PA Media Charges Israel With Starving, Gassing Palestinians
Wednesday, September 5, 2001 (12:00 am)
ICEJ NEWS – 09/05/2001
Flush with the sense of a PLO victory at the Durban conference on racism, the official Palestine News Agency, Wafa, has been broadcasting a flurry of outlandish charges against Israel, including allegations of forced starvation and the use of poison gas.
On Sunday, Wafa reported on PLO chief Yasser Arafat's meetings with the highest leaders in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, who heard him tell of Israel's "continuous attempts to break down the Palestinian nation by starving them to death."
On Monday, Wafa claimed dozens of young Palestinian pupils at an elementary school near Jenin were hurt by inhaling poisonous gases launched at their school by Israeli forces. The Palestinian Authority also charged that Israel had "invaded [a nearby] town, shooting poisonous gases between residential houses, which led to many suffocation cases, and as a result clashes broke out between the local citizens and the invaders."
Also on Monday, a Wafa editorial on the Durban gathering said it is "a lesson to us to keep on resisting the occupation." The writer charges that Jewish and Israeli delegates in Durban had "arrogantly accused the 3000 NGOs of being deceivers, and at the same time mentioned the gas chambers in a moment of unconsciousness, unaware to the similarity between the [Nazi] gas chambers of the Jews and the gas chambers taking place daily, on the Palestinian occupied lands, and unaware to the slight difference between then and now, that is today's gas chambers are more sophisticated and modernized. Those who filled the entire world with their moaning about the historical gas chambers should not build such to others."
The Wafa editorial condemns Israeli government leaders for carrying on "aggressions" against Palestinians without any clear direction in mind. But a Jordanian newspaper, AL-HADAT, is questioning whether Arafat has a coherent strategy in the midst of the current crisis and calls upon him to publicly announce what his intentions are.
And the Jordanian magazine AL-HILAL has called upon the Palestinians to put a stop to the intifada and suicide bombings, since they are not helping the Palestinian cause. The magazine said the Palestinians must not give the Israeli right wing a reason to topple the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, PLO chief Yasser Arafat's bid to join the ranks of rich Arab oil sheiks has foundered due to his war with Israel.
Just three days before Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount last September 28, Arafat met at the home of then-prime minister Ehud Barak, who finalized an arrangement giving the Palestinian leader control over the drilling rights to a huge natural gas find off the Gaza coast. Barak's lucrative, unilateral concession was intended to help persuade Arafat into sticking with the staggering Olso peace process, and he smiled broadly for TV cameras while making a tour by boat of a drilling platform off Gaza the very day before Palestinian militants ignited the violent intifada in the wake of Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount.
That intifada has now blocked further work by British Gas, chosen for the exploration and development of natural gas reserves off the Mediterranean coast. British Gas has demanded guarantees for the continuation of work, mainly an assurance that a client will purchase the abundant energy resources for a major market.
The Palestinian Authority has acknowledged that British Gas has halted its operations.
Used with Permission from International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
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