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European Observers Cut Patrols After Settlers Attack
JERUSALEM, Aug 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As Israel awaits a U.S. veto on a U.N. resolution to deploy international monitors in the Occupied Territories, observers already stationed in the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron have cut down patrol numbers after being attacked by Jewish settlers, a spokesman told news agencies.
The spokesman for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) said, "For about a week we came under attack from Jewish settlers, who threw stones at our vehicles.
"The scaling down has been in place since Sunday and will remain until we receive new orders."
A Washington Post article quoted the chief of the observer mission, Karl-Henrik Sjursen of Norway, as saying that the downscaling of the operation "is because of the great number of attacks committed by some of the settlers."
"Our observers have been kicked, spat at, dragged from their cars and had boulders thrown at them," Sjursen said in the article.
The 85 monitors - among them, Danes, Swedes, Swiss, Norwegians, Italians and Turks - were first deployed after the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians by a Jewish settler while they prayed in a Hebron mosque, and since 1996 have been patrolling continuously, the Post article said.
But the 450 Jewish settlers in Hebron seem to suspect them of being allied with the town's 120,000 Palestinians - who in turn regard the monitors as ineffectual, being unarmed and just as susceptible to attacks as any Palestinian, the article continued.
Some of Hebron's settlers, who have not only clashed with Palestinians but with Israeli soldiers deployed there to protect them, have twisted the acronym TIPH to stand for "Two Idiots Patrolling Hebron," the Post said, adding that settlers have recently been endangering the lives of monitors by throwing rocks into their cars.
Two observers in a car bearing a flag and the initials of the International Observer Corps typically carry out the patrols.
The Israeli army also patrols the area of the town where the Observer Corps have scaled down their rounds.
The Israeli army pulled out of 80% of Hebron in 1997, but continues to occupy the area in the center around the Jewish settlement.
The TIPH has its mandate renewed every six months and aims to restore the Palestinians' sense of security in an area, where tensions seem to be at a permanent high.
Meanwhile, speaking on Israeli public radio, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Yehuda Lancry said that the U.S. position on international monitors has not changed "and in the past they have opposed any such Palestinian plan."
But, he said Israel has not received any specific assurances from Washington.
The current Security Council session is the first on the Middle East since March 27th, when the United States vetoed a resolution to send international observers to the occupied Palestinian Territories.
The session went ahead despite the opposition of Israel, which regards the Security Council's involvement as an "internationalization" of the conflict.
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Nasser al-Kidwa, denounced the inaction of the world body in the Middle East at the opening of the debate, and demanded that a resolution be adopted to bring about a cessation of violence.
According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, the United States made it clear Monday in the U.N. Security Council debate that it would not endorse a resolution dealing with the Mideast crisis that includes a Palestinian demand for observers to be sent to the region.
Acting U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said that his government was opposed to "attempts to apportion blame to only one side of the conflict through the use of biased resolutions."
"What is required now," he added, "is not rhetoric, not debate that polarizes an already volatile situation, and certainly not an effort to condemn one side with unbalanced charges or to impose unworkable ideas that will not change the reality on the ground."
The resolution draft, backed by Arab and Muslim states, calls for an end to Israel's takeover of Orient House - the semi-official Palestinian headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem - an immediate cessation of violence, and the creation of a monitoring mechanism.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has expressed persistent opposition to the idea of a monitoring force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Two efforts by the Palestinians to get the U.N. to decide on an observer force have been blocked in the last eight months by the United States. As a result, the prevailing view in the U.N. is that the draft will not pass and the debate will end without any concrete gains for the Palestinians.
"The debate will afford the Palestinians a public relations advantage, but little more than that," a western diplomat told
Ha'aretz.
But in spite of the unrest and continued violence in the region, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer arrived in the Middle East to attend a round of meetings aimed at finding solutions to curb the violence, the Post article said.
The article quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as saying on army radio Israeli after meeting with Fischer, "We did not ask for this war and we have every interest in the world to end it."
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