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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (218)	7/11/2002 7:06:01 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 3959

I agree. They have done more than anyone (other than Presidents Carter and Reagan for many good people/dissidents in former USSR in my time there..Surely more than you and me

To: Thomas M. who wrote (218)	7/11/2002 11:42:23 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3959

Amnesty International is a wonderful organization. Woops, you're now at odds with the Palestinian authorities. haaretzdaily.com PA rejects Amnesty condemnation of Palestinian attacks By Joseph Algazy, Ha'aretz Correspondent Palestinian officials Thursday rejected an Amnesty International report condemning Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, dismissing it as biased and unbalanced. While Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman noted that the Palestinian leadership and prominent Palestinian moderates had condemned suicide bombings, he added that "all that is happening to Israeli citizens is a normal consequence for their occupation and rejection of Palestinian rights." The new Amnesty International report, "Without distinction: Attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups," calls Palestinian attacks on civilians "crimes against humanity" and murder, and says they may also constitute war crimes. Ismail Abu Shanab, spokesman for the militant Islamic group Hamas, which has carried out the largest number of suicide bombings, dismissed the report as "completely biased." "It reflects the same American policy that gave the legitimacy to the [Israeli] occupation of West Bank cities and to the daily actions committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinians," he said. Hamas says it will continue to carry out bombings despite the calls to stop by the Palestinian Authority. "The attacks by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law," the human rights group says in the report, adding that they may also represent "war crimes," depending on the legal status of the armed Palestinian groups under international humanitarian law. A senior Amnesty official in Israel said Wednesday that the report recommends that the Palestinian Authority act both legally and in the public sphere against attacks on civilians. The organization refutes claims by militant organizations such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that "under all international declarations and laws, Palestinians are entitled to defend and liberate their land by all means and to redeem their integrity." The Amnesty International report says that "Attacks on civilians are not permitted under any internationally recognized standard of law, whether they are committed in the context of a struggle against military occupation or any other context. "Not only are they considered murder under general principles of law in every national legal system, they are contrary to fundamental principles of humanity which are reflected in international humanitarian law. In the manner in which they are being committed in Israel and the Occupied Territories they also amount to crimes against humanity." The 44-page report is due to be hand-delivered to President Moshe Katsav on Thursday by an Amnesty International delegation headed by Maya Sanderson, chairman of the Israel branch of the organization. The report, based on extensive interviews with victims and survivors of terror attacks, as well as with such figures as Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, notes that for many years the organization has documented "violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Israel in the occupied territories. "These include unlawful killings; torture and ill-treatment; arbitrary detention; unfair trials; collective punishments such as punitive closures of areas and destruction of homes; extensive and wanton destruction of property; deportations; and discriminatory treatment as compared to Israeli settlers." However, the report stresses, "no violations by the Israeli government, no matter their scale or gravity, justify the killing of Sinai Kenan, Danielle Shefi, Chana Rogan, or any other civilians" killed in Palestinian attacks. The report says that "many Palestinians who support armed resistance, as well as those who support non-violent action, believe that targeting civilians is morally and/or strategically wrong ... But the critics have in general not been as open or prominent in public as advocates for armed attacks who support, condone or do not criticize attacks on civilians." While avoiding the explicit use of the term terrorist "because it does not have an internationally agreed definition," the report instead refers to "attacks against civilians." These are defined either as "attacks in which the direct object of the attack is the civilian population generally, or individual civilians," and as "indiscriminate attacks" - including attacks that "fail to distinguish" between civilian and military objectives, and attacks that "while directed at military targets, cause disproportionate harm to civilians or civilian objects."