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| Middle East |
| PA condemns attacks on its officials |
| 2002-05-15 |
| Palestinian Authority officials strongly condemned attacks against officials by masked men yesterday, calling them acts of "lawlessness and anarchy" and demanding the PA investigate who is behind the assaults. Some PA officials said the attacks are part of a power struggle within the Palestinian community. Really? Who'd ever have expected such a thing? Last week, activists from PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement tried to harm Arafat's financial adviser Muhammad Rashid at his Ramallah home, Israel Radio reported yesterday. Rashid was not at home at the time of the attempted attack, and PA sources said Arafat ordered him to stay abroad until the situation calms. And check your car twice before you get in it... Fatah has accused Rashid of corruption and has demanded that Arafat fire him and put him on trial. Lately there has been a lot of anger addressed at Rashid for his role in ending the Bethlehem standoff. Fatah said the PA had legitimized deportations. One PA source admitted that Rashid negotiated the deal on behalf of Arafat. Since no one dares to criticize the PA leader, they target Rashid instead, he explained. Kind of hard on Rashid, but what the hell? As long as Yasser's okay... [Hanan] Asfour, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, [who was beaten with a crowbar yesterday] said from his hospital bed yesterday that Israel may have been behind the assault. He insisted that the attack was not connected to internal PA politics. If he blames it on the Jews instead of the Palestinians they might not come back and pour gasoline into his IV bottle. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |