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| Middle East |
| Arafat accused of genocide |
| 2003-03-04 |
| Seven French nationals have started legal action against the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, accusing him of crimes against humanity and genocide. The seven — all relatives of Jewish victims killed during the current Palestinian uprising, or intifada — said Mr Arafat was responsible for the crimes. "[Yasser] Arafat had the power and the means to stop acts of terrorism, murders and violence... [but] he organised and paid for them with the money of the Palestinian Authority," the seven families — all French Jews living in Israel — said in a statement. Aha, not your usual "nous aimons Saddam" tadpoles then... (Ta, Babelfish) The statement said Mr Arafat did not have immunity of a head of state under French laws as there was no internationally recognised Palestinian state. A specially appointed judge must now determine whether the lawsuit can be accepted and pursued legally. Who's responbible for these special appointments, I wonder. And will the next step be the European Court of Human Rights when Chiraq's crony stonewalls? I'd enjoy watching that... The statement said the suit included dozens of pages describing circumstances surrounding various "criminal acts, suicide bombings... and car bombs which caused death or injury to the victims of the crimes". It said video tapes of speeches at Gaza mosques "inciting directly and publicly to kill Jews" and some of Mr Arafat's speeches were also included. Fun experiment for anyone to try: substitute "Jews" for your own race or nationality, and see how you like it. Incitement of genocide's not nice, is it? Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that as Jews, they considered themselves victims of "a concerted plan aimed at the partial destruction of a racial or religious group, which constitutes a genocide". The move follows the recent decision by a Belgian appeals court to reject a lawsuit brought by Palestinians to prosecute Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged war crimes. Maybe they couldn't find their tape on which Sharon called for the murder of all Paleos... However, the Belgian parliament has not ruled out changing the country's laws to bring the case before the court. Who was it told the Belgians they were the moral ubermenschen anyway? Somehow, I don't think the Belgians have really thought things through. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #4 Oops. I missed that, Bulldog. Thanks for the clarification. But I still think the article was written early in the morning by someone with little experience and probably a severe hangover. |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2003-03-04 14:49:14 |
| #3 "Oddly enough, the article is from the BBC -- supposedly a real professional outfit." The operative word here is "supposedly". |
| Posted by: Pink & Fluffy 2003-03-04 14:09:58 |
| #2 Patrick, I was wondering about that myself, but the charges must have been filed in France: "...Mr Arafat did not have immunity of a head of state under French laws as there was no internationally recognised Palestinian state.". |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-04 05:15:26 |
| #1 A funny thing about this article: you can't tell for sure where the charges against Arafat have been filed. The last paragraphs imply that it's in Belgium, but the first paragraphs say nothing specific about that. I'm no journalist, but whatever happened to the old idea of making "who,what,why,when, and how" as clear as possible in the first paragraph of the story? Oddly enough, the article is from the BBC -- supposedly a real professional outfit. |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2003-03-04 04:56:27 |