Israeli and Lebanese Kidnappers Trade Captives
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At the culmination of 3 years of negotiations, Israel and the Lebanon-based political and militia organization Hizbullah, exchanged live captives and corpses Thursday.
The deal, brokered in part by Germany, saw the release of an Israeli gambler and reserve military officer, plus the bodies of three Israeli soldiers killed during an incursion inside Lebanese territory in 2000, reported the Israeli English daily Ha’aretz.
For its part, Israel released 29 mostly Lebanese men said to be Hizbullah members, some 401 Palestinians (Arabic News) accused by Israel of various crimes including "belonging to a terrorist organization," and the bodies of 59 Hizbullah fighters killed resisting the decades-long Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, Guardian Unlimited reports. Around 7,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody, according to Palestinian sources.
In Israel, many hardliners, including leaders inside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likkud Party and the extremist National Union Party, expressed disappointment in Sharon for the exchange. Israeli Security Council head Uzi Dayan told Israeli TV the deal "encourages extortion," according to United Press International.
According to ABC News, Hizbullah is not the only local group to kidnap for purposes of extortion: "Israel, too, has taken prisoners to use as bargaining chips: It kidnapped the Lebanese guerrilla leaders Obeid and Dirani in 1989 and 1994 respectively as leverage for the release of Ron Arad, an Israeli airman shot down over Lebanon in 1986."
Most Western media outlets and sources have claimed the three Israeli bodies returned in the exchange were those of men "captured" alive, implying they might have been executed in captivity. However, ABC News reported, "Examinations of the bodies determined that they died shortly after the attack," referring to the October, 2000 assault in which the Israeli occupation troops were grabbed. ABC News also reported Hizbullah’s leader said he would have preferred to have captured the soldiers alive.
Ha’aretz reported speculation that the captive Israel received in the exchange, Colonel Elhanan Tennenbaum, will be held by Israeli authorities indefinitely, and is presently undergoing an interrogation by Israeli military officials. Information surrounding his presence in Lebanon, which is frowned upon for Israeli citizens not involved in military incursions or occupation, may have included additional illicit activity. Some Israelis suspect he may be charged with treason for providing material support to Hizbullah.
Despite reports that Tennenbaum had been subjected to severe torture during his captivity in Lebanon -- rumors including the removal of the his teeth, used by Sharon to argue the urgency of Tennenbaum’s release -- Ha’aretz and other news sources report Tennenbaum was unharmed and had been treated for his diabetese during captivity.
According to various Middle Eatern news sources and international human rights groups, Arab captives are routinely mistreated in Israeli hands, including subjection to torture and solitary confinement.
The captives returned alive to Lebanon were greeted with large celebrations, while the nearly 60 bodies of fallen Hizbullah fighters were welcomed home by a funeral procession.
Western sources have widely reported that Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, credited with having brokered the deal from the Lebanese side, threatened shortly afterwards to continue kidnapping Israelis until all Hizbullah and Palestinian prisoners are released.
Nasrallah portrayed the deal as a victory for and a gift to all Arab people, according to the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram. Lebanese and other Middle Eastern media outlets are said to have been full of praise for Hizbullah in response to the development.
Jumping on the bandwagon, the Palestinian militia Hamas has reportedly claimed it will begin kidnapping Israelis to use as bargaining chips. The Arab news site Al Bawaba quoted Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as saying Hamas "will spare no effort to kidnap Israeli soldiers."
Palestinian Kills 10 in Jerusalem; Israel Retaliates Against Bomber’s Family, Neighbors
In an operation he previously called retaliation for Wednesday’s killing of eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian human bomber killed himself and ten others in Jerusalem, wounding over 40, more than ten of them seriously.
The bombing took place on a crowded city bus as it passed within meters of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence. Sharon was reportedly not home at the time.
The Independent (London) reported that, in an unprecedented maneuver, the Israeli government has released "horrific video footage" of the bombing’s immediate aftermath. The footage is said to show dismembered body parts and a chunk of human flesh hanging from metal, but reveals no details that would allow for the identification of any victims. The Independent also said the tape’s release is part of a new strategy by Israel to justify the barrier it is building inside the West Bank.
Police sources told reporters the bomb had been packed with nuts and bolts in order to maximize casualties.
The bomber was a Palestinian tourism policeman named Ali Muneer Jaara. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigrade, the militia group tied to Fatah claimed responsibility. According to the International Herald Tribune, in a note left behind by Jaara he said the bombing was a reprisal for eight Palestinians whom Israeli forces killed in Al-Zeitun, Gaza, on Wednesday. Reports from Gaza stated that Israeli forces killed three civilians and five militants during a the Al-Zeitun clash. The French humanitarian group Médecins du Mondesaid in a press release that Israeli troops fired on ambulance personnel at the scene, slightly wounding one Palestinian medic.
Ha’aretz later reported that Hamas has also claimed responsibility for the terrorist bombing.
As has become routine, the Israeli military was swift to retaliate. Thursday night troops invaded Jaara’s hometown, a refugee camp outside Bethlehem in the West Bank, and razed his family home with explosives after relatives evacuated the residence, reports the BBC.
The BBC reported witnesses as saying the Israeli forces also abducted a dozen Palestinians during the raid, which only lasted a few hours.
US Fears ‘Troublesome Precedent’ if World Court Hears Barrier Case
Fearing the precedent it might set, the United States has officially objected to the World Court’s jurisdiction on the matter of the barrier being constructed by Israel inside Palestinian territory, Israeli news sources report. The International Court of Justice (World Court, or ICJ) in The Hague has said it will hear the Palestinian case against the barrier at the request of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to Reuters, the US’s public statement about the brief it filed today called the barrier dispute a "political issue" outside the domain of the ICJ. The only other countries to officially dispute the World Court’s jurisdiction on this matter are the United Kingdom and Israel itself, though some UN member nations voiced opposition to the ICJ taking on the case.
While both the UK and the US have criticized the barrier, Israeli papers like Ha’aretz and the conservative Jerusalem Post have stated the US is concerned about the "dangerous precedent" a ruling by the World Court on this matter might set. Many sources have speculated that chief among Washington’s concerns is that a ruling could affect current US efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
According to the Zionist paper The Jewish Week, "Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League [a pro-Israel Washington lobby group], said U.S. officials are aware that any legal ruling against Israel’s fence could set a troublesome international precedent."
"If the court were to start taking up legal questions that have very strong political overtones, such as this one, that would be very problematic for the United States," Cornell Law School international law expert David Wippman told the American Jewish publication Forward earlier this month.
Forward also quoted a "pro-Israel activist" as saying, "If the ICJ rules that it does have jurisdiction over the fence, it means that everything Israel does in the territories is subject to U.N. oversight, and you can imagine the implications."
Pro-Palestinian activists have been calling for greater international oversight of the conflict areas since the beginning of the second Intifada in September, 2000, and have documented hundreds of alleged Israeli violations of international law.
The controversial separation barrier has been under construction since Summer 2002 and now snakes deep inside West Bank territory. It effectively separates some Palestinian villages from what most of the world recognizes as rightful Palestinian territory, and all but surrounds other Palestinian population centers within its 8-meter walls, electric fences and fortified guard posts.
Red Crescent Ambulance Crew, Patient Used as Human Shields
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported in a press release on Thursday that one of its ambulances in the Hebron area was forcibly used to protect Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) personnel firing on Palestinians in Al-Aroub refugee camp. The ambulance crew reported three soldiers threatened to shoot them if they did not comply with orders to escort the troops into Al-Aroub. The ambulance was carrying an elderly patient home at the time of the incident. Once inside the camp, the crew says soldiers "jumped onto the back of the ambulance" and opened fire on residents.
The PRCS says the reported IDF activity was in clear violation of at least four articles of the first Geneva Convention, guaranteeing protection of medical personnel and civilians.
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The IDF has made no public comment on the incident.
