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| Middle East |
| Hamas Plans To Kidnap Israeli Soldiers To Exchange For Palestinian Prisioners |
| 2003-01-15 |
| Source: Palestine Information Centre Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has affirmed that his Movement was strenuously working for the release of Palestinian detainees from Zionist occupation jails. As Gilbert and Suleiman put it: "Now every man/to save his clan/should plot and plan/as best he can"... The Sheikh was speaking during a program called "Face the press" organized by the Palestinian information ministry yesterday at the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza in the presence of numerous officials and popular figures and relatives of detainees. All the Paleoswells were there... Yassin affirmed that resistance would continue and Zionist soldiers would be kidnapped and swapped for Palestinian prisoners in its capacity as the sole path towards extricating detainees from their imprisonment ordeal. Hamas isn't really the Paleos' sole path to hell, but it's the widest and straightest... He addressed the prisoners saying, "you are in our hearts and minds and we will not forget or forsake you. The day will inevitably come when all will be liberated because the will of people is stronger than that of the occupier". "Until that day comes, don't worry about rotting..." The Hamas leader lashed out at the international community for its silence towards what was happening in Palestine and regarding the issue of the prisoners. "The world is not moving because the great Satan has closed its eyes and ears as far as that case is concerned and as far as occupation and its massacres are concerned. But we will never be desperate because if the whole world forsake us we know that Allah will not abandon us", he elaborated. The Great Satan, huh? Snappy description. Wonder where he got that? Yassin stressed that the battle for releasing the prisoners was part of the escalating resistance in Palestine and added, "We will strongly proceed along that road. We are ready for martyrdom and our enemy will be forced to flee our country in the end". "Those guys are ready for martyrdom, anyway. I'm too important to the movement, myself..." He expressed conviction that Palestinian detainees would be only set free after Zionist soldiers were captured for that purpose. The Sheikh affirmed that the Palestinian people would continue to pursue all forms of resistance before and after Zionist elections because occupation never ceased aggression against the Palestinians who were daily burying martyrs and suffering from Zionist state terrorism. The Palestinian people have all the right to defend themselves, he asserted. ... by killing as many people at random as they can. For his part, the Palestinian minister of detainees and ex-detainees affairs, Hisham Abdul Razek, castigated the Red Cross for not shouldering its supposed role at a time when the number of Palestinian captives was rapidly growing. He noted that the number of prisoners had reached 8,000 and highlighted that their sufferings had greatly increased in the past three months. The minister explained that Palestinian prisoners were liable to daily beatings and charged the Zionist occupation authorities of using dogs in searching their cells. He pointed out, in this regard, that detainees at the desert prison of Nafha did not see the sun for three weeks. "Moshe, where you goin'?" "Down to beat some prisoners." "Tusk-tusk. With that club? That'll never do. Here. Use this one." He elaborated that sick detainees were suffering from lack of medical services, adding that detainees in Ofer prison were attacked by teargas and no treatment was offered to the 40 prisoners who suffered from suffocation as a result. Just tear-gassed them for no reason, huh? Happens all the time, I'll bet... Abdul Razak asked the Red Cross to retain permanent observers in Zionist detention camps especially those that contained only tents such as Ofer and Negev. He appealed to the Red Cross and the UN to immediately work for saving the prisoners from such treatment and to force the Zionist authorities to treat them as prisoners of war. "They're not common criminals. They're uncommon criminals..." He highlighted that detainees kidnapped from Palestinian Authority areas should not stand trial before Zionist courts because such trials violated the international law. "It does, really! It's in the books somewhere. You could look it up..." The minister also criticized the proposed American Road-map plan because it did not mention the question of detainees, opining that the PA and the Palestinian forces would not accept any settlement ignoring the issue of those detainees. Probably because we don't give a short methane emission. What's happened here is the usual: "We ain't negotiating. Bring us a peace plan that'll solve all our problems and we'll tell you what's wrong with it. And until you give us everything we want, we gonna keep on killing people." Other speakers referred to the Zionist occupation authorities prevention of family visits to those detainees. They demanded additional national efforts to enlarge the issue into an international question. "Let's see if we can get some mileage out of this, guys!" The higher prisoners committee affiliated with the national and Islamic forces handed the director of the Red Cross office a message elaborating on Zionist torture methods and repressive measures pursued against Palestinian detainees including denying them their simplest human rights. It asked the Red Cross to shoulder its responsibility in that matter and to monitor the application of international resolutions, agreements and treatments in that regard. "But don't bother us Paleos with that crap, because we're busy, see?" |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Could this change of strategy ("TAKE prisoners for hostage exchanges!") be related to the fact that Hamas leaders are now under arrest? Let's see, if anyone gets kidnapped, who Hamas will demand be released. Two will getcha one that they'll ask for the leaders first, rather than failed boomers who might want to try again... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-01-16 11:11:02 |
| #1 Don't you wonder if Yassin's aware that it's only through the grace and/or strategic thinking of Sharon that he's not spread over a several-block area of Gaza? Why do they let this A-hole live? It's not as if he can see the bombs coming... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-01-15 19:35:22 |