-Caveat Lector- NY TIMES December 12, 2002
5 Unarmed Palestinians Killed by Israelis in Gaza By MICHAEL WINES with TERENCE NEILAN JERUSALEM, Dec. 12 - Five unarmed Palestinians were shot and killed as they tried to climb over the barbed-wire fence marking the boundary between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the Israeli Army said today. The five were seen by soldiers on Wednesday in an area where Palestinians are barred from entering. Soldiers fired at the five, and their bodies were found this morning, the army said. Ladders were found near the bodies, but no weapons. Palestinians looking for work in Israel often try to climb the fence or cut their way through. Unemployment is high in Gaza, particularly since security measures blocked Israel to Gaza residents. In other action in Gaza, Israeli soldiers killed an armed Palestinian trying attack a Jewish settlement today. A radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the failed infiltration. Two Palestinians approached the Gush Katif settlement bloc before dawn, armed with automatic rifles, an Israeli Army commander, Lt. Col. Avi Oved, told The Associated Press. One of the attackers was cutting the perimeter fence, Colonel Oved said. "The forces fired on him and killed him," he said. "The other one was apparently behind and managed to flee. Their goal was definitely to get into one of the settlements." Also Thursday, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that it had the right to try Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the current Palestinian uprising and the highest-ranking Palestinian official in custody. The defense argued that Mr. Barghouti, a leader of Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, had immunity as a Palestinian legislator and that Israeli forces took him illegally from a West Bank home eight months ago. Mr. Barghouti had said he should be treated as a prisoner of war, not a criminal suspect. Israel has accused him of involvement in attacks that killed 26 Israelis. On the political front, a week of internal balloting appeared to edge Israel's Labor Party to the right as two peace activists in the party said on Wednesday that they would quit to join the left-wing Meretz Party in national elections next month. The two, Yossi Beilin and Yael Dayan, finished low in the Labor Party's internal elections this week, in which party members rank their candidates for seats in Israel's Parliament. In the elections on Jan. 28, Labor is expected to win only about 21 seats, 4 fewer than it currently holds. Other Labor candidates gained enough votes in this week's elections to claim all those seats. In Israeli parliamentary elections, citizens vote only for parties, which then apportion their seats among the top finishers in internal ballots like those held this week. Meretz, which advocates moves toward an immediate peace with Palestinian representatives, agreed to rank Mr. Beilin and Ms. Dayan higher on their candidates' list in exchange for their departure from Labor. Mr. Beilin's decision to leave Labor stands as a measure of the party's shift to the right since the Palestinian uprising began 26 months ago. He was one of the primary movers behind the interim peace accord that Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed in Oslo in 1993. The latest opinion polls showed the hard-line Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, holding a wide lead over the opposition Labor Party. According to the Dialogue research company poll published in the daily Haaretz today, Likud will get 41 seats in the 120-member Parliament, more than double the 19 seats it currently holds. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
