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our_man
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Glasgow, Scotland
Oct 2000
time: 05:27
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Here's the full text.
ONE of two Palestinian militants invited to this country last year as part of a deal brokered by the EU is living rough in Dublin.
Jihad Jara says he has been homeless for five months and regularly sleeps in a park.
Mr Jara (31) is described by Israel as a "senior terrorist" and one of its "most wanted of wanted men".
He is one of 13 Palestinians who were taken in by six European countries in a deal to end the long-running siege at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
Three Palestinians exiled to Italy under the same deal have been given new identities under the system used to protect those giving evidence in Mafia trials in that country.
But Mr Jara says he has been forced to sleep in parks or with friends because the Irish Government failed to keep its promise of accommodation. He now wants to leave this country.
He has been assured by authorities here that he will be allowed to move to another country by May 22, but initially told journalists that he would create "big trouble" if not allowed to leave.
The EU deal reached last May meant the Palestinians could remain in their host countries for 12 months and then apply for political asylum if they wished. Mr Jara said he did not care what country he was sent to as long as he was allowed to leave Ireland.
The father of four small children said he has never seen his two youngest sons. His wife gave birth to their youngest child, Samed, on May 22 last year, the day he arrived in this country. He said he has never seen his third child Mohammed, who is two, because he is on the run and cannot go to his Palestinian home.
His wife and children live in the Jenin refugee camp and he speaks to them once a week on the phone.
It is understood the Palestinian Delegation General in Ireland has been in negotiations for some time with another country with a view to getting Mr Jara accepted there.
Yesterday, he explained he had been housed in Finglas with Rami Kamel, the 23-year-old Palestinian who arrived with him last May. But he said that after Mr Ramel married an Irish woman he could not, as a Muslim, remain in the house with a woman who was not a member of his family. He said he had been promised alternative accommodation, but this had never materialised.
Mr Jara spent two months in Tallaght hospital after his arrival in Dublin, having been hit in the leg by an Israeli sniper during the siege in Bethlehem. After being shot, he had spent 39 days in the historic church in Bethlehem, reputed to be the birth place of Christ, without food or medical supplies.
A former member of the Al Agaxa Martyrs' Brigade he previously worked as a bodyguard for a PLO politician. While rejecting reports that he was wanted for questioning about the murder of a US citizen in the West Bank as "Israeli lies", he said he had killed Israeli soldiers. "I would like freedom for my country and a future for my children."
The Department of Justice refused to comment on this case yesterday. A spokeswoman said the Foreign Affairs Department was seeking a meeting with the Delegate General of the Palestinian Authority in Ireland, Ali Halimeh.
An Israeli embassy spokesman said it regarded the 13 Palestinians exiled last year as terrorists, but it was unclear whether Mr Jara and the others would still be wanted for questioning if they returned home.
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independ...1&issue_id=9083
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Felch
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Germantown, Maryland
Sep 2001
time: 00:27
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quote:
Originally posted by Ned
Felch, what are the two views on the cause of the war in Texas? |
There's the traditional American perspective, which is what you're taught in school. Mexico was religiously intolerant, and a dictatorship, and the Texans fought heroically against vastly superior numbers to defend their values of freedom and democracy.
It has grains of truth, but it's not nearly complete.
The fact is that Mexico gave free land to Americans who promised to fulfill a pretty basic requirement: swear allegience to Mexico, obey Mexican law, and convert to Catholicism. There was an attempt to limit the number of immigrants, since the policy was intended to shore up Mexican authority not diminish it.
Enforcing these requirements were very difficult for Mexico, since Texas was far out of reach from central authorities in Mexico City, and also very big, as we all know.
Therefore, many Americans essentially squatted on Mexican territory. This in and of itself isn't so bad, since the land wasn't being used by anybody except the Natives, and nobody gives a rat's ass about them in any event. The problem was that they refused to swear allegience, refused to convert, and broke Mexican laws, especially those which prohibited slavery.
Now say what you will about being forced to change your religion for a free gift from a foreign country, but if Paris is worth a Mass, people getting free real estate in Texas shouldn't complain either.
The real indefensible problem that I have with the Texans is that their perception of freedom and liberty was racist. They rejected the idea that blacks should not be enslaved and forced to work on cotton plantations, and they denied basic civil rights to hispanics who could not prove that they aided in the Texan Revolution.
The truth quite simply, is that Mexico was invaded by illegal immigrants who brought an evil institution in the form of slavery, and who then rebelled and denied basic civil rights to former residents who didn't actively support the insurrection. Of course that's not the whole story, but it's the other side, and one you're not going to hear in an American classroom.
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24-04-2003 17:47
Two of them were accomodated in Ireland. I brought this up because I read an interesting article in the Independent today about the fate of one of the terrorists brought to Ireland.
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