|
Israeli Minister Attempts to Justify "Targeted Killings"
JERUSALEM, Oct 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Following Wednesday's slaying of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, Justice Minister Meir Shetret tried to justify his country's policy of killing Palestinian activists, as Israel said Wednesday it was severing all contact with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, news agencies reported.
Israeli public radio said that the government would not resume ties with the PA until there was a complete halt to "terrorism", Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Shetret, meanwhile, explained on Israeli television that any Palestinian giving any kind of support to groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Damascus-based resistance group that claimed responsibility for Zeevi's killing, is a legitimate target for Israeli targeted killing.
"All those who resort to terrorism, help or finance it are potential and legitimate targets," he said.
"We must attack members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine everywhere and wherever they are to be found," said Shetret.
"The United States must understand that there is no difference between terrorism against America and terrorism against Israel. We are all in the same boat," he said.
Cabinet secretary Gidon Saar argued that Israel's killings of "Palestinian terrorists have saved hundreds of lives" by aborting planned attacks.
"This policy is the best tool against terrorism when you don't have control on the ground where the terrorists are hiding," he said, in reference to the Palestinian self-rule areas.
The PFLP said it struck to avenge Israel's killing of its leader Abu Ali Mustapha on August 27th, when an Israeli helicopter blasted his West Bank office with a missile.
Israel's policy of "targeted" killings has cost the lives of more than 50 Palestinians since November 2000.
The 75-year-old Zeevi was shot at a Jerusalem hotel on Wednesday, and was found wounded lying in a hallway. CNN reported that no gunshots had been heard, indicating that a silencer may have been used on the gun.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the killing fundamentally shifted Israeli-Palestinian relations, saying in the CNN report, "The situation is different today, and will not again be like it was yesterday."
"All political contacts with the Palestinians are suspended until acts of terrorism cease," Israeli radio reported, with no other details.
Sharon said Wednesday that Arafat bore full responsibility for the killing of Zeevi.
"Only a regime which preaches the destruction of Israel can harbor assassins of this kind, and Arafat bears full responsibility because he launched terrorism, although he knew the consequences," Sharon told a special session of the Israeli parliament.
The PFLP, part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headed by Arafat, said it assassinated Zeevi in retaliation for the killing in August of its leader Abu Ali Mustapha in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack.
Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned Wednesday the killing of Zeevi, saying it opposed "all acts of assassination," including by implication Israel's policy of eliminating alleged Palestinian "terrorists".
Following Zeevi's "targeted killing", the Israeli government ordered roadblocks to be set up in the flashpoint West Bank town of Ramallah and shelved reforms that were to ease the stranglehold Israel placed on the Palestinian economy after the Intifada, or uprising, erupted last September, CNN reported.
|
