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| Middle East |
| Israel Denies Palestinian Trip |
| 2002-09-08 |
| Israeli authorities have barred 12 Palestinian lawmakers from traveling from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to attend a parliamentary session discussing democratic reforms sought by Israel and the United States, officials said Sunday. The 88-member Legislative Council, the Palestinians' nascent parliament, is convening Monday in the West Bank town of Ramallah in a session expected to discuss sweeping reforms of Arafat's self-rule authority. "Yeah. We're gonna reform stuff. Important stuff. Stuff like... ummmm... important stuff." Ofir Haham, an official for the Israeli civil administration in the Gaza Strip, said anyone deemed a security risk would not be allowed to travel for the session, though he said the majority would be able to attend. ``I can say that most of them will be able to enter Ramallah,'' Haham said. Ahmed Queria, the council speaker, said 12 lawmakers were denied permission to travel from the Gaza Strip. Oh, so it's not all of them? That's a little more reasonable... The council has not had a full session since violence broke out in September 2000, with Gazans prevented from attending by Israeli closures. For the past two years, only about 30 or so members have been able to attend, and sessions have often resorted to video-conferencing and telephone calls. Tough, ain't it? Maybe they should consider whether it's to their advantage to have people exploding all over the place? Wajih Yaghi, a 13th lawmaker to whom Israel denied permission to travel Sunday, died more than two years ago, Palestinian officials said. Well, why'd he want to go then? Palestinians need Israeli permission to leave Gaza and to travel through Israel to the West Bank. Israeli authorities decide according to a person's security background whether to grant the permit. Sounds like good sense to me... "I packed your bag for your trip to Ramallah, honey. Your toothbrush and razor are in your shaving kit, in the black bag, and your clean shirts are in the blue one. Your dynamite belt's in the gray Samsonite, with your grenades." ``Israel by this has proved to the world that they are working to sabotage the Palestinian political process and political institutions,'' said Kamal Sharafi, one of the barred Gazan legislators. ``We are representatives of our people, elected by the people and we have the full right to attend the session.'' Ummm... Aren't the Paleos "proving to the world" that they're homicidal lunatics if their legislators can't be trusted not to blow up or gun down a couple busloads of people? Or am I missing something? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |