Nov. 14, but gave no details of the voting procedures. Hodeiby had been the deputy of Mashhur, leader since 1996 of the movement, officially banned in Egypt, which advocates the creation of an Islamic state through peaceful means. The new leader declined to say whether he had been elected by the organisation's Shura council, which has around 80 members, or by the 16-member leadership bureau, because of a government crackdown on his movement. The last known meeting of the Shura Council dates back to 1995, but many Brotherhood members were later arrested, the movement said. The Brotherhood's spiritual guide has authority over not only the Egyptian branch of the movement, but also the Jordanian, Syrian and Palestinian branches as well as others in the Arab countries and Europe. The Islamic resistance movement Hamas in the Palestinian territories emerged from the Brotherhood, which was created in 1928 by the Egyptian Hassan al-Banna. Delegates from Brotherhood branches abroad — including one led by Abdel Majid Thuneibat from Jordan — travelled to Egypt to show support for Hodeiby after Mashhur died. The movement has become the main opposition force in Egyptian politics, standing behind 17 deputies in the 454-member parliament, who were elected in November 2000 as independents because of the ban on much of the Brotherhood's activities. Hodeiby represents the movement's traditional wing, as opposed to a younger generation around 50 years old, who are more moderate and open towards other Egyptian political forces, analysts say. Born on May 28, 1921 in the province of Sohag in southern Egypt, he is the son of Judge Hassan Al Hodeiby, who became the second guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1951, following Banna's execution in 1949. His father served until his death in 1973. Holding a university diploma in law, the younger Hodeiby was named public prosecutor then president of the cassation court. He was imprisoned in 1965, under late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, and freed by his successor Anwar Al Sadat in 1971, but the government refused to allow him to return to his post. He spent a stint working in Saudi Arabia before returning to Egypt. In 1987, he ran in legislative elections and won a seat in parliament along with 36 other Muslim Brothers. He became spokesman for the bloc in parliament, but was not reelected. In statement published on Monday by the London-based daily Al Hayat, Hodeiby repeated that his movement rejected violence, and that “violence and terrorism were forbidden by (the Islamic) religion.” He urged the government to turn a new page with the Brotherhood by legalising it. “We are not working against the regime (...) We are only asking for our right outlined by law and the constitution,” he said.
Palestinian farmers lose land to Israeli fence By Mark Heinrich FALAMIYA — Sitting in a dirt road and weeping silently in abject defeat, Zuheir Abdel Hadi watched his olive trees fall one by one to a chainsaw-wielding Israeli flanked by guards with machineguns. Abdel Hadi is among some 11,000 Palestinians caught in the path of an elaborate fortified barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank with the stated aim of stopping infiltrations by Palestinian suicide bombers. But the barrier will diverge several km into West Bank territory in some areas, shielding Jewish settlements built illegally on occupied land while separating Palestinian villages from orchards that have defined the local economy for generations. That has prompted Palestinian leaders and human rights groups on both sides to accuse Israel's right-wing government of using security as a pretext to annex territory, prejudicing any settlement to end a Palestinian uprising for statehood. Israel's defence ministry denies it, alleging the sole rationale of the $200 million "seam zone" project is security and the barrier could be shifted or dismantled once peace with recognised borders is forged with the Palestinians. It also promises compensation for seized property. But farmers in this arable area just km from Israeli seaside cities often hit by suicide attacks say this will not offset the loss of irreplaceable ancestral land that has been shrinking since the creation of the Jewish state in Palestine. Distraught farmers "I'm distraught at what is going on here," sobbed Abdel Hadi as the chainsaw crew hired by the defence ministry levelled a grove of 350 olive trees shared by 11 Abdel Hadi brothers with children to support in the village of Falamiya. "I was in a group of farmers who filed for an injunction and the consulate of France, which built the irrigation system here, supported us but the court rejected it," said Abdel Hadi. "No one is helping us now." Other farmers nodded gloomily. But they said they would refuse Israeli money as restitution. A crowd of farmers and Western pacifists opposed to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip glumly watched the chainsaw crew, who ignored shouted appeals to their conscience. Some of the activists said they tried to rescue the orchard earlier in the day by hugging trees but retreated to the road after being roughed up and teargassed by Israeli occupation forces. The defence ministry says 15,000 dunums (1,500 hectares) worked by some 1,000 farmers have been seized for the first phase of the project, spanning 115km from the Jenin area in the north to Qalqiliya in the west. It is to eventually extend 370km, encompassing the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem and its flanking, strategic belt of Jewish settlements bulging eastwards towards the Jordan River, cutting the West Bank in two. A 3.5-metre-high electronic fence with touch and motion sensors will anchor an obstacle course of barriers. In some areas where defence strategists believe motorists and passers-by could be exposed to snipers, a towering concrete wall with sensors is being erected instead of the fence. On the West Bank side the zone will start with a concertina wire fence, followed by an anti-vehicle trench and patrol road. Anyone able to outwit the electronic barrier would have to get past a strip embedded with devices to betray footfalls, another patrol track and finally a concertina fence on the Israeli side. The first stage is due to be completed in mid-2003. Fence divides villagers from farms Some of the two dozen Palestinian villages abutting the zone between Jenin and Qalqiliya will see most of their farmland wind up on the west side of the barrier, says B'Tselem, an Israeli group monitoring human rights in Israeli-occupied territories. Eight villages will find themselves on the west side too, separated from the rest of the West Bank even though they rely on nearby cities — Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqilya — for health and welfare services, education, jobs and supplies, it says. "This raises a significant potential for infringement of human rights of thousands of Palestinians...So far, Israel has only addressed the issue of infringement of property rights," B'Tselem said in a report. "We are seeing the destruction of this village and its agriculture. It is really the second phase of the displacement of Palestinians that began in 1948," prominent Palestinian human rights activist Mustafa Barghouthi told Reuters. He was referring to the flight or expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the founding of Israel, which led to five neighbouring Arab states to attack in an attempt to save the Palestinian people. Israel denies this is the case. Colonel Nezah Mashiah, head of the Defence Ministry's Seam Zone Management, lists legal and practical steps he claims have been or will be taken to ensure disruptions to Palestinian lives are "kept to a minimum." More than 12,000 felled olive trees had been replanted successfully, most in locations chosen by their owners, he alleged, denying reports by Palestinians that some trees were being sold for $200 apiece to Jewish settlers. Any irrigation pumps or pipes destroyed or cut off by the barrier would be replaced free of charge, Mashiah said. Forty gates will be established in the barrier to allow farmers to reach plots on the other side. "If the security situation is good, we'll give them magnetic cards to pass, if not, a soldier will check them through," he said. Mashiah said the ministry had set aside $20 million to settle the first five damage claims from farmers' groups. "We believe there will be many more claims and we have a budget for that," he said. Asked about farmers' assertions that they would not take Israeli money, he called them a smokescreen to avoid enraging compatriots fighting Israeli occupation. Farmers paying price of anti-Israeli attacks "We know this project causes a lot of pain to Palestinians who have done nothing (wrong) but it is the price to pay for a terrible reality Israel cannot live with," Mashiah told Reuters. "More than 650 Israelis have been killed and over 4,000 hurt in terror attacks. Unfortunately we cannot create a security obstacle with balloons in the air, but only on the land." The B'Tselem report questions the army's provisions for passage. It says many Palestinians have come across soldiers at checkpoints who used one pretext or another to disregard permits presented and ordered them to turn around. "(Moreover), the indefinite duration of requisitions and the fact that a vast amount of resources is being invested in erecting the barrier increases the likelihood that the action is in effect a disguised expropriation of property," it said. An international official who deals extensively with Palestinians said they fear Israel wants to unilaterally change the boundary to cement strategic settlements and "further sever the contiguity of Palestinian areas needed to create a state." B'Tselem said Israel had often used "requisition for military need" decrees in the past to take over Palestinian lands to establish Jewish settlements. "These lands were never returned to their owners," it said. Palestinians, it added, would also have difficulty proving land ownership for compensation purposes because some two-thirds of West Bank property was not entered in the land registry when Israel occupied the territory in 1967. Israel had since frozen registration procedures, it said. To prove ownership of unregistered land, Palestinians must prove they have cultivated it for 10 consecutive years and attach a survey by a licensed surveyor — conditions that B'Tselem said were often impossible to fulfil.
Saying he is banned in Egypt, popular preacher vows to continue preaching from abroad Jordan Times, 11/29/02 CAIRO (AP) — A popular Egyptian televangelist vowed Monday to keep spreading his vision of Islam, though he says he has been banned from preaching in his homeland. "My audience, thank God, are the Arabic speakers in the Islamic world. Therefore, my message is not limited to a certain place, and it won't matter to my audience from where I'm talking to them," Amr Khaled told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from Britain on Monday. He said he would preach on satellite television and on the Internet. Khaled said Egyptian authorities banned him from preaching at a Cairo mosque and from appearing on television shows recorded in Cairo. He refused to elaborate on how the ban was issued. The interior ministry, in charge of internal security, denied it had banned Khaled from preaching, a police official told the Associated Press last week. The ministry also denied earlier reports it was responsible for a crackdown on Khaled amid speculation the government was sensitive about anyone establishing a popular base of support — whether political or religious — that could rival its own standing. "Is celebrity the reason?" Khaled said, speculating about the roots of his problems in Egypt. "Is it because many implemented the moral aspect of my message, which is not very welcomed nowadays? The history of reformers throughout the world says that I'm on their right path, they all suffered similar things." Khaled, trained as an accountant, started preaching almost seven years ago in social clubs and gatherings in private homes. He drew enthusiastic, young followers from the middle and upper middle class with his moderate advice and modern style. The 35-year-old wore designer suits and the close-cropped hair and trim mustache favoured by hip young Cairenes rather than the beard and robes usually associated with Islamic preachers. For the Holy Month of Ramadan that began Nov. 6, two Arab satellite stations have been showing reruns of his most popular programme, "And we meet our loved ones," every night. Khaled said he was enrolling in a British university to research a comparative study of social reform as preached and practiced by Mohammad, Islam's prophet, and Western style social reforms. "This doesn't mean that my preaching will stop during my study, on the contrary, it will gain more power, value and maturity." Khaled said.
Occupied
islands 'will return to UAE'
Eid Al Fitr
likely to fall on Friday
Straw: Iraq will
be dealt with by force of law, not arms
Bangladesh
rejects Indian terrorism charges
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