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Newsletter : 1fax0214.txt
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>JN Feb. 14, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 27
Israel Close to National Unity Government
By VOA News
Prime Minister-Elect Ariel Sharon is moving closer to forming a government of national unity with the Labor Party of the man he defeated, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Labor Party negotiators say great progress has been made with Sharon's Likud Party on the draft of a coalition agreement.
The two sides struck an agreement in principle on the diplomatic guidelines a unity government would follow. The right-wing Likud and the center-left Labor agreed to pursue another partial, interim peace deal with the Palestinians, not a final agreement. They also agreed to stop construction of new Jewish settlements, but would allow expansion of existing settlements.
Palestinian Officer Killed in Israeli Missile Attack
By Meredith Buel (VOA-Jerusalem)
A Palestinian security officer has been killed and four others wounded by missiles fired from an Israeli combat helicopter. Palestinian officials say a member of the Palestinian Security Service, Masud Ayyad, was killed in the attack, which occurred in the northern Gaza Strip. He was identified as an officer in Palestinian chief Yasir Arafat's elite Force-17 unit. Hundreds of Palestinians gathered around the twisted remains of the car, chanting "Death to Israel."
The Israeli Army described the man as a terrorist, saying he worked on behalf of the Iranian-backed Hizbullah guerrilla group. An army statement says Ayyad carried out a series of terrorist attacks and was involved in efforts to kidnap Israelis. The statement says Ayyad was a known smuggler of weapons and drugs, and was in contact with Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Palestinians called the attack a "targeted assassination." Israel has killed a number of suspected Palestinian activists since violence erupted more than four months ago. In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in Gaza. Hospital officials say the teenager was shot near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel.
IBM Accused of Crimes Against Humanity
By Paula Wolfson (VOA-Washington) & IDG News Service
Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, have filed a lawsuit against America's largest computer company. They say that IBM's corporate headquarters in the United States looked the other way while its German subsidiary aided the Nazis.
Some historians have said the Nazis ran their concentration camps like factories of death. The equipment used to tabulate information and improve efficiency was provided by the German subsidiary of an American firm: IBM.
IBM is best known these days as the world's largest computer company. But in the 1930s and '40s, it was a manufacturer of adding machines and other pre-computer age equipment for organizing information.
At the time the United States entered World War II, in 1941, IBM owned 84 percent of German subsidiary Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen (Dehomag for short), which sold the punchcard technology invented by the engineer Hermann Hollerith in the 1890s.
Dehomag became a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM in 1947. It was renamed IBM Deutschland Internationale B'ro-Maschinen in 1949, and IBM Germany in 1971.
IBM's German subsidiary has already acknowledged that it leased office machines to the Nazis and provided maintenance. But a group of American lawyers says IBM's corporate headquarters was aware of the contract, did nothing to stop it, and accepted the profits.
These lawyers have filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Holocaust survivors who now live in the United States, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. Their suit contends IBM-USA aided and abetted crimes against humanity.
At Dachau concentration camp alone, there were 24 IBM sorters, tabulators and printers, the lawyers said, adding that IBM staff regularly visited its Nazi clients for service and training purposes.
"What the lawsuit focuses on is IBM's conduct and knowledge with respect to the placement and use of its technology and machines in concentration camps," said lead plaintiff attorney Michael Hausfeld. He says the concentration camp survivors who put their names on the suit are not seeking personal compensation. He says they are acting on behalf of all victims of the Holocaust in seeking full access to company archives.
"What the survivors want at this point is a fuller record of not only what happened, but who participated in that offense," he said. "They are seeking a declaration of rights, that what IBM did violated fundamental norms of international human rights." IBM's German subsidiary was taken over by the Nazis during the war, but the takeover occurred after most of the camps were equipped. After the war, the company rejoined IBM USA and paid into a special fund set up to compensate victims of the Holocaust.
The lawsuit filed against the company's international headquarters calls for further payments, equal to the profits made on contracts with the Nazis. Company executives in the United States and Germany are refusing to comment on details of the lawsuit. But a spokesman for IBM's European division says IBM would be the first to condemn the activities of anyone who was associated with the Nazi regime.
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