What happens to Palestinians who criticize Arafat.
Larry | 20.09.2002 14:17
Its interesting, we have all these people on here, sending stories about Israeli refuseniks, yet they are silent on what happens to Palestinians who criticize Arafat.
Any Palestinian who publicly criticizes Arafat can be imprisoned or even executed. A case in point: in early March 2002, BBC reported the execution of two Palestinians who had been accused by the PA of collaboration. When the BBC crew met with the families of the two victims, they discovered that both had a history of opposition to Arafat and that both had openly criticized Arafat, about him keeping the money the Europeans give him. The family said, that dozens of Palestinians are killed because Arafat calls them collaborators with Israel, where infact, they were people who were critical of Arafat's policies, especially using children as human shields for the media. The BBC correspondent told a human watch group that these were dissidents, not collaborators, but BBC World Service chose not to report the story.
Larry
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Mulligan193@hotmail.com
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Children
20.09.2002 14:28
Outbidding Saddam
I'll buy Palestinian children for $30,000 each.
BY SCOTT MILLER
Thursday, June 27, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT
(I read your editorial about how the home video of Palestinian mother Naima al-Obeid and her 19-year-old son, Mahmoud, was made public, celebrating his decision to carry out a homicide mission, in which he was successful in being killed, while killing two Israelis. I submit the following letter, hoping to reach Naima al-Obeid.)
To Naima al-Obeid:
I want to buy your children. As I understand it, you have seven children still alive (your son Mahmoud killed himself, I'm sorry to hear). I'll offer more than Saddam Hussein has offered; he'll pay $25,000 each, if they are willing to turn themselves into human bombs, but I'll pay $30,000 each.
I want to buy them away from the god of death you worship. Perhaps I can help them convert to traditional Islam, a religion that abhors murder and suicide. Maybe they'll wish to become Christian or Jewish or Buddhist or atheist. That will be their choice, if I can raise them as Americans.
If you sell your children to Hussein, instead of me, they are guaranteed to die young, to die blown to bits, to die while perhaps killing innocent women and children. I can't guarantee them immortality (neither can that god of death you worship, I can assure you), but I can guarantee to try to keep them safe and allow them to live long, healthy and productive lives. That's our dream in America.
I will pay top dollar for your children. I will top the offer of Hussein, of the Saudis, of Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority put together.
For a long time my wife and I have wondered what we might do to help in the war on terror. In buying your children, I see an opportunity for us to save countless innocent lives, among them your seven children.
Contact me. I'll pay.
Mr. Miller lives in Atlanta.
Mozan
Let our kids alone, Arafat told
20.09.2002 14:42
USA TODAY:
Matthew Kalman USA TODAY December 8 2000 Page 16A
TULKARM, WEST BANK -- In a rare letter of protest sent this week to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian women's group demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop using children as cannon fodder.
''Our children are being sent into the streets to be used as human shields,'' said the letter from the Tulkarm Women's Union -- a local branch of the Palestinian Women's Union, a trade-union group that promotes the status of women in the Palestinian Authority.
''The Palestinian Authority must put an end to this phenomenon. We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death.''
The letter adds weight to complaints from parents who are beginning to speak out despite what they say has been two months of intimidation by armed gunmen loyal to Arafat.
''We don't want to send our sons to the front line, but they are being taken by the Palestinian Authority,'' says Aisheh, 43, a mother of six in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. She says she decided to speak out after her 17-year-old son was hit in the head by a rubber bullet last week.
Like other protesting parents, Aisheh declines to allow her full name to be published for fear of reprisals. A nurse from Gaza who spoke out on Palestinian TV against sending children to the flash points was condemned in the Palestinian media as a traitor. Other individuals who refuse to allow their names to be published say they have been threatened by armed Fatah officials for discouraging their children from participating in the clashes.
Israeli army chiefs point out that not all the children killed in the recent clashes have been innocent bystanders. They say their snipers have orders to shoot anyone shooting or throwing Molotov cocktails at them, but some of the attackers have been as young as 12.
''When school finishes, Palestinian Authority security cars go around collecting children from the streets and sending them to the killing fields,'' she says. ''This is very serious because they are children and they are unarmed.''
Palestinian Authority TV broadcasts constant images of children carrying weapons and staging mock attacks on Israelis.
Over the summer, children as young as 12 were trained in the use of Kalshnikov rifles and other weapons at special camps by Fatah officials.
Ramahan Sahadi Abed Rabbah, 13, was asked by the official Palestinian Authority newspaper why he participated in clashes with soldiers. ''My purpose is not to be wounded, but something more sublime -- martyrdom,'' he replied.
''As the number of those killed rises, the Palestinian media extol and exalt not only those killed, but also their willingness to die as martyrs for Allah, emphasizing that dying a martyr's death was the realization of their hopes,'' says Itamar Marcus, director of the Palestinian Media Watch monitoring group.
Palestinian Authority TV and newspapers also have come under fire, accused of encouraging children to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at armed Israeli troops.
Aisheh's husband, Abdelghani, says intimidation has kept parents from speaking out.
''No one here dares to say publicly that he is against sending his own children to the front line,'' he says. ''Some parents tried to protest, but Arafat's armed men have threatened them with death.
Matthew