Yossi Beilin drawing NIS 350-400 thousand salary covered by European Union

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February 13, 2002

Investigative reporter Yoav Yitzchak report in the February 7th issue of Ma’ariv that former Labor Party MK Yossi Beilin is drawing an annual salary of NIS 350,000 – NIS 400,000 from The Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), a Tel Aviv based organization that he formed with Yair Hirschfeld at the end of 1990.

Yitzchak notes that the bulk of the ECF budget is covered by the European Union. In addition to the salary, ECF covers Beilin’s heavy travel expenses – including meetings with Palestinians overseas.

For all practical purposes, Yitzchak writes, the European Union is paying for Beilin to negotiate with the Palestinians.

Egypt Continues Missile Projects in North Korea

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Center for Near East Policy Research

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February 13, 2002

The CIA has dismissed Egyptian assertions that Cairo has ended its missile relationship with North Korea.

In both congressional testimony and in its latest report, the U.S. intelligence community has reported that Egypt continues to cooperate with North Korea in ballistic missile programs. The CIA said Egypt remains a key client of North Korea, which is offering intermediate and long-range missiles to the Middle East.

CIA director George Tenet referred to Egypt during testimony last week to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. In testimony on February 6, Tenet grouped Egypt together with Iran, Libya and Syria as North Korean clients for missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

Congressional staffers said Tenet’s assertion came in the wake of several hearings in which House and Senate members questioned Egypt’s missile cooperation with North Korea. In closed hearings, U.S. intelligence officials reported that Cairo had sought No-Dong missile engines from Pyongyang.

Note: The above is not the full item.

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Al Quds (Palestinian daily) Editorial Explains Palestinians Won’t Honor Security Obligations if Israel Doesn’t Meet Demands

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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February 13, 2002

The contacts of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign minister Shimon Peres with a number of high-level Palestinian officials have given the impression that the tide may be changing in the region towards calm after such a long period of mutual violence. This impression was reinforced by word that an agreement had been reached between Peres and Legislative Council Speaker Ahmad Qrei’, a news report quickly denied by the Israeli minister.

Even the limited level of optimism some observers have relayed over the current situation as a result of these contacts has dwindled since Sharon’s statements. Following his meeting and that of Peres with the Palestinian officials, he clarified his point of view, which did not include anything new or any change regarding a general political settlement or an acceptable mechanism for calm.

Anyone who examines the conditions the Israeli premier wishes to impose on the Palestinian side before agreeing to put an end to his government’s oppression against the Palestinian people and the siege on President Arafat finds them nothing less than crippling. Or perhaps they are yet another political tactic intended to consolidate the current situation and prevent an end to the acts of violence. In this regard, the move may be no different from the provocative military activities of Sharon’s government every time it finds itself faced with the possibility of resuming negotiations or determining the mission of American envoy to the region Anthony Zinni, for example.

It is neither reasonable nor logical for Palestinians to wage a civil war or that the Palestinian Authority launch a campaign against certain sectors of the Palestinian people. Nor is it logical that this Authority turn into a police force to protect Israel at a time when the occupation and settlement expansion continues and when the horizon carries no hint of a possibility that Sharon’s government may recognize the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people.

Instead, the Israeli prime minister has announced his rejection of even the most modest of proposals, which his foreign minister is said to have offered to the Palestinian Legislative Council speaker. It has still not been officially confirmed that this proposal included the establishment of a Palestinian state on a limited area of land in return for a ceasefire understanding.

The Israeli premier’s insistence on confining negotiations with Palestinians to security issues and drawing a line when it comes to political issues only confirms that he has not changed his well-known tune, which relies on military force as the only way to contain Palestinian national aspirations. This only increases the feelings of pessimism and despair towards the possibility of reaching – in the near future – an initial understanding between the two sides that would lead to the immediate resumption of the political process where it left off in Taba, according to the Clinton proposal. The suffering of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples will thus increase and will threaten security and stability in the region as a whole.

The Palestinians See a ‘Joan of Arc’

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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February 13, 2002

Wafa Idris, who detonated a bomb on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem two weeks ago, killing herself and an 81-year-old man, and injuring 140 people, was the first Palestinian woman to carry out a suicide attack. Though Israeli security officials are not entirely convinced that Idris’s intention was indeed a suicide attack, her action has triggered a debate about Islamic ethics in the Arab world. Idris has lit a fuse, lighting up the imagination of many Palestinians and Arabs; for many, she is a heroic Muslim patriot, and also a feminist.

Idris had been active in the Fatah movement; and it was Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who took responsibility for the terror attack. Since her death, she has been perceived as a national, and pan-Arab, heroine. Arab-language newspapers circulating both in the territories and in the Arab world, have given space to public discussion of her act; the debates are conducted both from a religious standpoint, and from a social-cultural point of view. The Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI – www.memri.org), which runs offices in Jerusalem and in Washington, has compiled some of these discussions about Idris.

Particularly in Palestinian newspapers, the commentators have wondered whether Idris was motivated by emotional distress. According to reports, she married a cousin at the age of 16, and was divorced nine years later because she had not been able to bear a child. Friends and family relations told reporters that her divorce might have compelled her to carry out the suicide attack.

After her divorce, Idris worked as a volunteer for the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency medical service. Some relatives and friends have speculated that her trying experience attending to victims of the intifada led her to take vengeance against Jews.

Though many Palestinians have expressed astonishment that a terror attack was perpetrated by a woman, most have justified Idris’ action. Such support was exemplified at a symbolic funeral service for Idris that Fatah held in Ramallah. Eulogists from the whole spectrum of Palestinian politics praised her.

In the religious sphere, leaders of most Islamic organizations in the territories have concurred that Idris’ attack was permissible, and just, given Islamic law and tradition (their position has been supported by one of Egypt’s most respected Islamic sages). Hamas leaders in the territories such as Hassan Yusuf have stated explicitly that “Jihad against the enemy is an obligation borne not only by men, but also by women.” Islam, these Hamas leaders emphasize, does not distinguish between men and women on the battlefield.

Yet Hamas’ spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, has taken a skeptical position on the subject of women and suicide attacks. He told the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat that “at the present stage,” there is a sufficient number of men who are prepared to carry out such attacks, and that “for the time being women do not have a military organization” within the Palestinian Islamic movement. Yassin explained that though a woman is entitled to take part in the holy war, a man must supervise her acts. Three days after noting this requirement of male chaperons for Islamic women fighters, Yassin clarified his view; he explained that a male escort is necessary if a a woman is to be gone “longer than a night and a day” in a military action. Should the the action be shorter in duration, “she doesn’t need a [male] supervisor.”

Ataf Alian, a Palestinian woman from the Islamic Jihad organization who was involved in an attempt to explode a car bomb in Jerusalem in 1987, challenged Yassin’s view. Alian, who did part of her extended prison term in Israel, and who was released as a result of the Oslo Accords, was lauded in an article published in an Islamic Jihad journal in 1989 as a model of “the Islamic woman of our generation, who obliges the orders of religious law… and all commandments and prohibitions, including the desire to make it to heaven via self-sacrifice.” Interviewed last week by Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Alian criticized Yassin’s position, and said that the order to send a chaperon to supervise a woman during a suicide attack is impractical, and also not required by religious law. Her position drew upon oral traditions concerning the views of the prophet Mohammed. Under these traditions, a woman is obligated to take part in jihad, even without the consent of her husband, should an enemy invade a Muslim land.

Idris has been praised widely in Arabic language newspapers. MEMRI researchers say that scarcely a day goes by without five to 10 articles being published in praise of her act. Arab pundits compare her to Joan of Arc; in Baghdad, journalists reported that Saddam Hussein has ordered that a monument be built in her honor.

Particularly effusive with praise for Idris are Egyptian journalists, both in the state-sponsored newspapers and also opposition journals. For instance, Ahmad Bahajat, a columnist for Al- Ahram, wrote that Idris will go down in history as a symbol of heroism; alluding to her work for the Red Crescent, he added that “she expanded the sphere of her work from saving individuals, to saving the Palestinian people.”

Is Idris a feminist symbol?

Wafa Idris has been adopted by some Arab feminists to promote their agenda. For instance, Dr. Samiah Sa’ad a-Din, who has a column in the Cairo-based newspaper Al-Akhbar, wrote that “the limbs of this woman martyr sketched the outline of change… in the ideology of the struggle. Palestinians have ripped out the mention of gender in their identity documents, and declared that sacrifice for Allah will not only be done by men; all the women of Palestine will advance the history of liberation with their blood, and become time bombs posed to strike the Zionist enemy. They will no longer be content with the role of being mothers to martyrs.”

In contrast, Islamic Jihad men have used Idris’ example to denounce feminism. An editorial published by the Islamic, Cairo-based weekly Al-Sha’b declared that Idris was a woman “who taught Muslim women the meaning of genuine liberation… For the woman, the meaning of liberation is to free the body from the hardships of this world, and bravely embrace death.”

Israel’s Requirement For the Next Palestinian Arab Leader: Declare in Arabic, “No to the “Right of Return”

By

David Bedein

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February 13, 2002

Details of the meetings held on February 8th between US President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are emerging.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Bush administration will not protest too vehemently if Israel’s isolation of Arafat will lead to the downfall of the PLO leader.

After a week in which Arafat delivered tirades almost every night in Ramallah to excoriate “hundreds of suicide bombers to die in the liberation of Jerusalem”, and after a week in which fatal PLO attacks claimed the lives of Israeli women almost every day, it would seem that few Israelis would shed a tear when Arafat leaves the scene.

The US and Israel have been quoted as seeking a successor to Arafat among the PLO’s “war lords”. The short term American and Israeli criteria for recognizing a successor to Arafat is simple: someone who would can maintain law and order and “prevent further terror”.

Indeed, as Ariel Sharon stepped off the plane from the US, he was “greeted” with yet another Arab terror attack in the Israeli city of Beersheva, which Arafat’s Palestinian Authority maps describe as an illegal Israeli settlement that replaced the Arab town of Bir A Sibi in 1948.

The official PBC radio of the Palestinian Authority has justified attacks in Israeli cities of Beer Sheva, Hadera, Netanya and Naharia, since these towns all replaced Arab villages in 1948, after which the residents of these and hundreds of other Arab towns were dumped into Arab refugee camps which are operated to this day by the UN, under the premise and promise of the “right of return” to the 531 Arab villages that were wiped out in 1948.

Under Arafat’s leadership, the Palestinian Authority mandated that the suffering in the refugee camps must continue.

Arafat has declared time and time again that the “right of return” must be the prime agenda item for his people. Therefore, the Intifada al Awhda, the “rebellion for the right of return” has become the slogan for the current state of unrest.

If Arafat is replaced by yet another Palestinian leader who believes in continuing to confine more than a million 1948 Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendents from 1948 to refugee camps under the “right of return”, the middle east will see more unrest, not less.

While at least one Palestinian Authority leader has declared that the time has come to abandon the idea of the right of return, he is not allowed to say so on any media outlet of Arafat’s regime.

That is because the “right of return” dominates all policy proclamations in the Arabic language radio, TV or newspapers of the Palestinian Authority since the emergence of the PA in 1994.

While many Israelis may be ready for a two state solution, such an idea is foreign to the ethos of the Palestinian Arab entity that Arafat has forged.

At this point in time, every candidate the US and Israel have examined to succeed Arafat has sworn allegiance to the Intifada al Awhda, the “rebellion for the right of return”.

Only if a Palestinian Arab leader emerges who will communicate to his people in their own language that he is ready to remove Arab refugee camps and live with Israel without advocating the “right of return”, will peace in the middle east be at all forseeable.

Bush and Sharon should keep that in mind and not look for short term solutions for “preventing terror”.

Rabbis for Human Rights Fabrications: A Critique of The “Olive Tree Campaign”

By

David Bedein

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January 29, 2002

Throughout the centuries, Jews have suffered whenever a lie repeated often enough becomes believable.

Fifty dedicated people were brought to Israel this week under the specious premise that tens of thousands of trees had been uprooted in Arab villages by Israeli soldiers and Israeli civilians. These volunteers came to plant trees and distribute more than $100,000 a.m.ong Arab villagers.

The organization that imported this delegation is known as the Rabbis For Human Rights, which posted on their website,on e-mails, in opeds and even in full page ads taken out in the New York Times over the past year that proclaim that Israeli soldiers and civilians who have “marauded” through Arab villages and cut down between 30,000 and 100,000 trees.

While it is an empirical fact that there have been cases where the IDF cut down some olive tree groves in a few Arab villages that had been used as convenient cover to protect snipers, and while there is no doubt about it that some Arab grove owners have suffered financial difficulties as a result, such an allegation that Israel has conducted such a policy would seem to fly in the face of reality, since none of the three hundred news agencies based in Israel or the PA have ever discerned that such a massive policy exists or that tens of thousands of trees have even been uprooted.

Where did the Rabbis for Human Rights get the idea that such a policy of mass uprooting of olive trees exists?

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the director of the Rabbis for Human Rights, was asked for his sources. His reply was “LAW or PHRC”.

Both of these are Palestinian organizations. LAW is the leading Palestinian lawyers association, while PHRC is the Palestinian Human Rights Center – both of which work closely with the Palestinian Authority. In July, 2001, the LAW organization organized forty Palestinian Non Government organizations To condemn the Israeli human rights organization B’tzelem for denouncing The decision of the Palestinian Authority to endorse the killing of anyone Whom the PA would define as an Israeli settler.

Later, Asherman added, “different organizations and eyewitness experience” were his sources and would not give more details.

Rabbis for Human Rights claims not to take a political stand. However, their 10-day visit in Israel was characterized by meetings arranged exclusively with Palestinian groups or with Israeli political groups from the far left side of Israel’s political map.

When delegation participants were asked about whether they had requested a rebuttal from an IDF spokesman or the Israeli civilians that Rabbis for Human Rights accuses of mass uprooting of Arab orchards, such a question drew blank stares.

Rabbi David Forman, a founding member and spokesman of RHR offered the following comment, “I know it’s true that in some cases Palestinians stand behind trees and snipe at people, but in 95% of the cases, the trees were removed needlessly. According to Palestinian sources, 25,000 to 30,000 trees have been removed.

“It reminds me of when I served in Lebanon. Our commander showed us, ‘There’s the sea, and there are the banana fields.’ There were women working in the banana fields and there were snipers there. Our commander told us, when attacked, to shoot first and ask questions later. Once we didn’t shoot back and two tanks of ours were taken out. Three of my soldiers were killed.”

When asked, in retrospect, would he do the same thing again? Rabbi Forman paused and answered, “Yes. These are difficult moral dilemmas, but yes.”

T.T. Fitzgerald, M.D., a delegation member who works for an organization known as “Medicine for Peace”, came from Baltimore, where he is part of a group called ‘Baltimore Area Jews who work for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.’ He spoke passionately about the Beduin in the Negev where the group had planted that day. It had been considered too dangerous to go over the green line, as there had been shooting there that day.

“The village is not recognized by the government… they pay taxes and lots of them serve in the IDF but they don’t have electricity and water.”

Question: How did you get involved in RHR?

“I work against whatever war the U.S. is in… 3-5,000 children die in Iraq every month. Friends of mine were subject to indictment for bringing toys and medicine to Iraq… [America] should stop making war in the rest of the world.”

Question: What happened to the olive trees?

“They were destroyed by the military or by settlers.”

Question: Do you know where that information comes from?

“No.”

Question: Did you meet with any government officials?

“No. It wouldn’t be a good use of our time.”

Richard Kohl is an American-born economist from western New York living In Paris who conducts policy research on poverty and inequality. “

Question: What happened to the olive trees? “Vigilante groups of settlers and the IDF or border police pull them up.

Question: What are your source? “Arik Asherman. He showed me clippings in London, of the Washington Times, for instance.”

Question: What are the primary sources? ” Palestinian villagers said that in the middle of the night, 25 trees disappeared. Arik said, it’s Kafkaesque, the settlers expand the borders of their settlements, so the Palestinians don’t have access to their trees. They (RHR) wanted to help harvest, the settlers let in the Israelis but not the Palestinians. They let the bus through because it had yellow plates.”

Question: What do you think of the Karine A boat episode? “I’m not sure if it was a boat going to the Palestinians or if, like they say, it was set up by the Israelis. The Middle East is full of conspiracy theories. I don’t know which is the truth.”

Rabbi Gerald Serotta, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, is the acting chair of the RHR in the U.S. and is in the process of organizing an independent North American support group.

Question: What are the sources of information regarding the number of trees That were cut down and who did the cutting?

“I don’t know, but I trust the rabbinic leaders here in Israel. Anyone can go see where they are. Visual evidence is obvious about what’s for security, which is legitimate and what is collective punishment and a violation of Jewish law and traditions.”

Ruth Atkin, Mayor of Emeryville and delegation participant, was not new to the idea of enriching the environment and quality of life for individuals. Emeryville is a city with 7,000 people, located between Berkeley and Oakland, at the base of the Bay Bridge.

“There is now a hi-tech and retail center that the city has just completed. I was elected in November of 1999 and when I came into office the city Was just finishing its last major deal, creating an urban village with a pedestrian Main Street. We are now finishing up that Renaissance and conversion and will deal with the residential quality of life issues. We’re converting an abandoned railroad spur into a greenway and are working to balance residential needs with a diversified economy.”

Atkin’s passion in life involves planting trees in the urban environment, and presented the villagers of Hares with the idea of a sister-city partnership.

Atkins was yet another mission participant who believed the claims of the Rabbis for Human Rights that thousands of trees had been uprooted by IDF troops and Israeli civilians.

Atkins also described a meeting that she had been set up to meet with a family in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, and how all their children were wetting their beds at night because of the Israeli shooting. Nobody bothered to tell Atkins that Beit Jala is the place from where Arab sharpshooters fire on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, and on traffic below, and that five Israeli drivers have been murdered on that road. When asked if she would at least meet with a family in Gilo, Atkins replied, “No, they don’t have the level of unemployment in Gilo that they have in Beit Jala.” Two nights after Atkins had dinner in Beit Jalla, PLO gunman from Beit Jala fired on Gilo, damaging twenty Israeli homes.

Janet Tobacman, a health educator who originally hails from Cleveland and now lives in San Francisco, had the same feeling:

“My understanding is that a combination of the Israeli army and Jewish settlers have cut down thousands of olive trees throughout the West Bank and Gaza and people have depended upon them. Lots have been cut down and the official understanding of that from Israel is that trees are a security risk, but there are great numbers, so either you can look at it as a matter of Israel wanting the land, or as harassment or collective punishment.”

Some American born Rabbis in Jerusalem are upset with the Rabbis for Human Rights.

Rabbi Gershon Winer is one of them. He served as a Conservative rabbi in Grand Rapids, Michigan and in Long Island before he made aliya to Israel in 1970. He is professor emeritus of Yiddish Literature at Bar-Ilan University and the author of The Founding Fathers of Israel.

Rabbi Winer has spearheaded a campaign to have a resolution officially adopted at the next Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement, to take place in February in Washington, D.C., in which he calls for the Rabbinical Assembly to “no longer ‘applaud and endorse’ the policies and activities of the Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel.”

His proposed resolution uses strong language. It reads: “The statements and activities of the Rabbis for Human Rights organization often run counter to national interests and policies as determined by the Israel government and supported by public polls, such as interfering with necessary security measures taken by the Israel Defense Forces against the enemy, or advocating the repatriation of Arab refugees within the borders of Israel.” Rabbi Winer’s proposed resolution also criticized the RHR for, “… remaining at the Durban Conference after all other Jewish delegations, joined by the official representative of the United States Government, left in protest against the anti Israeli bias infecting the proceedings…”

According to Winer, “what really ignited me against the RHR is their Yom Kippur ‘confession’ that they sent out last year and asked to be read in synagogues during the services.” We obtained a copy of that “vidui”. While referring briefly to Palestinian violence, the main thrust of the “prayer” is a sweeping, total and chilling condemnation of Israel and the Jews for their behavior toward Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. The collective Jewish people are accused of incitement, demonizing, abuse, hardening of hearts, and the use of “excessive lethal force to kill and maim.”

“When I found out about this,” says Winer, “I decided to introduce the resolution. I also found out about the olive tree project, the attempt to remove roadblocks that have been set up by the IDF against terrorists [the roadblock removal is referred to by Rabbi Arik Ascherman in a description of the action he wrote about on a Palestinian website]

Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorati (Conservative) Movement in Israel, was asked to respond, “I am a member of the RHR and was their founding director in 1988. Today, because of my role as President of the Conservative movement, I feel I cannot be responsible for their actions and therefore resigned as a board member. The prohibition against hurting trees during war appears in Parshat Ki Tetzeh [in the Tora]. I agree there are certain circumstances in which peoples’ lives are more important. I trust that RHR knows where they’re planting them.

Bandel emphasized that he cannot take responsibility for actions taken by the RHR. “For instance, if money were given to families of terrorists, I would not stand behind it. I intentionally don’t arrive at meetings.” Concerning the Durban conference, when the RHR was the only Israeli or Jewish group that did not walk out together with Israel and the U.S., Rabbi Bandel said, “I warned Jeremy about Durban and that the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic groups would exploit us.” [Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom is the RHR Field Director for the Rabbis for Human Rights. – TKG]

Conservative Rabbi Ben Hollander, a founding member of RHR, teaches at The Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, noted the lack of balance in the tone of the RHR literature referring to the olive tree project, and in the 10-day program itself, during which the group met exclusively with Palestinian groups and left wing groups.

Rabbi Hollander: “Contrary to popular conception, RHR is not a political organization but a human rights organization. Many of those coming from America for this mission are political activists on the left and actually we did not plan their program. This was their goal in coming here. It’s like asking, how can a solidarity group come and only meet with Palestinians? But that is their orientation. This group from America does have a political agenda and I saw [it] in the program…I am much more centrist and moderate. There are also people who are liberal and who believe that we in Israel did more than our share -this is my personal view as well – to achieve peace.

Asked why he is still a member of RHR, Rabbi Hollander said that “a watch dog organization like ours is enhancing security because it is preventing human rights abuses.

Funding from the New Israel Fund and The Shefa Fund RHR receives funding through the New Israel Fund and from the Shefa Fund.

On the NIF website, it states, “The New Israel Fund is a philanthropic partnership of Israelis,. North Americans and Europeans that works for equality and social justice for all of Israel’s CITIZENS.” (CAPS are the author’s)

Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza are not Israeli citizens.

Itzik Shanan, Director of Communication and Public Relations for the New Israel Fund, was asked if NIF funds was intended for grantees who hold activities in the West Bank and Gaza? His answer was a flat “no”, yet he said that he did not to know too much about the Rabbis for Human Rights tree planting activities in Arab villages, even though the Rabbis had sent out a daily e-mail on this project and its connection to the New Israel Fund throughout the past year, always mentioning the New Israel Fund and the Shefa Fund of Philadelphia as the conduits for funds. RHR went so far as to place a full page ad in the New York Times that advertised the New Israel Fund and the Shefa Fund as the place where funds could be sent to help replant “thousands” of trees that the IDF and Israeli civilians had uprooted.

The word “allegedly” does not appear in the literature of the Rabbis for Human Rights.

IDF Spokesman responds to RHR accusations regarding the numbers 30,000 – 100,000 that appear on the RHR website, IDF spokesman Capt. Yaakov Dallal responded by while exact numbers of uprooted trees are not available, the IDF rejected any notion that there were such a massive number of olive groves that had been uprooted over the past two years.

Regarding accusations that the IDF cuts down more trees than is necessary, Dallal said, “There is such a thing as cutting down trees or shrubbery and also other cases, such as demolition of houses, when these serve as cover for Palestinians who are carrying out attacks on Israelis and on Israeli soldiers. It happens all the time that people hide in orchards, in areas close to roads that have plants and trees, and that they plant a roadside bomb and hide again. They use these areas for ambushes on civilian and IDF vehicles. We’ve seen a ton of this on a daily basis over the past 16 months.

“Occasionally a decision is taken to clear an area. That decision is based on the experience in the area, a record of previous attacks and a determination that the attacks would have been thwarted if this area were cleared. The permission to clear an area is not taken by a local commander; it is generally a brigadier general or the head of the central or southern command, for instance.

“The Alei Sinai case [in which Palestinian terrorists broke into a Jewish community in Katif and murdered two people] was a particularly severe case, first of all because of the type of attack, and secondly because the plants and growth significantly helped the infiltration and helped the terrorists make their way to the settlement.

“There have been other attempts and it makes it easier if the area is cleared to spot the terrorist, especially because they usually come at night. It’s much easier to spot them now, as they are continuing to attempt to infiltrate and attack, and continue to be spotted – and that’s thanks to the clearing of the area, which gives a lot of advance warning, for half a kilometer.

Most significantly, Capt. Dallal invoked international law: “According to International law, if any property – such as a building, orchards, a greenhouse, or a tree – is used for to launch military activity, it is no longer regarded as personal civilian property. Under international law it is possible to clear the area because it becomes a place from which attacks are launched; it takes on a different legal status.

Emmanuel Nachshon, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reinforced the position of the IDF, “Unfortunately, the IDF sometimes has to take part in certain activities, such as uprooting of trees, to protect soldiers and others on the roads from Palestinian gunfire. That is not a matter of policy, but a necessity within the framework of our duty of self-defense. Those who show blatant disregard towards the trees in this country are the Palestinian terrorists who do not hesitate to use them as shelters for their criminal activities.

So there you have it. The Rabbis for Human Rights have prepared fifty “ambassadors” to spread the word throughout the world that Israel carries out a policy that does not exist.

An Examination of the Work of the JMCC: The Jerusalem Media and Communications Center

By

David Bedein

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January 22, 2002

When a foreign journalist arrives in Israel, according to law, he must get a press card that is certified for use in Israel from the Israel Government Press Office, located at the Beit Agron International Press Center in Jerusalem. To get the card, the journalist must give the Press Office two pictures of him/herself and proof that he/she works for a publication. The Government Press Office will then supply the foreign journalist with notifications to the press from all the government offices and announcements regarding press conferences.

That sums up the Israeli Government Press Office’s involvement with the foreign press, who carry the weighty responsibility of presenting Israel’s image to the world at large.

Daniel Seaman, who is director of the Israel Government Press Office, would like to offer services to the foreign press such as tours, excursions and meetings with sources which would assist the reporter to gain a deeper understanding about the people living in Israel and its political climate. However, the government of Israel did not find it necessary to finance such expenses.

But no need to worry. Right under the nose of the Israeli Government Press Service, an energetic news agency operates, which offers all the above services and much more.

It is efficient, available and costs very little.

When the foreign journalist steps outside the Beit Agron Government Press Office holding his freshly stamped press card, the reporter will often find parked outside a mini-bus belonging to a press agency known as the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC).

The purpose of that agency and its media- friendly services is to seek out foreignjournalists and to take them to whatever destination which will further the interests of the Palestine Authority.

The JMCC was founded by Ghassan Khatib, a member of the Palestinian Legislation Council, and a close associate of Yassir Arafat. The JMCC provides the journalists with daily trips to Jerusalem, refugee camps, the Gallilee, the Negev and to Arab and Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza strip including Jewish settlements. The JMCC media guides consist of Arab professionals, Israeli Leftists, and Arab or Israeli academics.

The Israel Ministry of Tourism, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Yesha Council do not initiate trips of this nature, creating a vacuum that is filled efficiently and professionally by the JMCC.

The offices of the JMCC are easily accessible, located on Nablus Street in Jerusalem, a few minute walk from the hotels favored by the foreign press such as the Ambassador Hotel and the American Colony. Nearby are the offices of the UN, the European Union, and the American, Italian, Belgian and Swiss Consulates.

For nominal fees, the JMCC provides the media with television equipment, and translators from Hebrew and Arabic. JMCC’s web site, www.jmcc.org is updated a number of times a day, and provides the party line of whatever message that the PLO seeks to communicate as well as the wide variety of services offered by the JMCC.

Also for a nominal fee, the JMCC provides reporters with a daily report on what is happening on the Palestinian front in addition to a summary of the Israeli and Palestinian press. The JMCC’s translations of the PLO press are devoid of the virulences that you will find in the original Arabic language media, but this detail goes by unnoticed by the reporters.

The JMCC provides an impressive colorful 50-page brochure called “This Week in Palestine”, issued for tourists and the foreign press, and contains detailed and updated information about Palestinian Society, descriptive information of tourist attractions, as well as a comprehensive list of names of local tour guides.

The brochure includes maps of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Palestine.

The term “Israel”does not appear anywhere in the brochure or on its maps.

The Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, is erased from the JMCC map of Jerusalem. Every site is mentioned as part of the Palestinian heritage, connecting it to the Palestinian struggle for independence or to Islam without any hint of Jewish significance. Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, becomes Yussof’s Tomb, with a unique Islamic heritage. Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem also becomes an Islamic site and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem also went through Islamic conversion with never a mention as to its holy and historical significance to the Jewish nation.

JMCC advertisers to the brochure includes all the Arab hotels in East Jerusalem, all the foreign consulates in Jerusalem, as well as various restaurants. “This Week in Palestine” can be found in all the Hotels in East Jerusalem as well as in some Israeli hotels.

Another magazine put out by the JMCC and geared for journalists is called “The Palestine Report”. JMCC also provides evaluations and analysis of Israeli media and web sites.

For a nominal fee, JMCC provides the foreign press with a subscription to a daily e-mail report about events in the Palestine Authority, which is marketed to 168 various press offices and diplomats in Jerusalem. The daily report service has been operating since 1989 (though not in the internet format), following the outbreak of the War in Lebanon.

The service was then called “The Palestine Press Service”, and founded by Ramonda Tawil, who later became Arafat’s mother-in-law. Tawil, who was the partial owner of the Jordanian bank of Irbid, was also involved in training Palestinian Arabs for interviews with the press. Thus she gave a “spokesman course” for the Jibril terror exchange in 1985, when Israel released more than 1,000 Arab terrorists in exchange for six Israeli POW’s. The course trained released terrorists how to handle their limited-time interviews with the press, and to focus on presenting themselves and their conditions in the Israeli jails, instead of talking about their actions which led to them being put in those jails. Many of Tawil’s graduates are graduates from Israeli prisons, and are now serving as reliable sources for Human Rights Groups in Israel and abroad as well as for every possible delegation visiting beyond the Green Line.

Additional JMCC services include a well stocked video library with documented material on every possible subject promoting the Palestinian cause. Among the videos available for the reporter are video clips of the abuse of Palestinian Arab children at the hands of Israeli soldiers, the intolerable conditions of the refugee camps, and various portrayals of dead and dying Arabs, with smashed and detached body parts, along with mourning Palestinian families and more.

The JMCC also provides updated polls regarding the mood of the Palestinian street. Israel’s Broadcasting Authority and Israeli journalists from the Haaretz and Jerusalem Post newspapers all publish these polls as reliable sources. The question of how reliable is a public opinion poll which is taken in a totalitarian society by a body connected to the ruling regime almost never comes up.

The JMCC is also coordinated with two Palestinian health experts, both bearing elaborate family ties. The first is Dr. Fatchi Arafat, head of the “Red Crescent”, and brother to Yasser. In October 2000 the IDF spokesman gave a detailed report about the role of the “Red Crescent” ambulances in the transfer of weapons and fighting equipment to the Arabs who participated in violent clashes against Israel, yet forgot to mention the name and next of kin of the head of this organization. The other health expert at the disposal of JMCC is Dr.Mustafa Barguti, the chief of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees which was founded by the National Front, and brother of Marwan Barguti, secretary of the Fatah and commander of the armed PLO Tanzim. The two doctors are at the service of any foreign journalist wishing to report on the Palestine Authority health system. Dr. Barguti is also the source of the sensational news campaign in 1990 which alleged that Israel was using poisonous tear gas on Palestinian demonstrators which somehow capable of killing children.

In terms of its legal status, the JMCC had always held press credentials from the Israel Government Press office until this January 1. In deciding not to extend their credentials beyond January 1, GPO director Daniel Seaman noted that JMCC defines itself as a PR firm and not as a news agency and therefore should not have received press credentials in the first place, according to Seaman.

Despite the fact that JMCC registered itself as an Israeli firm in 1994, JMCC, which receives annual grants from the European Union and the Ford Foundation, has never paid taxes on its more than twenty employees, nor has the JMCC ever issued a single legal receipt to include the VAT, the Israeli Value Added Tax. For all these reasons, JMCC was stricken from the Israel corporate record in 1999 – yet the Israel tax authority in East Jerusalem issued an official memo that the JMCC was operating within the confines of the Israeli law. How the Israel tax authorities came to such a conclusion seems mysterious.

All in all, journalists who come to Jerusalem seem rather pleased with the operation and the services provided by the JMCC. Reporters find out soon enough that the JMCC is promoting an Arab point of view. However, as one TV producer noted, “their message is soft and their methods are professional. Even though they may promote a cause, we do not feel that they are clubbing us over the head with a hard sell approach”.”

Anyone who wonders why Israel fails to make its case to the media need look no further than the JMCC operation in Jerusalem.

No Israeli public or private concern provides any parallel service to welcome and serve the media in Jerusalem.

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is blessed with a budget of five million dollars to provide such services to the foreign media.

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is well aware of the above scenario.

The question remains: Is this a matter of benign neglect or a policy of allowing the PLO to have free reign of the turf…

News Stories Inside the Palestinian Authority Not Reported Elsewhere: Accountability and the PLO

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 15, 2002

PLO representative in Washington, Hassan Abdul Rahman has kept millions of dollars for Palestinian students from abroad. He spent money to buy huge homes in the Washington area. He has a Cadillac, beautiful clothes. He gives appearance of doing a tremendous amount of work, but actually does very little. Abdul Rahman has the authority to grant scholarships and receives funds for scholarships for Palestinians to study in the U.S. Indeed, he often has the final word over whether a Palestinian student can remain in the United States.
PA Preventive Apparatus chief Mohammed Dahlan bought Shawwa family’s palace in Gaza for $2 million. He then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix it up the home of the late Gaza Mayor Rashad Shawa. Shawwa was the leading Palestinian figure in the Gaza Strip and his family is regarded as the wealthiest in the Palestinian community.
Officials serving under PA police chief Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali repeatedly raped a PA employee from Social Welfare Ministry. The rape took place in September during an IDF attack on Gaza City. Jabali’s men used the chaos to repeatedly rape her. On October 29, the family of the women are believed to have retaliated. A fire was set in the Arafat Police Academy in central Gaza and destroyed the building. The incident was never reported.
PA intelligence agents apply to a journalism course in Ramallah. They use this to spy on PA journalists and suspects of those who are in contact with them. The agencies include the PA Preventive Security Apparatus of Jibril Rajoub and PA Military Intelligence. The work of these so-called journalist students means that they monitor Palestinian journalists and try to enter Israel and obtain information.
Israeli military tells PA officers in Nablus of troop movements so they don’t encounter opposition. The PA liaison officers say ‘fine but don’t pass on message to PA commanders’. So, when tanks move near PA territory, they are attacked by Fatah and PA officers. This has happened often during the last six months amid the ceasefire accords and the Israeli-PA security talks. The Israeli military is aware of this.
Mohammed Dahlan, Gaza Security Chief, is angry at PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. He said security forces are no longer interested in working and merely spend their time joining Hamas attacks and shaking down people. Dahlan said corruption in security forces is high. Dahlan is staying away from Arafat lately. The agencies are also fighting each other. On October 29, the Arafat Police Academy in central Gaza was gutted by what appeared to be arson. The building was completely destroyed and included documents and sensitive equipment. Dahlan has not publicly criticized Arafat. Instead, he spoke privately to Palestinians and had his aides leak this.
PA General Intelligence chief Col. Tawfiq Tirawi kidnaps Abu Shaher Sharabati, a member of the Al Quds volunteer forces that helped maintain order in Jerusalem. Because the force was independent and cooperated with the Israeli police in eastern Jerusalem, Sharabati was summoned to Ramallah where he was arrested and tortured on November 2. Tirawi forced 10 members of the force to come to Ramallah and pledge to end the police cooperation with Jerusalem. They did so and Sharabati was freed. Sharabati is regarded as one of the few Arabs in Jerusalem who are willing to buck the PA. He comes from Tsur Baher, which has been under heavy pressure to allow PA to take over. The GSS is aware of this.
PA police chief Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali has stopped using his force to patrol the streets and fight crime. Instead, many of his men are used to protect his private mortar and grenade factories around Gaza City. Jabali provides security as well as hires employees to make mortars and even rockets designed by Hamas. Meanwhile, crime is rampant in Gaza City, including theft and violent crime. Jabali has the “franchise” over protection and production of these mortar factories. He makes sure these factories are running and they obtain supplies.
Orient House. This is used by corrupt PA officials to determine justice based on who pays the highest amount to the Orient House. The Orient House is being challenged by Sari Nusseibeh, who has taken over the house on Arafat’s orders. The house is backed by PA General Intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi, who partakes in the revenue and provides muscle. The Orient House building is monitored by Israeli police but the institution operates throughout different locations in Jerusalem.
PA favors companies dominated by senior officials. They don’t pay taxes. Hassan Safarini, a former advisor for the income tax department and currently a lecturer at A-Najah University in Nablus, said that income tax revenues for 2001 a.m.ounted to $50 million that comes mainly from tax deducted from income of salaried employees. PA refuses to collect taxes from major companies controlled or owned by leadership. Arab banks that have branches in the Palestinian areas don’t pay taxes on their investments abroad from deposits made by Palestinians residents. He said that while bank deposits amounted to more than $2.7 billion, more than 50 percent of this amount were invested abroad. Yet the banks do not declare their true profits on these investments and therefore do not pay income tax on them to the PNA. He said that PNA companies, such as Palestinian Commercial Services Company, the Petroleum Authority and others, do not declare their income and neither pay taxes on their income. Not including these companies in the state revenues means a big loss to the budget and even opens the way for other companies to do the same and avoid paying taxes. Safarini was speaking in October in an address picked up by the Palestinian newspaper Jerusalem Times. Israel does not directly help PA companies, but it has major contracts with some of them, particularly the Petroleum Authority.
PA senior officials buy luxury cars. PA uses donor funds for cars and borrows from banks for personal needs. No PLC monitoring of budget and the PLC did not get any reports from the PNA on the budget and where the money was going. No jobs in PA. PA should use around $550 million in donor aid aimed for development for productive projects that would generate income and jobs. The stealing is rampant among EU funding. Because the EU has stopped funding projects in PA. Instead, it gives Arafat a check and let’s him do what he wants even though the check is supposed to go for salaries.
Palestinians are starving and walking around in want during Ramadan. But PA officials continue to get their fat salaries. Islamic groups are using this poverty to recruit suicide bombers for money. Palestinians say they are giving us the choice of starving to death or blowing ourselves up.
In Bethlehem, Palestinian Legislative Council member Salah Taamari runs militia. Throughout the last year, his men have blackmailed businessmen and extort money. Taamari got money from Arafat and EU for Palestinians and pocketed the funds.
In Bet Jallah, PA gunmen repeatedly raped three Christians girls. Then they had them killed. In the month of October the girls were suffocated with pillows and then shot. Taamari people linked to Fatah commander Atef Obeyat were accused of doing this. This took place in September during Israeli incursion in Bethlehem.
In Bet Sahour, a Christian woman was attacked by Taamari people in October. They tried to rape her. Neighbors came to her rescue. PA police came. Taamari people said the women invited them in. Fatah commander Kamal Sweid then threatened the Christians, saying the Taamari people get direct orders from Arafat.
Pope John Paul II summoned Arafat in November 2001 for audience in Vatican to discuss Christian plight. The Pope demanded that Arafat protect Christians as he had promised in the past. This according to a senior PA source.
Arafat’s deputy Ramzi Khoury, second-in-command in PA chairman’s office, has an apartment in Bethlehem. He gave $1,000 to his mistress, a singer named Miss Sansour. Khoury holds audience for Christians and demands money or sexual favors for his services. This is reflective of PA relations with the Christian minority, which has come under increasing pressure from the Muslim majority since the inception of the PA in 1994.
Arafat appoints new Bethlehem governor, Mohammed Al Madani. The appointment was meant to frustrate PA military commander Col Ahmed Id. Id is a professional officer and hated by Arafat. Al Madani hates Id and Arafat wants the two to fight. Meanwhile, Bethlehem’s security forces are paralyzed and can’t respond to the growth of organized crime and insurgency groups.
In Ramallah, PA forces of Jibril Rajoub arrested senior Ramallah judge Ghazi Atrah, on the bench for 30 years. In September, 2001 Atrah was placed in prison on accusations that he planned to sell land to Jews. The charges were found to have been baseless. But Atrah is still in jail. A Ramallah appeals court, headed by Sami Sarsour, ruled that he be released. Atrah was accused of having an apartment in Ofrah.
70 Palestinians in Bethlehem are in jail on collaboration charges. PA security official admits that there are no real charges against the 70. But that releasing them would leave them open to attacks from Palestinian enemies. What they really mean is that they don’t have huge amounts of money for their release. No human rights group has formally investigated this.
Fatah commander Atef Abeyat got $40,000 for the release of Bethlehem businessman Sharli Shamiyah. Abeyat demanded $100,000. Abeyat staged two attempts on Shamiya’s life. Shamiya is now hiding in Jerusalem.
Bethlehem businessman Farah Boto was accused of selling land to Jews and was jailed. PA General Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi demanded $100,000 and when Tirawi got the money he was released. Then, Abeyat demanded money. First, it was $5,000, then another $5,000. When he stopped paying he was shot with 10 bullets and killed in September. Tirawi reports directly to Arafat.
Bet Jallah pharmacist Nicole Abu Id was approached by Taamara people aligned to Fatah gunrunner Atef Abeyat and they demanded 20,000 Jordanian dinars. He was warned that unless he came up with the money his son would be killed. Abu Id returned home from his pharmacy and refused to leave his house for two weeks. PA General Intelligence Chief Tawfik Tirawi was told of what happened and refused to do anything. Tirawi is a partner of Abeyat in the gun-running business. Taamara people are Bedouins from the village outside Bethlehem and run by Taamari people.
In Irtas, Ibrahim Abeyat has taken over for Atef Abeyat. Ibrahim killed a man in Irtas and walks free. Irtas is a village outside Bethelehem.
In Ramallah, A-Jazeera has agreement with Jibril Rajoub over what to cover. A-Jazeera’s correspondent Wa’il Abu Dabah is a Jibril man and refused to broadcast Jihad riots against PA in November in Jenin.

Military Implications of the Seizure of the PLO Gun Ship

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 9, 2002

Alongside the diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire with Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been involved — since the beginning of the second intifada — in the indigenous production of weapons and ammunition and in repeated attempts to smuggle arms on a massive scale into the territories under its control. To thwart these efforts and to degrade the PA’s fighting capabilities, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have destroyed dozens of warehouses and weapons-producing factories and have sealed all land, sea, and air passages leading into the PA.

But the January 3 capture by the Israeli Navy of a ship — the Karine-A — transporting fifty or more tons of arms indicates that senior members of the PA who, according to Israel, planned, financed, and carried out the smuggling operation are still committed to the objective of overcoming Israeli interference and transferring into the PA enough weapons and ammunition to prolong — perhaps even escalate – the conflict with Israel. In doing so, the PA receives help from several terrorist organizations as well as, seemingly, the governments that sponsor them. Moreover, the types and the quantities of the weapons captured aboard the Karine-A, as well as the timing of the ship’s voyage, indicate that Palestinian armament efforts are designed not exclusively for defensive purposes, but rather for changing the military balance between the PA and Israel.

Palestinian Weapons Smuggling

Attempts to smuggle illegal weapons into the West Bank and Gaza Strip began soon after the PA’s establishment in 1994, but these attempts were limited mainly to small quantities of light arms and ammunition. Since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, the intensity of the fighting has grown, and with it the need for a constant inflow of weapons of higher quality and lethality. These weapons have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip through a system of secret, underground tunnels which connect Egypt to Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Despite the IDF’s efforts to locate and destroy those tunnels, many are still very active.

Israel has also thwarted several Palestinian efforts to smuggle weapons through the Dead Sea and the Jordan River Valley. But the main inlet of weapons into the Gaza Strip has been via the Mediterranean Sea. On January 29, 2001, the IDF found two sealed barrels on a beach near Ashkelon containing weapons with indication that a smuggler’s ship from Lebanon had discharged them into the sea off the coast of Gaza. It is believed that dozens of other barrels from the same shipment, allegedly sent by Hizballah to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Gaza, reached their destination that night.

On May 7, 2001, the Israeli navy captured a fishing boat off the coast of Haifa with a large quantity of arms and ammunition bound for the PA. The arsenal contained 107-mm rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder- launched anti-aircraft missiles, and anti-tank missiles — all prohibited by the Oslo agreements — and had apparently been dispatched to the PA by Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which is headquartered in Damascus with bases in Lebanon. Now, this latest capture has revealed another weapons source: Iran. Although it is not yet clear whether the shipment of weapons to the Palestinians was sanctioned by the Iranian authorities, Israeli intelligence claims that the weapons were loaded in Iran by both Iranian nationals and Hizballah operatives.

Strategic Escalation?

Due to their tactical inferiority vis-a vis the IDF, the Palestinians are interested in developing military capabilities that could offset the Israeli advantage and deter the IDF from carrying out uninterrupted attacks against the PA using tanks and aircraft. The cargo of the Karine-A included weapons that have never before been in the PA’s possession. For instance, the shipment included a large number of antitank missiles, including modern, Iranian- manufactured missiles carrying Tandem-Charge warheads capable of penetrating heavy armor. Israeli tank units, which have become accustomed to entering Palestinian cities with impunity, would be subjected to real danger if such weapons were to be activated.

More unsettling are the 122-mm katyusha rockets found on board which have a range of 12 miles. They could, if launched from the West Bank, hit any location in Israel between Hadera in the north and Ashkelon in the south, including strategic targets such as critical road junctions, oil and gas farms, power stations, and, most importantly, Israel’s air and sea ports. Yasir Arafat’s acknowledgment that Hamas and PIJ suicide attacks against Israeli civilians have both run their course and threatened to cast him in the same light as the international terrorists currently being pursued by the United States, offers a glimpse into the Palestinian leader’s possible motivation, if he is indeed behind this arms shipment. These arms would increase his ability to pressure Israel: by acquiring long-range artillery, the Palestinians could threaten the Israeli home front and achieve a demoralizing and deterring effect on the Israeli public, similar to the “walking bombs” of Hamas and PIJ.

Implications for Indigenous Arms Production

The downside of the Israeli success in intercepting arms transfers and denying the PA the possibility of importing weapons is that it will likely increase pressure inside the PA to invest more resources in the domestic production of weapons and ammunition. Local arms production could provide the Palestinians with sufficient ammunition to prolong their guerrilla operations.

The Palestinians lack the industrial infrastructure needed to manufacture advanced weapons, but they have demonstrated their ability to produce light arms and ammunition, such as grenades, primitive antitank weapons, and artillery weapons.

In May 2001, for example, the Israeli security services uncovered a network of Palestinian operatives in Gaza who were involved in the manufacturing of thousands of mortar shells of various calibers. Members of the network included senior ranking officers of the Palestinian police and the Preventive Security Service in Gaza, headed by Muhammad Dahlan.

Hamas has also been involved in plans to produce homemade katyusha rockets. On January 2, the Israeli General Security Service arrested a Hamas operative en route to Saudi Arabia, apparently on a mission to receive funding and technical assistance for establishing rocket production plants in Gaza and the West Bank. Should such efforts continue to fail, some Palestinians have suggested that the PA consider developing chemical and perhaps biological weapons, which could be smuggled and concealed more easily than conventional weapons and could act as deterrents against any future Israeli attack intended to destroy the PA.

Israel’s Response to the PA’s Armament

In the short run, Israel will tighten its blockade along the Gaza coast and pressure the United States to recognize as sponsors of terrorism the countries involved in arming the PA. It may also change its attitude toward the 1,000-man Palestinian Coast Guard (Shurta Bahariyya), an elite unit established in 1995 (as part of the Cairo Agreement) to prevent the smuggling of goods and weapons into the PA. The fact that the captain of the Karine-A, Omar Akwi, is a Coast Guard colonel indicates that this group has become the main facilitator of weapons smuggling into the PA — a reality that may force Israel to equate the Coast Guard with the Tanzim and Force 17, both officially recognized by Israel as terror organizations.

In the longer run, the strategic threat represented by long- range weapons introduced into the hands of the Palestinians adds a new dimension to the debate about the feasibility of a demilitarized Palestinian state as part of a final-status agreement with Israel. When peace negotiations resume, Israel is likely to condition any further concessions to the PA on the collection and surrender of all weapons prohibited by the Oslo agreements, and will be less flexible in granting the Palestinians control over border passages with Jordan and Egypt, as well as air and sea ports.

Lt. Col. Gal Luft (IDF, res.) is a doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and is the author of The Palestinian Security Services: Between Police and Army (The Washington Institute, 1998).

Copyright © The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
1828 L Street Suite 1050
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: (202) 452-0650, Fax: (202) 223-5364
EMail: info@washingtoninstitute.org

Military Implications of the Seizure of the PLO Gun Ship

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 9, 2002

Alongside the diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire with Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been involved — since the beginning of the second intifada — in the indigenous production of weapons and ammunition and in repeated attempts to smuggle arms on a massive scale into the territories under its control. To thwart these efforts and to degrade the PA’s fighting capabilities, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have destroyed dozens of warehouses and weapons-producing factories and have sealed all land, sea, and air passages leading into the PA.

But the January 3 capture by the Israeli Navy of a ship — the Karine-A — transporting fifty or more tons of arms indicates that senior members of the PA who, according to Israel, planned, financed, and carried out the smuggling operation are still committed to the objective of overcoming Israeli interference and transferring into the PA enough weapons and ammunition to prolong — perhaps even escalate – the conflict with Israel. In doing so, the PA receives help from several terrorist organizations as well as, seemingly, the governments that sponsor them. Moreover, the types and the quantities of the weapons captured aboard the Karine-A, as well as the timing of the ship’s voyage, indicate that Palestinian armament efforts are designed not exclusively for defensive purposes, but rather for changing the military balance between the PA and Israel.

Palestinian Weapons Smuggling

Attempts to smuggle illegal weapons into the West Bank and Gaza Strip began soon after the PA’s establishment in 1994, but these attempts were limited mainly to small quantities of light arms and ammunition. Since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, the intensity of the fighting has grown, and with it the need for a constant inflow of weapons of higher quality and lethality. These weapons have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip through a system of secret, underground tunnels which connect Egypt to Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Despite the IDF’s efforts to locate and destroy those tunnels, many are still very active.

Israel has also thwarted several Palestinian efforts to smuggle weapons through the Dead Sea and the Jordan River Valley. But the main inlet of weapons into the Gaza Strip has been via the Mediterranean Sea. On January 29, 2001, the IDF found two sealed barrels on a beach near Ashkelon containing weapons with indication that a smuggler’s ship from Lebanon had discharged them into the sea off the coast of Gaza. It is believed that dozens of other barrels from the same shipment, allegedly sent by Hizballah to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Gaza, reached their destination that night.

On May 7, 2001, the Israeli navy captured a fishing boat off the coast of Haifa with a large quantity of arms and ammunition bound for the PA. The arsenal contained 107-mm rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder- launched anti-aircraft missiles, and anti-tank missiles — all prohibited by the Oslo agreements — and had apparently been dispatched to the PA by Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which is headquartered in Damascus with bases in Lebanon. Now, this latest capture has revealed another weapons source: Iran. Although it is not yet clear whether the shipment of weapons to the Palestinians was sanctioned by the Iranian authorities, Israeli intelligence claims that the weapons were loaded in Iran by both Iranian nationals and Hizballah operatives.

Strategic Escalation?

Due to their tactical inferiority vis-a vis the IDF, the Palestinians are interested in developing military capabilities that could offset the Israeli advantage and deter the IDF from carrying out uninterrupted attacks against the PA using tanks and aircraft. The cargo of the Karine-A included weapons that have never before been in the PA’s possession. For instance, the shipment included a large number of antitank missiles, including modern, Iranian- manufactured missiles carrying Tandem-Charge warheads capable of penetrating heavy armor. Israeli tank units, which have become accustomed to entering Palestinian cities with impunity, would be subjected to real danger if such weapons were to be activated.

More unsettling are the 122-mm katyusha rockets found on board which have a range of 12 miles. They could, if launched from the West Bank, hit any location in Israel between Hadera in the north and Ashkelon in the south, including strategic targets such as critical road junctions, oil and gas farms, power stations, and, most importantly, Israel’s air and sea ports. Yasir Arafat’s acknowledgment that Hamas and PIJ suicide attacks against Israeli civilians have both run their course and threatened to cast him in the same light as the international terrorists currently being pursued by the United States, offers a glimpse into the Palestinian leader’s possible motivation, if he is indeed behind this arms shipment. These arms would increase his ability to pressure Israel: by acquiring long-range artillery, the Palestinians could threaten the Israeli home front and achieve a demoralizing and deterring effect on the Israeli public, similar to the “walking bombs” of Hamas and PIJ.

Implications for Indigenous Arms Production

The downside of the Israeli success in intercepting arms transfers and denying the PA the possibility of importing weapons is that it will likely increase pressure inside the PA to invest more resources in the domestic production of weapons and ammunition. Local arms production could provide the Palestinians with sufficient ammunition to prolong their guerrilla operations.

The Palestinians lack the industrial infrastructure needed to manufacture advanced weapons, but they have demonstrated their ability to produce light arms and ammunition, such as grenades, primitive antitank weapons, and artillery weapons.

In May 2001, for example, the Israeli security services uncovered a network of Palestinian operatives in Gaza who were involved in the manufacturing of thousands of mortar shells of various calibers. Members of the network included senior ranking officers of the Palestinian police and the Preventive Security Service in Gaza, headed by Muhammad Dahlan.

Hamas has also been involved in plans to produce homemade katyusha rockets. On January 2, the Israeli General Security Service arrested a Hamas operative en route to Saudi Arabia, apparently on a mission to receive funding and technical assistance for establishing rocket production plants in Gaza and the West Bank. Should such efforts continue to fail, some Palestinians have suggested that the PA consider developing chemical and perhaps biological weapons, which could be smuggled and concealed more easily than conventional weapons and could act as deterrents against any future Israeli attack intended to destroy the PA.

Israel’s Response to the PA’s Armament

In the short run, Israel will tighten its blockade along the Gaza coast and pressure the United States to recognize as sponsors of terrorism the countries involved in arming the PA. It may also change its attitude toward the 1,000-man Palestinian Coast Guard (Shurta Bahariyya), an elite unit established in 1995 (as part of the Cairo Agreement) to prevent the smuggling of goods and weapons into the PA. The fact that the captain of the Karine-A, Omar Akwi, is a Coast Guard colonel indicates that this group has become the main facilitator of weapons smuggling into the PA — a reality that may force Israel to equate the Coast Guard with the Tanzim and Force 17, both officially recognized by Israel as terror organizations.

In the longer run, the strategic threat represented by long- range weapons introduced into the hands of the Palestinians adds a new dimension to the debate about the feasibility of a demilitarized Palestinian state as part of a final-status agreement with Israel. When peace negotiations resume, Israel is likely to condition any further concessions to the PA on the collection and surrender of all weapons prohibited by the Oslo agreements, and will be less flexible in granting the Palestinians control over border passages with Jordan and Egypt, as well as air and sea ports.

Lt. Col. Gal Luft (IDF, res.) is a doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and is the author of The Palestinian Security Services: Between Police and Army (The Washington Institute, 1998).

Copyright © The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
1828 L Street Suite 1050
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: (202) 452-0650, Fax: (202) 223-5364
EMail: info@washingtoninstitute.org

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News Stories Inside the Palestinian Authority Not Reported Elsewhere: Accountability and the PLO

Military Implications of the Seizure of the PLO Gun Ship

Military Implications of the Seizure of the PLO Gun Ship

Column from the Director