The Review - INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

August 2000

INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

Extradition treaty signed

Australia signed a formal extradition treaty with Latvia on July 14, enabling the deportation of alleged Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs at Latvia’s request. An 86-year-old Latvian-born Australian citizen, Kalejs has been in Melbourne since fleeing Britain in January in fear of deportation. Deported from the United States in 1994 and from Canada in 1997, he has admitted to serving in the Arajs Commando, a pro-Nazi paramilitary squad responsible for as many as 30,000 murders, but has denied any culpability for war crimes.

In response to four pages of fresh allegations against Kalejs prepared by Latvian prosecutors, Australian Federal Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone has said that the Government is now prepared to deal promptly with any request from Latvian authorities pending the treaty’s entry into force. The new allegations include an account of the execution of 10 prisoners under Kalejs’s command and contain statements from three former members of Latvian security forces. While the treaty must go through domestic parliamentary processes in both Latvia and Australia, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer predicts that it is expected to take effect before the end of the year.

Problems back home

The beleaguered government of Israeli Prime Minister Barak suffered a setback on July 19, when the opposition succeeded in passing a preliminary reading of a bill which would require any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to be approved by both a majority of all Knesset members (not just a majority of those present and voting) and subsequently by a special majority of all Israeli voters in a referendum. Other opposition bills which also passed preliminary readings attempted to dictate government policy in the event of a Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence. Coalition leaders have been critical of opposition leaders using the Prime Minister’s absence at Camp David to advance their own agendas.

The Barak government no longer enjoys a parliamentary majority following the resignations of the Yisrael B’Aliyah, Shas and National Religious Parties from the governing coalition in protest against the Camp David summit. This leaves it the certain support of only 42 of the 120 members of the Knesset.

On August 2, the Knesset is scheduled to vote on another bill calling for dissolving the Knesset and holding early elections. Despite the bill having already been defeated earlier this year, the resignation of three coalition parties from the government means that the bill can now legally be re-introduced despite a statutory six-month waiting period after a negative vote.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Barak courted controversy on July 3 when he introduced a parliamentary bill that exempts Yeshiva seminary students from military service until age 23, when it would be their decision to continue their studies or join the military for a shortened tour of service. Previously, Yeshiva students had applied for an exemption from military service at age 18, which would usually be granted. The bill was criticised both by secular activists, who argue that the Yeshiva student exemption allows the ultra-Orthodox to enjoy the rights of Israeli citizenship without the obligations, and members of the ultra-Orthodox community who argue that full-time study at seminary is the only way to preserve the Jewish heritage. The bill was the government’s response to a High Court decision last year which ruled the previous blanket exemption of Yeshiva students is incompatible with Israel’s Basic Laws.

Teheran’s test

Iran’s successful test of a medium-range ballistic missile inspired Israel to immediately warn that it will have to advance its own missile defence system in response. The Shahab-3 missile has a range of 1,300 kilometres, meaning it can reach Israel from within Iranian borders. The missile, which can carry an 800-kilogram warhead, was first tested in June 1998 but exploded during the launch due to a systems failure. The United States has condemned the testing as evidence of Iran’s desire to become a military power in the Middle East, though Iranian officials have said the weapon would in no way threaten its neighbours. While Iran does not have the capability to arm the missiles with chemical or biological warheads, Israel predicts that Iran will have nuclear capability within five years. In taking steps to protect itself from such a threat, Israel acquired in March the Arrow II anti-ballistic missile, designed to seek out and destroy any incoming warhead, conventional or nuclear. Israeli Prime Minister Barak took time out from the Camp David summit to respond to the launch, declaring that its success demonstrates the need for the peace process to continue alongside maintenance of the strength of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Meanwhile in Teheran, on July 8, police fired bullets and tear-gas into a crowd of thousands of demonstrators commemorating the first anniversary of a police raid on a Teheran university dormitory. Demonstrators were protesting the current Islamic regime, calling for freedom of the press, and for the release of political prisoners, including student leaders detained since last year.

Compensation deal signed

Germany signed a deal on July 17 agreeing to pay out DM 10 billion to compensate nearly one million surviving Nazi-era slave and forced labourers. The move essentially closes reparations negotiations for wrongs perpetrated by the Nazi regime from 1933-1945. The fund will be paid jointly by the German government and industry, providing up to DM 15,000 to slave labourers and DM 5,000 to forced labourers, covering some Holocaust-era insurance policies and also compensating those subjected to medical experiments by the Nazis. US Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eisenstadt has commended the joint measure as an admirable recognition of victims’ long-term suffering.

Obituary: Jan Karski

Polish Catholic diplomat and resistance hero Jan Karski died on 13 July at age 86. He is credited with providing the Allies with some of the first eyewitness accounts of the systematic extermination of Jews by the Nazi Final Solution, obtained by such courageous feats as secretly entering the Warsaw ghetto, and then infiltrating the Nazi death camp Belzec disguised as an Estonian officer. On one mission, captured by Soviet soldiers in Czechoslovakia, he escaped only to be captured and tortured by the Gestapo. He personally reported the unspeakable horrors suffered by European Jewry to President Roosevelt and the British War Cabinet, as well as to prominent writers, but many didn’t believe him. He was made an honorary citizen of Israel in 1994 and received a medal as one of the "righteous among nations."

Catching terrorists

Five people with suspected terrorist links have reportedly been deported from Australia in the last year, and a sixth person was apprehended trying to board a cargo ship bound for Australia. Three had suspected or proven links to Middle Eastern terrorist organisations, one to a Central European group, and one to an Asian terrorist group. Two of the Middle Eastern men were linked to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA), believed to receive funding and weapons from Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, blamed for the 1998 bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The report indicates that the time-frame made it obvious that the terrorists were linked to the Sydney Olympics, and sparked fears of international terrorism at the Games.

Meanwhile, in the US, 18 people suspected of raising money for Hezbollah via cigarette-smuggling were arrested on 21 July in raids of houses and businesses in North Carolina and Michigan. The ring allegedly bought cigarettes in North Carolina, which has a cigarette tax of five cents per pack, and unloaded them in Michigan, where prices are higher because of 75-cent-per-pack taxes, and has smuggled the profits to Hezbollah in Lebanon since 1996. Law enforcement officials have claimed that those involved in the ring were also capable of carrying out terrorist attacks if ordered to do so by Hezbollah. All of the suspects were charged with immigration violations, weapons offences, money laundering and cigarette trafficking.

Edward Said at the Israel-Lebanon border, demonstrating his commitment to peaceful conflict resolution

People who live in glass houses...

Well-known Palestinian American academic, Edward Said, has embroiled himself in further controversy regarding his conduct. Late last year, a storm brewed up over the revelations produced by Justus Reid Weiner that Said had systematically mis-represented himself for several decades as a Palestinian refugee forcibly evicted by Israel, when in fact he spent an affluent childhood in Cairo. Said has described Weiner’s findings as a tissue of lies, yet implicitly conceded their accuracy in the corrected version that now appears in his own memoir, Out of Place.

On 3 July, Said — who often criticises Westerners for depicting Arabs as irredeemably violent — was photographed by Agence France-Presse on the Lebanese side of the Israel-Lebanon frontier, hurling rocks at Israeli border guards and personnel. Always holding himself out as supportive of peaceful resolution of conflict (despite his simultaneous commitment to Israel’s elimination), Said exhibited concern at being identified, by the Jordan Times and other regional newspapers, which reproduced the photograph.

"One stone tossed in an empty space scarcely warrants a second thought," said Said. He also argued that his stone-throwing was a "basically trivial" incident that could not "outweigh the work I have done over 35 years on behalf of justice and peace."

The barrage of stone-throwing from southern Lebanon, in which Said joined, violates the peace established by Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and has resulted in injuries to Israeli servicemen. Contrary to Said’s claim that he saw no Israelis in the vicinity when he threw rocks, a report by Sunnie Kim in the Columbia Daily Spectator cites an eyewitness, journalist Denis Zinn, who claims to have seen Said hurling rocks at an Israeli watchtower from a distance of only 30 feet.

Columbia University, at which Said is a professor of English and Comparative Literature, has declined to censure his conduct, saying it does not pass judgement on external activities of its faculty. According to a report in the Washington Post, Said sounded uncomfortable in a telephone interview when asked what could be gleaned from his gesture of violence. "It’s not hatred for Israel. It was an anti-occupation gesture." However, Said was also reported in the Lebanese daily, al-Safir, as stating that "this clash [with Israel] must be escalated not only with weapons, but also by the ideal, rational and scientific weapons."