ZGram - 10/29/2002 - "Their own toes getting toasted!" :)

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00ZGram 
- Where Truth is Destiny

October 29, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Wasn't it Jewish elements that started the International Criminal 
Court, hoping to terrorize weak countries into compliance?  Now look 
what's happening!

When I received the press release below, I told Ernst happily:  "I 
want to help you gloat!"

By the way, I don't know much about Gush Shalom other than that it is 
some kind of an Israeli peace organization that doesn't like Wild Man 
Sharon's murderous politics.  Read on:

[START]

=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00GUSH 
SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 =F1
http://www.gush-shalom.org/

  Press Release, 29/10/2002

  A further threat to Gush Shalom

  And to what democracy there is...

  =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=
=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D
Assistance to International War Crimes Tribunal to be punishable

  Israeli Government Coalition Chair proposes new bill.

  Gush Shalom activists would face 10 years in prison

  =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=
=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D =3D=3D =3D

  While the Sharon government struggles for survival, another effort 
to hit Israeli democracy and in particular Gush Shalom:

  A bill tabled today at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) would 
criminalize any assistance rendered by an Israeli citizen to the 
International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. It was presented by 
MK Zeev Boim, a senior member of the ruling Likud party and chair of 
the government coalition. Under the bill, any assistance by an 
Israeli citizen to the Hague Court would be punishable by up to ten 
years' imprisonment.  The bill includes a detailed list of proscribed 
acts, all liable to such a punishment: "The provision of any 
information such as writings, photographs, documents, opinions and 
reports" as well as "The collection, keeping and preparation and 
transfer of information" and "The holding of investigations and the 
writing down of their results". Additionally, any association engaged 
in any such activities would be liable to be disbanded.

  Evidently, the proposed law is primarily directed against Gush 
Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, which recently cautioned 15 senior 
IDF officers that certain actions may lead to their indictment in the 
International Court. At the time, Prime Minister Sharon had demanded 
that Gush activists be indicted. The Attorney General, Elyakim 
Rubinstein, started an investigation but - after a wave of 
international protests, among them leading Jewish voices - the AG 
found that the Gush Shalom action did not violate any existing law. 
Thereupon the Minister of Justice, Me'ir Sheetrit, threatened to 
initiate a new law. The Boim Bill is evidently designed to fulfil 
this promise.

  Once enacted, however, the new law could find a much wider 
application. In fact, any act by human rights organization collecting 
and disseminating testimonies of human rights violations might be 
eventually construed as violation of the new law, on the pretext that 
the reports might find their way to the Hague Court and used by it as 
evidence. The same may hold for the Settlement Watch reports 
periodically issued which contain information about a clear violation 
of international law, and which are widely disseminated throughout 
the world.

  "This bill betrays the memory of six million Holocaust victims," 
declared former Knesset Member and Gush Shalom activist Uri Avnery. 
"After the Holocaust, the Jewish people fought with all its strength 
for the creation of an International War Crimes Court, and now the 
Sharon Government tries to destroy it. This is tantamount to an 
admission that they have something to hide." "Even the USA, which 
wants to exclude its soldiers from the jurisdiction of the Hague 
Court, has not dared to enact such a despicable law," commented Adam 
Keller, the Gush Shalom spokesperson. "It would turn Israel into an 
international outcast - a country which first signed the Rome Treaty, 
and would now forbid its own citizens on pain of dire punishment from 
helping the same court. It would place the best of Israel's citizens, 
the sensitive and conscientious persons who care about human rights 
and international law, in an impossible dilemma: either be an 
accomplice to war crimes or face prosecution and imprisonment". 
Keller called upon the Labor Party, now at last starting to make its 
way out of the Sharon Government, to struggle against its enactment.

  Under Knesset procedures, a private member's bill needs 45 days 
between being tabled and being presented to a vote, which gives some 
time for organizing an protest campaign. Sometimes during these 45 
days, the Boim Bill should come up on the agenda of the Cabinet 
Legislative Committee, which should decide whether or not the 
government would back it.

  For more information:

  Adam Keller +972-3-5565804 / +972-56-709603

[END]

=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=00=
=00=00=00=00=00