Monday, June 6, 2005
Haaretz: Israel works to prevent PA execution of 50 collaborators
Israel has gone to great lengths to prevent the Palestinian Authority from executing approximately 50 Palestinians convicted of collaborating with Israel. Along with its appeal to senior PA officials, Israel approached U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer on the matter, and went ahead with the release of Palestinian security prisoners last Thursday only after the PA said it did not intend to carry out the sentences.
Three months ago, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) authorized the execution of the 50, who had been convicted of aiding Israeli security forces. Shortly thereafter, the head of the PA military tribunals, Saib al-Kidwa, said that 15 of the convicted men would be executed in the following weeks, after their sentences had been vetted by the senior religious authority in the PA, Sheikh Akrima Sabri...
Still searching for signs of the possibility of a secular, binational future state where human rights are protected I keep hearing about...
It is interesting, how Amnesty International, along with other 'rights' organizations, prioritize and de-prioritize their various initiatives. Yet, unabashedly, they promote the facade that their agendas are apolitical beyond the right's concern itself.
Riiiiight. As if the parents of two children, in deciding to feed one child while refraining from feeding the other child at dinner time don't have some agenda, some issues, they're dealing with. Trust us folks, everything is fine here, move right along now; no, no questions today please, move right along, all is well, trust us.