Michael Widlanski: PA CONDEMNS HUMAN RIGHTS WORKER TO DEATH

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Yassir Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) announced Tuesday it had
condemned an Arab human-rights worker to death for spying for Israel, even
as it refused to condemn a Palestinian rocket attack on an elementary school
in the Israeli town of Sderot in the Negev.

The apparently unprecedented decision to execute a human-rights worker
was trumpeted on Arafat's Voice of Palestine radio station, even as the news
of the Qassam rocket landing in the courtyard of a crowded school was
completely ignored.

"Heidar Mahmoud Hussein Ghanim was condemned to death for cooperating
with enemy," declared VOP anchorman Nizar al-Ghul during the main morning
newscast Tuesday. It said the condemned man, an employee for the left-wing,
Israeli human-rights group B'TSELEM, was guilty of giving information to
Israel, which led to several killings by Israeli forces.

Michael Widlanski is senior analyst at The Media Line and lecturer at
The Rothberg School of the Hebrew University. Fuller versions of his
articles are available at www.themedialine.org