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Newsletter : 1fax0213.txt
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>JN Feb. 13, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 26
Iraqi Airways Resumes Flights to Syria
By VOA News
Iraqi Airways has resumed scheduled flights to Syria for the first time in more than 19 years. Iraq and Syria are ruled by rival branches of the Baath party. They broke diplomatic relations in 1980 over Syria's support for Tehran in the Iran-Iraq war. Relations between Iraq and Syria have improved in recent years. They signed a free trade agreement in January.
IBM Accused of Nazi Links in WWII
By VOA News
U.S. computer giant IBM has been accused of helping Nazi genocide programs during World War II. A lawsuit filed Saturday in a New York federal court claims IBM punch card technology helped Adolf Hitler's Third Reich track and target Jews for slave labor and extermination.
Lawyers for Holocaust survivor groups say IBM's American executives assisted or participated in crimes against humanity by providing technology they knew would be used in activities that violate human rights.
The lawsuit seeks restitution from IBM for what lawyers call "profits made through violations of international law." The lawyers have also urged the court to order the computer giant to open its archives for public inspection.
The lawsuit coincides with the release of a book on the subject, "IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation." IBM officials have declined to comment, saying they have not yet seen either the lawsuit or the book.
But a company spokesman says hundreds of foreign companies that did business with Germany came under control of Nazi authorities during the 1930s and 1940s. The spokesman also said IBM has already donated its records from that period to universities in New York and Germany.
The book, which is only available on audiotape, shows how IBM took its respected and advanced computing technology and used it to assist Hitler's regime in cataloging its enemies and efficiently processing them into death camps.
Author Edwin Black details: How IBM enthusiastically modified its technology to meet the aims of Hitler's forces. The direct ties between the New York office of IBM and subsidiaries throughout Europe. How the use of IBM's know-how made it possible for the Nazi regime to carry out its campaign of terror and death with an efficiency and speed never before imagined.
Editor's Note: Part of the audiobook can be downloaded from www.audible.com and heard with Windows Media Player (available free).
Gaza Gunbattle, West Bank Shootings
By VOA News
Israeli troops have killed two Palestinians in the West Bank and wounded dozens of others in Gaza in a flare-up of violence as major problems are reported in attempts to form a new Israeli government.
The Israelis and Palestinians gave differing accounts of how the two men were killed. One of the shooting incidents was near Ramallah, the other near Bethlehem.
In Gaza, there has been a fierce gunbattle between Palestinians and Israeli troops guarding a Jewish settlement. Hospital officials say at least 50 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli gunfire and a bombardment of the Khan Younis refugee camp. Many Palestinians were forced to flee their homes.
On the political front, Israel's rightist Likud party and the center-left Labor party are reported to be at an impasse in their talks on forming a national unity government. The parties have different ideas on Jewish settlements and how to approach peace efforts with the Palestinians. One Labor party politician called it "a dialogue of the deaf" after Monday talks on forming a coalition.
The two sides sounded more optimistic than that after a Sunday meeting between Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon of Likud and the man he defeated in last week's election, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Labor.
Israel's outgoing government declared Sunday that the proposals it made to the Palestinians are no longer valid.
Palestinian Refugees Part 2 of 8
By Gil Butler (VOA-Kuwait City)
The future status of millions of Palestinian refugees is one of the major issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. There are perhaps 40,000 Palestinians in Kuwait, one-tenth of the number in the country before the Gulf War. After the war, Kuwait expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians because of their alleged support for Saddam Hussein.
During a gathering at an apartment in Kuwait, several Palestinian professionals gave their views about what Palestinians would do if peace ever comes. Jamal Sharawi said Palestinians in Kuwait have a special desire to go to Palestine. "Well, I think from Kuwait, frankly speaking, all of the Palestinians in Kuwait would go back to Palestine," he said. "Because you see, even after living so many years in Kuwait, Palestinians, as well as other foreign nationals, do not have any rights here, even to remain in Kuwait after they retire or after this long service. So I believe all the Palestinians would return to Palestine."
Sharawi says that in other countries the older Palestinians would go back. He says the younger generation, especially if they live in good conditions in developed countries, would not leave, but they too would like the right to return so they could make their own decision.
Because of the mass expulsions after the Gulf War, the Palestinians who are still in Kuwait say they have a special understanding of the need for a national identity - a homeland.
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