REDEFINING THE "SERIOUSNESS" OF WAR CRIMES
NEW PRECENDENT MAY HAVE BEEN SET
Jerusalem -- In response to the BBC's showing of a documentary, "The Accused," in which several International Law experts indicate that Sharon is eminently indictable, the Israeli Government asked with exasperation "Why are they unearthing that old story?
That's old news, no longer important!"
Swiss government and banking officials and surviving members of the Vichy government in France, as well as aging Nazi collaborators everywhere, breathed a sigh of relief. If war crimes from 1982 are "old news," then surely war crimes from the 1940s can now be ignored and forgotten.
Meanwhile, an anonymous US press source told a European colleague that the US media has not yet covered the story of Sharon's potential indictment "because it has not yet reached the threshold of seriousness."
Chetniks throughout Serbia and former members of the Pol Pot militia in Cambodia were said to be celebrating. If the tally of those killed by Sharon's hands in 1953 (69 in the Palestinian village of Qibya), 1956 ( 270 Egyptian prisoners of war), in 1971 (104 Palestinians in Gaza), and IN 1982 (from 800 to 2570 unarmed Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in the Sabra and Shatila camps) does not meet a "threshold of seriousness," chances look good for Chetnik and Cambodian killers to also escape the long arm of justice. If they embrace Zionism and move to a settlement in the West Bank, they can be doubly sure of beating a war crimes rap.
Loreh Al-Malekah
| July 3rd, 2001 Dear Al-Bassaleh, Have you noticed the remarkable similarity between Israeli defence minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer and the Star Wars character Jabba the Hutt? Thank you for your continued commitment to publishing the truth! John Stevens Portland, Oregon Got one? Send in your own look-alike suggestions of Israeli and Palestinian notables to:bassaleh@electronicIntifada.net |  |
| NEWS IN BRIEF |
 Protest: Despite a kill rate of one Palestinian per stone, The Union of Israeli Tank Commanders today issued a strongly-worded protest at the "life-threatening situations" their tank crews were being placed in, in the field. Above, the poster for their campaign, showing an Israeli tank buried up to the turret in rocks and pebbles, in what union leader Moshe Merkeva called, "an all too common situation."  Mabrook! Ahmed Al-Rabbah, 10, was the delighted winner of a competition by Gazan farmers to guess the exact number of watermelons piled on the Palestinian side of Erez checkpoint due to the continuing Israeli seige. His correct answer, 12,437, netted him as many as he could carry home. |