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Israeli and Palestinian organizations warn that
Israeli might use the war to execute the 'transfer"
The Palestinian-Israeli Emergency Committee from the Peace Camp expressed on March 18, 2003 concern that the Israeli government might exploit the war on Iraq to transfer the Palestinians and President Yasser Arafat abroad. Jeff Halper, an activist in the Israeli Peace Movement, said in a press conference in East Jerusalem: We as Israeli organizations from the peace camp and Palestinian NGOs express our concern that the Israeli right wing government might exploit the war on Iraq to expel Palestinians abroad or transfer them from their villages to other regions inside the West Bank. Halper added: Such activities might be implemented by activists from the armed settlers; we fear that the Israeli army will intensify its pressure on the Palestinian people through closures and long term curfew that might lead to famine and mass demolition of homes and cutting off electricity. He continued: We as peace groups vow that we will prevent such activities and we called on the soldiers in the army to refrain from obeying instructions to execute such illegitimate decisions that target civilians. Uri Avnery, an activist in the Israeli peace movement, said: We were able in the 1967 war to save the city of Qalqilia from evicting it from its residents, especially when the Israeli authorities started demolishing a whole quarter inside it but we could not stop them from demolishing the three villages: Nouba, Yalo and Imwas, which are located west of Jerusalem. Attorney Mohammed Abu Harthiye said at a press conference in Ramallah yesterday: our task in the human rights organizations is to prevent the psychological and media war and prevent the distortion of facts to the Palestinians and the spread of rumors in order to terrorize the people. We started contacts everywhere to want the citizens not to leave their homes and not to listen the rumors or any Israeli reports about massacres and not to leave their villages under any condition so that the tragedy of 1948 wont be repeated.
Published on Al Hayat Al Jadida Newspapers on March 19, 2003
Other issues:
Crying Wolf? - Fears of Transfer Under War; by Uri Avnery - March 15, 2003
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