A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Update on charges against Sharon for 1982 massacre |
|---|
| yunus |
| 07/19/02 at 21:31:59 |
| July 19, 2002 Dear friends, Here is an amended and corrected summary of the press conference on the lawsuit against Israel and Ariel Sharon, et al. Please read it carefully for important changes. Since first distribution of the summary, many, many people I have never heard of have written and called responding with appreciation for and moral support to Attorney Stanley Cohen, Solidarity International, and others with them who have the awesome courage to take on this seemingly overwhelming challenge. Only two e-mail have been vile, at least one of whom is an Israeli Jew, and both, in the usual tradition of attempting intimidation, calling Stanley Cohen, a self-hating Jew. If they knew Stanley Cohen, if they heard Stanley Cohen, as I have on at least three occasions, they would see this man is no self-hating Jew. He is a real Jew in the tradition of love and caring for the suffering of others. He and Abduraham Alamoudi and the others on the platform with them are princes of peace and justice. Betty Molchany, J.D. 31 Blue Ridge Avenue, Front Royal, VA 22630-3045 540 622-2345 molchany@shentel.net Press Conference of Solidarity International and Attorney Stanley Cohen National Press Building Washington, D.C. July 17, 2002 This was the day, the day of announcement. Yesterday was the filing of a 140-page Complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and a second document, the Affirmation, reciting details in 120 pages of the causes of action and another approximately 150 pages of appendices. This is not a class action, but the plan is to soon seek class action status on behalf of all similarly situated plaintiffs. The current Plaintiffs, whose names shall be sealed, are individual United States citizens or resident aliens, all of whom are Palestinian-Americans. Their claims arise out of torture, killing, and destruction of property by and with the support of the Israeli and United States governments, named leaders of these governments, named military corporations, named organizations, including one Israeli settlement and one Christian church, and named individual defendants. One of the plaintiffs is a survivor of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps which, in 1982, following a cease-fire agreement, were surrounded by the Israeli military and bombarded overhead, while the "proxy force of IDF Lebanese allies" went in, killed, raped, and tortured a thousand or more men, women, and children in those camps, not one of whom had weapons and not one of whom constituted a threat to Israeli security. "You didn’t kill everyone, Ariel Sharon, oh, Man of Peace," said Stanley Cohen, one of the attorneys, who prepared and filed the documents at the request of Solidarity International, and an American-Jew who has traveled many times to Palestine, the territory occupied by Israel for more than 35 years in violation of international law and UN resolutions. As part of a year-long legal and factual research effort by many, "the money trail of the settlements was traced" and "tens of millions went to the settlements, not for homes...but for night vision equipment, armour, weaponry," offensive weaponry. [It is illegal for an Arab in the United States to send night vision equipment to Palestinians, but not to the Israelis.] Among the defendants are the State of Israel, Ariel Sharon, Natan Sharanski, Shimon Peres, George Bush, Colin Powell, The Boeing Company, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems, the Halamish/Neve Settlement, Christ Lutheran Church, Central Fund for Israel, Rabbi Yosef Adler, Arnon Hiller, Joav Merrick, Ruth Kohn, Jay Marcus (the last eight of which are designated collectively as the "Settler Defendants"). In response to the expected filing, the Israeli Knesset last night (7/16/02) passed a bill to protect Israel and its leaders (and perhaps citizens) from being subject to legal penalties based on any actions related to the Palestinians. They defined military actions as wide enough to encompass any activity in Palestinian areas including home demolitions, building roads, confiscating lands, bulldozing trees, injuring or killing civilians (regardless of circumstances). Cohen said that a website would shortly be established and invited information and assistance in providing names of additional plaintiffs and facts as well as other kinds of help. He said it was the hope of those filing the lawsuit that the Palestinians would never again have to face what they have endured for many years, "Never again, Ariel Sharon." But, the purpose of this lawsuit is more than to say "never again." "The six lawyers and dozen or so persons that have just spent a year in preparing this lawsuit did not do so just to say ‘never again.’ These are real claims for real people with real law with a great chance for most of the complaints to survive the expected motion for summary judgement." |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |