_______ ____ ______ / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ http://www.MiddleEast.Org News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups, and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know! To receive MER regularly email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ISRAEL ESCALATES FURTHER - PUBLIC EXECUTIONS, TOTAL BLOCKADES U.S. PROCEEDS WITH "MITCHEL COMMISSION" PREVENTING INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION AND BLOCKING U.N. "OBSERVER FORCE" "The soldiers in the jeeps came out, and one of them approached the Hyundai and opened fire directly on Jamal Abd Arraziq and Awny Dhhair from a distance of no more than one meter." "Also today, in Hebron, Israeli bulldozers destroyed the old Palestinian market... The people of the old city of Hebron, almost 40,000, have been under constant curfew for the past 40 days." Today, 22/11/2000, between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m., two civilian Palestinian cars, a black Hyundai and a white Mercedes were travelling along a street close to Moraj Jewish settlement. Two Palestinians, Jamal Abd Arraziq and Awny Dhhair were inside the Hyundai car, while three others, Khaleel Mhawish Ashair, Nail Salim Allidawy, and the driver Nahidh Fujo, were inside the Mercedes car. The Hyundai car was travelling in front of the Mercedes car. When the two cars approached the junction of Moraj, an Israeli tank, which was standing about 50 meters in front of them, opened fire on them. The two cars turned to the left in an attempt to escape the shelling, but they collided. Meanwhile another Israeli tank closed the road from behind the two cars and several Israeli military jeeps moved towards the two cars. The soldiers in the jeeps came out, and one of them approached the Hyundai and opened fire directly on Jamal Abd Arraziq and Awny Dhhair from a distance of no more than one meter. Eyewitnesses, who saw the inside of the Hyundai car, reported seeing dispersed flesh and teeth remnants inside the car, and our field workers, who saw the two dead bodies, reported that the two bodies, especially Jamal’s, were mutilated to the extent that it was very difficult to identify them. As soon as the shooting started, the driver of the Mercedes car stopped the car and ran away, but the soldiers chased him and he was arrested. Al-Mezan Human Rights Center. =========================== Dear Friends, Contrary to what you have been hearing on the news, the "Israeli" occupation government is NOT allowing medical personnel to access their places of work or to tend to people who have been wounded. As recently as this morning, when the "Israeli" army shelled two civilian cars in Gaza, killing 4 people and wounding 8, ambulances were prohibited from reaching the site. In another instance today, a man was shot and injured in the village of Hussan, near Bethlehem. Villagers contacted us at the clinic here in Beit Sahour asking us to send an ambulance. As we do not have one, we called the emergency station in Bethlehem. They responded by informing us that their ambulances are not allowed to enter Hussan. Also this morning, our outreach team was sent back again by "Israeli" soldiers who were stopping every Palestinian car and shooting its four wheels. This has been the soldiers' "fun" for the last week. Our Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr. Mahmoud Nashashibi, has been prevented each week from coming to our Center in Beit Sahour from Jerusalem. Each week there are up to 20 mothers who have brought their infants for an echocardiography examination. We have had to send them home because Dr. Nashashibi is unable to come. The Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem, which relies on our Center to perform this procedure for their pediatric patients, has nowhere else to turn. The same thing goes for our neurologist, our diabetes specialist, and our dermatologist who come from Jerusalem. Also today, in Hebron, Israeli bulldozers destroyed the old Palestinian market (for "security reasons," they say). The people of the old city of Hebron, almost 40,000, have been under constant curfew for the past 40 days. Thirty-four schools have been closed and more than 13,000 children are confined to their homes, in addition to 460 teachers. Four schools have been turned into military compounds. In addition, hundreds of trees have been uprooted in Gaza, in Beit Sahour, and in almost every village in the north. The olive harvest, one of the main means of livelihood for many Palestinian farmers, has been destroyed as the farmers are prohibited from collecting the olives from their trees. All this and much more has happened only one day after the "Israeli" occupation forces bombarded Gaza for over three hours with tank shells, gunfire, and helicopter missiles, causing much damage and many injuries, especially and mostly among the civilian population. The escalation is obvious. It seems the "Israeli" government has realized that the Palestinian people are determined to win their freedom and independence. What they haven't yet realized, however, is that their increasing aggression and terrorism will not crush this determination. Dr. Majed Nassar - Union of Health Work Committees Palestine - 22 Nov TWO DEAD, MORE THAN 50 HURT, IN CAR BOMB EXPLOSION IN NORTHERN ISRAEL By Dina Kraft HADERA, Israel (AP - Nov 22) - A car packed with nail-studded explosives blew up next to a crowded Israeli commuter bus Wednesday, sending the bus flying into a building as victims writhed on the ground and nearby stores burst into flames. Two Israelis were killed and more than 50 were hurt in the blast blamed on Palestinian militants, further dampening hopes for a near-term Israeli-Palestinian truce. Israel said it ultimately held Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for the blast, and that it would retaliate. Prime Minister Ehud Barak convened his security Cabinet for an emergency session Wednesday evening to approve a response. In the past, Israel has rocketed Palestinian targets over the killings of civilians. The bomb, made of homemade materials and apparently detonated by remote control, went off in downtown Hadera, a working-class town in northern Israel, at about 5:20 p.m. local time - evening rush hour. It detonated as the bus passed the rigged car, parked outside a pizza restaurant. The force of the blast propelled the bus across the sidewalk and then front first into a bakery. One woman had both legs blown off below her knees. She was writhing in pain and still conscious when she was wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance. A bystander pumped the chest of a man lying on the ground. The pavement was littered with overturned cafe tables, shards of glass and metal and victims' shoes. Rescue teams used a power saw to extricate trapped and wounded passengers. "I saw people scattered on the ground, people without limbs," said Benny Tapiro, 22, who works at a photo store a few yards from the blast site. "I saw a baby on the ground and his father was near him and injured in the back. I gave him over to the ambulance crew," Tapiro said. The 2-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital. Doctors and police said two people were killed and 55 wounded, including three in serious condition. The blast turned the rigged car into a twisted pile of smoking metal and blew out the windows of the bus. Several nearby stores caught fire. Thick smoke rose into the air. "The whole bus flew in the air from the explosion," a witness, identified as Shmuel, told Israel radio. "The whole floor of the bus buckled." In Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Israelis attended a rally held by the hawkish opposition on Wednesday evening. Opposition leader Ariel Sharon, whose Sept. 28 visit to a contested Jerusalem shrine triggered the current round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, said the government must take much harsher action. "We have to stop twisting and turning. Arafat is not a partner. Arafat is a cruel enemy," Sharon said. "It is not the people who are tired. It is this government which has gotten tired." Barak, who heads a minority government, faces a new challenge next week when parliament votes on a bill to hold early elections. Sharon's harsh criticism of the government suggested he was rebuffing Barak's new overtures for his faction to join the coalition. Barak said responsibility for the attack lay with the Palestinian Authority which, he said, "freed terrorists, members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and encourages and directs its people to carry out attacks." Arafat's Palestinian Authority said it had nothing to do with the bombing. "We condemn in the strongest way the false accusations of the prime minister," Palestinian spokesman Marwan Kanafani said. About 100 supporters of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which has carried out such attacks in the past, staged an impromptu march of celebration in the Gaza Strip after the blast. However, leaders of the group did not claim responsibility. The explosion came several hours after Israeli troops tracking a local Palestinian militia commander linked to Arafat's Fatah movement opened fire on two cars in the Gaza Strip, killing four people, including the wanted commander, the army said. Palestinians said the soldiers fired without provocation. The windshield of one of the cars was riddled with dozens of bullet holes. Mohammed Dahlan, a Palestinian security chief in Gaza, called the shooting a "barbaric assassination." In all, more than 250 people have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the past two months. Several days ago, there was a lull in the violence, as Arafat ordered gunmen to stop shooting at Israelis from Palestinians areas. It appeared that both sides were interested in a gradual return to negotiations. However, bloodshed intensified again Monday when Palestinian militants carried out a deadly bomb attack on an Israeli school bus in Gaza. Israel rocketed Gaza in retaliation, killing two Palestinian policemen. In response, Egypt recalled its ambassador, sidelining itself as a mediator. Wednesday's explosion and the expected Israeli retaliation further dampened prospects for a resumption of peace talks before President Clinton's term ends in January. Israel has been on high alert for terror attacks by Palestinian militants since the recent violence began. In the past, the Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups have carried out car bombings in hopes of wrecking Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. On Nov. 2, two Israelis were killed in the packed Mahane Yehuda market in central Jerusalem when a car bomb exploded on a nearby side street. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. In Hadera, six people were killed in a suicide bombing in 1994 that was claimed by Hamas. A string of bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in 1996 killed scores of Israelis. ISRAEL SAYS INQUIRY NOT SUITABLE AMID VIOLENCE By Larry Margasak JERUSALEM (AP - 22 Nov) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Defense Secretary William Cohen he sees value in an inquiry into Israeli-Palestinian violence, Cohen's spokesman said Wednesday. But the Israel has informed the United States the time is not right for the U.S-appointed commission to begin its work. An inquiry is not suitable while the violence continues, foreign ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari said late Tuesday, describing a diplomatic message sent to the Americans. The investigation was approved by Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at an emergency summit meeting last month in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, with President Clinton. Arafat had insisted on a U.N. commission, probably banking on the consistent support he has found at the United Nations for his complaints against Israel. But Secretary of State Madeleine Albright composed a commission headed by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine that gives U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan a limited role. Albright met over lunch at the State Department Wednesday with Mitchell as Israel was struck again by violence. A powerful car bomb packed with nails exploded next to a bus in the northern Israeli town Hadera during evening rush hour Wednesday, hurling the bus into a storefront and setting nearby stores on fire. Albright, at a news conference, said the commission would get to work. She also urged Israel and the Palestinians to exercise restraint. "We have to make the violence stop," she said. Again rejecting a Palestinian proposal that the United Nations dispatch an international force to the area, Albright said there has been discussion of using observers. But she said that must be approved by both Barak and Arafat. In Israel, meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said Israel was not requesting a delay in setting up the commission but expects it "to put together its working procedures, and we obviously expect that it will start operating in an atmosphere which is more susceptible to allow the members of the commission to really work." Speaking with reporters after Defense Secretary William Cohen met privately with Barak, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Barak agreed the commission "might be useful" in reducing the violence that has disrupted the Middle East peace process. "This may give some confidence to both sides," Bacon said, explaining Cohen's comments to the Israeli leader. According to Bacon, "Barak said he was prepared to cooperate with the commission." Bacon, saying he was quoting Cohen directly, said the defense secretary told Barak "we need a time for passions to cool." Bacon said Cohen and Barak also expressed concern that Syria could get more involved in violence that has sporadically broken out on Israeli's northern border after Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. "The concern was that Syria could be more involved at the Lebanese border and that could lead to attacks against Israel," Bacon said. Before beginning a private meeting with Cohen, the prime minister thanked the United States for its "long-term support for the cause of peace and stability" in the Middle East and for Israel. Cohen responded that he has been meeting with leaders of the Arab world and "I think all concerned want a secure and lasting peace." "There's a general concern that the violence can spin out of control and we have to get to bargaining and the negotiating table," said Cohen. He added that Clinton, in his remaining days in office, has vowed to devote "all of his energy and support" to getting the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. "The United States remains committed to the peace process," he said. Cohen was returning to the United States after his meeting with Barak. Cohen flew directly to Israel after meeting in Cairo earlier Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and reporting that Egypt would consider returning its ambassador to Israel if the violence stops between the Palestinians and Israelis. Even as Cohen was meeting with Mubarak, then Barak, violence continued in the region. Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops near a Jewish settlement, with each side blaming the other for provoking a confrontation. Cohen said Mubarak told him Egypt wants to remain part of the peace process, but that he needs time to consult with the ambassador. "He indicated that he needed to call him back for consultations and that the period has not set when he would go back," said Cohen. "The conditions had to be such that he could return. He hoped that could take place in the future, but there has to be a cessation of the violence." The Egyptian president recalled his ambassador from Tel Aviv earlier this week for an unspecified period of consultation in Cairo. The ambassador, Mohammed Bassiouny, left the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning, saying farewell to the staff, and then headed to the Israeli-Egyptian border by car, embassy officials said. Cohen said Mubarak told him "he hopes the message could be very clear that both sides have to stop the riots" and that he hoped the ambassador could return "as soon as possible," but emphasized that that the violence must cease before that happens. "He was willing to continue his efforts" to work for peace, but is worried that violence could spread around the Middle East, Cohen said. "He believes it is imperative that both side stop the violence and that they have to get back to the bargaining table," Cohen said. 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