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| PA elections must include East Jerusalem, officials tell U.S. |
| 01.30.04 (2:46 pm) [edit] |
By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz Correspondent
Elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council must also take place in East Jerusalem, as was the case in the previous elections in 1996, Palestinian representatives recently told their American counterparts.
The Palestinian Election Law of 1995 divides the Palestinian Authority territories into 16 regions, including East Jerusalem. Today, as in previous elections, the regional elections system has come under heavy criticism, as it discriminates against smaller parliamentary lists and encourages voting on a personal rather than a political-ideological basis. However, no Palestinian faction is actually planning to demand a change in the electoral system because this could lead to the annulment of the 1996 precedent in which the residents of East Jerusalem voted for the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Minister of Local Government, who heads the reform committee preparing the next elections, denied on Saturday that a senior American official had suggested changing the Palestinian electoral law in order to include elections for a prime minister, and to cancel the participation of East Jerusalem in the elections.
"Neither Condoleezza Rice nor Colin Powell mentioned 'Jerusalem' or 'prime minister' in our talks," Erekat said and added that the Palestinians had made it clear that this was an internal Palestinian affair.
Recent reports from both the PA and the United States claim that the Americans are insisting that the Palestinians elect a prime minister (as a way to push PA chairman Yasser Arafat aside).
Erekat has already prepared detailed plans for both presidential and parliamentary elections.
According to a Palestinian source who took part in Friday's meeting with the Middle East Quartet [comprising the U.S., United Nations, European Union and Russia] in Paris, the American delegation suggested that a new election law be drafted in order to change the system from a presidential to a parliamentary system namely, by authorizing parliament to choose a prime minister.
The Palestinian Basic Law, which Arafat only authorized two months ago despite the fact that it was passed by the legislative council five years ago, does not include a prime minister.
The Oslo Accords, which served as the basis for elections to the legislative council, do not mention elections for a prime minister. Therefore, such elections would necessitate a constitutional change that would require extensive hearings by the legislative council.
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| Israelis arrest 12 in raid on Bethlehem |
| 01.30.04 (12:44 pm) [edit] |
By Sharmila Devi in Jerusalem
Israeli soldiers raided the West Bank city of Bethlehem for the first time in six months on Friday, arresting 12 people and demolishing the refugee camp home of a Palestinian suicide bomber who killed 10 Israelis on Jerusalem bus.
Israel called the raid a "measured response" to Thursday's attack.
In separate violence, two Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip and another was shot dead in Hebron by Israeli troops on Friday.
Two militant groups, Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, issued separate claims of responsibility for Thursday's attack.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, also threatened on Friday to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to secure the release of some 7,000 Palestinian prisoners.
"I confirm that Palestinian factions have not spared any effort to reach Israeli soldiers and they have carried out several attempts," Sheikh Yassin said. "Israeli soldiers nowadays are as cautious as birds who fear being trapped."
An Israeli official warned the Hamas leader not to "mess with us". Two weeks ago, an Israeli minister said Sheikh Yassin was "marked for death" and he narrowly escaped assassination last September.
Sheikh Yassin's threat on Friday came as Israel was burying three soldiers swapped by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah for more than 400 mainly Palestinian prisoners on Thursday.
A kidnapped Israeli businessman was also released under the deal, which has been criticised by many Israelis as too generous to what they call a terrorist group.
In other developments, Israel on Friday submitted a challenge to the World Court in The Hague on its right to rule on the legality of a separation barrier under construction in the West Bank.
Other countries, such as the US and the UK which have criticised the barrier's route, were also expected to challenge the court's competence. The court begins deliberations on February 23.
The barrier cuts deep into the occupied territories to encircle Jewish settlements.
The Palestinians call it an "apartheid wall" designed to grab territory while Israel says it is necessary to prevent attacks.
"We believe that the court should not and cannot deal with this political issue, which has to be dealt with by direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," said an Israeli official.
However, Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, has threatened to impose a unilateral settlement, which would leave the Palestinians in isolated enclaves, if there is no progress on the US-backed road map towards a two-state solution within the next few months.
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| Tonge: No Regrets |
| 01.30.04 (11:23 am) [edit] |
by Justin Cohen
Under fire Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge has stood defiantly by her comments about Palestinian suicide bombers, insisting: “I don’t regret anything I say.”
Speaking exclusively to TJ on Wednesday night, the party’s axed children’s spokesman said she had been inundated with more than 5,000 emails and letters, mostly of support, since her remarks drew condemnation from across the political spectrum.
Tonge was condemned to the backbenches last Friday after she told a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign event she could “understand” how desperate people can become suicide bombers.
She said: “I think if I had to live in that situation, and I say this advisedly, I might just consider becoming one myself.” Her comments come months after she returned from a visit to the region with Labour MP Oona King.
But while Tonge claimed to have “tremendous sympathies for the Israelis”, she told TJ: “I don’t regret anything I say and I speak from the heart. You have to go to the West Bank and the Gaza strip to see the terrible conditions ordinary Palestinians have to endure.
“I was not saying me Jenny Tonge with my upbringing would become a suicide bomber. I was saying if I was a Palestinian mother and grandmother who had lived for decades in the occupied territories seeing her family getting killed and injured and not to make a living I may have considered becoming a suicide bomber. That is empathy. It is not sympathy or support.”
But she said she had not been surprised by the strong reaction to her remarks after the reaction after she returned from the territories last year.
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| Female Bombers |
| 01.30.04 (8:54 am) [edit] |
by Daniella Peled
Last week’s attack on the Erez crossing in which four Israelis died marked the first time Islamist group Hamas used a female suicide bomber.
Here, Daniella Peled looks at the cult of martyrdom among Palestinian women and the methods used to recruit female terrorists.
On 14 January, Re’em Salah Raishi killed four Israelis and injured over a dozen when she blew herself up at a Gaza border checkpoint. She was not the first female suicide bomber – seven have carried out attacks against Israel in the last two years – but she was the first dispatched by Hamas.
Riashi also set some other macabre precedents. She was married, with two small children, and from an affluent Gazan family.
In the video epitaph, the smiling 21-year-old said: “My joy will be complete when my body parts fly in all directions.”
Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was quick to describe the bombing as a “new beginning” for Palestinian women and a “significant evolution” for the terror group.
But even within a society inured to suicide terrorism, other Palestinians were more ambivalent in the reaction to the shocking attack.
Relatives kept a low profile at her funeral last week, even as Hamas leaders eulogised the young woman and promised she would not be the last female attacker.
A commentator in Palestinian newspaper, al-Ayyam, warned families would begin to rebel against this “culture of death”. And rumours began to circulate about why a young mother would participate in such an attack.
Relatives angrily denied reports the 22-year-old had been having an affair with a member of Hamas, who blackmailed her into carrying out the mission.
Yet another tale implied her husband had grown bored of their marriage and had even drove her to the attack himself.
But these unverified reports do appear to follow a pattern that fits many female suicide bombers. Israeli researchers note that terror groups exploit grieving, susceptible youngsters, or those whose family reputations are tarnished by accusations of collaboration.
And they claim that women who fail to fit in with conservative Palestinian norms - divorced, unmarried or thought to be promiscuous - are particularly vulnerable, such as 27 year-old Wafa Idris, the intifada’s first woman bomber, abandoned for her failure to produce children.
Yoram Shweitzer, researcher at Tel Aviv university’s Jaffee centre for strategic studies, points to a striking “purification element” in recruitment techniques, combining “revengeful feelings with a fantasy of glory and religion”.
He told TJ: “I have heard it myself, that the females believe that as soon as the first drop of blood is spilt they will fly straight to sit near God and enjoy his company, and 70 of their relatives will be pardoned and sent to heaven.”
Israeli security sources believe increasing legitimisation by Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs brigade and now Hamas has finally given women in patriarchal Palestinian culture an opportunity to engage in military struggle.
Dr Amal Amireh, of George Mason university in America and the author of a study on sexuality and nationality in Palestinian society, told TJ: “The militarisation of the intifada, in addition to the damage it did Palestinian society, has weakened the position of Palestinian women. In violence, men take centre stage.”
She refutes the emphasis placed on sexual honour by Israeli investigators, seeing female participation as part of a wider context of “violence, exploitation and trauma”, and sees women as no less exploited than men by terror groups.
But the use of women terrorists has obvious strategic advantages. They can travel more easily, especially wearing Western dress. Raishi exploited Israeli sensitivities by insisting a plate in her leg had set off metal detectors, and asking to be taken inside to be searched by a female soldier – whereupon she detonated her explosives.
Women, such as hijacker Leila Khaled, have long carried out a supporting role in Palestinian terror, and female handlers are often used to lead Palestinian bombers to their targets. According to Israeli security sources, some become involved through romantic relationships with terrorists, while others are inspired by fierce national-religious motivations.
Insights have been provided by some of the 24 women intercepted by Israel as they set out on their suicide missions.
They include Tahani Titi, 24, who told investigators of her unhappy family life and doomed love affairs and how, suicidal after a brief entanglement with a Tanzim member, she was persuaded to carry out an attack instead.
Hamas has thus far resisted involving women in suicide attacks, for reasons, it claimed, of modesty. But Shweitzer said: “The moral objection to female bombers is a false pretence. Of course, they found a religious justification.”
And Amireh agreed. “Hamas are pragmatic. If Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades are sending females, then they don’t want to be left behind. They want to score points with the Palestinian public.”
But from the reaction she describes seeing among her family, friends and the media, Hamas may have misjudged the mood on the street.
Shweitzer believes terror groups will continue to exploit women, but says the challenge can be tackled by the IDF, who will simply need to be more suspicious of female Palestinians. He believes the more problematic issue is an internal one for Palestinian society itself.
Shweitzer said: “They will use more female bombers. But they don’t want to open a Pandora’s box, giving women the chance to claim equal rights. It is a very conservative society and women don’t enjoy equal rights. Except in the right to die.”
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| Missing Soldiers |
| 01.30.04 (7:41 am) [edit] |
by Marian Lebor
As the Avraham, Avitan, Sawayid and Tannenbaum families anxiously await the denouement of the prisoner exchange saga due to be enacted this week, five other Israeli families know that their missing sons are not part of the German-mediated deal with Hizbullah.
For these families, the struggle to find and return their sons will continue, as will their anguish and uncertainty.
It was reported this week that Israel might reconsider the principle of not releasing prisoners with “blood on their hands” in exchange for concrete information about missing navigator Ron Arad. And the Chief of Staff, Moshe Ya’alon, spoke of the “obligation to those who are not included in this deal.” He was referring to Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, who have been missing since the battle of Sultan Yakub in 1982, and to Guy Hever, who disappeared on the Golan Heights in 1997.
The mere mention of Guy Hever’s name by the defence establishment has provided his family with a very slight modicum of satisfaction. Guy Hever is the least well known of all Israel’s missing soldiers. In fact, his parents, Rina and Eitan, have long fought to have him recognised officially by the army as “missing”, rather than “disappeared”.
This is partly because the circumstances of his disappearance are a complete mystery, and partly because the Hevers shy away from the television exposure that would increase public awareness of their plight. “We always have to initiate contact with the government, and any top level international meetings that we have arranged have come about through our own efforts,” says Rina.
On Saturday, August 16 1997, Rina and Eitan went to visit Guy, who was then aged 20, at his army base in the Golan Heights. They took him out for a meal and he seemed in good spirits when he returned to his unit. He was last seen on the following day, in uniform, carrying his Galil rifle. He was wearing his dog tag round his neck and he carried the special ID card to be used in case of captivity.
The army’s initial response to Guy’s sudden disappearance was to treat him as a deserter and his parents as his accomplices. But as time has gone on, the mystery has deepened. He didn’t own a mobile phone, and his wallet and all other personal effects were left in his room. If he had committed suicide or been killed by a mine, some remains would have been found. Wadis and cliffs in the Golan Heights have been thoroughly searched, as have cult movements and yeshivas all over Israel, in case he has assumed a new identity.
“It is all so mysterious and illogical that I’m sure the solution will not be normal,” says Rina. “I think the fact that Guy was in uniform and carrying a weapon is significant: it strengthens my suspicion that he was abducted and may now be in captivity in Syria.” Accordingly, she has made contact with international diplomats who may be able to use their connections with the Syrians to find out information.
The Hevers know that many Israelis are unfamiliar with Guy’s story, and this only adds to their ordeal. How do they cope? “We live a parallel life, trying to do normal everyday things, while continuing our struggle to find Guy,” says Rina. “I feel strongly that he is in a place where he can’t contact us, and I am fighting to bring him home - alive.”
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