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Newsletter : 9fax1201.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Dec. 1, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 222
Palestinian Dissidents Retract Anti-Arafat Statements
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat appears to have put down an internal rebellion by legislators and others who accused him of promoting corruption. Some of the Palestinian dissidents have agreed to retract a public accusation that Arafat is personally responsible for any wrongdoing.
Five Palestinian dissidents agreed to retract their statement that the Palestinian leader had "paved the way" for officials in his administration to engage in widespread corruption. They are among 20 people who signed a document called a Cry from the Homeland - the first Palestinian document to name Arafat in connection with corruption charges.
In response to their declaration, a furious Arafat had nine of the authors jailed and another two put under house arrest.
Nabil Amr, a senior advisor to the Palestinian leader, told a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah the arrests were necessary to help maintain law and order. "We as a government consider the statement as a major incitement and we see clearly the line between the incitement and the freedom of expression."
Amr says he expects all the detainees to be released soon because the "situation had now been contained."
This follows a statement from four dissidents signed in their cells that declares they did not intend "to harm the name of the Palestinian leader or create strife among the Palestinian people."
The parliament is expected to convene Wednesday to decide whether eight other Palestinian legislators who signed the document should have their immunity lifted if they refuse to retract the allegations against Arafat.
Italian Court Separates Jewish Girls From Mom
By Arutz-7 News Service
Two Jewish girls may be being forced to convert to Christianity against their will, and with the sanction of an Italian court.
The story began eight years ago when Tali and Moshe Dolberg, Israelis living in Genoa, were divorced, and the mother awarded custody of their two children, Nitzan and Danielle. Four years later, after Tali had become religiously observant, Moshe was beginning the process of becoming a devout Catholic and her former husband demanded custody of the two girls. He claimed that her new religious lifestyle rendered her unfit to raise the children.
Tali fled with her two daughters to Israel but the Israeli Supreme Court, in accordance with accepted international custom, ordered the girls returned to Italian courts for a custody decision. The Court expressed its "confidence" that the Italian courts would consider the welfare of the girls.
The Italian court ruled: "It is true that the girls expressed their wish to return to Israel with the mother. This allegedly free wish is nothing but a personal wish which is relinquished and no longer exists... Absolute custody is given to the father...Two telephone conversations calls a week [are permitted] between the minors and the mother, 10 minutes with each daughter, and in Italian, while allowing Mr. Dolberg to record these conversations...meetings with the mother three successive days per month (without her sleeping with the children) in a place determined by the father and in the presence of a person approved of by Mr. Dolberg...there shall be a prohibition on telephone communication and exchange of letters between the girls and others who have not received permission to so communicate from the father.
The girls were in isolation from the rest of the world, prevented from receiving groups of girl friends, to mix socially... the case is one of an absolute group [Orthodox Jews] whose laws are inflexible in every respect - clothes, food, reading material..."
A note written by one of the sisters on the backdrop of a drawing of a house with the name Rosenberg - their mother's married name - on the door, said "With the help of God, things will be OK. With the help of God, we will return quickly to Eretz Yisrael, we will meet Ima [Mommy] who we miss so much, our sisters, our friends, and this whole [ordeal] will end quickly, with God's help, after these so many obstacles that we have passed [and] are passing...With great hope, the sisters who are united forever, Danielle and Nitzan.
The older daughter has described her father forcibly taking away her prayer book, yelling that her prayers were worthless, and hitting and pinching her when she continued to pray. He forces the girls to listen to readings from the New Testament, and continually denigrates Judaism in talks with them. Letters may be addressed to the Justice Ministry at sar@justice.gov.il.
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