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State Department investigates Israel's use of U.S. weapons
Tuesday, 20 February 2001 22:49 (ET)
State Department investigates Israel's use of U.S. weapons
By ELI J. LAKE
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 (UPI) --The State Department has initiated an internal
review of Israel's use of U.S. weapons in its campaign to assassinate
alleged terrorists, UPI learned Tuesday.
The review will examine whether Israel has violated the Arms Export
Control Act by using U.S. munitions against Palestinians believed to have
plotted terrorist attacks since clashes began in September. The law
instructs the president to consider whether the export of U.S. arms to a
country leads to an escalation in violence and restricts their use for
internal security or defensive purposes.
Both former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her successor, Colin
Powell, have said Israel's policy of extra judicial killings has fed a cycle
of violence. But despite calls from its chief ally and arms supplier,Outgoing
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister-elect Ariel
Sharon have defended the policy as necessary in light of the recent surge of
terrorist attacks associated with Al-Aqsa Intifadah. Jerusalem has argued
that many of the attacks are planned directly in consultation with
thePalestinian Authority.
Last Monday, Israeli helicopters fired rockets on and killed Massud Ayyad,a
security officer close to Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat. That incident
provoked the European Union to condemn the action in a unilateral vote.
The Arab American Institute, a Washington based advocacy group, wrote days
after the attack on Feb. 15 to Powell and urged him to suspend arms
shipments to Israel in light of what they called, "Israel's official
assassination policy." Specifically the group asks Powell to suspend
shipments of Apache and Cobra helicopters and its spare parts.
The issue has been a high priority for the group since November when its
president, James Zogby, initially broached his request in meetings with the
State Department's Middle East chief, Edward Walker. But no action was taken
in this front in the last days of Bill Clinton's presidency.
One State Department official told UPI Tuesday, "We are a new
administration and we are looking at things a little differently." This
source said the State Department had initiated a "legal review" of potential
violations of the U.S. arms export law, but stressed "there is no time
frame, no drop dead date" for the inquiry. "We have a responsibility to make
sure that U.S. weaponry provided to Israel or any other country is used
under the conditions of the Arms Export Control Act," the official said.
Arab advocacy groups have asked both Republican and Democratic
administrations to investigate Israel's use of U.S. weapons in civillian
attacks since Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The Palestinian Authority's planning minister, Nabil Sha'ath, told
reporters after meeting with Powell Tuesday that he raised the issue in
discussions with the Secretary of State in light of Israel's alleged use of
U.S. made poison gas on Palestinian demonstrators last week in Gaza.
"We did not discuss it in relation to the assassinations but in response
to the gas bombing of the Khan Yunis refugee camps," Sha'ath said in
response to a question on the arms export issue. Sha'ath said Israeli
soldiers "have used American gas canisters, which it was explained to
me[were] never supposed to be used against personnel."
After last week's gassing, which Israeli officials insist was non-lethal
and would leave no long term health effects, between 40 and 80 demonstrators
were rushed to nearby hospitals with symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea,dizziness
and body stiffness.
Sha'ath said the gas caused damage to the central nervous system. He also
said the Palestinian Authority had blood samples of victims treated for the
gassing and would provide this to American authorities in thei
rinvestigation into the matter.
But a senior State Department official told UPI the incident "did not come
up in specific terms" in Sha'ath's meeting with Powell.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli embassy, called Sha'ath's
charges "ridiculous." "In its crowd control operational procedures Israel at
times uses different forms of tear gas in order to achieve quiet and without
causing harm or uneccesary loss of life. We do not use gasses that could
have negative long term health effects," he said.
Palestinian officials have long accused Israel of using poison gas for
crowd control, providing poison food to refugee camps, and intentionally
poisoning their water supply. Many of these charges have been found later to
be false.
