Thursday, December 19, 2002

The IDF fatally shoots an 11-yr.-old Palestinian girl in her home; fires on stone-throwing Palestinian children in Qalandia r.c., injuring 2 bystanders; conducts arrest raids in Jenin. Under pressure fr. the U.S., the IDF also evicts 200 Jewish settlers fr. a new enclave established in Hebron on the site of the 11/15 Islamic Jihad attack; settlers vow to reestablish the site. An IDF APC deliberately rams a Palestinian van nr. Maithalun, killing 1 Palestinian, injuring a 2d. (MM 12/19; WP 12/20, 12/21; LAW, PCHR 12/25; WJW 12/26; PM 12/27)

Israeli atty. gen. Elyakim Rubinstein asks the Central Elections Comm. to bar MK Azmi Bishara’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fr. participating in the 1/03 elections on the grounds that they advocate that Israel should be a state for all its citizens, which implicitly contradicts Israel’s founding principle as a Jewish state, and because they support armed attacks against Israel (a charge Bishara, NDA deny). Section 7(A) of the Basic Law: The Knesset allows the barring of candidates and political parties that deny “the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” (JTA l2/19; ADL 12/21)

U.S. Secy. of State Colin Powell announces that although the U.S. has not finished reading the document, it believes that Iraq’s 12,000-page declaration “totally fails” to meet UN requirements for full disclosure and constitutes “another material breach” of UN res. 1441. (NYT, WP, WT 12/20)