Peace activists vow to remain with Arafat until siege over

Ha'aretz ^ | 4/01/02 | Amira Hass,

[kattracks]

Western peace activists holed up with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said Monday that they have vowed to remain with the besieged Palestinian leader in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah until Israel withdraws its troops.

Arafat has been confined to two rooms of the three-story office building since Friday, when IDF troops took over the compound.

Peace activist Claude Leostic also told Al Jazeera television station Monday that there was "quiet in Arafat's office, which is encircled by eight [IDF] tanks."

Leostic said that the IDF troops tried Monday morning to approach the entrance to the building, but that ultimately no one entered.

Seven foreign peace activists and a Palestinian television cameraman were wounded Monday when an IDF soldier fired at the ground in front of them, officials and witnesses said.

About 100 Palestinian and foreigner demonstrators marched through the center of the West Bank town of Beit Jala behind a sign saying "We want peace not war," witnesses said.

As they approached an IDF armored personnel carrier, an IDF soldier in the carrier fired several shots from a rifle into the street in front of them, sending up chips of concrete, television footage showed.

Health officials said a Palestinian and seven foreigners were hurt. They included two Americans, two Britons, and one each from Australia, Japan and France.

The Palestinian, who was wounded in the leg, was a cameraman covering the march for the Associated Press, colleagues said.

The director of Beit Jala hospital, Peter Qumri, said one woman was undergoing surgery to remove shrapnel from her abdomen and was in a satisfactory condition.

The army said earlier Monday that troops had stopped 50 foreigners, mostly Italians, from entering Ramallah, where they had planned to join others who reached Arafat's office Sunday.

Israel police said the army had handed over 10 French nationals to their custody pending their expulsion from Israel.

[Ben Bolt]

Uh , they are the enemy ?

[skr]

Now I know I need new glasses. I thought that was a man in the photo. Time to make an appointment!

[Ben Bolt]

You guys with your blame America 1st mentality . If you really believed your own words you would stand up and do something about it . Come on Mr. conviction , grow a pair of balls and get your ass over there . deal with it .

[skr]

Good points. There's quite a chasm between living for Christ and killing for Allah.

[skr]

They have a military organization, one without uniforms. Just like the Al-Qaeda. Did you notice any Arab leaders, any at all, decrying the Passover Massacre? It doesn't bother them nor Arafat nor quite a number of Palestinians to hear about Jewish civilians being killed or maimed by a suicide bomber whose family gets paid for their sacrifice. Why didn't Arafat accept that amazingingly pro-Palestine proffer last year? Well, I'm not surprised, because he doesn't want peace, not if it involves living next to Israelis.

Funny, isn't it, how Jordan won't let Palestinians settle within its borders, from where some of them originate. Can it be that they don't make good neighbors even amongst their Arab brethren?

[snake]

It is not I who needs the gonads;it is the Israeli military.It is easy to use F 16's and tanks against women and children, and even then it takes the backing of a bullyng Uncle Sam to push them into battle. I'd like to see those cowards go one on one.

[snake]

Snake: As in, "Don't tread on me."

[AppyPappy]

The Palis prefer to send teen girls to blow up children rather than face soldiers. You won't get your wish.

[snake]

Why should Jordan act as a co-conspirator with the Isreali's? The Palestinians were thrown out of their lands by the British and Americans. It is amazing how we think a legitimate claim based on the Bible is more valid than a claim to land that goes back to 1946. If the United States was so intent on providing a homeland why didn't they give them the state of New Jersey?

[snake]

I guess the real God is on the Israeli and American side. Didn't know God hated innocent women and children.

[Cu Roi]

Why don't they all go gather in a cafe in Tel Aviv or something like that?

Because they know that those savages from the Al-Aqsa Brigades will blow them up regardless. That is the thing about civil disobedience, it only works when your adversary has a conscience and/or is accountable to media or international pressure.

There were a countless number of Mandelas and Mahatma Gandhis in Cambodia and Stalin's Soviet Union. They were simply destroyed utterly.

[finnman69]

In her case I think the baby stroller is a ruse. She doesn't have a baby in the stroller, she uses it to carry her chlamydia medications.

More likely she has a few bricks of C-4 in there.

[Some hope remaining.]

Regardless of these unarmed activists political ideology, how does one justify shooting at them?

Regardless of the political ideology of the man on that innocent looking boat approaching the U.S.S. Cole, how does one justify shooting at it?

Regardless of the ideology of that peaceful looking suicide bomber...

Hey, anybody approaching armed soldiers in a "war zone" (and they were probably warned, regardless of what they may claim) looks suspicious.

[Cu Roi]

Funny how it never works out that way. Try this kind of thing in North Korea or Zimbabwe and they'll just throw you in the stewpot. Cuba is more civilized when it comes to criticism from leftist peace-types: on the rare occacions that this happens, they just shower these foreign chumps with cocaine, stogies, and cheap hookers for a couple of weeks. Then they return home singing Castro's praises.

[ward_of_the_state]

Snake must be one of those "useful idiots" Rush was talking about.

[section9]

As I said, this whole situation cries out for a Daisy Cutter or a nice, big, fat FAE.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[ward_of_the_state]

Hello, Snake, do ya think no Israeli women and children have been killed?! They aren't cowards; they have run out of patience! I suppose you think we're cowards too, since we've sent our military over to dismantle Al Queda. Grrr...60's throwbacks really give me a headache!

[katykelly]

Well said.

[Ben Bolt]

If I thought you were with conviction it might be worth having a serious row . I'll see you on another thread . You have some nerve using the word coward , you louse . Lets get together again .

[piasa]

You have an appropriate name. The 'snake' is, after all, famous for its deception of Eve in Genesis.