So where is the UN fact-finding mission to investigatee Arafat's link to Palestinian terrorists blowing up Jews in Israel??

Apr. 29, 2002
Israel says UN fact-finding team carrying out smear campaign
By Yoav Appel, The Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israeli officials today accused the United Nations of conducting a smear campaign against Israel, as the cabinet further delayed the arrival of a UN fact-finding mission at the Jenin refugee camp.

Despite the complaints, Israel did not close the door to the UN team completely. A government decision on whether to cooperate with the UN mission was expected within a day, said Gideon Meir, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

Meir suggested that the fact-finding team could harm Israel's image far more than the bad press Israel was receiving for postponing the team's arrival.

"I think we have to disagree with the United Nations now, even at the cost of world opinion," Meir said, accusing the organization of an anti-Israel bias. "They want to set us up."

Israel has insisted that the three-member team include more military and counter-terrorism experts, and that it investigate Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians which emanated from the Jenin camp as well as the military incursion.

In a telephone conversation late Sunday, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Israel would not allow its sovereignty to be compromised, said Peres spokesman Yoram Dori.

Israeli officials have expressed concern that the team might summon soldiers to testify before it. "This awful United Nations committee is out to get us and is likely to smear Israel and to force us to do things ... such as interrogating soldiers," said Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin.

Government officials have suggested that Israel's agreement Sunday to end the confinement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was linked to assurances that the United States would stand by Israel's side in the increasingly testy showdown with the United Nations.

In its weekly Sunday meeting, Israel's Cabinet decided to again delay the team's arrival. The fact-finding team, originally scheduled to arrive Saturday, has been awaiting Israeli approval before it leaves Geneva.

An Israeli delegation which flew to New York in an attempt to negotiate changes to the mission's mandate is scheduled to return Monday evening and consult with the Cabinet, Meir said.

The fact-finding team was appointed after Palestinians accused Israeli troops of perpetrating a massacre in the camp. Israel has denied this, saying a bloody battle took place between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers, but civilians were not targeted.

The bodies of 48 Palestinians have been found in the camp, where 23 Israeli soldiers died in fierce fighting that lasted from April 3-11. Palestinians say more bodies are buried beneath the rubble of buildings Israel demolished during the incursion.

Meir slammed the United Nations, labeling it an "anti-Israel organization" that he said has ignored Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel launched its massive West Bank offensive on March 29, entering cities and refugee camps like Jenin in order to uproot what it called "terrorist infrastructure" following a spate of suicide bombings that killed scores of Israeli civilians.

Israel has also criticized the makeup of the fact-finding mission, headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, along with Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"Where are the terror experts, Where are the military experts?" Meir asked.

The mission would have a number of advisers, including a military adviser, retired U.S. Gen. William Nash, and a police adviser, Peter Fitzgerald of Ireland.