Conference launches Al-Quds foundation…(1)

At least 200 Arab political figures and activists came together Monday to set up a new organization to help protect Al-Quds against Judaization.
The conference, which drew representatives from 40 Arab and Muslim countries to the Carlton Hotel in Beirut, held its first working sessions in preparation for creating a foundation to save the Arab character of Al-Quds.
Ahmad Sidqi Dajjani, a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization who is also a member of the conference’s preparatory committee, said: “The Al-Quds issue isn’t about East Al-Quds, but all of Al-Quds … We set our eyes on all of Al-Quds, with its three sectors. It’s a link that remains until eternity.”
The conference’s press officer, Raafat Marra, said that the foundation’s goal was to protect the holy city from Judaization, support its residents and provide studies and documents about the historic city.
The aim was also to confront “Israel’s” claim ­ and control ­ over the city that is holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews and to preserve its Arab and Islamic character.
While conference participants did not discuss a strategy for the foundation, which was tentatively named the Al-Quds Foundation, a mission statement indicated that the foundation wanted the holy city as its permanent headquarters.
But “due to occupation, the board of directors will specify a location of their choice for the board’s headquarters,” according to the foundation’s mission statement.
During a visit with conference delegates at Baabda Palace, President Emile Lahoud offered Beirut as headquarters for the foundation until Al-Quds was liberated.
The delegation to Baabda consisted of Baath Party deputy secretary-general Abdullah Ahmar, Yemeni Speaker Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmar, and former Yemeni President Ali Nasser Mohammed.
During the conference’s sessions on Monday, discussion was restricted to Al-Quds’s history and the Palestinian struggle.
“We know that many Jews have lived in many civilized centers and have lived among us, but this isn’t a problem between two peoples. It’s a matter of violating a people’s land, which arose as a result of Zionist occupation, and that’s something we cannot accept,” Dajjani said.
Conference participants voiced their opinion on the Arab world’s role in defeating plans to Judaize Al-Quds and argued that the holy city possessed a historic Islamic character.
A statement released by the Palestinian Scholars League charged that “because of Arab impotence, US monopoly, the international community’s absence, and Zionist self-importance,” the Judaization of Al-Quds is proceeding.
The foundation was expected to boost its campaign by soliciting support by all Arab and Islamic nations and inviting them to be active participants.
It was also expected to organize seminars and conferences to raise awareness of the issue. The foundation said in its mission statement that it planned to collect donations and collaborate with international human rights organizations to “expose the inhumane acts against holy sites and sacred values and the Palestinian people.”
The foundation’s board members were expected to be chosen during Tuesday’s meetings and would be announced by the close of the conference on Wednesday.

UNIFIL suspects “Israeli” moves to annex Ghajar…(2)

“Israel” has begun laying the foundations of what appears to be a new security fence on Lebanese territory in Ghajar, a move that UNIFIL suspects is part of a plan to annex the divided village.
The “Israeli” Army, however, has told UNIFIL it does not intend to  appropriate the village and claims that the construction work on Lebanese soil is being conducted by local residents.
UNIFIL spokesman Timur Goksel flew over Ghajar Monday to confirm reports that “Israeli” engineers have been working in recent days north of the UN-delineated Blue Line
at Ghajar.
“They are putting in concrete foundations to a depth of about 50 meters (inside Lebanon) in what looks like preparation to extend the fence northward,” he told The Daily Star.
Goksel said that UNIFIL troops would observe Ghajar over the next two days to confirm that the “Israelis” are building a fence.
“The work of the “Israeli” construction teams is a violation” of the Blue Line, the UNIFIL spokesman added.
The Alawite village of Ghajar is split by the Blue Line, with the northern two-thirds in Lebanese territory and the remainder in Syrian territory occupied by “Israel”.
The arrangement allows for “Israeli” troops to patrol the southern ­ Syrian ­ end of the village but they are forbidden from entering the northern two-thirds. “Lebanese” Ghajar is cut off from the rest of Lebanon by minefields and an old security fence erected by the “Israelis” during the occupation.
The “Israelis” are in the process of constructing a new hi-tech security fence along the Blue Line from Ras Naqoura on the coast to Mount Hermon. The residents of Ghajar, however, strongly oppose having their village physically divided by the fence.
The “Israeli” Army views Ghajar as a potential weak link in its security cordon along the frontier. The village abuts the Shibaa Farms district, the new theater of conflict since October between Lebanese and Palestinian fighters and the “Israeli” Army. The “Israelis” fear that the absence of a physical barrier in Ghajar will allow guerrillas to infiltrate “Israeli”-controlled territory. Senior “Israeli” officers have described Ghajar as “Israel’s” “soft underbelly.”
In November, the “Israelis” proposed deviating the new security fence from the path traced by the Blue Line and running it around the northern “Lebanese” end of Ghajar, effectively annexing the village.
UNIFIL warned the “Israeli” Army that the move would violate the Blue Line and cause unnecessary border tensions.
“Israel” reportedly dropped the idea and instead urged the UN to deploy UNIFIL peacekeepers into “Lebanese” Ghajar. The nearest UNIFIL troops to Ghajar are located at Abbassieh, 2 kilometers east of the village. The government, which must sanctions UNIFIL deployments, rejected the proposal.
Since November, the “Israelis” have built a new stretch of the fence along the Blue Line from Abbassieh to Ghajar. The fence stops at the first houses in the village.
The latest development began last week when The Daily Star and UNIFIL soldiers spotted “Israeli” construction engineers working 500 meters north of the Blue Line at the northern end of “Lebanese” Ghajar. Goksel’s aerial reconnaissance of Ghajar on Monday provided confirmation that the “Israelis” have begun building northward into Lebanon at a 90 degree angle to the Blue Line along the eastern flank of the village.
Asked if he thought the “Israelis” intend to annex the village, Goksel said: “It looks that way, but we should know in the next couple of days.”
However, the “Israeli” Army is denying any involvement in the construction of the new fence, claiming it is a “local initiative.”
UNIFIL’s commander, Major General Seth Kofi Obeng, was told on Sunday by the head of “Israel’s” northern command, Brigadier General Gaby Ashkenazi, that the residents of Ghajar had hired civilian contractors to construct the fence.
Ashkenazi’s claim of innocence, however, has failed to convince UNIFIL.
“The “Israelis”,” Goksel warned, “are creating another friction point along the border.”

“Israeli” planes overfly Lebanon port city…(3)

“ “Israeli” fighters flew at roof-top height over the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre Monday and up the coast as far as Sidon, local press correspondents reported.

Tyre is 85 kilometres (52 miles) and Sidon 45 kilometres south of Beirut.

It was the second time in two days that the “Israeli” air force had breached Lebanese airspace.

On Sunday “Israeli” warplanes broke the sound barrier over several towns, including Beirut, police said.

Lebanon has lodged several complaints with the United Nations over recent months about “Israeli” planes breaching its airspace.

Mufti Qabbani: "Peace is a drug to stop the intifadah"…(4)

The Republic’s Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rachid Qabbani asserted that the liberation of Bayt Al Maqdis Holy Shrine is the prime cause for the Arabs and the Moslems around the world which they must struggle and work for.

Qabbani announced, during a dinner in honor of the participants of the first Quds Conference, the establishment of Bayt Al Maqdis Seminar, which aims at reviving the liberation of Al Maqdis Holy Shrine and Palestine, saying that the Jihad for the cause of  Allah does not require any summons.

The Palestinian intifadah and the human waves who supported it is a good example on it, and the so called "peace” is only an anesthetic dose to stop the intifadah. 

Intifadah operations target “Israeli” Occupation,a Palestinian martyr…(5)
 Mohamad Abou Mussa,19 years, was shot dead by “Israeli” troops, and two other Palestinians were wounded  during confrontations with the “Israeli” occupation near al-Tuffah checkpoint in Khan Yunis southern of Gaza.

On the other hand, an “Israeli” settler was killed when intifadah fighters opened fire at cars on a bypass road frequented by settlers outside the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Palestinian fighters also attacked an “Israeli” bulldozer sweeping a piece of land near Khan Younis to turn it to a military base.

Attacking another bulldozer in Rafah,in the Gaza Strip, seven Palestinians were wounded when “Israeli” soldiers opened fire on them.

The Palestinian fighters, on the other hand, blew up a roadside bomb near Kisovim “Israeli” checkpoint, and targeted two military posts in the Jewish settlement Nevi Dekalim.

In an unprecedented operation, “Israeli” occupation forces attacked Gaza coastal road which is under the Palestinian Authority and kidnapped four persons believed to be journalists.

Top security official in northern Gaza Sa’eb al-Agiz said that the abduction took place with the aid of heavy tanks that surrounded the journalist's vehicle and drove them into the settlements.

Footnotes:

1-       The Daily Star, 30-1-2001.

2-       Same source.

3-       AFP, 29-1-2001.

4-       Manar TV, 29-1-2001.

5-       Same source.