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Newsletter : 1fax0220.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Feb. 20, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 31
Waqf Forbids Tourists On Temple Mount
By Arutz-7 News
The Muslim Waqf continues in its refusal to allow tourists - or any non-Muslim - to visit the Temple Mount. Waqf director Adnan al-Husseini rejected the government's request, and said that this is an "internal Waqf matter, and Israel has no right to intervene in it... It is our prerogative to open and close the gates when we wish and according to the situation." The Temple Mount has been closed to Jews and tourists since the beginning of the current violence, almost five months ago.
Israel, U. S. Hold Joint Military Exercises
By VOA News
Israel and the United States have begun a joint military exercise in southern Israel. The six-day exercise includes test-firing Patriot missiles like those used in Israel against Iraqi "scud" missiles during the Persian Gulf War 10 years ago.
U.S. and Israeli officials say the exercise has been planned for more than a year, and has nothing to do with Friday's U.S. and British air attacks against anti-aircraft sites near Baghdad. Hundreds of U.S. troops based in Germany have arrived in Israel to take part in the exercise.
Israel has played down the threat of attack from Iraq. Thousands of Palestinians have been demonstrating in support of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and they have called on Iraq to attack Tel Aviv.
Israeli Panel Investigates Police Killings of Arabs
By VOA News
An Israeli state commission has opened hearings into October's police killings of 13 Arab-Israelis during a demonstration just after the start of the Palestinian uprising. The killings outraged Arab-Israelis who condemned police for using what they call excessive force against the protesters.
Emotions were high at Monday's opening session. The father of one of the dead lunged at a policeman as he testified. A shooting victim's mother collapsed in sobs and screams.
In more violence Monday, an activist of the Palestinian Islamic resistance group Hamas was shot and killed while walking in a West Bank refugee camp. Witnesses say Israeli soldiers targeted the victim and fired at him from an army position overlooking the camp. The Israeli army says it is investigating the shooting. Meanwhile, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak postponed Monday's scheduled meeting of his Labor Party central committee as he looks for support for a unity government with the conservative Likud Party and Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon. Some Labor party leaders oppose the collation and are accusing Barak of destroying their party.
Sharon urged all politicians to rise above petty politics and endorse the coalition, saying it is needed to deal with Palestinian violence.
Pollard Wants Bush to Pardon Him
By Arutz-7 News
Jonathan Pollard, refusing to go under from the blow Bill Clinton dealt him by not including him among the dozens of Americans he pardoned in his last hours in his office, has already begun to try his luck with George W. Bush - his fourth American President - and Ariel Sharon, his sixth Israeli Prime Minister.
In a letter to Sharon, Pollard urged him to place the issue high up in his dealings with Bush.
"The people of Israel were recently horrified to learn that former Prime Minister Barak and top Israeli officials threw their full weight into an intense lobbying effort to secure an American presidential pardon for Marc Rich...but the fate of a long-abandoned Israeli agent was clearly of no concern. In the 16 years that I have been in prison for my activities on behalf of Israel, no comparable effort was ever made - publicly or privately- to secure my release, the release of an Israeli agent."
Pollard noted that Sharon was the man who stood most firmly on behalf of Pollard at the Wye Plantation talks: "When the president [Clinton] publicly reneged on his commitment to release me, you alone were prepared to leave Wye without signing the accords. Because of your tough position, a private deal was negotiated according to which, once Israel paid the price for my release, I would go free in a "parallel gesture" by the U.S. Israel kept its end of the bargain, but former Prime Minister Ehud Barak chose not to collect on my release. Now, it is up to you to keep faith with me and all those who serve the state by securing my release without further delay."
In his letter to Sharon, Pollard wrote, "Put end to the lingering question that some of Israel's soldiers are more deserving of rescue than others. Only when there is no longer a Jonathan Pollard rotting in an American prison after 16 years will the Israeli people be assured that the state will rescue all of her soldiers if they are taken captive - even if they do not have millions of dollars for payoffs."
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