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From the Vol.1,No.7 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST

Israeli High Court Orders Government To Address 'Targetted Killings' Policy

On April 18, the Israeli newpspaer Ha'aretz reported that the Isreli high court issued an interim order giving the government 80 days to check whether its "targetted killings" policy contravenes international law, and 15 days to explain Israel Defense Force General Yitzhak Eitan's refusal to cancel the broad arrest warrant he issued as part of the IDF operations in Palestinian territories. The government disclosed that it has so far arrested some 5,600 Palestinians during "Operation Defensive Shield," 3,900 of whom have allegedly have been released.

The Israeli Supreme Court is responding to a petition filed on behalf of several organizations, including B'tselem, Physicians for Human Rights, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Adalah--The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW), the Public Committee Against Torture, and three additional petitioners, who are Palestinian detainees--a PFLP activist and two Fatah members, one of whom is a member of the Palestinian general intelligence service. Petitioners are seeking annulment of Eitan's order, which allows detainees to be held up to 18 days without having a hearing or meeting a lawyer.

The Court also heard a second petition filed by the Public Committee Against Torture and LAW on the Israeli policy of preemptively assassinating terrorists, potential terrorists, and alleged terrorists.

Palestinian Negotiator Says He's Setting Record Straight on 'Ze'vi Five'

On April 18 Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the so-called "Ze'vi Five" referred to by President Bush as being a problem hindering Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah, had been arrested by the Palestinian Authority two months ago. Bush made his remarks in his press availability following his meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, just returned from the Mideast.

The alleged assassins of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi were transported through the West Bank from Nablus to Ramallah in an official American vehicle, with coordination with the Israeli military, Erekat said. And, according to the Oslo Agreements, it is the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority, not the Israelis, to bring the "Ze'evi Five" to trial.

"The whole idea was that we would bring them to justice in a Palestinian court in Ramallah," Saeb Erekat said, adding, "Doesn't the United States President know that this transfer was done with the help of his people? ... This was done with the knowledge and consent of the Americans and the Israelis. So, now we hear the President of the United States talking about the Ze'evi killers and justifying the siege of President Arafat's compound this way."

Otherwise, Erekat told CNN April 19, "The U.S. must understand that trying to cover for Sharon is not serving the interests of peace ... [or] of the Israelis, Palestinians, or Arabs."

Are Palestinians Being Held in Israeli Death Camps?

Middle East diplomatic sources have raised a grave concern about the Palestinian prisoners taken from Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, and other West Bank areas; these sources warn that the prisoners are likely being kept in "death camps" where temperatures reach 130 degrees Farenheit. A prison camp in the Negev Desert has been re-opened for all the detainees. It broils during the day, and freezes during the night. No observers or visitors have been allowed into the prison.

British Politician: Europe Should Embargo Arms, Withdraw Ambassadors from Israel

The European nations must take tough measures to "punish Israel," especially in light of reports out of Jenin, said British Labour Party MP Ann Clwyd, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights, and who is a member of the International Development Select Committee.

Clwyd wrote a blistering piece in the Independent April 17, taking off from the fact that she herself was in the Jenin refugee camp a week earlier. She criticized U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell for not going to Jenin, and then described her experiences there with a United Nations convoy: "It took six hours before we were able to bring doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to the local hospitals. We were delayed by continually having to dodge tanks, some with their barrels pointing at us.... I have never seen international humanitarian agencies being denied access like this."

After reporting the anger of Palestinians in Jenin, who see this as a new Sabra and Chatila massacre, Clwyd wrote: "It is not enough for the European countries to simply bleat in condemnation. They need to withdraw European ambassadors from Israel. They need to impose an immediate arms embargo.... They should consider what economic sanctions can be put in place. The European Union could suspend its agreement giving Israel preferential trade terms, since the European public are certainly demanding a much tougher line.... This is the moment when the EU should show its mettle and implement its own plan, regardless of the objections or intransigence of the United States."

Rumsfeld Appears To Prefer War Against Iraq to Inspections

At an April 15 Pentagon press briefing, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about a report on the front page of the Washington Post to the effect that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz had tried to discredit UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix, as a way of undermining the return of UN arms inspectors to Iraq. Such a return of inspectors could delay or cancel altogether a military intervention to oust Saddam Hussein.

Rumsfeld expressed doubts that any arms inspection regime could prevent Saddam Hussein from pursuing acquisition and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Post reported April 16 that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are not in favor of the return of inspectors, while the State Department is moving agressively, in conjunction with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to get inspectors back on the ground inside Iraq, with more intrusive rules of engagement than had previously existed.

Egypt Cancels Celebration of Alexandria Library Reopening

According to the April 17 Washington Times, Egypt has cancelled its plans to celebrate the historic reopening of the Alexandria Library, 1,600 years after its destruction. The cancellation was said to have ordered in solidarity with the Palestinians.

An Egyptian embassy spokesman in the U.S. said, "The decision comes as an expression of rejection of Israeli acts of aggression against the Palestinian people, in response to the patriotic feelings of the Egyptian people, and a sign of solidarity with the Palestinian people."

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