Peres Centre Investigated by Norway’s Foreign Office

May 11, 2002

The Norwegian Foreign Office (UD) has started investigating the Peres Peace Centre in Israel, and into the way the centre has used Norwegian monitary contributions.

It was the Peres Centre that awarded a peace prize worth US$ 100,000 to Mona Juul and Terje Roed-Larsen.

The centre has received Norwegian grants worth NOK 10 million over the last five years. The centre’s main intention was to improve relations between Israeli and Palestinian youth.

-UD now wants to know if the money was spent for the intended purpose, says press spokesman Victor Roenneberg. UD has asked office of the Auditor General of Norway for assistance in going through the accounts submitted by the centre.

UD is of the opinion that Norway’s Ambassador to Israel, Mona Juul, and UN Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen contravened the Civil Service Act when they failed to inform the department of the cash involved in the peace prize awarded by the Peres Peace Centre in 1999.

The two each received a cheque in the amount of US$50,000, as part of the prize awarded for their contribution towards the process which resulted in the so-called Oslo Accord.

This article ran in the Norway Post on May 7, 2002

Why are Readers of HaAretz Angry?

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 11, 2002

These are hard times for the Schocken Group and for Ha’aretz. One week after the publication of a letter from Irit Linur in which she announced that she was canceling her subscription to the newspaper — a letter that sparked a huge storm — a new storm has arrived. Army Radio’s Amit Segal reported yesterday that Ha’aretz has experienced a wave of subscriptions cancellations, and that the paper has provided a list of special instructions in order to give the newspaper’s sales representatives tools to respond to readers who want to cancel their subscriptions. The list includes answers to questions raised by angry subscribers, under the heading, “Key sentences in response to opposition to a ‘left-wing newspaper.'”

The wave of cancellations marks the peak of a trend that began at the outbreak of the Intifada. Segal also reported that many newspaper stands in Tel Aviv have refused to sell local papers published by the Schocken Group after one of them ran pictures of Yigal Amir next to pictures of the prime minister on the front page.

Many Ha’aretz readers feel that the left-wing line that the paper takes in its reporting of the events over the past year and a half are not something that they can come to terms with. In the letter sent to Ha’aretz to cancel her subscription, Irit Linur describes the problem: “Ha’aretz has reached a stage at which its anti-Zionism too often becomes stupid, bad journalism, and even if it is hard for me to decide which of the two bothers me more, I am sick of both of them. I am tired of reading in every TV review, whether written by Rogel Alper, Sagui Green, Benny Tzipper, or Aviv Lavie, that the central problem of all of the news programs, every broadcast, before and after an attack, is too much patriotism and that the military reporters are working for the IDF spokesman. I think that they are wrong and boring, and that their working assumption is dishonest and estranged from the reality and the place where they live.”

As is noted above, the publication of the letter created a wave of cancellations of subscriptions, and sources at the paper report angry letters from readers canceling their subscriptions because of “the extreme pro-Palestinian line” taken by the paper.

This piece ran in Maariv on May 11, 2002

Is Europe Lost? A Traumatic Experience at the Council of Europe

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 6, 2002

“When the Jews warned the West,” I told participants at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, “that the Nazis endangered the peace of the world, your fathers replied that the Nazis were indeed not nice, but that this was a problem between the Germans and the Jews. Now, when we warn you that fanatic Islamic threatens the existence of western civilization, you tell us that Islamic terror is indeed worrisome, but this is a problem between the Moslems and Jews. When the explosive belt of a Moslem suicide terrorist explodes in Paris or London, Berlin or Amsterdam, again you will realize that this is also your problem.”

No one could say that the audience liked my words of admonition. Even less did they like it when I contended that if Israel were destroyed, all that the Europeans would do would be to set up orphanages for our children.

This is no way to talk in well-mannered Europe. Only an unruly Israeli could speak this way. But since at the beginning of my remarks I introduced myself as a Holocaust refugee, they were quiet. Perhaps their father killed my father, so why argue with me?

The Council of Europe is made up of over 600 members from 44 parliaments, who convene a number of times a year to discuss problems of human rights. This time the topic was the Middle East and around half of the council members came. Each of them a prosecutor. The accused were us, members of the Knesset delegation: Haim Ramon and Baige Shohat (Labor Party), Michael Eitan (Likud), David Tal (Shas), me (Shinui) and our ambassador to the Council of Europe, Yitzhak Eldan. For four entire days, from morning till night, in private meetings, in meetings with political groups (radical Left, socialists, liberals, democrats and conservatives) and in plenum sessions, we heard accusations, denunciations, rebukes, warnings, criticism and vilification. We heard the word “Jenin” about two million times. We were threatened with an international court, with boycotts, with dismissals, with decrees and with slowly burning over the coals of Hell. And indeed, we did feel as if we were frying in the coals of Hell (and if one more person dares tease me about the pleasures of being sent overseas, I will force them to read the minutes of all the sessions).

We had four defenders: a German goy, two Hungarian Jews and a French Jew, whose name, perhaps coincidentally, was Dreyfus.

But their defense did not avert a long series of anti-Israeli resolutions: condemnation for the systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure, condemnation for violating international law, condemnation for killing Palestinian activists, condemnation for the destruction of Jenin, condemnation for holding Arafat under siege, and for dessert: support for the dissenters movement in Israel. In fairness sake, I should mention that they also condemned Palestinian terror and the murder of Rehavam Ze’evi.

And, of course, there were also constructive resolutions: support for direct negotiations, support for Tenet, support for Mitchell and so on.

The anti-Israeli stench that wafted from these meetings gave me a feeling of being a hero in a Becket play, who spends his day in a pile of garbage.

Are we indeed becoming the victims of a new anti-Semitism?

There is no lack, even today, of the traditional anti-Semitism in Europe, of the old kind. But the thrust of European anti-Semitism is not among the offspring of the Nazis. Anti-Semitism today is fed by Moslem incitement, which portrays the Israelis as war criminals and the Jews as Israeli saboteurs among the nations. This anti-Semitism is supported by the radical Left, which sees Israel as a colonialist state that oppresses the natives, along the lines of apartheid.

Anti-Semitism is still considered indecent in Europe today. But it is again an existing fact. And again, the Jews are worried.

One evening we visited the Jewish community of Strasbourg. The young people in the Jewish youth club wore new caps. “It’s a bit dangerous today to walk around with a kippa,” we were told, with embarrassment, by one of the community leaders. A synagogue in Strasbourg was torched and a Jewish cemetery was vandalized.

This was during the week that Le Pen defeated Prime Minister Jospin. Paradoxically, Le Pen was not elected because he is an anti-Semite, but because he incites against Moslem immigrants. The same Moslems that incite against the Jews.

We will be making our lives too easy if we attribute the traumatic experience the Knesset delegation had in the Council of Europe only to anti-Semitism. More than the traditional enemies worried me, I was worried this time by our old friends. Politicians, who in the past had supported Israel without hesitation, spoke to us this time the way you speak to a relative who has lost their mind. They do not understand why we behave the way we do. Why did we prevent the leaders of the European Union from meeting with Arafat? Why did we smash the computers in the Palestinian Authority offices? Why did we destroy a row of houses in Jenin? Why didn’t we let the ambulances evacuate the wounded? Why did we not let humanitarian delegations in for 11 days? Because the houses were booby-trapped? So we should have marked them with red tape.

On the last day the representative of the Palestinians, Ziyad Abu Ziyad, was scheduled to speak. A day earlier, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, warned us that the Israeli authorities had prevented Ziyad from coming and instead, he, the secretary general, would read the letter that Ziyad sent with harsh allegations against Israel. We realized this would be a very unpleasant demonstration of Israeli tyranny, if the secretary general of the Council of Europe would read, standing by the empty chair of the Palestinian representative, his words of condemnation. Baige Shohat phoned the defense minister. Fuad ordered Ziyad to be allowed to go and he arrived in Strasbourg on time. One PR catastrophe less.

We talked until our throats were parched about violations of the Oslo accords, about the rejection of Barak’s and Clinton’s proposals at Camp David, about our acceptance of the Tenet and Mitchell reports, about Sharon’s policy of restraint, about Peres’s attempts at mediation and about the terrible suicide terrorism. The European politicians, from the Left and Center and the Right, denounce terror, but view it as a derivative of the settlements and of the occupation. They see the occupation as the mother of all sins. The occupation is Kosovo. The occupation is Chechnya.

They follow the pictures on the television screens: destroyed homes, bound men, tanks facing children, crying women. That is how we look in European eyes.

Whereas two years ago we were the darlings of the Europeans, now we look in their eyes like the citizens of an aggressive and pitiless country. What should we do?

Sometimes we are brutal, and that we mustn’t do; sometimes we make silly mistakes, and that is unnecessary; sometimes our explanations come too late, and that is unfortunate. But none of that is what determines the Europeans attitude towards, but rather the settlements and the occupation.

Europe’s attitude should not determine the Israeli government’s policy. It does not even have to influence Israel’s policy. We don’t owe the Europeans a thing. But we should make a note to ourselves, that at this stage, until further notice, we’ve lost Europe.

This account ran in the Maariv newspaper on May 3, 2002

Getting Your Stolen Car Back from PLO hands

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 6, 2002

It’s not a simple thing to part from one’s car, as anyone knows who’s ever had to undergo this experience, whether through selling it for upgrading purposes or whether through traumatic circumstances: a lien, theft, or an accident God forbid. The car, a quiet and (generally) reliable partner, has stood by our side all through all lives, from the days of making out in the back seat and sleepless nights and days with Gerber-dripping offspring in safety seats in the exact same place.

How stinging therefore is the sense of powerless that so many of us feel, that sense we feel when faced with an empty parking space, which just a day earlier was occupied by the beloved that is no longer. 71 Israeli citizens, in the course of the last 36 days since Operation Protective Wall began, were privileged to get an unexpected phone call, with the gladdening and somewhat imaginary news: your stolen car, dear citizen, the one you considered lost forever, has been found by a special police force in the heart of Area A, and is now on its way back to its heartbroken owner. The latter are asked to come at once to the police car lot in Talpiot, Jerusalem, for the heartwarming reunion.

However, the excitement citizens feel who yearn for their wheels is short-lived, and in most cases, turns into despondency upon reaching the crowded lot. A collection of ripped metal, piled one almost on top of the other, leaves no room for doubt. The owner has to be twice lucky to go from there home and not to the nearest garage, whether for a total overhaul or to be dismantled, melted down or crushed.

Ask Dudu Yisrael, 28, from Beer Sheva. His Fiat Uno, which was returned to him a few days ago, is at this time parked near the home of his Jerusalem relatives. The worn brakes, the electricity system that doesn’t work and the torn tires are just some of its symptoms.

“Do you have a cheap tow truck for me?” he asked us, testimony to his car’s mechanical and cosmetic condition, which was liberated by troops on the northern outskirts of Ramallah a moment before being chopped for parts.

“Quite a few cars were almost totally destroyed,” said Yuval Hadar, in charge of the Talpiot lot where the cars were brought, this week. “The hardest cases are those cars that were caught in the course of a chase, that usually ends in an accident or a crash. In addition, car turnover in the Palestinian Authority is very high for various reasons, and the owners, who keep them only for a short time, treat them accordingly – they drive them in the mountains, through the fields, and just don’t care. Some wanted men change their cars every week, the heavies even every three days.

You don’t expect them to take care of them, do you?”

The idea of going into the Palestinian Authority and of returning stolen cars came up in the Judea and Samaria police meeting rooms as soon as Operation Protective Wall began and was implemented thanks to cooperation between the police, the army and the sappers, who checked the cars before they were loaded and taken back home. Police figures show that almost all of the cars were taken to the insurance companies, because the owners had already been paid the insurance money. But some car owners, who had not been compensated because they did not own a comprehensive insurance policy, had their cars returned.

One of these owners is Nissim Yosef, 25, of Pisgat Zeev, whose Subaru was stolen one night last February, and who received a surprising phone call from the police. Yosef: “For me it was like winning the lottery, both because I wasn’t insured, and mainly because I just really missed my car.”

Question: What condition was it in?

“Let’s start by saying that there was a large red keffiya on the dashboard. The gear stick was wrapped in plastic. There were an enormous number of tapes in Arabic inside all over, and someone had ruined the radio-CD player. Instead they put in something else with wires sticking out all over, and huge speakers in the trunk. Actually I listened to some of the tapes, some were pretty good.”

Question: The police say that all sorts of things happened to these cars.

“Like what?”

Question: Some were used by senior PA officials, some were used to move wanted men in the trunk and some were used as escape cars.

“Well, as far as that goes, I don’t have to worry, since there’s no way any senior PA official would dare show their face in a car like mine. As for the trunk, this was a coupe and in these models, almost the entire back is exposed and no one can be hidden there. And chases? I wouldn’t think so, with the noise my engine makes and how it heats up, they wouldn’t get too far. But I noticed that they changed my engine and you know, ever since it got back, I think the brakes work a lot better too.”

Citizen Yosef is not the only one who thinks himself lucky. A.G., also of Jerusalem and the owner of a Hyundai stolen just a month and a half ago, was called one afternoon and rushed over to Talpiot. “I was very curious to see what had happened to my car, and when I saw it, I went into shock. I couldn’t say anything for a long time.”

Question: What had happened?

“The entire car had been painted a lemony yellow, and it turned out that they had made it into a taxi. It’s funny, it had been full of scratches and I was thinking of taking it to a body shop, but I had never thought of painting it, certainly not this yellow.”

Besides taxis, some cars were also made into official cars and were used by various senior functionaries in the Palestinian Authority. These cars, usually a Mazda 626 (a real status symbol in Ramallah) came back full of accessories and were beautifully polished. “One Mazda that came here that was used by a very senior and well known official,” said a worker in the police lot. “It was accessorized to the last detail and it was in shape as good as new. Of course there were no pictures of shahids stuck on the dashboard, like in other cars. I waited to see who it belonged it, but the insurance company came and took it. I felt sorry for the original owner who probably would have been very happy to have gotten it back.”

In addition to the relative economic consolation resulting from this operation, senior police sources also note the need to deter and to punish in those areas that until not long ago were considered inaccessible. That is why, in the course of the operation, they not only collected stolen cars, but also were also strict about arresting their new owners.

Dep. Cmdr. Itzik Rahamim, commander of the Binyamin police station: “As far as stolen Jewish property, what goes on in Area A is complete lawlessness. My rough and unauthorized estimation is that about half of the cars there are stolen. The industry of stealing cars and making them Palestinian is so entrenched, it’s hard to believe sometimes how easily it’s done.”

Question: Do you intend to make more of these kind of operations to return stolen cars?

“It’s not just up to us. We can only take action inside PA areas when the army is there, and as it looks today, this is not going to happen frequently, certainly not permanently. If we can, we’ll act, and with vigor. After all, everyone knows that stealing cars is a real plague and hurts everyone and affects the economy in general. If this action or similar ones in the future can make even a small change or deter the other side and the number of thefts go down even a little, then we’ve done something.”

This account ran in the Yediot Aharonot paper on May 3, 2002

Paula Finer Discusses the Tragedy of her Daughter, Now in a Permanent Vegetative State

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 4, 2002

Thanks to private support from many circles, Israel Resource News Agency has produced a pilot film for what will hopefully evolve into a full fledged documentary concerning the plight of victims of terror.

The first family that the IR video deals with is the family of Chana Nachenberg, a woman who has been lying in a coma, described by her doctors as a “permanent vegetative state”, ever since she was injured by Arab terrorists in the Sbarro restaurant attack last August.

Chana’s mother, Paula Finer, who was interviewed for the film, recently provided the following personal account to a visiting delegation of Jewish Americans who came to visit Paula at the Reuth Medical Center where Chana is hospitalized.

“We would like to thank you for coming to see us, your kind support, and the Reuth Medical Center for enabling us to meet with you this afternoon.

My name is Paula Finer. I am not a speaker or a politician. I am a mother – the mother of my newlywed son Zev who was just called to reserve duty in Gaza, the mother of my second daughter, Shoshana, who lives with her young family in the West Bank settlement of Eli. And the mother of Chana Tova

Chaya Nachenberg who lies here in this hospital attached to a respirator because she was hit in the heart and lung by shrapnel in the Sbarro restaurant, terror suicide bomber attack. Chana was rushed to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem but by the time she got there the bleeding from her damaged artery caused her heart-beat to stop. The doctors immediately operated to resuscitate her but the anoxia to her brain has left her unconscious till today.

Chana remained in the intensive care unit in Hadassa for 7 weeks before she was transferred to Reuth. The doctors say that Chana is in a persistent vegetative state – a condition with a poor prognosis. The R.M.C. here provides wonderful care for Chana’s physical condition, and we her family work with her every day (except Shabbat) from morning till night trying to stimulate her to awareness. We work and pray for another miracle. We give her things to smell, like vanilla or mint and work using all five senses. For this reason, I often wear my bright red hats.

The first miracle was that Sara, Chana’s three year-old daughter, who although she sat by her side, was untouched by the blast. But the trauma of seeing her mother fall over, of being taken in the ambulance with her unconscious mother, of being deprived of her mother’s warmth, smile, hugs and kisses has left an indelible scar on Sara for life. Sara comes to see her mother here, kisses her, brushes her hair but her once bubbly mother can not respond. The psychological scars are exemplified by Sara’s reactions to things that other children take as fun. Yesterday, Sara went with her father to a Lag Be’Omer show where a magician performed. A trick with a flash of fire caused Sara to burst into hysterical crying. Fireworks also bring out the same reaction. It is difficult for David, Chana’s husband, who has to cope every day, as a single parent.

The terror attack on August 9, 2001 has changed our lives. Yet, our family works hard together. When Chana’s husband David returned to work, it fell upon me and my husband Itzie, to take Sara to kindergarten in the morning.

We leave our house at 6:45 to allow David to get the 7:00 o’clock bus. My husband rushes to synagogue while I feed and dress our granddaughter. At 7:45 he returns and we take Sara to Gan (kindergarten). Then my husband hurries off to his course while I have just a short while before I leave for the hospital. It is a long day. After his course, my husband comes straight to Chana where we stay till 8 p.m. By the time we get home we are exhausted from the long grind. Sometimes we would like to take a few hours off but we are stopped by the recurrent crises – bouts of pneumonia, urinary infections caused by the catheter, and just unexplained temperature spikes that occur in the vegetative state.

We would like to go home and write the many thank you notes that are in our hearts to all the people who have helped us since August 9, but after a long day we simply don’t have the energy. I used to work teaching English lessons in the afternoon, but now my job is to teach my daughter, Chana Tova Chaya.

To sing to her, talk, tell her stories, to move her arms and legs, to wipe her mouth. Hoping for a miracle that may never come.

Innocent people have lost their lives or were maimed in violent terror attacks. We are the victims, not the aggressors. It hurts to read and watch the news every day. We are frustrated. We are fighting for our existence – for security and peace, yet the world through biased media coverage sees us the villains. The viscous attack this past Shabbat received one small paragraph in the international edition at the end of an article about Israel’s hesitance to cooperate with the U.N Jenin investigation. Israel, at the expense of their public relations, respects the privacy of the affected families. They do not use sensationalism to win a point. People around the world cannot and do not realize the long lasting effects of these terror attacks. You are here now, and perhaps you can bring back some of these messages to your communities.

Again, thanks to the Reuth Medical Center for their care and dedication. Thank you again for your support – for coming to Israel in these hard times – to show us we are not alone. Your caring gives us strength to go on every day. May you continue to have Chana Tova Chaya and all Israel in your prayers. Thank you”.

Israel’s New Security Situation Following The Release of Arafat from his Compound

Center for Near East Policy Research

May 3, 2002

Arafat The Street Did Not Wait For Arafat

Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 3) by Roni Shaked — At 2:00 in the morning, Arafat faced the cameras, in his first press conference after the siege, and in a theatrical, hysterical appearance, full of pathos, launched into an attack on Israel: “One cannot be silent in light of the Israeli crimes in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. What happened there is an international crime, Nazi behavior,” he shouted, pounding on the table.

The entire press conference was devoted to the Church of the Nativity. While under siege, he was a “living shahid,” after the siege he has become “the knight of the Christian holy places.” “I don’t want to talk about the explosions in my office,” he shouted to the journalists, “what is important to me is to save the church in Bethlehem. You are not doing your jobs. Where is the world? Why is it silent? International intervention is needed to save the church.” Later on he said that “what Israel did is worse than Sabra and Shatilla.”

Arafat spent the night giving interviews to television stations from all over the world, and only in the morning, after a short rest, did he go outside, to fresh air, to the light of the sun. In contrast to what was expected, residents of Ramallah did not go overboard to welcome the rais. After the siege and the war, they too are tired. Only about 200 people showed up at the mukataa in the morning. There were displays of joy and shouts of “in spirit and blood we will redeem you Arafat,” that put a smile on Arafat’s face and a V sign in his hands. But there were no demonstrations, no rallies of welcome. People in Ramallah explained that there was no replacement for Marwan Barghouti, the dynamo of demonstrations.

His first day was planned well. Arafat’s first stop was the el-Bireh cemetery, where he prayed for the souls of the Intifada fallen. From there he went on to the mass grave dug in the course of the siege in the courtyard of the Ramallah hospital and made a short stop there, with kisses and hugs for the wounded.

At his visit to the Palestinian cultural center Halil Sahahini, where Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish lives, Arafat coined the “slogan of rehabilitation.” When he arrived, construction workers were hard at work. Arafat took a paint brush from one of them and began to paint the walls and declared: “We shall start to build, after that we will start to eat.” He then again launched into an attack on Israel and spoke of “a clearly Nazi picture of the Israeli army and leadership.”

When Arafat’s car reached Manara Square in Ramallah, many tried to approach him to shake his hand, but there too, there were no more than a few dozen Palestinians. “El-Hamdalallah el-salama” (welcome back), there were shouts toward the rais, and some tried to touch his car. Arafat smiled back and again made the V sign.

After a short visit to the Palestinian Education Ministry building, the convoy arrived at the building of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Then, accompanied by Jibril Rajoub, Arafat drove to Bituniya, to the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service that had also been demolished.

After his visit, he returned to his office, but there were not a lot of visitors there yesterday. Perhaps they assumed their leader would be too busy. Those who did come were MKs Ahmed Tibi and Mohammed Barakeh. MK Barakeh wept on Arafat’s shoulder. “I didn’t believe he would ever be on his feet again,” he explained later.

At the end of the day Arafat was left with his usual escorts, the people from his bureau, planning his next trips: the Jenin refugee camp, Tulkarm, Nablus and Hebron. He has a lot of work to do as a leader, it is not enough to be a symbol.

[An accompanying photograph of a picture drawn on a wall in the mukataa shows an IDF jeep facing a post with a Palestinian flag on it. The writing says: Where were you? The IDF came to visit and nobody was home. Too bad. We wanted to turn you into shahids.]

An Appearance by a Person on the Verge of Losing Control

Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 3) by Gavriel Raam — [The author is an expert and lecturer on non-verbal communication.] At the press conference where he spoke about the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Arafat appeared to be a man on the brink of an emotional breakdown.

The PA chairman went completely berserk and displayed extreme emotional agitation. His face and his tone were a mixture of anger and weeping. He appeared to be someone emotionally out of control. His voice was not steady, his hands moved erratically, and from time to time, there were long silences between his words, which could attest to interrupted thought processes as a result of emotional overload.

The question of course, is whether this outburst was authentic or a deliberate dramatization. It is definitely possible that Arafat exaggerated his response, yet nevertheless, in light of previous outbursts and also judging by his body language, the man does indeed appear to be in a situation of extreme emotional turmoil bordering on lack of control.

Also in the interview he gave CNN, Arafat appeared angry and upset. He often made unnecessary gestures, raised his finger almost in the reporter’s face, and leaned forward as if putting his entire being into his message. He spoke in loud tones, opened his eyes wide and rolled his eyes. His belligerent-aggressive body language was in contrast to his conciliatory words regarding his commitment to the peace process. In reply to a question regarding the possibility of reviving the peace process, he said that he believes it is possible, but his head shook in the negative twice. Credibility is not his strong suit.

Continued Operations
Operation Over, But IDF Continues to Capture Wanted Men

Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 2) by Roni Shaked — Although Operation Protective Wall is over, yesterday the IDF again went deep into PA territory to arrest armed men and search for weapons.

Military sources explained that this was a further stage of the operation, and that it had been planned in advance. The most significant military activity took place in Tulkarm and in the el-Aroub refugee camp north of Hebron, and the decision to carry out these operations was made in the wake of information extracted from the hundreds of people arrested in the course of Operation Protective Wall.

In Tulkarm and el-Aroub, 35 Palestinians, who were wanted by the GSS for questioning, were apprehended. In Tulkarm, a lab for manufacturing bombs was found and blown up. In the course of the day, similar operations were conducted in Hebron, where 19 people suspected of terror activity were arrested, and in a village near the city, a senior Hamas man was arrested. Other wanted men were arrested in the villages of Tel and Beita near Nablus, in the village of Anza south of Jenin and in the Doha neighborhood in Bethlehem. Altogether, 158 people suspected of terror activity were arrested yesterday.

The confrontation at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem continued yesterday. In exchanges of fire between the IDF and Palestinians, one Palestinian was killed and five were wounded. Thirty left wing activists from Europe arrived at the site in the afternoon. They were at Arafat’s besieged bureau until Wednesday. They hid in the nearby market, apparently in coordination with Arafat’s people, and after getting a sign, broke into a run toward the western church of the compound. Twelve of them managed to enter, the others were arrested by soldiers.

The IDF said yesterday that the wanted men holed up in the church are the ones who lit the fire on Wednesday in the northern tower of the church, the highest point in the area. Col. Miri Eisen, the director of the IDF field intelligence department, said that they did this so that the foreign press could easily photograph the blaze.

The High Court of Justice yesterday rejected the petition of the Bethlehem governor and of Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi (Arab Movement for Renewal) and Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash), who asked that the IDF be ordered to bring food into the church. “It is hard to describe the gravity of the act of armed Palestinians seizing a holy place while holding hostages,” said Supreme Court Judge Aharon Barak.

The Crisis in the Church of the Nativity: One Killed and Two Wounded Palestinians in a Gunfire Incident

Ma’ariv (p. 2) by Hanan Shlein — Even after Arafat left the mukataa, no progress was made in the negotiations to end the crisis in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Yesterday a member of the Palestinian security services was killed and two others wounded by IDF soldiers’ gunfire in the church area.

Military sources said that soldiers saw several armed Palestinians in the church area and fired at them. The same sources said that the gunfire was not aimed at a building in the church complex, but out in a open area. As a result of this gunfire, one Palestinian was killed and two others wounded.

In another incident yesterday, several foreign peace activists, mostly Americans, clashed with IDF soldiers when they wanted to enter the church. Several of them, five according to an estimate by military sources, succeeded in infiltrating the church. “We succeeded in bringing food to the people who needed it,” said Robert O’Neill, an American activist, adding, “We will stay here until everything is over.”

As to the fire ignited on Wednesday night, there is no doubt that the Palestinians were the ones who did it. The sources added that it was not by chance that the fire was ignited on Wednesday night, around the time that Arafat left the mukataa, and before he began to give interviews to the worldwide media, in which he attacked Israel for igniting the fire in the church.

Palestinian sources said that in accordance with Arafat’s instructions, the activity of the Palestinian negotiation team in the matter of the crisis in the Church of the Nativity was halted. Arafat gave clear instructions that he would be the one to conduct the talks, and in this framework, he also met with the representative of the Pope who came to the region.

The envoy, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, met yesterday also with President Moshe Katzav. The cardinal told the president: “I came here as the envoy of the pope with news of peace and love. I came here in order to ask that everything be done to bring about as soon as possible the end of the tragic situation in Bethlehem and especially in the Church of the Nativity.” Political sources said that it is possible that the special envoy would also visit the Church of the Nativity, however a security source said yesterday that at this stage it would not be possible to guarantee the safety of the cardinal during a visit to the church.

Shmuel Mittleman reports: Last night the High Court of Justice rejected a petition by the governor of Bethlehem, Mohammed El Madani, who is in the Church of the Nativity, and by MKs Ahmed Tibi and Mohammed Barakeh, to instruct the IDF to allow medical teams and Red Cross representatives enter the church complex in order to transfer food and medicines to the Palestinians there.

Barghouti
Barghouti Interrogation Indicates That Arafat Was Involved in Terror Attacks

Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 3) by Haim Broida — The GSS says that the Tanzim commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, admitted during his interrogation to his involvement in directing terror attacks in which dozens of Israelis were killed and wounded. The GSS also says that as the investigation of the senior Tanzim commander continues, there is a better picture of the personal involvement of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat in terrorism.

The GSS says that Barghouti’s investigation shows that he was in direct contact with Arafat and that in his position of Fatah secretary general, he had to ensure monetary aid for terrorists to acquire what they needed. The GSS says that the investigation indicates that every activist who asked for money had to fill out a detailed request, then Barghouti himself would sign it, add his recommendation and pass the request on to Arafat. The GSS says that Barghouti said that every sum of money, even the smallest, required his approval and that of Arafat. In addition, some of the weapons used for terror attacks were provided by the arms stores of Force 17, Arafat’s presidential guard.

A security source said last night, “the developments in the investigation place the public and international debates over the question of whether Arafat is doing enough to fight terror in a ridiculous light. These revelations show that Arafat did do enough, but in helping the Fatah organizations terror activities.”

The GSS adds that Ahmed Barghouti, Marwan Barghouti’s nephew and right hand man, admitted under questioning that he himself sent terrorists to perpetrate terror attacks in Israel. Among those attacks he admitted direct involvement in were: the shooting attack on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem last January, in which two people were killed, the shooting attack in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood in Jerusalem in February, where a policewoman was killed and ten people were injured.

Michal Goldberg adds: Marwan Barghouti petitioned the High Court of Justice yesterday that it allow him to meet with a lawyer and to sleep for a “reasonable” amount of time. Barghouti also asked that he be allowed to undergo medical exams. The High Court of Justice will hold an urgent hearing on the matter this morning.

New Terror Attacks Police Preparing for Chemical and Biological Terror Attacks

Ma’ariv (p. 3) by Ami Ben David et al. — There is a new wave of warnings of plans by terror organizations to perpetrate large scale terror attacks in Israel. Hamas is responsible for most of the these plans.

The GSS recently received new warnings that terror organizations want to renew suicide and shooting attacks inside the Green Line. Another scenario the security establishment fears is the abduction of soldiers as bargaining chips for the release of Marwan Barghouti and Rehavam Ze’evi’s assassins, now in the Jericho jail.

Hamas announced yesterday its intention to carry out attacks on Israeli targets in the next few days. “Resistance is still strong,” said Abed el -Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader and added: “We will carry out attacks in the next few days and weeks. We cannot agree to the occupation. Sharon and his government have done nothing except murder civilians.”

A senior security source said yesterday that the organizations want to prove that their operational infrastructure is still active despite the extensive arrests during Operation Protective Wall. He said, “the organizations also realize that as far as the Palestinian Authority sees it, the ‘green light’ for terror attacks continues.”

Teams from an elite police unit will soon undergo training in counter-terrorism for areas hit by chemical and biological substances. The training will take place in light of police officials’ conclusion that the non-conventional threat has become real of late. It should be noted that some bombs that exploded in the last year and a half contained chemical substances, in an effort to increase their lethality.

UN “Fact Finding” Team to Israel, April, 2002: Inquiry or Inquisition?

Center for Near East Policy Research

April 29, 2002

The UN fact-finding team investigating the events in the Jenin refugee camp was due to arrive in Israel on Sunday after a short delay, following two days of consultations between Israeli representatives and the UN on changing the committee’s mandate.

Israel originally gave a green light to a fact-finding mission Friday April 19th, then requested a postponement, to seek changes in the team’s composition and mandate, after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced the members of the team on Monday April 22nd.

There are three issues on the table: the team’s remit, its professional members, and the witness and testimony procedures.

Terms of Reference

The official reason for the consultations was that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had altered the fact-finding mission’s terms of reference from strictly fact-finding to issues linked to other agendas, on which Israel had not been consulted for consent.

Generally, a Fact-Finding Committee is mandated to document events and evidence, and make a summary of these facts; it should be impartial in its acceptance of evidence, but relate only to the area on which it has been empowered. Such a team does not present conclusions, leaving these to other instances.

As these conditions were modified, with Anan calling on the panel ‘to be guided by UN resolutions in producing its conclusion, while the team’s evidence hearing terms were changed to a selective agenda, Israel became gravely concerned at the ramifications. First and foremost was that this might lead to a recommendation that Annan set up an International Commission of Inquiry – which would mean that depositions might subsequently be used in a War Crimes Trial against individual soldiers, or Israeli government figures. It also left the way open for a UN dispatch of international observers.

The UN agreed to delay the mission’s departure by 24 hours, after Israel said that the government needed to hold further discussions on the matter, and that this could not be done during the Sabbath. The cabinet met on Sunday to decide whether to cooperate with a UN fact-finding team investigating the battle in Jenin.

In Washington, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) expressed their displeasure with the UN’s failure to hold the Palestinians accountable for what transpired in Jenin.

The team’s arrival was further postponed after the Israeli Cabinet discussed the full implications and legal counsel requirements for witnesses, and following US approval of Israel’s agreement on US-British supervised imprisonment for the assassins of Minister Rehavam Zeevi (z”l).

Israel is demanding that the committee deal solely with clarifying the facts, as was determined by the UN Security Council decision, rather than drawing conclusions or making recommendations, especially ones that could result in prosecutions.

Israel is also demanding that the mission look not only at the humanitarian issue, but also the terrorist groups who have used the camp as a base for suicide bombings and has demanded that the UN report present facts and no conclusions, especially ones that could result in prosecutions. “We want to resolve this,” said Aaron Jacob, Israel’s deputy UN ambassador. “The focus should not be only on the Israeli military operation, but also on why and how civilians in the refugee camp were allowed to become a center of terrorist activities.”

* Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Israel Radio Sunday morning that Israel must cooperate with the UN fact-finding committee in order to prove that the IDF did not carry out a massacre in the refugee camp, as the Palestinians have claimed.

“The Palestinians are claiming 3,000 civilians killed, while we know of seven. […] But Israel will determine who will testify on its behalf. That is a central issue.”

Committee Membership

The members of the team consist of former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, chairman; Cornelio Sommaruga, a former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross; and Sadako Ogata, a former UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“The composition of the committee was decided without our consultation or agreement,” said a government official last week. “We are a sovereign country and do not have to accept these kinds of dictates.”

* Israel, according to this official, is also unhappy that three of the four members of the committee are political officials, rather than military officers trained in analyzing battlefield events in a detached manner.

Subsequently, Israel requested that the team’s military adviser, retired US Maj.-Gen. William Nash, be made a full team member. Annan refused, and Nash remains an adviser.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who met Thursday April 25th at the UN headquarters in New York with a legal delegation from Jerusalem, has added Peter Fitzgerald of Ireland as a police adviser, to the mission together with another military adviser following a request by Israel, and this was also stated by Anan on Friday.

Special Grounds for Objection

When UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced the composition of his fact-finding team on Monday night, the inclusion of the former president of the International Red Cross, Cornelio Sommaruga was a major cause of distress in Jerusalem.

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote an article two years ago on the controversy regarding the black-balling of the Magen David Adom symbol at the ICRC, where the Star of David is not a recognized symbol. At the AIPAC Conference in Los Angeles, Bernadine Healy, who was President of the American Red Cross in 1999, confirmed the story. Following her speech to her Federation that year, criticizing the ICRC’s continued and inexcusable exclusion of Israel’s emergency medical service symbol, the Red Star of David, Mr Sommaruga said (as quoted by Krauthammer),

“If we’re going to have the Shield of David, why would we not have to accept the swastika?”

On a not so Tangential Note?

To the foreign observer, there may be nothing wrong with sending a Panel of experts to Jenin, and objections might be centered on the fact that the present committee does not have any experts as full members.

However, Israel sees this within the context of Arafat’s campaign to internationalize the jurisdiction of the conflict, supported by the Europeans. That, it feels, would be an infringement of Israeli sovereignty; moreover, the Peacekeeping and Observer forces have exhibited indifference to incidents against Israelis (which their remits do not cover), and infringement of their own impartiality in collaboration with Hizbullah.

The UN Record on Incidents and Evidence

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer accused the Palestinians of committing a massacre in attacks on an Israeli nightclub in Tel Aviv and in other places.
“In the last month, 137 (Israeli) people were slaughtered and almost 700 were wounded. Is anyone investigating that?” he asked.
The U.N. has consistently allied itself with terror organizations, like the PLO and Hizbullah, witholding material evidence from the world, which would help capture known terrorists.
The most recent example of the U.N.’s flagrantly biased policy against Israel is the concealment and vehement denial of the videotape taken by the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces in Lebanon of Hizbullah’s abduction of 3 Israeli soldiers in October 2000.
For 11 months the U.N. lied to the world and denied existence of any evidence related to the abduction.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is on a mission to enlist support for Israel in the US, says, “The UN has proven its bias by its failure to examine an endless number of terror attacks against Israel,” and that the UN had withheld information and misled Israel about the abduction of three soldiers by Hizbullah.
Moreover, when the lie was exposed, and the world pressured the UN to reveal their evidence to Israel, they refused to do so. Eventually, the U.N. insisted they would only show an edited videotape with the faces of the terrorists blurred.
When asked the reason behind this, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated it was due to the U.N.’s standing as a neutral organization.
There have also been allegations that the UN Peacekeeping Forces in Lebanon were paid huge sums of money by Hizbullah for the use of U.N. uniforms and jeeps in the abduction.

Points to Ponder

1. There have been many examples from around the world of persecution of / atrocities against civilian populations, yet the UN has maintained silence on all these issues.

Why does this happen?
What large-scale events do you think the UN should be investigating right now?
What should other countries be saying and doing about these violations?
The examples below include Muslim countries, forms of dictatorships and transition-stage governments, with one exception. Why are they not condemned?

Examples:

a. Basques separatists (ETA) – bombing Spanish civilians.

b. N. Africa – Islamic Fundamentalists – slaughter of 100,000 Berbers.

c. Communist China – violations of human rights of Tibetan refugees, destruction of their culture, and illegal occupation of their land.

d. China – slaughtered 1.8 million Tibetans.

e. Chechnya – Russian slaughtering of Chechen guerillas.

f. Zimbabwe – President and government continue to abuse and torture white farmers.

g. Sudan – continued attacks launched against the Christian Sudanese by the Muslim Sudanese, the latter slaying 200,000 of the former.

h. UN – in the draft declaration for their well publicized “Elimination of all Forms of Racism Conference” in Durban last year, there is no mention of gross human rights violations by Islamic countries towards their citizens, in general, and those of other religions, in particular (while alleging Israel was an “apartheid state”).

i. USA – accidental killing of civilians during bombing over Afghanistan.

2. Arab media accounts of the battle in the Jenin refugee camp were translated by MEMRI and give interviews with gunmen and open accounts of terrorist-laid booby traps. http://www.memri.org/news.html#1019657885 and Jonathan Cook published a similar interview for Al Ahram (Egypt).

Hold the internal Palestinian versions against what the western media are reporting and evaluate the differences.
What grounds are there from this for a Fact-Finding Committee?
How do you rate the Committee’s chances of and competence in receiving and analyzing factual evidence impartially?
Draw conclusions and recommendations.

3. Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed the acceptance of the UN committee, telling Israel Radio last week that it, “will produce results that will damage Israel. It is completely illegitimate.”

To which two separate issues is he referring?
Is it helpful to place these issues side by side?
Do you agree with either, or both, of these statements & and why/not?

4. The UN condemns and singles out the State of Israel disproportionately; it is the only democracy in a region of Arab dictatorships, but accused of engaging in “discrimination” and “racism”.

What is your theory?
How has this been taken up elsewhere?
What pro-active and reactive measures do you recommend?

The UN from the Inside – The Mathematical Approach

Votes

Tiny Israel has but one vote at the United Nations Assembly.

The United States of America, despite being the largest financial contributor (30%) and despite its large population (270 million), also have only one single vote.

Muslim countries enjoy over 40 votes.

Arab countries with a population of about 300-400 million have over 20 votes.

India, with a population of 1 billion, has only one vote.

Aid

India receives much less financial aid from the U.N. than 2 million Palestinians who receive $2 billion per annum.

Does this largesse have something to do with the majority of the voters being from Arab and Muslim countries at the U.N.?

Or is it possibly linked to the anti-Hindu sentiment prevalent in Muslim countries?

Human Rights Commission

This year, America was kicked off the UN Commission for Human Rights, despite being one of the most outspoken countries for advocating Human Rights for all people. It was replaced by Sierra Leone and the Sudan, who both have an “impeccable” record of abuses of human rights, including slavery and child soldiers. Why?

For more ideas, see www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/zr/3.html#overview.

Sources

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website www.mfa.gov.il/

Bernadine Healy’s speech to AIPAC 2002: transcript slated to appear on the website at www.aipac.org/policy2002transcripts.html

Unbalanced Mission to Jenin

Editorial, The Washington Post, Friday, April 26, 2002; Page A28 www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51318-2002Apr25.html

UN fact-finders ignoring obvious
Chicago Sun-Times, Editorial, April 25, 2002

Terror Tariffs: Documents Seized at Arafat’s HQ

Center for Near East Policy Research

April 29, 2002

USD $300 for a Junior Terrorist, USD $800 for a Senior Shahid

On April 1, 2001, the Fatah secretary general in Tulkarm, Faik Kanaan, sent a letter signed by himself to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. “We request,” he wrote on official stationary at the top of which “State of Palestine” appears, “to allocate a sum of USD 2,000 for each of the fighting brothers whose names follow below.”

The document contains the names of 15 “fighting brothers” found worthy of funding. The list includes, among others, Mohammed Fares, who committed a shooting attack in the Tulkarm area, Karim el-Jilad, who took part in shooting attacks, Bilal Abu-Amsha who took part in fatal terror attacks in September and the murder of a Jew in Baka Gharbiya in May 2001, and Bilal Abu Aisha, who took part in shooting attacks in the Tulkarm area.

The letter was first passed to the Tanzim secretary general, Marwan Barghouti, who added his signature. Arafat decided to reduce the “bonus” and instead of USD 2,000, he wrote in his own hand, “let the Finance Ministry pay USD 800 to each of them.” The date near Arafat’s signature is April 5, 2001.

The hierarchy goes through the Fatah office in Tulkarm to the Tanzim secretary general in Ramallah, Barghouti, and from there to Arafat, who is shown to be involved in small sums. Arafat is the one who decides the amount to be paid to the “fighting brothers.”

On January 17, 2002, Arafat also found the time to handle another payment for the “fighting brothers:” This time, the hierarchy is more complicated: Raed Karmi (who was the leader of the Fatah-Tanzim in Tulkarm until his assassination) sent a fax to Marwan Barghouti’s office in Ramallah asking for urgent monetary aid. On the list of “recommended” are the names of Jamil Hamed Atwan, Majed Yousef Jarad, Subhi Yousef Jarad and Mohammed Sharif Zaidan, all Fatah activists known to the Israeli security establishment for their involvement in lethal terror attacks. After reading the document, Barghouti comments in his own writing: “To my respected brother Abu Amar, may God keep you, greetings, I request you order an allocation of 1,000 dollars to each of the fighters.” Arafat, however, on January 17,2002, decides to save money: he writes to the Palestinian Finance Ministry in Ramallah: “Allocate only USD 350 to each of them.”

Another document, from February 14, 2002, highlights the involvement of the Palestinian General Intelligence, commanded by Tawfik Tirawi, in efforts to cover up the link between a woman suicide bomber and Fatah. On official “Palestinian National Authority, Preventive Security Service Headquarters, Ramallah” (whose commander is Jibril Rajoub) stationary, under the classification “important,” Amana Aidaya of the Political Security Organization reports on Tirawi’s efforts to cover up the link between Wafa Idris, who committed the terror attack on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, and Fatah.

“Regarding: Special information on the shahid Wafa Idris.
“On the night that it was revealed that the person who committed the attack was Wafa Idris, and before any organization claimed responsibility for it, the commander of General Intelligence on the West Bank, Colonel Tawfik Tirawi, phoned Khalil Idris, the shahid’s elder brother, a number of times. He (Tirawi) asked him that the family not say that Wafa (who was affiliated with Fatah) had committed the attack, but say instead that she had gotten married and moved to Jordan or somewhere else. In exchange, Tirawi is willing to let Khalil move to Jordan even though he is officially on Israel’s list of wanted men. But Khalil replied that he was unwilling to ‘sell’ his sister’s blood this way.”

Thousands of documents were seized by the security forces in the course of Operation Protective Wall from Palestinian intelligence offices in West Bank cities and in the mukataa in Ramallah where Arafat is being held. A special sorting team, that was enlisted to handle the papers, has already put some of them on a special computer program, sorted by subject and by the names appearing in them. Those with access can come, say the name of the Fatah or Hamas activist they want, and get the information. The material, a small part of which is already on the IDF Spokesman’s Office Internet site, is also meant for the Israeli and foreign media.

Another part, more classified, was shown to foreign intelligence agents, including the CIA and some European attaches. In two separate meetings held by Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s adviser with representatives from the Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors, he showed them documents from Arafat’s office and from Palestinian Preventive Intelligence, proving Arafat’s links and involvement in funding the Palestinian terror infrastructure against Israel. The two senior diplomats, Dr. Maazen Tal from the Jordanian embassy, and Dr. Ihab Sharif, the Egyptian representative, tried to hide their amazement. “How can we be sure,” they both asked, “that these documents are not forged?”

Along with Arafat’s direct involvement in funding and helping the terror infrastructure of Fatah, the Tanzim and the El-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, as proven by his signature on the letters of request, the system is also revealed:

Arafat makes use of the PA organization to transfer sums of money. The funding is done by means of a civil organization: the Palestinian Finance Ministry. Arafat, according to some documents, makes a great deal of use of Fuad Shubaki, the head of the General Security’s financial administration and his confidant, who was also involved in the purchase of the Karine-A weapons ship.
There is a “tariff” set by Arafat for funding terror: a junior terrorist is paid by the Palestinian Finance Ministry after an order is given, with Arafat’s signature, of between USD 300-350. More senior commanders (local commanders of terror infrastructure) receive USD 600. The families of shahids-commanders get USD 800 per family, as a one-time “bonus,” beyond their regular aid. For large “projects,” such as setting up a workshop for manufacturing weapons, a standard rate of USD 800,000 is set.
Arafat is not directly in contact with the commanders of the terror cells and the terror organizations on the ground, but does this through “middlemen.” The documents mention: Marwan Barghouti, Hussein a-Sheikh, Kamal Hamid (Fatah secretary general in Bethlehem) and Fuad Shubaki.
Arafat does not generally disqualify those “recommended” but definitely uses his own judgment when it comes to the amount of payment. He regularly “cuts” the sums requested drastically. USD 2,000 is asked for a “fighting brother,” and USD 600 is given. When USD 1,300 is asked, Arafat approves USD 350. The list of “recommended” includes “fighters” who have already committed acts of terror, and others, who should be paid prior to committing an act.

The documents seized in Ramallah, Bituniya and Tulkarm indicate intensive preoccupation of the security organization in mutual surveillance. Jibril Rajoub, so it turns out, kept discreet surveillance even on his boss, Arafat. Documents found in Rajoub’s headquarters also show a discreet cooperation between Rajoub and Salah Taamri, today the mediator to release the armed men in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Rajoub also monitored his colleague in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, and filed the reports. The Preventive Security Service in Ramallah also kept surveillance on Abu Ala and Nabil Shaath. A special surveillance was reserved for Palestinians with foreign citizenship, as well as for Palestinians who often traveled to Jordan, on suspicion that they had been enlisted by the Jordanian intelligence to spy on the PA. A thick file was found in Rajoub’s office on the person who was head of Jordanian intelligence, General Samih el-Batihi, who was arrested two months ago on suspicion of involvement in the defrauding of four state banks in Amman. A long list of documents indicates the “top trio” who were in the know about the secret of the anonymous back accounts opened in Switzerland and in South America: Yasser Arafat, Farouk Kadumi (now mentioned as Arafat’s successor) and Umm Jihad, the minister for social affairs and the widow of Abu Jihad assassinated by Israel in Tunis.

On July 9, 2001, Kamal Hamid, the Fatah secretary general in Bethlehem, sent a letter of request to Arafat to allocate funds to 24 Fatah activist, the most prominent of them being Atef Abayat, a senior Fatah activist. Hamid asked for USD 2,000 for each of them. Arafat erased the amount, and wrote to the Finance Ministry in Ramallah: “Give each USD 300.” Arafat’s signature appears beside the date, August 12, 2001, a month after the request was submitted. Atef Abayat was assassinated on October 18 and three weeks after this, Hamid again appealed to Arafat with a new list. This time he asks for USD 3,000 for each of the nine families of shahids “who fell in battle protecting Beit Jala, Bethlehem and el-Aida.” Topping the list is “the family of shahid Atef Abayat.” Ending the list is “brother shahid” Hassan Abu Shaira, who was involved in the murder of Lt.-Col. Yehuda Edri on June 14, 2001 and killed in the course of that incident. Arafat approved only USD 800.

The funding system indicates two ways of payment: the PA would send money to the civilian administration offices, the schools, and welfare projects in shekels. The funding of more sensitive matters, i.e. maintaining the terror infrastructure, was done in dollars. Israeli security sources say the money came from the regular monthly aid sent by the European Union to the Palestinian Authority of 40 million euro. “The documents prove what we knew before Operation Protective Wall: instead of using the aid for the civil population in the territories, the PA offices used at least part of the aid to fund terror infrastructure, and to cover it, they would send a false report to the international supervisory foundations with inflated figures.”

One document seized by the IDF in the mukataa is of a financial report of the El-Aksa Martyrs Brigades from September 2001, with a list of accumulated debts of the organization, which is subordinate to Fatah.

The cost of posters of El-Aksa Martyrs Brigades fallen: Azzam Mazhar, Osama Jabara, Shadi Afouri, Yasser Badawi, Ahed Fares (added in handwriting: NIS 2,000 just for printing).
The cost of printing ads, ordering them and putting up booths for the dead (added in handwriting: NIS 1,250).
The cost of posting personal pictures of the fallen on wooden boards, in addition to the pictures of fallen Thabet Thabet and Mahmoud el-Jamil (added in handwriting: NIS 1,000).
The cost of memorials for the fallen (added in handwriting: NIS 6,000).
The cost of electrical appliances and various chemical substances to manufacture bombs and explosives: the cost of one bomb, of course, is at least NIS 700. We need five to nine bombs a week for cells in various areas (added in handwriting: NIS 5,000 a week, NIS 20,000 a month).
The cost of bullets (Kalashnikov bullets are NIS 7-8 per bullet. M-16 bullets cost NIS 2.5 per bullet). We need bullets daily.
Note: 3,000 Kalashnikov bullets can be obtained at a price of NIS 7.5 per bullet and 30,000 M-16 bullets can be obtained for NIS 2 per bullet. We need this sum to be transferred immediately. (Added in handwriting: NIS 22,500 for Kalashnikov bullets and NIS 6,000 for M-16 bullets).

In another document, also seized in the mukataa, in Fuad Shubaki’s offices, is the budget for setting up a workshop for manufacturing heavy weapons. The required investment is USD 100,000 and the running expenses are estimated at USD 15,000 per month. The largest expenses are for a lathe (USD 25,000) and a milling machine (USD 40,000).

Three senior officials in different branches of the intelligence community who were given a photocopied and translated copy of the documents told Yedioth Ahronoth this week: “We weren’t surprised. Arafat was sunk in the terror swamp in a way he cannot deny. We know about Arafat’s personal involvement in funding the terror infrastructure, in guiding it, in encouraging it, in giving out the money. And still, it is astonishing, to see it with our own eyes in black and white, in all the smallest details.”

This piece ran in Yediot Aharonot on April 29, 2002

Bedein Reveals: Peres Center Gave Larsen $100,000

Center for Near East Policy Research

April 29, 2002

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is expected to decide tomorrow, when he returns from Spain, whether to take steps against UN Middle East envoy Terje Larsen for comments he made slamming the IDF’s operation in Jenin.

Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker yesterday presented Peres with four options regarding Larsen: calling him in for a reprimand, writing a letter of censure to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, declaring him persona non grata, or taking no action at all.

Baker said he made no recommendation to Peres on what action to take.

Peres made it clear on Sunday, following harsh criticism of Larsen in the cabinet meeting, that he does not think the UN envoy should be expelled from the country.

Following Peres’s defense of Larsen, the weekend newspaper Makor Rishon announced it will publish in its upcoming issue an investigative report exposing that in 1999 the Peres Center for Peace presented Larsen and his wife Mona Juul, the Norwegian ambassador to Israel, with a gift of $100,000 in cash.

According to the report, authored by David Bedein, in 1999 the Peres Center, in an unprecedented move, gave Larsen and Juul checks for $50,000 each. Center director Ron Pundak, who together with Peres and Larsen was one of the architects of the Oslo process, confirmed the Makor Rishon report.

Meanwhile, Larsen said he stood by his comments.

Jerusalem Post, April 23, 2002

Ambassador Juul May Possibly be Called Home

Center for Near East Policy Research

April 29, 2002

According to Norwegian media, Mona Juul now faces the risk of beeing recalled from her position as Norway’s Ambassador to Israel.

The Foreign Office is considering using the Foreign Service Act to recall Juul, after she failed to formally inform the department about the cash involved when she received the peace prize from the Peres Centre in 1999, NRK Radio reports.

According to the Foreign Service Act, employees in the Foreign Service must accept a change in jobs, if the department so decides.

Foreign Minister January Petersen says this case is very special.

-“That is why we have spent considerable time checking and double checking the facts, in order that we may be certain of the actual circumstances and the juridical evaluations of the case, Petersen says to NRK”.

However, Petersen refuses to speculate around whether or not it will be decided to recall ambassador Juul.

“It would be wrong of me to speculate before we have concluded, Petersen says”.

This article ran on the April 29th issue of the Norway News

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Israel Behind the News

Peres Centre Investigated by Norway’s Foreign Office

Why are Readers of HaAretz Angry?

Is Europe Lost? A Traumatic Experience at the Council of Europe

Getting Your Stolen Car Back from PLO hands

Paula Finer Discusses the Tragedy of her Daughter, Now in a Permanent Vegetative State

Israel’s New Security Situation Following The Release of Arafat from his Compound

UN “Fact Finding” Team to Israel, April, 2002: Inquiry or Inquisition?

Terror Tariffs: Documents Seized at Arafat’s HQ

Bedein Reveals: Peres Center Gave Larsen $100,000

Ambassador Juul May Possibly be Called Home

Column from the Director