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Israel, Palestinians Lash Out At U.S. Report Of Rights Abuses
JERUSALEM, Feb 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel and the Palestinians both rejected on Tuesday the findings of a U.S. government report on human rights that criticized their actions during five months of deadly unrest that has engulfed the region.
In its annual report on human rights around the world, the State Department yesterday faulted Israel for using "excessive force" and Palestinian forces for participating in, or at least failing to prevent, violent attacks that contributed to a cycle of bloodshed, according to the Washington Post.
A total of 420 people have been killed in the fighting, more than 80% of them Palestinians. Specific numbers of dead include 345 Palestinians, 61 Israeli soldiers and settlers, 13 Israeli Arabs and one German.
The state department criticized Palestinian security forces and members of Arafat's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization for killing Israeli soldiers and civilians.
At the same time, it faulted the Palestinian Authority for failing to forcefully clamp down on "terrorism" and prevent attacks on Jews by angry Arab mobs.
"Since September, the Palestinian Authority has engaged in over 3,000 live ammunition attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians," it added.
Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority denounced the report as "unfair."
"This report equates the victim and the executioner," Palestinian justice minister Freih Abu Meddein told AFP. "Resistance of occupation is not the same as actions carried out by the occupier, and trying to equate the two is unfair."
"The report must talk about our 33-year occupation," Abu Meddein said. "There is occupation, and it is a legitimate right to resist occupation, and the security services and Fatah have the right to resist the war against us. We are in a state of self-defense."
Also in the report, Israel, the U.S.'s top ally in the Middle East, was pointedly criticized for the strength of its response to the maelstrom of violence that has raged since last September.
"Israeli security forces sometimes used excessive force in contravention of their own rules of engagement," said the report, published as Secretary of State Colin Powell completed a tour of the Middle East.
Israel defended its actions during the unrest, saying issues raised in the report "must be seen in the context of the current armed conflict, which has been marked by daily terrorist acts against Israeli civilians."
Israel also states that it has reacted in a "proportionate, measured and responsible fashion to the systematic, ongoing attacks by Palestinian militia and members of the Palestinian Authority."
"Members of the Israeli security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses, particularly following the outbreak of violence in late September," the report said.
"Since the violence began, Israeli security units often used excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators. Israeli security forces sometimes exceeded their rules of engagement, which provide that live fire is only to be used when the lives of soldiers, police, or civilians are in imminent danger," the Washington Post said.
Human rights groups praised the annual report, overall, as "hard-hitting," though several activists said it remains unclear whether U.S. President George W. Bush's administration will treat human rights as an important part of U.S. foreign policy, concluded the Post.
During his visit, Powell called on Israel to ease its closure of the West Bank and Gaza, which prevents Palestinians from working in Israel or moving freeing between Arab-run areas.
In addition, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) issued an urgent plea Tuesday for aid to the Palestinians suffering under the lockdown.
The WFP, which this week starting handing out sacks of flour in Gaza said Palestinians "can't even afford to buy even the basic commodities as they have by now exhausted their savings."
U.N. figures say about a third of Palestinians in the occupied territories now live below the poverty line subsisting on two dollars a day, a 50% rise since the start of Israeli-Palestinian violence last September.
Jerusalem's Latin patriarch called on Israel to stop bombarding Arab towns, symbolically offering Christian churches as an alternative to absorb Israeli military's blows.
"If you need at all some sort of collective punishment or ransom to restore tranquility to innocent children and families we offer you our churches to destroy," Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah appealed to Israel in an open letter.
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