More on Abu Abbas and the Oslo Accords
I wrote earlier about Abu Abbas and the Oslo accords.
CNN has an updated story which does mention that "Witnesses, however, are not typically bound to the terms of an agreement signed by other parties."
It repeats, this time as unquoted fact, that the Accords were witnessed by the US, the EU, Russia, Jordan, Egypt and Norway.
And this time, Israel is getting in on the silly misreading game:
Israeli said Abu Abbas never fully complied with the agreement, which Israelis say also called for Palestinians to renounce terrorism and fully support Mideast peace.
"There is no free lunch," said Ra'anan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "The man never mended his ways. He did not stop terrorist activities and put all his efforts on behalf of peace. He continued to ... organize terrorist activities."
The provision in question says nothing about whether the persons in question abides by the Accords. To requote:
5. Palestinians from abroad whose entry into the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area is approved pursuant to this Agreement, and to whom the provisions of this Article are applicable, will not be prosecuted for offenses committed prior to September 13, 1993.
So it applies if he's:
- A Palestinian from abroad
- whose entry into the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area is approved persuant to this agreement
- and to whom the provisions of this Article are applicable
then this applies.
Abbas's parents were Palestinians who fled during the 1947 war; he was born in Syria in 1948. That seems to qualify as "a Palestinian from abroad".
Israel granted Abbas entry to Gaza in 1996 and, and he visited three more times over the next 2 years. That seems to qualify for the second requirement.
The third requirement is a plausible area for disagrement -- I can't find a definition for the people to whom the provisions apply. Israel doesn't seem to be disputing this point, though.
There's nothing there about people abiding by the agreement -- and reasonably enough, too, since the obvious remedy for someone committing a crime post September 13, 1993 (and thus being in violation of the agreement) is to prosecute them for that crime, not for an earlier one.
2003-04-16 23:29:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Politics::MiddleEast
