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Subject: Israel in the News: 4/5 to 4/18/99
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Subject: Israel in the News

Israel in the News
April 5 to April 18, 1999

ANTI-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BILL FAILS: Legislation dies as retiring
official leaves the Knesset
By Kaye Corbett 1999 WorldNetDaily.com JERUSALEM

When 59-year-old member, Rabbi Raphael Pinchasi, retired from the
Knesset, it meant the controversial anti-religious freedom
legislation, also known as the "anti-Messianic" bill, ceased to
exist and the threat of three years behind bars disappeared.
With the Knesset now in recess, MK Pinchasi's retirement to
private life will result in the bill being withdrawn from
consideration by the Israeli parliament. According to the
Messianic Action Committee (MAC) and its chairman Paul Liberman,
"it is extremely good news." It means for the first time in more
than two years, the legislative threat will no longer be of
concern to Messianic Jews and evangelical Christians.

KOSOVO PREPARATION FOR ATTACK ON ISRAEL

NATO'S KOSOVO PRECEDENT WORRIES ISRAEL, PLEASES THE PALESTINIANS
By Steve Rodan Special to World Tribune.com Friday, April 9, 1999
Jerusalem

Two weeks after the NATO offensive against Yugoslavia, Israeli
and Palestinian officials are separately concluding that NATO and
the West might very well intervene in a future conflict between
Israel and the Palestinians.

Last month, Italy's ambassador to Israel, Gian Paolo Cavarai,
raised such a possibility during a meeting of diplomats with
Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon. Ministry sources said Sharon was
stunned that a NATO ambassador would raise the prospect of NATO
intervention in the Arab- Israeli conflict just several days
after the March 24 launch of the alliance's campaign against
Yugoslavia. The sources said that in a subsequent meeting of
senior officials, Sharon said Israel could face a similar
situation to Yugoslavia.

Sharon's scenario was that the Israeli Arab minority --
comprising 20 percent of the country's population -- would call
for autonomy. Many Arab towns in north skirt the West Bank and
in the southern Negev are minutes away from the Hebron area. At
least one Arab party in the current elections campaign has called
for Arab autonomy. "The way Sharon sees it is that the West
would find Yugoslavia a precedent to intervene in our part of the
region," a senior government source said.

For U.S. officials, Sharon's warnings could serve as a basis for
a Jewish lobby against the NATO campaign. In his meeting with
U.S. Jewish leaders on Monday in New York, Sharon said the
Kosovo Liberation Army has obtained significant aid from
terrorist organizations backed by Iran, including the mujahadeen
fighters in Afghanistan, Hizbullah and Osama Bin Laden, accused
of blowing up two U.S. embassies in Africa last year.

Sharon said an independent Kosovo would enable Islamic terrorism
to spread throughout Europe. He appealed to U.S. Jewish leaders
to call for an end to the fighting in Kosovo. "As faithful
friends of the United States, we are expecting from it and NATO
to do whatever they can to stop the suffering of innocent people
and to renew as soon as possible negotiations and a mutual
agreement between the parties," Sharon was quoted as saying.

PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman has been thinking about
the ramifications of a NATO strike. His conclusion is that the
Palestinians can only benefit. His scenario is that the
Palestinians, bolstered by support for and recognition of a
state, could press NATO and the West for intervention if a
conflict erupts between the Palestinians and Israel.

"There is a new international situation," Abdul Rahman said. "We
must make it clear that what is happening in Yugoslavia must
serve as a lesson to Israel to withdraw from its current policies
before something similar happens it as what is now taking place
in Yugoslavia."

At first, senior PA officials played down Abdul Rahman's remarks,
first made on PA radio on Monday. But by Tuesday, officials
decided they were worth highlighting and several Palestinian
dailies published his remarks on their front page.

SAUDI PRINCE PRAISES US ON YUGOSLAVIA, ASKS FOR SIMILAR TREATMENT
OF ISRAEL
Weekend News Today By Andra Brack Source: Arabic News Fri Apr 9,
1999

Commander of the allied troops during the Gulf War, Saudi Arabian
Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, has called upon Washington to adopt the
same tough stand it takes now in Yugoslavia against Israel. In
an article published by the London-based al-Hayat daily on
Wednesday congratulating the United States for its actions in
Kosovo, Prince Khaled said the US bias toward Israel is damaging
to US interests. He expressed his hope that there will be a day
on which the American people would realize that "it is their
interest to achieve justice and lift repression and not to abide
by whatever is said by Israel." Prince Khaled added, "We ask the
US, when you are the only superpower, to get rid of being a
follower of Israel, and her supporter, when she is oppressive or
very oppressive, since Israel has never been oppressed," so that
"we" can praise you, as "we" praise you now for your action in
Yugoslavia.

PALESTINIANS SAY EXODUS OF KOSOVARS MIRRORS THEIR OWN UPROOTING
April 14, 1999 By Samar Assad, Associated Press Jalazon Refugee
Camp, West Bank (AP)

For Samieha Abu Radha and her husband Rajah, the images of
Kosovar refugees standing in food lines, searching for loved ones
and talking of a quick return home are painful reminders of their
own experiences as Palestinians 50 years ago. "It's like the
tape of our life is being replayed day after day. This is
exactly what happened to us,'' said Mrs. Abu Radha as she watched
footage of fleeing Albanians.

Since hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees began
streaming out of Kosovo two weeks ago, the Abu Radhas have been
glued to their television set. The images bring tears, feelings
of solidarity and pity. Mrs. Abu Radha was 10 years old when
her family left Lod, a city near Tel Aviv, when the Jewish state
was created in May 1948. About 800,000 Palestinians were either
expelled or fled their homes during Israel's war of independence.

Mrs. Abu Radha, her siblings and parents, walked 9 miles into
what was then Jordanian-held territory. After roaming from one
location to another, they ended-up in a crowded refugee camp two
years later set up by the United Nations, 30 miles north of
Jerusalem. There, she married her husband, whose family also
left Lod, and they raised eight children in a two-room cement
home with an exposed floor covered by straw mats.

The Abu Radhas say the Kosovar Albanians share the same fate as
the Palestinians, a fate of separation and the loss of a
homeland. "We thought it was a matter of two months and then we
would come back,'' said Rajab Abu Radha.

Sitting on a worn, brown couch in their home in Jalazoun, a camp
of 6,000 Palestinian refugees, the dark-faced Abu Radha, a
black-and-white kaffiyeh wrapped around his shoulders, still
dreams of returning to his birthplace. [an error occurred while
processing this directive] In 1978, while working as a truck
driver between Israel and the West Bank, he went to Lod and found
an Israeli factory where his family's apricot orchard used to be.
The family home was abandoned.

Today, there are over 3 million Palestinian refugees scattered in
camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon
according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. "Some refugees
still hold the keys to their homes, everyone thought they were
returning,'' said Assad Abdel Ruhman, the PLO's point-man on
refugees. "It is exactly the same that is happening to the
Albanians and the international community should be careful not
to make this situation last as long as the Palestinian one or it
will never go away.''

The future of Palestinian refugees is one of the most difficult
issues in final peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians,
because most refugees insist on returning to their villages and
towns in pre-state Palestine.

"They (the Kosovars) are fooling themselves if they think they
will go back,'' Mrs. Abu Radha said, staring at the television.
"We were told we would go back and here we are in this camp 50
years later.''

AFTER KOSOVO, WEST SHOULD MOVE TO FREE PALESTINIANS: OFFICIAL
Ramallah, West Bank, April 14 (AFP)

A senior Palestinian official called on the world community
Wednesday to follow up its intervention in Kosovo with a forceful
new drive to free Palestinians from Israeli occupation. "The war
in Yugoslavia is a sign of a new development in international
relations by which the international community uses force to
impose international agreements," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman,
secretary of Yasser Arafat's cabinet.

"This is connected to relations between the Palestinians and
Israel whereby the latter refuses to execute agreements
guaranteed by the world and continues to evade its commitments,"
he said. "We will ask the international community to intervene
to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and to expel
the settlers from it," he told a press conference. "Those who
have plunged into the war against Yugoslavia on behalf of the
Kosovars will be confronted by the question when the battles are
over: 'What about the Palestinian people. What will you do for
them?'" he said.

Abdel Rahman said that Palestinian leadership does not view
NATO's military intervention against Yugoslavia as an act of
aggression but rather as intended to save a small people from
ethnic cleansing and annihilation. He compared what was
happening to the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to the expulsion and
repression the Palestinians suffered and continue to suffer at
the hands of Israel.

PEACE PROCESS - Declaration of PA Statehood - Will he or won't
he?

ARAFAT SAYS A DECISION DUE ON STATEHOOD QUESTION AROUND APRIL 27
April 7, 1999 Tokyo (AP)

The Palestinians will decide around April 27 whether to declare
an independent state next month, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
reportedly told Japan's foreign minister Wednesday. In their
talks, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura encouraged
Arafat to seek a settlement by negotiations, saying a declaration
would jeopardize the peace process, a Foreign Ministry official
said on customary condition of anonymity. Arafat responded by
saying that his Palestine Liberation Organization's 125-member
Central Committee will convene around April 27 to make a final
decision, the official said.

TOP PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL WARNS ARAFAT NOT TO DELAY STATEHOOD
DECLARATION
Ramallah, West Bank, April 9 (AFP)

A top Palestinian official warned Yasser Arafat Friday against
any delay in declaring a Palestinian state as Israeli officials
cautioned that talks on the final status of the territories could
last as long as three years. Giving in to international pressure
not to declare an independent state when interim peace accords
expire on May 4 would damage Palestinian national interests, said
assembly speaker Ahmed Qorei, one of the principal architects of
the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

"A delay would have a grave impact on Palestinian interests," he
argued in full-page articles in the Palestinian dailies Al-Ayyam
and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. "The Palestinian leadership would lose
credibility both domestically and internationally," he said.

Qorei is the first Palestinian official to speak out publicly
against the mounting international pressure on Arafat to defer
declaration of a Palestinian state until after Israeli elections
on May 17 and June 1 to prevent it becoming a campaign issue.
The Palestinian speaker said that world leaders were mistaken if
they believed that a declaration of statehood would play into the
hands of the hawkish government of right-wing Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. "On the contrary a delay would give his
campaign a major fillip by allowing him to present himself as a
strong prime minister who protects Israeli interests and forces
concessions from the Palestinians," Qorei said.

Prolonging the interim five-year period of Palestinian autonomy
agreed at Oslo, "would give Israel longer to continue its policy
of expanding Jewish settlements (in the occupied territories),
Judaising Jerusalem and prevaricating over the release of
Palestinian prisoners," he said. "Implementation of both the
letter and the spirit (of the Oslo accords) implies that a state
should be proclaimed and its boundaries defined (on May 4)," the
speaker said.

PLO TO DECIDE APRIL 27 ON STATEHOOD DECLARATION
Copyright 1999 Nando Media 1999 Associated Press By Ibrahim
Barzak Gaza City, Gaza Strip April 13, 1999

The Palestinian leadership will decide April 27 whether to
declare a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip a week later or
take the world's advice and wait, a senior official said Tuesday.
The final decision will be up to the Palestinian Central Council,
a 124-member PLO body stacked with loyalists of Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat has been meeting with world leaders
to learn whether they would support him if he declared statehood
unilaterally on May 4, the end of the five-year interim period of
autonomy.

Various Palestinian institutions will meet later this month to
give such a delay broader backing and legitimacy. Among those
expected to convene are the PLO Executive Committee and the
Palestinian legislative council. On April 27, the Palestinian
Central Council, a PLO body, will meet in Gaza City and make the
final decision, said Salim Zanoun, a leading member of the panel.
Zanoun said it was not clear yet whether there would be a vote or
approval by acclamation. He said invitations would be sent out
Saturday, adding that two-thirds of the members live in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.

EU WORKING TO PERSUADE PA TO POSTPONE STATEHOOD DECLARATION
IsraelWire - 4/14

A senior diplomat in London has indicated the European Union is
offering the PLO Authority 'incentives' to postpone its planned
May 4th unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.
According to the Haaretz newspaper report, the senior unnamed
diplomatic official spoke of "international incentives" to
persuade the PA leadership to postpone the announcement until
after the Israeli election. Official diplomatic sources in
Britain were unable to confirm the so-called incentives,
explaining they were unaware of any such offer made by the EU.

INTERNAL DOCUMENT WARNS AGAINST ISRAELI ANNEXATION
April 16, 1999 Jerusalem (AP)

Legal advisers have told the Israeli government that annexing
parts of the West Bank would be rejected by most of the world and
would be seen as a violation of international law, an official
said Friday. Israel has threatened to annex territory in the
West Bank if Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally
declares an independent state on May 4, the end of a five-year
interim period of autonomy.

The 60-page report by Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker
examined legal consequences of the end the interim period, said
the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Baker said in
his report that the best solution is to extend the interim period
by agreement, said the official, confirming a report in the
Haaretz daily newspaper. Baker said Israeli annexation might
trigger Palestinian violence. Annexation would not be recognized
by most of the world and would probably be seen as a violation of
international law, Baker said.

David Bar-Illan, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, rejected Baker's advice, saying Israel's claim to the
West Bank "is better than anyone else's." Joel Singer, a former
Foreign Ministry legal adviser who helped formulate the autonomy
agreements, backed Netanyahu's position. Singer wrote in a
recent article that while the autonomy period expires May 4, the
two sides' commitment to negotiate the final status of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, rather than take unilateral actions, is
open-ended. A unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood
would be a flagrant violation of the autonomy accords and would
entitle Israel to take countermeasures, such as annexation,
Singer said.

PALESTINIANS SEEK U.S. ASSURANCES IN EXCHANGE FOR STATEHOOD DELAY
April 18, 1999 By Samar Assad, Associated Press Jerusalem (AP)

Palestinians want a written assurance that the United States will
back Palestinian statehood in exchange for a delay in its
declaration, a Palestinian official said Sunday. Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat has sent his deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, to
Washington for another round of talks with U.S. officials
regarding the declaration of an independent state. The Clinton
administration is seeking a one-year extension of the Oslo peace
accords agreements, scheduled to end May 4, out of concern that a
unilateral statehood declaration on that date would sink the
fragile peace process.

Hassan Abdul-Rahman, the Palestine Liberation Organization's
Washington representative, told The Associated Press that Abbas
had met with U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross. More meetings were
expected once Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat arrived in
Washington Sunday night. "The American position regarding
several issues will be sent in a letter to President Arafat,''
the PLO diplomat said.

Other assurances sought by the Palestinians include a commitment
to get Israel to abide by its peace commitments and a U.S.
condemnation of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, said Ahmad
Abdul-Rahman, the Palestinian Cabinet secretary-general. He is
not related to the Washington diplomat. He said Palestinian
negotiators would not accept open-ended peace talks and want a
U.S. understanding that statehood is a right and not up for
negotiation. "We want the United States to propose a deadline,''
for statehood, Ahmad Abdul Rahman said.

LIBYA, JORDAN WOULD BACK DELAYED PALESTINIAN STATE REUTERS
April 17, 1999 AMMAN

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Jordan's King Abdullah told
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Saturday they would back a
delay in his plans to declare a Palestinian state, Jordan's Petra
news agency said. It said Abdullah and Gaddafi expressed their
support "for their Palestinian brothers in their choice, even if
that necessitates a delay in the announcement of their
independence for the present.'' The three leaders met Saturday in
Libya's Mediterranean city of Sirte.

CLINTON ADMINISTRATION CRITICIZES ISRAEL
Weekend News Today By Andra Brack Source: TampaBay Online Fri Apr
9, 1999

The Clinton administration accused Israel on Friday of making it
difficult to achieve peace in the Middle East by expanding Jewish
housing on the West Bank. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
delivered the lecture to Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon in a
one-hour meeting in her office. "We are particularly
concerned,'' said James P. Rubin, the State Department
spokesman. Rubin also suggested Israel was not keeping its
promise to halt construction at Jewish settlements on the West
Bank, which Yasser Arafat hopes to take over for a Palestinian
state. "We have been told in the past that these types of
activities would not take place as a matter of Israeli policy,
both before, during and after the Wye negotiations,'' Rubin said,
referring to the U.S.-mediated negotiations between Israel and
the Palestinians last October. "And that's why we've expressed
our concern so clearly to the foreign minister.'' Sharon made no
reference to the settlements when he spoke briefly to reporters
before Rubin gave his account of the Albright meeting.

Rubin told reporters Israel was both constructing new settlements
and expanding existing ones far beyond their boundaries, "in many
cases expanding to distant hilltops.'' These activities, he said,
could prejudge future negotiations on control of the West Bank.
"They make it very difficult to pursue peace,'' he said. Arafat
insists the Palestinians have the right to virtually all of the
West Bank - territory Jordan held until it was defeated by Israel
in the 1967 Mideast War - and has vowed to establish on it a
Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. ``We have made
clear for a long time now that we are opposed to all unilateral
actions by either side, including a unilateral declaration of a
Palestinian state,'' Rubin said. However, Rubin said, ``We also
made clear that we're opposed to unilateral acts by Israel,
including and especially settlement activity. Specifically,
we're concerned about an accelerated pattern of Israeli actions
on the ground since Wye which have become clearer in recent
months.''

INDYK SLAMS SETTLEMENT POLICY
By Danna Harman Jerusalem Post Jerusalem (April 12)

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
Martin Indyk reiterated the Clinton administration's displeasure
with the government's settlement policy yesterday, telling Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Washington has "concerns" about
the ongoing expansion of settlements.

"We work very hard to ensure that unilateral actions on the
Palestinian side are not taken... and we also have a
responsibility to ensure that other actions aren't taken that can
affect the negotiations or prejudge them. It is in this context
that we have expressed concern about some settlement activity
that has been going on in the central West Bank," Indyk told
reporters following his meeting with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu stressed that "we have never had an agreement, either
before or after Wye, to limit our activities in the
settlements... nor is this part of Oslo."

While conceding that there is no specific agreement regarding
settlements, Indyk retorted that "this is not the point," and
stood firm on the US condemnation.

NETANYAHU HAILS JEWISH SETTLEMENT EXPANSION
Reuters April 12, 1999 Jerusalem

Rebuffing U.S. criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said Monday he was proud Jewish settlement expansion in
the West Bank had gained steam under his right-wing government.
"Not as infiltrators in the night, but as proud citizens, proud
Jews, in the light of day, (we are) settling on hills, on our
land,'' Netanyahu said while inaugurating an industrial park in
the West Bank. "That is what we have done in the past years.
The momentum is great. We have done a lot and we will do much
more,'' said Netanyahu, flanked by Jewish settler leaders while
campaigning for re-election in Israel's May 17 general election.
Israel says its building in the West Bank, which it captured in
the 1967 Middle East war, is limited to expansion of existing
settlements.

US SAYS NETANYAHU RENEGED ON PROMISES
April 14, 1999 Washington (AP)

Accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of reneging on
a promise, the State Department said Wednesday that Israel has
accelerated construction of Jewish housing on the West Bank,
casting doubt on its seriousness about pursuing peace with the
Palestinians. Spokesman James P. Rubin said Netanyahu told U.S.
officials on many occasions that as a matter of policy there
would be no new settlements and no expansion of existing
settlements. Nonetheless, he said, there has been an
"accelerated pattern'' of both types of construction.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright raised concern about the
settlement building last week in a meeting with Israeli Foreign
Minister Ariel Sharon. But Wednesday's official statement went
further than one issued after the Sharon meeting because it
criticized Netanyahu personally.

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