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Sirotnikov
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<--- Yes, It's a "kitty" in a boot.
Feb 2000
time: 07:29
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quote:
U-S judge says Hamas must pay in death of American and wife
Providence, Rhode Island-AP -- A federal judge says the Palestinian militant group Hamas must pay more than 116 (m) million dollars for killing two Jewish settlers in Israel.
The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed in Rhode Island over the death of Yaron Ungar, an American citizen, and his Israeli wife, Efrat. They were killed as they drove home from a wedding in 1996. Four Hamas members have been convicted in an Israeli court.
Hamas never responded to the lawsuit, so Magistrate David Martin issued a default judgment today. It's not clear if Hamas might honor the ruling, or if it has the money to pay.
The case was filed under the Antiterrorism Act of 1991. It allows American victims of terrorism overseas to seek damages in U-S courts.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Intelligence reports:
Abu Mazen decreased encitement in palestinian state controlled media. His government is reported to be threatening people who might break the cease fire, but hasn't begun arresting people yet.
Hamas and Jihad are using the security from Israeli incursions and assassinations, to build up on it's stock of rockets, explosives, and train and recruit more people. "Unless something is done, by the end of the cease fire, they'll be just as strong as they were prior to the Israeli attack in May 2002." Intelligence bodies have been quoted.
PA claims: "we arrested a female suicide bomber in Gaza, on her way to Israeli controlled check-points."
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Sirotnikov
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<--- Yes, It's a "kitty" in a boot.
Feb 2000
time: 07:29
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quote:
Under pressure from France, E.U. decides against Hamas ban
By Philip Carmel
PARIS, July 6 (JTA) — Under heavy pressure from France, the European Union has said it will not freeze all assets belonging to the Palestinian organization Hamas, stating that a clear distinction should be made between the political and social wings of the Islamist movement.
The European Commission, the E.U.´s legislative body, announced late last month that it would not be acting against the political wing of Hamas, although it would retain an E.U. ban enforced last year on Hamas´ military branch, which it regards as a terrorist organization.
The commission view was confirmed on July 3 at a meeting of European ministers in Brussels, where a unanimous decision was made to delay a verdict on the political wing of Hamas.
Moreover, no date has been set to review the position.
[sic]
The French position also appeared somewhat vindicated by the announcement early last week of a cease-fire by Hamas and another Palestinian Islamist group, Islamic Jihad, as well as by the armed wing of Yasser Arafat´s Fatah organization.
Spokespeople with the French Foreign Ministry rejected demands from the U.S. administration to place both the armed and "welfare functions" of Hamas in the same sack, a position they said was "not shared by France," which regarded Hamas as "representing a wide body of opinion in the Palestinian territories."
"The E.U. has listed the armed wing, but social organizations of Hamas have also got to be listed," the U.S. national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said at a conference last month in London.
"The notion that on the one hand, Hamas is peaceful, and on the other hand, is trying to blow up the peace process is just illogical and, we´re saying, will not work," Rice said.
Such a view, however, was rejected by a spokesman from the French Foreign Ministry.
"There has been a very clear distinction between the two wings, and the minister himself has called for that distinction to be made between the armed wings and the social organizations in the Palestinian territories," the spokesman said at a Foreign Ministry news conference.
According to Francois Zimeray, a French member of the European Parliament, the position adopted by the European Commission is "totally artificial."
"Only a diplomat cut off from the human reality of the situation in the Middle East could make such distinctions," Zimeray told the JTA. "There is only one branch of Hamas."
Zimeray, who has led a campaign in the European Parliament to demand an investigation into the misuse of E.U. funds by the Palestinian Authority, said French policy was "like running with the hare and the hounds and the highest form of hypocrisy."
Until the decision, France was the only nation among the 15 members of the European Union to publicly say it opposed a ban on the non-military branch of Hamas, a policy it said would force the organization underground and prevent any possibility that it would agree to a cease-fire.
However, most of the E.U. members, led by Britain, continued to back Washington´s line that no distinction be made between the different organizations operating under the Hamas umbrella.
[sic]
Ironically, the current French position regarding Hamas comes at a time when France has been seeking to present a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Recently, a number of government ministers were present at an event in Paris titled "12 Hours for France-Israel Friendship."
The event brought together politicians from across the political spectrum who affirmed their support for the State of Israel and expressed a wish that French foreign policy would return to its more favorable stance toward the Jewish state which had been lost in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Moreover, French Jewish leaders were keen to assert the historic bonds between Israel and France at a time when relations had deteriorated, with France adopting a strong anti-war position to the U.S.-led military operation in Iraq.
Despite a general tone of mutual back-slapping at the event, Meyer Habib, the head of the event´s organizing committee and a member of the executive committee of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jews, drew widespread applause when he criticized current French policy toward Israel.
Habib said he was unable to understand a policy which did not recognize Hamas and the Lebanese Shi´a group "Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, and which did not recognize Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel."
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin had also drawn the ire of the Jewish community when he met with Arafat during his recent visit to the Middle East.
In addition, the foreign minister attempted to inject his own ideas into the "road map" peace plan sponsored by the Quartet of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.
In calling for an international peacekeeping force to be sent to the Middle East, de Villepin was forced to climb down in the face of a lack of support from France´s European partners, later describing the plan as "neither a proposal nor a project but just an idea to launch debate."
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07-07-2003 18:52
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