Among other news, find in today's brief:

 

- Shaul Mofaz on Jenin Victims

- Pope Expresses Solidarity with Besieged Palestinians in Church of Nativity

- UN Commission on Human Rights Condemns Israel for Mass killings

- Americans Believe Sharon is an Enemy

 

In an effort to tailor the media coverage of the Jenin massacre to its benefit, Israeli occupation forces allowed a number of Israeli and American journalists, including ABC reporters, into the camp to “cover” the news. Prior to their entry, the journalists agreed to signing a claim allowing Israeli army officials to censor, edit, and approve their “journalistic reports” prior to publication or going on the air. Not surprisingly, the journalists, who were accompanied at all times and were taken to an area of the army’s choosing, reported great devastation but no scenes of “dead lying in the street”. The doctored reports are currently circulating the globe.

 

Meanwhile, Palestinian and international journalists who have rejected this form of military censorship were harassed and detained near Jenin today. Patrick Baz, Bureau chief for the French News Agency in the Middle East, as well as reporters for the Gama and Reuters agencies were detained for at least two hours, searched, and ordered to turn back as they approached Salem, a village near Jenin. They report being threatened with incarceration if they were found near Jenin. Israeli occupation soldiers also specifically informed the Palestinian journalists that they would be tried in an Israeli court for having “infiltrated” into “closed military areas”.

 

Later on in the afternoon, the soldiers also detained and harassed a number of reporters, including Walid Al-U’mai, AL-Jazeera’s chief correspondent in Palestine. Walid reported that the soldiers confiscated four films he just finished taping after days of work around the Jenin refugee camp. The Spanish television crew was also harassed and searched in the same area today.

 

Close to the town of Um Al-Nour inside Israel proper and on the border with Jenin, APTN and AP reporters were detained, humiliated, then forced to leave the area.

 

 

 

Pope John Paul II telephoned the more than 230 Christian clergymen and Palestinians now besieged and almost starved in the Church of Nativity to express his solidarity on Monday. The Pope stated that he admired the priests for “the Christian behavior they are demonstrating”, in reference to offering protection to more than 150 Palestinian civilians and policemen who sought refuge in the holy site.

 

For twelve days in a row now, the clergy have been besieged in the Church, deprived of water, electricity, and any humanitarian aid. They have also continuously come under Israeli fire. At least two Palestinian have died inside the compound, after being shot by Israeli snipers. Both bodies remain inside the Church as Israeli occupation soldiers are refusing to allow the International Red Cross or any other humanitarian organization access to the Church.

 

 

In its 58^th session, the Geneva-based United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution on Monday condemning Israel for “mass killings of Palestinians”. The international body also demanded that the intransigent state end its military reoccupation of most of the West Bank’s cities, towns, and refugee camps.

 

The resolution, proposed by Arab and Muslim member-states accused Israel of “gross violations” of humanitarian law and recognized the “legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist” Israel’s foreign military occupation. European countries, including France, expressed concern at the “killing of [Palestinian] men, women, and children”.

 

The motion was adopted by an overwhelming majority of 40 to five, while seven states abstained. Britain, Germany, Canada, Guatemala, and the Czezh Republic voted against the resolution. Italy abstained. Germany’s only reservation was the resolution’s recognition of the Palestinian People to resist the Israeli occupation, although it pointed its deep concern over the “extremely serious human rights and humanitarian situation in the Occupied [Palestinian] Territory”.

 

Earlier in the month, the Commission requested Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights to head a special mission of inquiry in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the region. Israel has yet to grant the UN official permission for entry.

 

The United States had lost its seat in the Commission last year, leaving Israel without its staunchest ally in the Commission.

 

 

Bishop Dezmond Tutu, the Nobel Prize Laureate, condemned the current Israeli aggression. In a Washington press conference he held yesterday, the Bishop reiterated his support for Israel’s right to exist within defined boundaries. However, “In my view, what is not understandable or sincere is what is Israel is currently perpetrating”, said Tutu.

 

 

American students are getting increasingly vocal in demanding that their universities divest from companies that do business in Israel, mirroring the effective campaign that put an end to South Africa’s apartheid regime.

 

The campaign, lead by activists in the historically progressive University of California at Berkeley, students and human rights groups are organizing demonstrations, sit-ins.

 

“Something, no matter how small, must be done to express our utter opposition to what is being done by Israel”, said Sarah Weir, a Berkeley senior and member of the group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJIP). “With South Africa, we learned that divestment can be a very useful tool to organize”, Weir added.

Divestment calls have also been made in other large American Universities, including Princeton and the University of Illinois. Companies that would be affected include General Electric, Raytheon, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, AOL Time Warner and Microsoft.

 

 

Sixty percent of Americans believe that the United States should diminish its financial and military aid to Israel if it continues to reject the American calls for its immediate withdrawal from the Palestinian cities it has reoccupied; that’s according to the Harris Institute. The Institute, which published the results of an opinion poll it conducted between Wednesday and Thursday, shows a significant shift in American public opinion towards Israel.

 

Apparently, 25% of Americans now believe that Ariel Sharon is an enemy of the United States while 20% believe he is a terrorist and the remaining 65% do not trust his statements. Only 21% of Americans believe that the Powell mission will yield any positive results while public support for the American Administration’s foreign policy has slumped to 65%, down from a whopping 80% in December.

 

 

The Vietnamese did not accept to meet the Israeli Ambassador to Hanoi on Monday, in protest of Israel’s current military aggression in the West Bank. Instead, the Minister dispatched the Director of the Middle East Unit in the Ministry to meet the ambassador, in order to relay to him Vietnam’s condemnation and demand for an immediate Israeli withdrawal that would include retreating from the President’s Ramallah compound.

Nigeria:

 

The Foreign relations Committee in the Nigerian Parliament has called on its government to enforce a general boycott against Israel and to lower the country’s diplomatic representation in Tel Aviv. The demand was the parliament’s response to the on-going Israeli war against Palestinian cities and civilians and its refusal to adhere to the will of the international community.

 

 

 

According to Mr. Ari Fleicher, Israel’s Prime Minister informed President George bush that Israeli occupation troops would withdraw from the cities of Jenin and Nablus within a week. The White House Spokesperson reported that Bush’s response was, “The withdrawal would help in reaching peace in the region”.

 

The American Administration has softened its earlier demands for an “immediate” Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian cities and towns reoccupied since March 29. Instead, Mr. Aril Fleicher expressed three days ago the Administration’s view that Ariel Sharon was a “man of peace”.

 

 

The American Secretary of State told reporters on Monday that the Middle East peace Summit, ironically proposed by Ariel Sharon yesterday, could take place at the ministerial level.

 

Ariel Sharon insists that President Arafat should not attend the proposed summit, if and when it happens. The position has sparked heated debate and criticism within official Israeli circles, which contend that the President’s exclusion would mean the summit’s failure.

 

“There's no point in deluding ourselves. The other participants, those of whom the prime minister spoke, will not agree to our dictating the representation of the Palestinians”, Ephraim Sneh, an Israeli Cabinet Minister told Israel Radio.

However, president Yasser Arafat has reportedly accepted the idea of holding an international peace summit to discuss the implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions, including 242, 338, and most recently 1397, as well as the Saudi Arabian peace initiative. However, the President insisted that such a summit must be preceded by a full Israeli withdrawal from the cities it now reoccupies.

“If Sharon wants to talk about peace, he can accept the Arab peace initiative or agree to end the occupation and withdraw to the June 4, 1967 lines”, Minister Saeb Erekat commented.

 

 

In an interview with CNN, Ariel Sharon announced that while his occupation troops would withdraw from Jenin and Nablus “within a week”, they would stay in Bethlehem and Ramallah. The Israeli leader said that Israel had no intention to remain in “cities of terror”, baffling event the listeners who still believe that he lead this campaign “to root out terror”.

 

Sharon insisted that his troops would not leave both cities unless the policemen and defenders given sanctuary in the Church of Nativity are either detained or deported, which would be in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. “I want to make it very clear. We will leave Bethlehem only after they either are arrested and tried in Israel or deported”, said Sharon, affirming that the United States was in agreement to his demand.

 

On the issue of peace, the Israeli prime Minister did not hide his personal grudge against president Yasser Arafat. “I don't think that peace can be reached with him (Arafat)”, he said. Asked who could replace the Palestinian President, Sharon replied, “I believe there are others. There is a replacement for everyone”.

 

 

 

 

The Jerusalem Electricity Company estimated its losses in the Ramallah District alone at approximately US$ 200,000 and US$ 150,000 in the Bethlehem area. Engineer Hisham Al-U’mari, the private Company’s General Manager reported that his company has set up an emergency room to assess the damage and prioritize the needed repair work.

 

Mr. Al-U’mari confirmed that the company needs to coordinate with the Israeli occupation army prior to conducting any repair work, otherwise exposing its crews to great peril. He also expressed frustration at the systematic assault on the electricity network in both cities, priding himself however in the fact that 98% of the needed repairs had been completed in Bethlehem. The remaining area is the Church of Nativity and its surrounding neighborhoods, which have been off-limits to medical crews, reporters, and repair workers for at least twelve days now.

 

The General manager also expressed grave concern over his company’s future, pointing out its increasing and accumulating debt. Because of the customers’ inability to pay their bills as a result of the harsh economic situation, the company has suffered complicated financial losses, often jeopardizing its ability to stay solvent. Currently, more than 50% of the Palestinian population lives below the poverty line.

 

 

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has called on the UNESCO to take the necessary measures in order to put an immediate end to Israel’s on-going assault against ancient Palestinian sites, as well as invaluable historical artifacts, which represents Palestine’s ancient and rich heritage.

 

Ministry officials called on the UN organization to enact a 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of peoples’ cultural heritage in times of armed conflict. They also called on UNESCO to immediately begin documenting the sites and artifacts that have been attacked so far as well as to work on launching an international program that would reconstruct the destroyed historical neighborhoods.

 

The historical buildings thus far destroyed and damaged by Israeli occupation forces include, the historical “Omari” mosque and the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the Al-Khadher mosque and the Turkish baths in Nablus’ Old City, as well as other historical sites.