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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Congressmen urge Swiss on ‘Red Diamond’
Two Jewish congressmen are circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter urging the Swiss government to designate a neutral emergency symbol in addition to the red cross and red crescent.
Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) say the Swiss proposal for a neutral red diamond would allow Israel’s Magen David Adom, and other agencies that reject the cross and crescent for religious reasons, to obtain protections guaranteed by the Geneva Convention to bearers of those symbols.
The letter to the Swiss embassy in Washington urges Switzerland to resist those who oppose plans to reconvene the parties to the Geneva Convention, a power reserved to Switzerland.
The letter says opponents of the red diamond scheme want to postpone such an arrangement until the Israeli-Palestinian issue is resolved. The convention defines attacks on individuals and vehicles carrying the designated symbols as war crimes.
Muslim nations have defeated attempts to accept the red star of David used by Israel’s emergency services.
Dean praises Sharon effort
Howard Dean called Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip one of the “biggest steps for peace we’ve seen in my lifetime.”
The Democratic National Committee chairman joined state chairs from Ohio, Arizona and Florida in a weeklong visit to Israel.
Dean praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his efforts, and said more pressure must be placed on the Palestinians.
“We must do everything we can to help President Abbas exert control,” Dean told JTA on Wednesday before leaving Israel. “The United States has to legitimize President Abbas as much as possible to make it as easy as we can to help him stand up to terrorists.” Dean, who sought the Democratic Party’s nomination for president last year, said his trip was not connected to concerns in the Jewish community about his support for Israel.
He called efforts to demonize his Middle East positions last year “gamesmanship.”
Gaza aid request could be reduced
An Israeli official said that a request for U.S. aid to help cover the Gaza Strip withdrawal could be reduced.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s chief of staff said Wednesday that negotiations for a grant of $2 billion from Congress had been put on hold while the Bush administration deals with the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. “We have deferred this and will wait for the proper moment to go and discuss the issue. It could be that the sums originally planned for will be reduced,” Ilan Cohen told Channel One Television. T
he money is needed to cover the logistics of the pullout, as well as moving former Gaza settlers to underdeveloped areas of the Negev and Galilee.
U.S. facilitates P.A. equipment transfer
The United States has transferred more than $2 million worth of nonlethal military equipment to Palestinian Authority security forces, top officials said.
Gen. William Ward, the top U.S. security envoy to the Middle East, said he had distributed $2.3 million in equipment and training, some of it donated from European countries, including radios, riot control equipment and vehicles, delivered on the eve of Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip last month. The U.S. Agency for International Development is administering another $700,000 for community policing efforts, Ward said.
U.N. agency to help Palestinian shippers
The United Nations established an agency to support Palestinian importers and exporters.
Under an agreement signed Thursday in Jerusalem, the European Commission will fund the Palestinian Shippers Council, according to a statement from the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. The council hopes this will help revive the Palestinian economy, which has been decimated by the intifada.
The commission also is funding customs-clearance operations on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which is under Palestinian and Egyptian control since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.
Israeli cop jailed in killing
An Israeli border policeman was jailed in connection with the killing of a Palestinian youth.
Jerusalem District Court sentenced the policeman Thursday to more than four years in prison after finding him guilty of driving a jeep from which the youth, a Hebron resident, was thrown to his death in 2002. Three border policemen who had manhandled the Palestinian are awaiting sentencing for manslaughter.
The victim apparently was selected at random by the policemen, who wanted to exact revenge for the killing of several of their comrades in a Palestinian terrorist attack.
http://jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 9:33 PM Permanent Link
 
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