Netanyahu threatens to close Palestinian offices
Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of his intention to
close the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) office in
Jesusalem, known as Orient House, as the Israeli election campaign
hots up. Orient House is an old hotel in the Arab quarter in East
Jerusalem. It could be considered as the Foreign Office Department of
the Palestinian government. Netanyahu also ordered the arrests of 25
of the Palestinian party's officials, including Faisal Huseini, head
of the PLO in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has chosen as the central issue of his campaign the
preservation of Jerusalem as the indivisible Jewish capital, and the
office closure threats and arrests signal his move from words into
actions.
Five candidates are competing for election as Israeli prime minister.
The contenders with some chance of become elected are the current
prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu for the Likud, Ehud Barak of the
Labour Party, and Yitzhak Mordechai of the newly created Center
Party. None of them can expect to be elected on the first round on 17
May, and the Likud and Labor candidates will have to face a second
round on 1 June.
Thirty three parties will contest the parliamentary elections on 17
May. It is what is called a ``closed list'' elections, with voters
choosing the party they want to vote for and supporting a list of 120
names that represent the number of seats in the parliament (Knesset).
Four lists will appeal to the Arab citizens, who make up 12% of the
electorate. These are the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality,
led by the Communist Party, the National Democratic Alliance, with
Yasir Arafat's advisor on Israeli affairs on its list, the Arab
Democratic Party, and the Organisation for Democratic Action, which
opposes the Oslo Agreement.
New evidence on ETA volunteer's death
Forensic and photographic evidence and witness testimonies are
indicating that the suspicions of members of the pro-indepencence
Basque movement in relation to the death of ETA volunteer José Luis
Geresta could be right. Spokesperson for Herri Batasuna, Arnaldo
Otegi, said that the death of Geresta, whose body was found on a
field nearby the town of Orereta, in Gipuzkoa, should have not been
treated as a suicide, as there were suspicions involved of a return
of the dirty war directed by the Spanish state's security forces.
The evidence gathered by Basque newspaper GARA shows that there are
very suspicious elements surrounding Geresta's death, as the
positioning of the ETA member's body was incompatible with the
positioning of a body of someone who has shot himself on the temple.
He was found lying on his back, with his arms stretched alongside his
body and his legs also stretched. Furthermore, the gun used was lying
30 centimetres to the left of the body, while the bullet's entry
wound was on the right side of his head. Although Geresta was not
wearing gloves, there were no fingerprints on the gun found at the
scene nor on the lighter or money in his trousers pocket.
Two of Geresta's back teeth were missing, and the forensic expert
concluded they were extracted shortly before his death. His jaw was
broken.
A cousin of Geresta, who saw him three days before his body was
found, declared that the ETA volunteer told him that the police were
after him. Geresta's sister, Miren, explained that the family are
ready to keep fighting until the truth comes out, although they know
they face an uphill battle.
Police Brutality in the US
``Fourteen-year-old Jenni Hightower was killed in March 1998 in
Trenton, New Jersey, after police fired 20 shots into the stolen car
in which she was a passenger. The driver, 16 year-old Hubert Moore,
was critically injured. A state grand jury declined to file criminal
charges against the officers when they argued that the teenagers had
tried to run them down.'' This is one of the cases highlighted by an
Amnesty International report on Police Brutality in the U.S.,
presented to the United Nations' Human Rights Commission, and which
highlighted ``the widespread and persistent'' abuses inflicted by
police officers on U.S. citizens.
The last example on a very long list, a 22-year-old Guinean immigrant
and street vendor, Amadou Diallo, was gunned down by four white
policemen in the vestibule of the building where he lived in the
Bronx in the early morning of 4 February. According to a New York
medical examiner, Diallo was struck at least 19 times. So much for
the ``zero tolerance'' policy of Mayor Giuliani, which some Irish
politicians are so set on introducing in Ireland.
The United States of America, the `model democracy', has some of the
most violent police officers, who will kick, punch or baton suspects
who have already being restrained. The use of excessive physical
force and batons, chemical sprays and electro-shock weapons account
for most of the complaints presented against police departments,
together with the deaths caused by dangerous restraint holds and
shooting incidents. But there is another aspect to the pattern of
abuse: racism.
Amnesty International's report points out that the majority of
victims are members of racial or ethnic minorities, while most police
departments remain predominantly white. African-Americans, Hispanics,
and Native Indians ``are more likely than whites to be stopped and
searched without cause.
`Race-based police profiles' label every black driver a suspected
drug offender'', a practice so common it is widely known as ``driving
while black''. This racial bias has caused the deaths of 23 black
undercover police officers at the hands of fellow officers in New
York City alone.
In a ten-year period, 94 suspects have died as a consequence of
restraint-related in-custody deaths, involving hogtying - where a
suspect's ankles are bound from behind to the wrists - or after
pressure has been applied to the neck or chest.
The Amnesty International document points out how officers are rarely
prosecuted for excessive force and the inadequacy of the sanctions
imposed on officers found guilty of brutality. Impunity is related to
``the code of silence'', as in most cases other police officers will be
the only witnesses to the abuses or killings. Civil rights and
community groups have frequently questioned the impartiality of
criminal investigations, claiming that local prosecutors depend on
police cooperation.
In recent years there have been moves to introduce independent
oversight of the complaints process in some U.S. police departments.
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