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Newsletter : 1fax0228.txt
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>JN Feb. 28, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 36
Israel, Palestinians Reject U.S. Criticism on Human Right
By VOA News
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have both rejected criticism leveled at them by the State Department in its annual report on human rights. In unusually blunt criticism, the report says Israel used excessive force against Arab demonstrators and targeted Palestinians for execution. The report also criticizes Palestinian security forces for taking part in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Palestinian Authority described the criticism as unfair. Palestinian Justice Minister Freeh Abu Meddein said the U.S. report equates the victim with the executioner.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said the issues raised in the U.S. report must be seen in the context of the current armed conflict, which it said has been marked by daily terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Israel says it has reacted in a proportionate, measured and responsible fashion to what it called the systematic, ongoing attacks by Palestinian militia and members of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel's Labor To Join Unity Government
By VOA News
Israel's center-left Labor Party has voted to join a national unity government with the right-wing Likud party and its hawkish leader, Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon.
Two-thirds of the members of Labor's ruling body voted for the partnership late Monday after hours of heated debate. Opponents of the move urged members to walk away from the coalition plan, saying it would only add legitimacy to Sharon's hardline politics and end Labor's role as an alternative to Israel's right wing.
However, veteran Labor member and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that joining the coalition is the only way to keep Sharon from forming a far-right government that would end any prospects for peace in the Middle East.
Peres is seen as a likely candidate for foreign minister in the new government. The Labor Party has been in disarray since Sharon trounced Labor's Ehud Barak in a special election for prime minister early this month. Since then, Sharon has courted Labor, hoping to temper his hardline image in efforts to end months of violence that has cost hundreds of mostly Palestinian lives and left the Middle East peace process in shambles.
In the past, the prime minister-elect has sharply criticized Labor for what he called unacceptable concessions to the Palestinians. Many Palestinians and some Israelis blame Sharon for the current violence that began soon after he visited a site in Jerusalem that is holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Court Recognizes Right Of Jewish Prayer On Temple Mount
By Arutz-7 News
The Jerusalem Magistrates Court found three Chai VeKayam Temple Mount activists - including Yehuda Etzion - innocent Monday of behaving violently in an attempt to forcefully enter the Mount, six years ago.
Judge Shimon Feinberg ruled that before the police take measures against Jews who wish to exercise their right to pray at the holy site, they should disperse the Muslim disturbers-of-the-peace who aim to prevent Jewish prayer there. This is the first time that an Israeli court has recognized the rights of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.
A one-time government decision preventing a group led by the late Rabbi Shlomo Goren from praying there in 1967 - a decision that has never been renewed - is the only basis the police have for forbidding Jewish prayer there.
The General Security Service has been pushing the government for a while now to open the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors. Ha'aretz reported the GSS feels that the frustration among the groups wishing to visit the holy site is great, and that if an outlet is not found for the rage, it could explode into violence.
Palestinian Refugees In Syria Under Firm Government Control
By Gil Butler (VOA-Damascus)
One of the most difficult issues that must be resolved in an Israeli-Palestinian settlement is the future of more than three million Palestinian refugees. In Syria, there are 360,000 officially registered refugees.
The Jaramana Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus looks like a sprawling, urban neighborhood, except that the entrances are controlled by Syrian police. Jaramana was the first camp established in Syria, in 1948.
Unlike the camps of southern Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza, Palestinian refugee camps in Syria do not have pictures of Yasir Arafat on the walls of the houses, stores, and administrative offices. Instead there are pictures of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and his son, the current leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
Palestinians in Jordan have Jordanian citizenship. In Syria, they have a kind of de facto citizenship. Although Palestinians do not carry Syrian passports, they can work and own property in Syria. The problem is that there is high unemployment. In fact, many Syrians travel to Lebanon to find work.
Some of the older refugees in the camps say conditions are not good in the camps. "We haven't got any work," said one old man. "We have no education. We have nothing. No money. Nothing. We are just waiting."
Children wearing school uniforms crowd the street at Jaramana camp. Although most were born in camps in Syria, as were their parents, they still say they are Palestinians and, at least when talking to a reporter, insist they want to go back to what they call their "homeland."
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