BPR Mailing List Digest: 10/07/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
October 7, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | October, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Draft OK'd deploring violence in Mideast
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:34:52 -0400

Draft OK'd deploring violence in Mideast

By Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, 10/7/2000

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and developing nations
reached a tentative agreement late yesterday on a resolution
condemning the week of bloodshed between Israelis and
Palestinians that has taken more than 70 lives.

The draft Security Council resolution must still be approved by
Washington before a vote. It condemns the violence ''especially the
excessive use of force against the Palestinian population, resulting
in injury and loss of human life'' but without naming Israel as the
Palestinian foe.

It calls for the immediate cessation of violence and the resumption
of the Middle East peace process and asks Secretary General Kofi
Annan to keep the council informed.

The document also stresses the need for ''a speedy and objective
inquiry'' into the violence but omits calling explicitly for an
international investigation, as sought by Palestinians and rejected
by Israel.

The 114-member nonaligned group of developing nations has been
pressing for council condemnation of Israeli forces following a week
of confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.

The original draft was initiated by the Palestinian UN observer
Nasser Kidwa and introduced by council member Malaysia on
behalf of the nonaligned group.

The new revised text also calls on Israel to ''abide scrupulously'' by
its obligations under the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which
deals with protection of civilians in time of war. But it no longer
specifies that the convention is applicable to all the territories
occupied by Israel since 1967.

Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan
and the Gaza Strip from Egypt during the 1967 Middle East war.

US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, leading the American
negotiating team, has balked at having the resolution specify that
the convention applies to all the captured areas because this would
affirm East Jerusalem's status as an occupied territory, diplomats
said.

Washington wants the future of Jerusalem, a key issue in the
stalled peace process, to be decided in negotiations.

Calling the negotiations intense, cordial, and serious, Holbrooke
said the resolution was the most difficult since he assumed his UN
post 14 months ago.

''For obvious reasons we are dealing with an explosive ongoing
situation in the region,'' he said, adding that ''every word counts'' on
a Middle East resolution, which can haunt nations for years
afterward.

The draft resolution ''deplores the provocation carried out at al-
Haram al-Sharif on Sept. 28,'' an indirect reference to Israeli
opposition party leader, Ariel Sharon, for a visit he made last
Thursday to a shrine in Jerusalem's Old City, holy to both Muslims
and Jews.

This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 10/7/2000.
=A9 Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/281/nation/Draft_OK_d_deplorin
g_violence_in_Mideast+.shtml

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Palestinians demolish Jewish shrine
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:39:55 -0400

October 7, 2000

Palestinians demolish Jewish shrine

Palestinians have demolished the Jewish shrine of Joseph's Tomb
in the West Bank town of Nablus, after the withdrawal of the Israeli
army.

The AFP news agency says around 2-thousand Palestinians
entered the shrine after its control was handed by Israel to the
Palestinian Authority.

It says several dozen people using iron bars destroyed the inside of
the building, despite calls from the governor of Nablus not to
damage the site which is also holy to Muslims.

The shrine, which lies in an Israeli-controlled enclave of the
Palestinian-ruled town of Nablus, has been a flashpoint in the past
nine days of violence.

(23:58:30 AEST)

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/s196787.htm

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israeli army considers retaking Joseph's Tomb
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:42:18 -0400

Israeli army considers retaking Joseph's Tomb

JERUSALEM, Oct 7 (AFP) - The Israeli army is considering
retaking the Jewish shrine of Joseph's Tomb, which was ransacked
and destroyed by Palestinians after the army pulled out earlier
Saturday, a senior Israeli military commander said.

Asked at a press conference if a return to the site in the Palestinan-
ruled town of Nablus was an option, West Bank commander Benny
Ganz said: "Definitely. The arrangement was that we should
temporarily withdraw."

He described as "catastrophic" the events that unfolded after the
army's pre-dawn pullout from the site, which has been one of the
hottest focal points for violence over the past week.

Ganz said that one Israeli soldier had been shot and wounded as
the troops left the shrine revered by Jews as the burial place of the
patriarch Joseph, taking with them equipment from the site and
religious artefacts.

He said the Palestinians had committed to protecting the site
under the terms of the withdrawal arrangement between senior
security officials from both sides aimed that was aimed at lowering
tensions in the Palestinian territories,

"Unfortuntely someone did not deliver the goods," he said. "Now we
are assessing the whole situation and, in a few hours, we will
decide how to react."

Ganz also suggested that the situation could prompt a review of all
cooperation with the Palestinians in the West Bank.

"If we cannot cooperate with them then we will have to choose our
own methods," he added. "We thought we had partners; it seems
that we didn't."

Commenting on widespread charges from Palestinians,
humanitarian groups and some Western nations that Israel used
excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators, he said the
army had tried to react only when Israeli citizens or Jewish settlers
or army posts were put in danger.

"I know that the Palestinians have suffered casualties, but I also
know that they would have suffererd much more if we weren't so
cautious. Honestly, I don't know if we can maintain it this way," he
said.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Hezbollah claims kidnap of three Israeli soldiers
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:43:56 -0400

Hezbollah claims kidnap of three Israeli soldiers

BEIRUT, Oct 7 (AFP) - The radical Shiite Muslim Hezbollah
movement said Saturday it had seized "several" Israeli soldiers
from an army position in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

"Our fighters kidnapped several Zionist soldiers and managed to
evacuate them to a safe place," said a statement by the Islamic
Resistance, the military wing of the Shiite group.

Lebanese security forces said earlier Hezbollah had kidnapped
three Israeli soldiers from a position in the Farms.

Hezbollah said the operation was "in implementation of our pledge
to liberate all our prisoners (in Israeli jails) and liberate every inch of
our occupied territory and assist our Palestinian brothers in their
Intifada (uprising)."

"We offer this operation to the martyr Mohammed al-Durra and all
the martyrs who fell at the al-Aqsa mosque," the Hezbollah
statement said.

Durra, 12, was among more than 80 Palestinians killed during
clashes with Israeli forces in the past week in the Palestinian
territories, Jerusalem and parts of Israel.

His death as he cowered for shelter in his father's arms, was
caught by television cameras, and shocked viewers around the
world, making him a symbol of the children who have died in the
violence.

The wave of violence was sparked by a visit on September 28 by
Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's al-
Aqsa mosque, a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Hezbollah threatens to strike Israeli settlements if Lebanon is hit
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:45:59 -0400

Hezbollah threatens to strike Israeli settlements if Lebanon is hit

BEIRUT, Oct 7 (AFP) - The radical Shiite Muslim movement
Hezbollah threatened Saturday to strike settlements in northern
Israel if the Jewish state attacks Lebanon.

"We declare clearly that any aggression against Lebanon under
any pretext will be a foolish Israeli action and we will respond
severely and comprehensively," a Hezbollah statement said.

"All the Zionists, soldiers and settlers, will be targets to the attacks
of our heroic fighters," it said.

Hezbollah, which kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in an ambush
earlier Saturday in the Shebaa Farms border area, said the
"captured Zionist occupation soldiers will remain in our hands until
we achieve the objective of this blessed operation."

"The enemy knows that it has no other option," it said.

"It is time for the Zionists to learn that Lebanon will not cede to any
threat and that it (Lebanon) is the cemetary of the agressors," it
added.

Hezbollah was responding to Israeli threats of retaliation for the
kidnappings.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Peace between Israelis, Palestinians "at the end of time": Khadafi
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:50:16 -0400

Peace between Israelis, Palestinians "at the end of time": Khadafi

ROME, Oct 6 (AFP) - The conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians carries all the risks of remaining unresolved forever,
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said in an interview Friday.

"If we wait for peace between the two states, we will have to wait
until the end of time," he said.

The interview was published in the latest edition of the Italian news
magazine Panorama after Kadhafi denounced Israel's "unjustified
provocative" action in the Palestinian territories during a visit to
Jordan Wednesday.

The weeklong unrest had killed nearly 80 people by Friday.

Khadafi and Jordan's King Abdullah also expressed support for the
Palestinian people "in their endeavour to recover their legitimate
rights on their national soil and the establishment of an
independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital."

In the interview Khadafi said Israelis and Palestinians "have not yet
understood that states cannot be built on the basis of ethnic and
religious principles."

The issue is not which of the two peoples is right or wrong, he said.
"These people are still fighting to search and establish land and
identities. But they don't know yet who they are," he added, calling
their endeavour "anachronistic and dangerous" and Israel a "surreal
state for ever.

"Its citizens will never be citizens of the world but only citizens of
the places where they are investing."

Khadafi predicted that "the US-Zionist alliance will fall apart
because the colonialist hunger of both countries is reactionary and
will eventually turn them against each other.

"Jews manipulate America but sooner or later Washington will have
to give up on Jerusalem, just as Moscow gave up on East
Germany," he continued. "When that happens, the conflict
between the two countries will be terrible."

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel Saturday gave the Palestinians 48 hours to end their uprising or see the end of the peace process
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:25:14 -0400

Israel reads Riot Act to Palestinians,
Lebanese and Syrians as conflict spreads

JERUSALEM, Oct 7 (AFP) - Israel Saturday gave the Palestinians
48 hours to end their uprising or see the end of the peace process
as it faced a war on two fronts with the capture of three of its
soldiers in Lebanon by Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak also warned Lebanon and Syria
they shared responsibility with Hezbollah for the safety of the three
seized when clashes erupted for the first time since the end of the
Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in May.

Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo replied that
Palestinians would not bow to "Israeli threats", adding, "If it (the
peace process) is dead, it is killed by Mr. Barak and his tactics
and manoeuvres."

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said the captured
soldiers would only be freed in exchange for the release of
Lebanese held in Israeli jails, while Syria declared the guerrilla
group's actions "legitimate."

After more than a week of fighting between Israeli troops and
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which claimed
some 90 lives the conflict spread when the Israelis shot dead two
Palestinians hurling stones from across the border in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, whose fighters played a key role in ending Israel's 22-
year occupation of Lebanon, responded with a barrage of Katyusha
rockets and mortar shells on Israeli troops in the disputed border
Shebaa Farms area, wounding three.

The attacks plus the capture of three Israelis in an ambush in the
same area prompted Israel to rush elite troops to the border, a
military source said.

Raids by Israeli helicopter gunships into Lebanon wounded 17
civilians, police said, and three more were hurt when an Israeli shell
landed on the village of Shebaa.

In a later exchange of fire with Hezbollah four more Israeli troops
were reported wounded.

The Palestinian territories, by contrast, saw their quietest day
since the violence began on September 29, with one man being
killed at the Netzarim flashpoint in the Gaza Strip and scattered
incidents elsewhere.

At another hotspot, Joseph's Tomb near Nablus in the West Bank,
the Israeli army withdrew its forces in a gesture to reduce tension,
and despite the pleas of the Palestinians' governor for Nablus
dozens of Palestinians promptly destroyed the shrine.

Demonstrators hoisted an Islamic flag over the site, and Amin
Maqbul, an official from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's faction
Fatah, told the crowds: "Today was the first step to liberate al-
Aqsa."

Control over al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site
which shares its location with Judaism's holiest place, is the major
obstacle to an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty and it was a visit
there by hard-line Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon on
September 27 that set off the wave of violent protests.

Israel's commander for the West Bank, Benny Ganz, described the
ransacking of Joseph's Tomb as "catastrophic" and said Israel was
considering retaking the shrine.

An exasperated Barak finally warned at a press conference in Tel
Aviv that, "If we don't see an end to the violence in two days, we
will consider that a halt to the negotiations."

"The army will use all means to end the violence," he added.

"Apparently there is no partner for peace," Barak said, pinning the
blame for the unrest squarely at the feet of Arafat.

Barak's acting foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami also said Israel
was ready for a confrontation that could spread to neighbouring
countries.

"For the moment, Arafat is not a partner for peace but a refusnik,"
Ben Ami told Israeli television, adding: "We have the might and if a
confrontation is imposed upon us there will be a confrontation."

Ben Ami accused Arafat of orchestrating the riots "because he
wanted to escape the need to resolve (the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict)," and warned Arab nations that they could become
engulfed in the unrest.

"Arafat could put their regimes in danger -- this man risks setting
the tinderbox alight in the Arab world," he said, also calling on the
United States and the Europeans "not to play Arafat's game."

On the domestic front, Barak -- who has been without a
parliamentary majority since the eve of the Camp David summit --
said he would be meeting Sharon later for consultations on the
shape of a future government.

"I am convinced of the need for unity in the current situation. We
must have as broad a government as possible."

As the situation escalated US President Bill Clinton and Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright made telephone contact with regional
and European leaders in an attempt to defuse the crisis.

Clinton spoke by phone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as
well as Barak and Arafat, Deputy White House press secretary
Nanda Chitre said, while Albright called Syrian Foreign Minister
Faruq al-Shara and Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, a state
department official said.

Albright also spoke with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine
and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, the official said.

The White House spokeswoman said Clinton was "monitoring
events in the Middle East. He is making calls with leaders in the
region and is expected to continue consultations throughout the
day."

Elsewhere in the region pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Arab
states continued, including Kuwait, Egypt, where 22 students were
injured in clashes with police, and Yemen.

Yemen's President Ali Abdallah Saleh called on Arab states to
open their borders to allow the despatch of weapons and fighters to
the Palestinians.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Anti-Israel news
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:40:16 -0400

German anti-Israeli demonstrators attack
synagogue

ESSEN, Germany, Oct 7 (AFP) - Anti-Israeli demonstrators
attacked an old synagogue in this western German town Saturday,
pelting rocks and destroying at least 30 windows before police
intervened and detained 50 protestors.

The incident took place after a demonstration in Essen protesting
against Israeli crackdowns on Palestinian protesters.

About 800 people had peacefully attended the demonstration called
by the German-Lebanese friendship circle. But when the
demonstration ended, about 250 demonstrators rushed towards the
synagogue.

At least 88 people have died in the latest wave of Middle East
violence -- nearly all of them Palestinian -- since clashes erupted
between Israel and Palestinians on September 28.

---------------------

1,500 demonstrate against Israel in France

STRASBOURG, France, Oct 7 (AFP) - A group of children
brandishing pictures of the 12-year-old Palestinian boy killed in
recent clashes in the Middle East marched at the head of an anti-
Israel demonstration here Saturday.

Another 300 people demonstrated against Israel in Lyon, France's
second-largest city, on Saturday.

Some 1,500 protestors in the eastern city of Strasbourg chanted
slogans in French and Arabic, carried banners and waved
Palestinian flags. A car carrying a scale model of the al-Aqsa
mosque in Jerusalem closed the ranks.

The demonstration was organised by a French Islamic organization
and two local political parties.

A total of 88 people have been killed since unrest was sparked by
a controversial visit to a Jerusalem site holy to Muslims and Jews
by right-wing Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon last week.

--------------------

Demonstrators throw stones at Israeli, US
embassies in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Oct 7 (AFP) - Some 200 demonstrators threw
stones at the Israeli and US embassies in Stockholm on Saturday
to protest against Israel's bloody clashes with Palestinians, but no
injuries were reported, police said.

The crowd of protestors gathered first at the Israeli embassy, where
they clashed with police and threw stones at the embassy building.
The windows of a police bus were smashed, Swedish news agency
TT reported.

The demonstrators later marched to the nearby US embassy,
where they also threw stones at the building and police, and
chanted "Clinton a murderer, Barak a murderer."

Saturday was the second day of protests in Stockholm.

On Friday, between 300 and 400 people marched through the city
to denounce the Israeli troops' actions.

The Israeli-Palestinian violence has killed nearly 90 people since
September 29.

-----------------

Anti-Israeli demos grip Egypt and Yemen,
22 injured in Cairo

CAIRO, Oct 7 (AFP) - Twenty-two people were wounded Saturday
in Egypt in clashes between students and police in another day of
anti-Israeli rage, police and hospital sources said.

Thousands of protesters also filled the streets of northeast and
southeast Yemeni cities to express their solidarity with the
Palestinian people locked in bloody confrontations with Israeli
troops.

In Cairo, 15 Egyptian policemen and seven university students
were injured in clashes when the police prevented hundreds of
university students from marching on the Israeli embassy, police
and hospital sources said.

Five policemen were hospitalised for their injuries, they said.

Witnesses said the violence erupted when the Cairo University
students gathered outside the campus determined to march on the
embassy, 600 meters (yards) away.

Anti-riot police armed with clubs dispersed them and pushed them
back into campus with the students retaliating by pelting the police
with rocks, witnesses said.

Police also sealed off the roads leading to Cairo University, which
has been the scene of almost daily protests following the outbreak
of violence between Palestinians and Israeli troops last week.

But it was the first time Saturday that the students protested
outside campus, where police have locked up the gates in the past
few days by police to prevent demonstrations from spilling out.

On Wednesday around 4,000 students set on fire several university
security cars inside campus during an anti-Israeli protest.

Meanwhile hundreds of school pupils on Saturday marched in the
streets of Cairo and Upper Egypt denouncing "the massacres
committed by the Israelis" against the Palestinian people.

Similar scenes of outrage were reported in Yemen's southeastern
Shabwa province and the northwestern city of Taez, where
thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the Israeli
"aggressions."

Armed members of local tribes were among 7,000 people who
marched in Ataq, the main town in Shebwa, alongside governor Ali
al-Rassas, calling for a jihad (holy war) against Israel "to liberate
Palestine," witnesses said.

They also torched Israeli flags and said they were ready to
"sacrifice" themselves for Al-Aqsa, the mosque on Haram al-Sharif,
or Noble Sanctuary, which Muslims regard as one of their three
holiest sites.

Taez Governor Ahmad Abdullah al-Hajri lead a demonstration
during which protesters called on Arab leaders expected to hold an
urgent summit later this month "to mobilise to liberate all occupied
Arab land," Saba news agency said.

------------------

Thousands of anti-Israel protestors march in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Oct 7 (AFP) - Thousands of demonstrators poured
into the streets of Damascus Saturday chanting slogans and
burning Israeli flags, to express their anger at Israel's treatment of
the Palestinians in the clashes that have swept across the
Palestinian territories.

Students, workers and state employees chanted slogans such as:
"Zionists, killers of children."

Some carried photos of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque and placards
proclaiming: "Jerusalem is Arab" and "Intifada (uprising) everywhere
in Jerusalem and on the Golan," referring to the strategic heights
seized by Israel from Syria in the June 1967 war which Syria is
demanding back in any peace deal.

The future status of Jerusalem is one of the key sticking points
preventing a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the al-Aqsa
mosque compound, sacred to both Jews and Muslims, on
September 28, sparking clashes which have claimed 87 dead in
the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the Arab areas of
northern Israel.

Hamza, one of the student demonstrators, said he supported the
call of Libyan leader Moumer Kadhafi for "a war against Israel."

The demonstrators were unable to reach the US embassy, which
was protected by a large number of security forces, since police
were blocking all access roads.

Demonstrators trying to reach the embassy Friday clashed
violently with Syrian police Friday, resulting in numerous injuries on
both sides.

Police used water-cannon and tear-gas against the hundreds of
protestors, who responded with stones. A score of demonstrators
were arrested.

Hundreds of police surrounded the embassy -- closed following a
Wednesday attempt to storm it in which windows were broken --
and they blocked off the roads leading to it.

Syria regards the United States as Israel's main backer.

--------------------

5,000 Iraqis protest at Israel "savagery"

BAGHDAD, Oct 7 (AFP) - Some 5,000 Iraqi students chanted their
readiness to free Palestine during a demonstration Saturday in
Baghdad against Israel's "savage aggression", an AFP
correspondent reported.

"The liberation of all of Palestine requires a Jihad (holy war) and not
political settlements," senior ruling Baath party official Abdel Ghani
Abdel Ghafur said in a speech to the crowd.

"Death to Zionism" they roared back outside the Student's Union
headquarters, followed by, "O Saddam, we are all your soldiers for
liberation."

"What was taken by force of arms can be taken back only by force
of arms," Abdel Ghafur continued, and called for Arab countries to
cut relations with the United States and freeze all talks and
normalisation with Irael.

The demonstrators carried banners proclaiming "Our drawn swords
await a sign from Saddam Hussein to liberate Palestine."

State television showed Iraqis, some carrying arms, attending
rallies across the country on Friday in support of the Palestinians.

The national leadership of the Baath party published a communique
Saturday urging a jihad to liberate Palestine, in line with the same
call from the cabinet during the week.

A total of 88 people have died -- nearly all of them Palestinian --
since clashes erupted on September 28, sweeping through the
West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the Arab areas of
northern Israel.

------------------------

Turkish police detain 15 anti-Israel protestors in Istanbul

ANKARA, Oct 7 (AFP) - Police in Istanbul detained some 15
people Saturday during a demonstration against Israel for the
deadly clashes with Palestinians that have left dozens of people
dead, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Riot police ordered the group to disperse when they gathered in the
Beyoglu district in the city's European quarter with the aim of
marching to the nearby US consulate to make a press statement
denouncing the "clashes and the killings of Palestinian children",
the report said.

Police officers broke up the demonstration when the group resisted
the order and tried to hold a sit-in demonstration, it added.

Saturday's protest is the second demonstration in Turkey against
the escalating violence between Palestinians and Israeli troops,
which has claimed 88 lives in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east
Jerusalem and the Arab areas of northern Israel.

On Wednesday, Istanbul detained 15 people who tried to hold a
demonstration in front of the office of Israeli Airlines El-Al in the
Sisli district, also in Istanbul's European quarter.

Turkey has full-fledged diplomatic ties with the Palestinians, but
also enjoys strong ties with Isreal since 1996 when the the two
states signed a military cooperation deal.

In a written statement Wednesday, the Turkish foreign ministry
expressed concern over the flare-up of violence in Israel and the
Palestinain territories, and said it had urged both Palestinians and
the Israelis to avoid any tension-raising moves.

---------------------

Saudi youth demonstrate against Israel

DUBAI, Oct 6 (AFP) - Saudi police broke up a rare demonstration
in the capital Riyadh by a small group of youth protesting to
support the Palestinians in the clashes with Israel, a witness said.

The youths waved Saudi flags and cried slogans denouncing
"Israeli massacres" of Palestinians as they marched or drove on Al-
Aliaa Avenue, one of Riyadh's main avenues, the witness told AFP
by telephone.

Security forces dispersed the protesters and arrested at least four
of them, the witness said.

Saudi Arabia strictly forbids demonstrations and few have been
held in the conservative kingdom's history.

Saudi authorities have made no public statements about the
protest, which the Qatari cable network Al-Jazeera said took place
at the end of Friday prayers.

Up to 2,000 people also demonstrated peacefully Wednesday night
in the north of the kingdom, according to witnesses.

---------------------

Thousands of Nigerian Muslims call for severance of ties with Israel

KANO, Nigeria, Oct 6 (AFP) - More than 10,000 members of a
Nigerian Islamic movement staged a demonstration Friday in
northern city of Kano calling for the government to cut diplomatic
links with Israel.

The demonstrators, members of pro-Iranian Islamic group, the
Islamic Movement of Nigeria, said they were making the call in
protest against the upsurge of violence in the Middle East.

The protesters, who carried placards including "We condemn
Israeli massacres of Palestinians," and "Israel - blood-thirsty
demon," marched from the Fagge Juma'at mosque to several parts
of the ancient Muslim-dominated city.

When they reached the central mosque in the city, they burnt
Israeli and American flags.

Addressing the crowd at the end of the demonstration, protest
leader Sheikh Muhammed Turi called on the Nigerian government
to sever all ties with Israel.

Nigeria renewed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.

He also called on the Jewish nation to withdraw immedaitely from
its occupied territories or face the wrath of Muslims all over the
world.

"Our message to the Nigerian government is that it has no
justification for being friendly with our enemies, for we believe that
given the opportunity whoever kills our brethren will not spare us,"
he said.

"If Israel continues the massacre of Palestinians, we assure her of
large-scale retaliation by Muslims throughout the world. We have
had enough of bloodshed in Palestine," said Turi, who spoke on
behalf of the leader of the Movement, Ibrahim El Zak-Zaky.

---------------------

More than 10,000 demonstrate against Israel in UAE

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, Oct 6 (AFP) - More than 10,000
people marched Friday on the main streets of Sharjah to denounce
Israel's "massacres" of Palestinians, the state news agency WAM
said.

Protesters "called on the international community to act quickly to
stop the Zionist butchery perpetrated against our brother
Palestinian people," the agency said.

The march included Emirati nationals along with foreigners from
other Arab and Muslim countries, including Palestinians.

---------------------

Anti-Israeli demos sweep Jordan, riot police clash with protesters

AMMAN, Oct 6 (AFP) - Jordanian riot police on Friday fired tear
gas and deployed armoured vehicles to clamp down on a massive
protests by hundreds of demonstrators trying to march on the
Israeli embassy, witnesses said.

Across town more than 30,000 people -- 75,000 according to
organisers -- rallied to a call by Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and
gathered at a bus station to vent their anger at Israel. No clashes
were reported.

Witnesses said several stone-throwing protesters were hurt when
police fired tear gas or struck them with clubs in violent
confrontations that broke out after Friday prayers near the Israeli
embassy in residential Rabiyeh.

A woman living in the area said she saw police round up 15
teenage boys and put them in a police truck. She said many
youths had sheltered in her home to flee the police.

Police had put up a security cordon along a main road leading to
the embassy, barring the way to the angry demonstrations who
called for the burning of the hill-top building.

More than 500 protesters, mostly university students, took part in
the protest and hurled stones at the helmeted police who prevented
them from approaching the embassy, witnesses said.

Some caught tear gas canisters and hurled them back at the
police, they said.

A military helicopter circled over the area several times but did not
intervene even as the youths defied police orders to clear the area
and kept trying to get closer to the embassy.

The protesters had emerged from weekly Friday prayers at the
nearby Kaluti Mosque chanting: "We don't want to see an Israeli
embassy on Arab land."

"The blood of the (Palestinian) martyrs is asking me why did you
accept peace," they shouted, calling for the closure of the Israeli
mission and the ouster of the Israeli ambassador from Jordan.

"Close ranks, close ranks" they urged their comrades, who also
included opposition and union leaders.

Jordan and Israel are bound by a peace treaty since 1994.

At the Mahatta area near downtown Amman, a huge bus depot on
the fringes of the old city, more than 30,000 protestors gathered for
a rally of solidarity with the Palestinian people and to vent
collectively their anger at Israel.

Banners strung across the bus depot reflected the mood: "Our
dead are in heaven, their (Israel's) dead are in hell," one of them
said.

A huge double-faced flag with the Jordanian colours on one side
and the Palestinian colours on the other fluttered near a yellow flag
of the Lebanese anti-Israeli guerrillas, Hezbollah.

At least 2,000 demonstrators also filed out of mosques in the
Baqaa refugee camp north of Amman and marched peacefully
inside the compound, where they torched several Israeli flags and
vowed to avenge Palestinian blood.

Similar demonstrations also filled the streets of other Jordanian
towns including Irbid, the kingdom's largest second city in the
north, where protesters denounced the Israeli "massacres" of
Palestinians.

On Thursday hundreds of protesters in the Wihdat camp in
Amman, one of the 10 compounds for refugees in Jordan, clashed
with police and hurled stones at a police station inside the camp.

The police responded with batons and tear gas to disperse the
crowds and later issued a warning to demonstrators against
attacking public or private property, Petra news agency reported.

Around 1.6 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan in 10 camps
and almost half the Jordanian five-million-strong population is of
Palestinian origin, including Queen Rania, the wife of King Abdullah
II.

---------------------

Iranians demonstrate against Israel, US,
Arafat

TEHRAN, Oct 6 (AFP) - Around 1,000 people demonstrated in
downtown Tehran on Friday to protest the latest bloodshed in the
Middle East but the brief rally ended quietly after less than an hour.

Protesters chanted for the deaths of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak, US President Bill Clinton and also Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat, who has come under mounting criticism from
hardliners for going ahead with peace talks in the wake of the
bloodshed.

Meanwhile the state IRNA news agency reported that several
thousand people in the holy city of Mashhad also staged a
demonstration Friday condemning both Israel and the Middle East
peace process.

State radio said there had also been protests in the cities of
Bandar Abbas, Ahwaz and Shiraz on Friday, a day after some
10,000 people rallied in Tehran to calls for the destruction of the
Jewish state.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - White House calls Barak ultimatum 'understandable'
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:43:34 -0400

White House calls Barak ultimatum 'understandable'

Saturday, 7 October 2000 17:09 (ET)

White House calls Barak ultimatum 'understandable'
By PAUL SINGER

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- White House spokesman P.J.
Crowley Saturday refused to condemn Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak for demanding that Palestinian authority President Yasser
Arafat put an end to the violence flaring in the region within 48
hours.

Crowley said Israel had withdrawn troops from Jerusalem's Temple
Mount and a West Bank religious site known as Joseph's Tomb "to
step back and avoid friction," and "it is understandable that the
prime minister is looking for these steps to be reciprocated."

Barak in a press confenerce earlier Saturday said that the Israeli
military would continue to show restraint only for another 48 hours,
at which point it would take whatever steps necessary to quell the
violence. Barak also demanded the speedy return of three Israeli
soldiers taken hostage Saturday by the Iran-backed militant group
Hezbollah.

Pressed by reporters to say whether Barak's ultimatum was
unhelpful to the peace process, Crowley demurred.

"It is not for us to engage in the blame game."

Crowley reiterated the U.S. view that "it is understandable from
Prime Minister Barak's point of view that having taken some steps
to reduce friction, he is looking for reciprocation on behalf of the
Palestinians."

Crowley said the president is "intensively engaged at this moment"
in trying to broker a cease fire so that the two sides can return to
the negotiating table.

President Clinton, having spoken again Satuday evening to both
Barak and Arafat spoke by telephone to a Democratic Party
fundraiser for Indiana congressional candidate Julia Carson. Clinton
said he had cancelled his personal appearance at the fundraiser
because he had been up all night working on the peace process,
and, "nothing else can keep me away."

A State Department official said Saturday afternoon that Secretary
of State Madeliene Albright had spoken with her counterparts in
Syria, Lebanon and Israel, as well as foreign ministers of France
and Spain in the hope that they would help press for peace in the
region.

State Department officials are "working with Israeli and Palestinian
officials to ensure the commitments made to us and to each other
are implemented to end the violence," the spokesman said. "The
foremost goal for everyone must be to end the violence."

The spokesman also said Albright is "actively engaged with leaders
in the region with an eye toward restoring calm" along the Israel-
Lebanon border.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has
issued a statement warning U.S. citizens in Lebanon to avoid
traveling anywhere near the southern border and suggesting they
"exercise caution" and "stay clear of crowds and demonstrations." -
- Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=125753

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - U.S. expected to abstain in U.N. Security Council Mideast resolution
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:47:55 -0400

U.S. expected to abstain in U.N. Security Council Mideast
resolution

October 7, 2000
Web posted at: 7:04 PM EDT (2304 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- After two days and nights of deadlock,
the United Nations Security Council was poised Saturday to put a
Middle East resolution to a vote. The United States plans to
abstain from the vote, U.S. officials said.

A majority of U.N. members blame Israel for the upsurge in
violence and are determined to charge Israel in a resolution. If
Washington abstains, the resolution will pass.

The United States has objected to several parts of the proposed
resolution, including language which is critical of Israel and calls
the visit by Israeli Likud official Ariel Sharon to Holy sites in East
Jerusalem a "provocation."

As one of five permanent member countries on the Security
Council, the United States has the right to veto any resolution and
kill it.

The capture of three Israeli soldiers on the Lebanon border,
according to one ambassador, "adds complications" to the
deliberations.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/07/un.security.council/

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Emirate citizen donates 1500 tons of stone for Jerusalem uprising
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:52:53 -0400

Emirate citizen donates 1500 tons of stone for Jerusalem uprising

United Arab Emirates, Politics, 10/6/2000

In an effort to help the Palestinians with supplies of their weapons
(stones) in their uprising against Israel, an Emirati businessman
said he will donate half a million stones quarries made in the
Emirates and the shipping of the stones from Emirates mountains
(weigh more than 1500 tons) to support the Palestinians against
the Israeli forces.

Seddik Fath Ali Bin Abdullah al-Khaga, published an advertisement
in an Emirati newspaper yesterday for the import of the stones and
the quarries and he made a condition that the stones must be flint
which largely exist in the mountains of Ras El Khema and Fojaira
to be prepared in proper sizes to throw at the occupation soldiers
in Palestine.

The Emirati businessman assured that he already received offers
from Emirati companies to import the quarries and the stones,
saying that "there are successful communications to arrange its
arrival to the heroes of the uprising."

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/001006/2000100629.h
tml

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Blair wants EU to become superpower
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:56:31 -0400

Blair wants EU to become superpower

By Benedict Brogan Political Correspondent, in Warsaw

TONY BLAIR enraged Euro-sceptics yesterday by calling for the
EU to become a global superpower to rival the economic and
political strength of America.

The Prime Minister put himself at the forefront of the debate on
Europe's future by setting out a vision of the EU as a world force
based on the "collective power" of its members. He unveiled
proposals to impose more democratic accountability on the
European Commission, including a requirement that it publish an
annual agenda of its plans.

Mr Blair, speaking during a visit to Warsaw, called on the EU to
draw up a "charter of competences" that would set out clearly the
limits of its powers but would stop short of being a fully-fledged
European constitution. In a direct rebuff to France, he rejected calls
for the creation of an exclusive "hard core" of EU members and
called on the EU's elected parliaments and governments to impose
their authority on Brussels.

Mr Blair said: "Whatever its origin, Europe today is no longer just
about peace. It is about projecting collective power. Europe is a
Europe of free, independent sovereign nations who choose to pool
that sovereignty in pursuit of their own interests and the common
good, achieving more together than we can achieve alone. The EU
will remain a unique combination of the intergovernmental and the
supranational.

"Such a Europe can, in its economic and political strength, be a
superpower - a superpower not a superstate." His speech, titled
Europe: building a superpower not a superstate, was seen as an
attempt by Downing Street to match the impact of Margaret
Thatcher's Bruges speech, in which she said "no" to further
European integration.

His chief spokesman said Mr Blair had discussed the contents of
the speech in advance with Chris Patten and Neil Kinnock, Britain's
euro-phile EU commissioners. But the Tories last night warned that
his "dangerous posturing" would endanger Britain's relations with
Nato and America.

Francis Maude, shadow foreign secretary, said: "Tony Blair has
nailed his colours to the mast. Clearly, he wants to be in Europe
and run by Europe. How can the EU be a superpower without being
a superstate? This dangerous posturing will damage Nato and our
relationship with the US."

Mr Blair's attack on France follows Jacques Chirac's call for the
creation of a "pioneer group" of nations headed by France and
Germany to take the lead on further integration.

Mr Blair, who has built alliances with some EU countries uneasy
with France's domination of the Euro project, said: "I have no
problem with greater flexibility or groups of member states going
forward together. But that must not lead to a hard-core; a Europe in
which some member states create their own set of shared policies
and institutions from which others are in practice excluded."

Speaking to Eastern European politicians and businessmen, Mr
Blair tried to draw a distinction between a superpower and a
superstate. The idea of Europe as a superstate, in which politics
were dominated by cross-border institutions, failed the "test of the
people", he said. The basis of democratic accountability in the EU
was the elected governments and parliaments of its members.

Europe and its institutions should concentrate on responding to the
needs of its citizens. That included preventing the EU from
"focusing on things that it doesn't need to do, the interfering part of
Europe that antagonises even Europe's most ardent supporters.

"The problems Europe's citizens have with Europe arise when
Europe's priorities aren't theirs. No amount of institutional change,
most of which passes them by completely, will change that. The
citizens of Europe must feel that they own Europe, not that Europe
owns them." Mr Blair said the European Council, made up of
government ministers, should publish an annual agenda, similar to
the Queen's Speech, that would set out its legislative programme.

In what was interpreted as a rebuke to Romano Prodi, the EU
president, who has tried to emphasise the commission's growing
role in setting the pace for the EU, Mr Blair said the "clear political
direction" should come from the members' elected governments.
On enlargement, he called for the first wave of applicant countries,
including Poland and Hungary, to be made members in time to
take part in the 2004 Euro elections.

He said the expansion of the EU up to 25 or 30 members would
mean streamlining the commission and introducing group
presidencies. Instead of waiting their turn in the rotating presidency
system to come up every 12 or 15 years, members states could
team up. Europe was too diverse and dynamic for a single written
constitution. But he called for the drafting of a statement of
principles defining limits for the EU.

He also proposed the creation of a second chamber, made up of
parliamentarians from member countries, to provide "democratic
oversight".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=gwnSY
w7u&atmo=gwnSYw7u&pg=/et/00/10/7/weu07.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Statue of the virgin of Fatima arriving in Rome
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 19:59:07 -0400

6-Oct-2000 -- ZENIT News Agency

STATUE OF THE VIRGIN OF FATIMA ARRIVING IN ROME

Pope Will Solemnly Entrust Church to Her

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 5, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- Rome is preparing to
receive the statue of the Virgin of Fatima, being brought from
Portugal for the Jubilee of Bishops this weekend.

On Sunday, John Paul II will solemnly entrust the Church and third
millennium to the Virgin Mary.

The statue will be in Rome for three days, returning to Portugal
next Monday morning, after receiving the homage of the Holy
Father and Jubilee pilgrims.

The statue will arrive at Ciampino airport and be privately
transported to the Vatican. It will be taken first to John Paul II's
apartments, where he will pray before Our Lady's image.

On Saturday morning, the statue will be taken in procession to St.
Peter's Basilica, where pilgrims will be able to venerate it.

In the afternoon, the faithful will pray the rosary with the Holy
Father before the image. A procession, beginning at 5:45 p.m., will
accompany the statue from the basilica into St. Peter's Square,
where the Pope will lead the meditations on the mysteries of the
rosary. Cardinals, bishops and five families from different continents
will play an active part during the ceremony.

Sister Lucia and the Carmelite religious of the Convent in Coimbra,
Portugal, will pray the fifth mystery. Sister Lucia is the only
surviving visionary of the three children to whom Our Lady of Fatima
appeared in 1917.

This will be the first time the Pope presides over the World Rosary,
an initiative that began in Mexico in 1996 and spread to 100
countries.

In Mexico City, the rosary will be presided over by Cardinal
Norberto Rivera Carrera in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Pope's praying of the rosary in Rome will be televised.

(For more information see:
www.churchforum.org/rosario/english.htm. Or send an e-mail to:
rosario@churchforum.org.)

At the end of the ceremony, the statue will cross St. Peter's
Square and be accompanied in procession to the "Mater Ecclesia"
convent of cloistered nuns in the Vatican. Nuns who reside in
Vatican City will take part in this procession.

On Sunday, at 10 a.m., the Pope will preside over a concelebrated
Mass during which he will read the consecration to Mary before the
image of Our Lady of Fatima. All the bishops present will
pronounce the act of consecration together with the Pope. The
Vatican has not yet published the text of the act of consecration.

On Monday morning, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of
state, will preside over a farewell ceremony for the Virgin of Fatima
in the St. Damasus patio in the Vatican. The statue will leave from
Fiumicino airport for the return trip to Portugal.

On May 13 of this year, John Paul II visited Fatima to beatify the
two little shepherds, Jacinta and Francisco Marto. At that time
Cardinal Sodano was instructed by the Pope to reveal details of the
so-called third secret of Fatima (see ZENIT, May 14, 2000).

Later, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith presented
Sister Lucia's manuscript with the revelations, together with a
theological commentary (see ZENIT documents, June 26:
www.zenit.org/english/archive/documents/FATIMA_ENG.html).
ZE00100505

http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=7751

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

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