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| Middle East |
| Amnesty Condemns Palestinian Attacks. Really. |
| 2002-07-11 |
| Amnesty International condemned Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians Thursday as "crimes against humanity" and unjustified by Palestinian political grievances. Whoa! Knocked me right over with that feather...! The London-based human rights organization had previously accused Israel of violating Palestinian rights in the Mideast conflict, but the lengthy report focused on the Palestinian violence that amnesty said had killed about 350 Israeli civilians. "The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians,'' the Amnesty report said. "They constitute crimes against humanity ... They may also constitute war crimes.'' Who the hell wrote that? It certainly doesn't sound like Amnesty International. Palestinian officials dismissed the report as biased and unbalanced. I guess I can get up now. No surprise there... Palestinian Cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman said the Palestinian leadership and prominent Palestinian moderates had condemned suicide bombings. But he added, "all that is happening to Israeli citizens is a normal consequence for their occupation and rejection of Palestinian rights.'' "Happens all the time. Just look at, um... Finland. The Lapps are exploding all over the place. You just never hear about it in the press..." Ismail Abu Shanab, spokesman for the militant Islamic group Hamas, which has carried out the largest number of suicide bombings, dismissed the report as "completely biased.'' Hamas says it will continue to carry out bombings despite the calls to stop by the Palestinian Authority. Since Shanab is one of the members of the Hamas politburo, guess that's about as |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |