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totally
unacceptable and horrific beyond belief: Larsen
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, April 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Hawkish
Israeli premier Ariel Sharon on Sunday told his ministries to boycott
U.N. special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen for his outspoken criticism of
Israel
's conduct in the devastated Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, army
radio said.
"I've
ordered all ministries to cut all contact" with Roed-Larsen, Sharon
told his weekly cabinet meeting, the radio said.
The
government also examined an announcement by Attorney General Elyakim
Rubinstein that
Israel
could declare the Norwegian envoy "persona non grata" for
calling its bludgeoning of the camp, home to civilians "totally
unacceptable."
No
immediate decision was made on the latter suggestion, though Rubinstein
reportedly said the government would have legal grounds to do so, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Roed-Larsen
visited the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday and described the destruction
as "totally unacceptable and horrific beyond belief".
"It
is totally destroyed, it looks like an earthquake has hit it," he
said.
He
said it was "morally repugnant" for
Israel
to have refused for 11 days after the battle finished to allow aid
groups or rescue teams into the camp to search for people buried in the
ruins.
Hundreds
of Palestinian children, youths, women and elder men were killed in a
"massacre" committed by Israeli occupation forces.
U.N.
Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution to send a
fact-finding mission "to establish the facts" of what happened
in the refugee camp.
Asked
on Israeli military radio for his reaction to the prospect of being
declared persona non grata, Roed-Larsen said: "I will comment on
this if it happens, but I cannot see any reason for it."
A
senior Israeli official quoted in the Jerusalem Post Sunday said that
Israel
would also object to the inclusion of U.N. Human Rights High
Commissioner Mary Robinson, who like Roed-Larsen is seen by officials as
biased against
Israel
.
Roed-Larsen
played an important role in establishing contacts between Israel and the
Palestinians in the lead-up to the 1993 Oslo accords which granted
self-rule to the Palestinians in areas of the West Bank and Gaza, and
which have been seriously eroded by nearly 19 months of low-level war.
He
was already slammed by the
Israel
ultra-nationalist wing for his role in the
Oslo
negotiations.
Palestinian
hospital sources have so far found fewer than 50 bodies in the ruins of
the camp, a shanty town originally built for Palestinians who fled their
homes in Israel during the 1948 war and which are now crowded with them
and their children.
No
exact figures as to how many bodies might still be under the ruins are
yet known.
