Committee makes little progress in effort to curb terror incitement

NEW YORK March 1 (JTA) — After seven meetings, Israel sees little progress in working together with the Palestinians to end incitement to violence and terror. Israel is “very disappointed with the amount of progress made” in the committee that was created by the Wye peace accords in October, said Daniel Taub, one of five Israeli members of the committee. Still, Taub said in an interview here on Monday, “as long as there is any hope of any benefit coming out” of the trilateral anti-incitement committee, “we will continue.” Taub, a representative of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said the sides have yet to agree on even which cases should be monitored. In “not one single case” had the Palestinian side “even agreed that an example we brought forward constituted incitement,” said Taub. Considering the “vitriol” that exists, Taub said, “Israel attaches great importance to the anti-incitement committee” as a means to “create an atmosphere in which we are able to deal with emotive issues in a reasonable manner.” He said a better environment would be particularly important as a run-up to final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Taub’s remarks stand in contrast to the optimistic report by the State Department following a meeting of the committee last week. After two days of talks in Washington, Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to “work in a cooperative spirit,” the State Department said in a statement released on behalf of the Israeli and Palestinian members of the committee. “The parties believe it is essential to break down the barriers of mistrust and change the images they hold of each other.” The committee is made up of current or former elected officials, as well as representatives from the fields of education, media and law. During the Washington meeting, Israeli and Palestinian representatives agreed to an exchange of columns in each other’s newspapers and to hold joint briefings for journalists. The delegates also discussed an Israeli proposal to review both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks for possible abuses. An Israeli member of the delegation said Palestinian textbooks regularly do not recognize Israel and contain anti-Semitic portrayals of Jews. In fact, the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm, reported similar findings earlier this year in textbooks paid for by the United Nations commission responsible for Palestinian refugees. The group agreed to consider the proposal and scheduled another meeting for April 14. New York Post columnist Uri Dan headed the Israeli delegation, Palestinian spokesman Marwan Kanafani led the Palestinian delegation and former congressman Mel Levine chaired the American delegation. On the eve of the anti-incitement committee’s meeting, three right-wing groups opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords held a Capitol Hill news conference to put the spotlight on Palestinian calls for violence against Israelis. Several members of Congress who attended the news conference said the Palestinian Authority should rein in incitement before the United States sends more aid. Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), who has authored a resolution opposing a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood that now has 170 co-sponsors, promised to oppose U.S. aid to the Palestinians unless incitement ends. “If they want a jihad, I will lead a jihad here against funding until they cleanup their act,” he said in a brief interview, referring to Palestinian calls for a holy war for Jerusalem and statehood. Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has scheduled a meeting later this month with President Clinton to discuss statehood, Palestinian officials said. As part of the Wye peace accords, the Clinton administration has asked Congress for an additional $100 million a year for three years for the Palestinians. The money is in addition to the $100 million a year the Palestinians have received since signing the 1993 Oslo accords. The anti-incitement committee meeting broke up as the State Department released its annual report on human rights violations. According to the report, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are responsible for “serious human rights abuses.” Israel generally respects human rights, but abuses occur because of “policies and practices in the occupied territories and from its fight against terrorism,” the department reported. The report noted “some improvements in the human rights situations” in both the Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As in years past, the report contained an unflattering account of Israeli security forces who “abused, and in some cases torture Palestinians suspected of security offenses.” Israeli forces, who killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, at times “shot at demonstrators indiscriminately” using live ammunition, the report said. The report accused Israeli citizens, including settlers, of continuing to “harass, abuse, and attack Palestinians.” Palestinians also continue to “harass, abuse and attack Israelis, especially settlers,” the report said. For their part, Palestinian forces killed two prisoners in custody and also “committed a number of serious human rights abuses.” The report, which covered the 1998 calendar year, did not discuss the execution last week of a Palestinian colonel convicted of raping a boy. Israeli officials said the Foreign Ministry was studying the report and did not yet have any comment. (JTA Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Dorf contributed to this report.)