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The self-confessed killer of a British tourist in Jordan claimed yesterday that, "Allah gave me the strength to kill the Briton".Nabil Ahmad Issa al-Jaaoura, 38, is on trial for the murder of Christopher Stokes, a 30-year-old chartered accountant who was shot dead in September during a visit to a Roman amphitheatre popular with tourists in the capital Amman. Five visitors from the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, and a Jordanian tourist policeman were also wounded in the shooting spree, during which witnesses said the gunman shouted, "God is great" before being overpowered. At a military court yesterday, the defendant said...

To: President Bush Dear President Bush, We, the citizens of the United States of America, demand that the US Government fully recognize the legality of the Israeli communities situated in the West Bank and Gaza. The following declarations in support of the Jewish communities situated in the West Bank and must be made prior to the upcoming November elections. Settlements are Not Illegal! 1. The settlements are not located in "occupied territory." The last binding international legal instrument which divided the territory in the region of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza was the League of Nations Mandate, which explicitly...

A former French Prime Minister, and currently a leading member of the European Parliament, has called Great Britain's Balfour Declaration that paved the way for the creation of the State of Israel as a "historic mistake." Michel Rocard, who is said to be in the running for president of the European Parliament for the coming two and a half years as part of a political deal, spoke about Israel in a lecture last week in Alexandria, Egypt. Israel is a "unique and abnormal condition," he said, "because it was created with a promise, and [because] millions of Jews gathered from...

Palestinians on Sunday marked the 86th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration by demanding an apology from Britain for promising "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip marched in the streets and held rallies to condemn the role Britain played in the establishment of Israel. For decades the Palestinians and the Arab world have been marking the "notorious" anniversary of the Balfour Declaration – a reference to foreign secretary Arthur Balfour's support in 1917 for a "national home" for the Jews in Palestine – by protests and rallies....

The Arab position is that Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Gaza are "illegal" because they interfere with the right, usually articulated with vague references to international law, of the Arabs to create an all-Arab state west of the Jordan. In addition, over 50 per cent of the Arab population on the West Bank and Gaza, according to a recent poll, support the idea of Arab control over all of "historic Palestine" which is to say they support Israel's destruction. History stands witness to the falseness of these claims.The fact is that the international community, including the emerging Arab...