[NYTr] Iran to Host Alternative Middle East Meeting; Israelis Kill Another Palestinian

Tue Nov 27 14:46:52 EST 2007

AFP via Yahoo - Nov 27, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071127/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacyiran

Iran to host militants [Palestinians] for 'alternative' Mideast meet

Iran said on Tuesday that it had invited Palestinian militant factions
to a meeting in Tehran aimed at countering a US-hosted Middle East
peace conference seeking to kickstart the peace process.

"These groups are planning to come to Tehran within the next week or
two and they are all the Palestinian groups that are struggling for the
freedom of their land," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told
reporters.

Iran is one of the most vocal backers of Palestinian militant groups
like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to
the then Hamas government crippled by a Western aid cut.

The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel and its President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has provoked outrage by calling for the Jewish
state to be wiped off the map.

Elham indicated the Tehran meeting would be a riposte to the conference
bringing together Israeli and Palestinian leaders which started in
Annapolis outside Washington on Tuesday.

"It means that the Annapolis conference is not representing the
Palestinians and not talking on their behalf, but on the contrary is
moving against their rights," he said.

More than a dozen Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran's top
regional ally Syria, have sent representatives, leaving Tehran
conspicuously isolated.

On Monday Ahmadinejad told Saudi King Abdullah in a telephone call that
he "wished" the kingdom was not taking part in the peace conference.

Tehran's arch foe Washington, which is hosting the meeting, dismissed
the Iranian criticism as "not surprising," and charged that Tehran
backs the extremists sidelined by the talks.

                         ***

[Note the typical Israeli-excusing passive construction of the headline,
in contrast to the lead sentence. Israelis didn't murder a Palestinian
no: a Palestinian "was killed" -- as if he were the actor and not the
victim in the event. -NYTr]

AFP via Yahoo - Nov 27, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071127/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacypalestiniandemo_071127192028

Palestinian killed as police break up West Bank rallies

by Hossam Ezzedine

Palestinian police killed one man in the West Bank on Tuesday as it
broke up rallies against a US peace meeting, while Hamas supporters in
Gaza rallied in force against the conference.

Palestinian security forces fired into the air and pummelled
demonstrators with batons as they dispersed protests throughout the
occupied West Bank against the meeting opening in the US city of
Annapolis.

Riot police and other security forces moved in on members of the Hezb
al-Tahrir (Islamic Liberation Party) as soon as they left mosques in
the cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron aiming to march in
demonstrations.

In Hebron, 36-year-old Hisham Baradi died in hospital of a gunshot
wound received in the melee. The circumstances surrounding the shooting
were not immediately clear. At least 35 other people were wounded.

It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded or detained
in all, with AFP correspondents seeing dozens hauled away in police
vans in all three cities.

Earlier in Ramallah, police broke up demonstrations in the central
Al-Manara Square after scuffling with the protestors for several hours.

On Monday, president Mahmud Abbas's government banned rallies against
the Annapolis meeting, with information minister Riyad al-Malki saying
the decision was taken because "we look forward to the Annapolis
meeting being successful."

Abbas faces a yawning internal divide as he tries to embark on peace
talks with the Israelis, after the radical Hamas movement violently
seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June.

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters poured into central Gaza City on
Tuesday for a rally to reject the Annapolis meeting in the Islamists'
latest protest against the conference.

Waving the green flags of Hamas and the Palestinian tricolour,
demonstrators flocked from all over the impoverished and overcrowded
territory where Hamas has been increasingly isolated.

"They can go to thousands of conferences and we will still say in the
name of the Palestinian people that we do not accept," Hamas hardliner
Mahmud Zahar told the assembled crowd.

"We don't authorise anyone to use our name to sign any document or any
agreement that infringes on our national demands," he said.

Blacklisted by both the European Union and the United States as a
terror group and not invited to the US meeting, Hamas said on Monday
that it would not be bound by any decisions taken there.

"Any concessions on any Palestinian rights are unacceptable and the
Palestinian people will not implement any decisions if they touch on
our rights," said the premier of the sacked Hamas government, Ismail
Haniya.

Haniya slammed the participation of Arab countries -- including
powerhouse Saudi Arabia -- in the US peace meeting despite Hamas's
appeals for a boycott.

"We are against any attempts for either direct or indirect
normalisation (with Israel) and are against the presence, for the first
time, of an Arab delegation by the side of a Zionist delegation at the
Annapolis conference," Haniya said.

"Such a presence is a step back on the historical position of
opposition (to Israel) by these countries," he said.

The Islamists refuse to recognise Israel or renounce violence, and have
warned the Palestinian leadership against making any concessions on the
most intractable issues of the conflict such as the right of return for
refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

Having swept aside Abbas's long-dominant Fatah party in January 2006
parliamentary polls, Hamas argues that without its agreement the
president lacks the mandate to negotiate on behalf of all Palestinians.