From ccramer@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu Thu Apr  8 16:47:05 1993
Subject: CAMERA on Campus, Vol. 4, No. 2 
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 16:46:01 EDT
From: charles cramer <ccramer@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu>

                               CAMERA ON CAMPUS
        The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
                           Vol.4, No.2   Spring 1993

                                In This Issue:
                               McGill University
                                     Hamas
                           The UN's Double Standard
                                Just the Facts
                         How to Counter Misinformation
                           The 4th Geneva Convention

  For original copies and information, contact CAMERA: P.O. Box 428, Boston,
              MA, 02258.  Tel (617) 789-3672  FAX (617) 787-7853
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                                Vol.  4, No.  2
                                  Spring 1993

                          The CAMERA Media Report is
                            published by the CAMERA
                        National Media Resource Center

                             Editor: Andrea Levin
                       Associate Editor:Tamara Indianer
                    Contributors: Jon Haber, Leora Sallis,
                           Rachel Temkin, David Wolf

                        Electronic version prepared by:
                              Charles S.  Cramer

                    Copyright (c) 1993 by the Committee for
                     Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in
                        America.  All rights reserved.
                     Permission granted to reproduce this
                   information without changes or additions
                      to individual stories, segments or
                   articles.  Reproduction may be in either
                    mechanical or electronic form, provided
                       that this copyright statement is
                                   included.
==============================================================================

                McGill Students Counter Pro-Palestinian Effort

    For many Jewish students at Montreal's McGill University, the 1992-1993
school year has been marked by the tension of frequent anti-Israel writings in
the major campus publication, the McGill Daily, and by well-organized,
pro-Palestinian events on campus.

    The _Daily_, which has a long-time reputation for anti-Israel bias,
includes no Jewish students among its editorial staff, although Jews comprise
a significant percentage of the student body.  Many Jewish students have
described the atmosphere at the _Daily_ as distinctly unfriendly because of
the openly pro-Palestinian stance of the paper.

    Editor Fiona McCaw, for example, conducted a lengthy interview in late
1992 with Soraida Hussein, an employee of Bir Zeit University on the West Bank
who had been brought to McGill by the Palestine Solidarity Committee.  None of
Hussein's many false accusations against Israel, of unprovoked school closures
and restrictions on education, were challenged by McCaw or balanced by an
Israeli perspective.

    That universities, most particularly Bir Zeit, have been centers of
organized political agitation and violence was omitted.  Even the Palestinian
newspaper _Al-Quds_ acknowledged that during certain periods "actual academic
activity [comprised] less than one percent of the overall agenda of the
campuses." The abuse of educational settings to disseminate openly
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel literature was similarly unmentioned.

    The _Daily_ has also provided a forum in its "hyde park" opinion section
for inflammatory and outlandish attacks against Israel.  A January 21, 1993,
piece by Omar Sartawi and Mohammed Kadry claimed Israel's technological and
industrial accomplishments have been won at the expense of the Palestinians.
In fact, the opposite is true; Israel's increasing prosperity has served the
interests of Palestinian Arabs.  From the time of earliest Zionist development
Jewish economic advances have not only benefitted local Arabs by providing
employment but actually attracted tens of thousands of Arabs from Syria, Egypt
and elsewhere.

    Even under Israeli control, West Bank and Gaza Arabs have seen dramatic
improvements in health care (Infant mortality, for example, declined from 86
per thousand live births in Gaza in 1968 to 28 in 1988) and education (Prior
to Israel's presence in the territories there were no institutes of higher
learning; today there are 22).

    Moreover, Israel's development as a modern nation-state has occurred in
spite of the Arab effort to defeat her militarily and to render her isolated
and vulnerable through economic boycott.  Recent estimates put the cost of the
boycott at $45 billion.

    Despite the absence of Jewish students in positions of responsibility on
the _Daily_ and the lack of opportunity to present a more realistic and
balanced editorial perspective on the Middle East, Jewish groups and
individuals on campus have persisted resolutely in efforts to set the record
straight about Israel through letter-writing to the paper.  The _Daily's_
policy of publishing all letters guarantees at least this format for a defense
of Israel!

>> Pro-Palestinian "student" and "cultural" events promote misinformation

    Students have also been confronted with a succession of so-called cultural
events sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Committee at which virulent
leaflets and flyers denouncing Israel have been distributed.  The Israeli
deportation of 417 Hamas militants, in response to a wave of terror attacks
against Jews, prompted an intensified Arab campaign.

    The General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) orchestrated a three-day
hunger strike in early February.  Coordinating the strike was a non-McGill
student who mustered support from other student groups, notified local and
national media and secured the endorsement of the Student Society of McGill
University.  Although the SSMU ostensibly refrains from involvement in
political issues, the organization~s president deemed the event a purely
"human rights" matter and allowed the imprimatur of the mainstream group to be
used on flyers denouncing Israel.

    Students may want to know whether the SSMU is now prepared to attach its
name and prestige to protests against the mass deportation of nearly 800,000
Yemenis from Saudi Arabia, the expulsion of 53,000 black Mauritanians to
Senegal as part of an Arabization policy, and the expulsion into the desert of
400,000-800,000 black Sudanese Christians by the Islamic fundamentalist
government of Sudan?  Given the similarity in numbers and timing the SSMU will
surely want to affix its name to condemnations of Greece for ejecting 400
Albanians at almost precisely the moment the hunger strike occurred.

    The strike, which observers say involved only a handful of students, drew
national Canadian television coverage of youths waving the PLO flag, as well
as local electronic and print media reports on the well-executed public
relations event.

    As in the case of the letter-writing campaign to offset the bias of the
McGill _Daily_, Jewish groups such as the McGill Israel Public Affairs
Committee have countered the many staged pro-Palestinian events with
celebrations of Israel such as "Israel Week," during which aspects of Israeli
life, including food and dress, were presented.
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               Hamas Opposes Peace, Advocates Violence and Jihad

    {News accounts of the deportation by Israel of 417 Hamas extremists almost
invariably omit crucial information about the nature of the Islamic
organization which the men lead.  Most often the media present the deportees
as refugees pathetically stranded on a Lebanese hillside without describing
the grisly crimes committed by Hamas and the suffering of their Jewish and
Arab victims and without reporting the violent goals of the burgeoning
organization}.
                                What is Hamas?

    Hamas (The Islamic Resistance Movement) is a fundamentalist Islamic
organization that first appeared in Gaza and the West Bank in the 1970's.
Originally, the organization concentrated on urging people to be observant
Muslims, and it gained influence and power in universities, educational
institutions, and mosques.  The outbreak of the intifada in 1987 and the
emergence of "Islamic Jihad," a rival organization advocating violence,
spurred Hamas to emphasize militant activity.  The ideology of Hamas combines
zealous, pan-Arab Islamic religious notions, Palestinian nationalism, and
virulent demonization of the Jewish people.  Hamas, which views Palestine as a
sacred trust (waqf) belonging exclusively to Muslims for all eternity, is
sworn to the destruction of Israel and to the killing of Jews.
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                      *The 10 Hamas Principles of Faith:

1.  Hamas has vowed to wage a holy war for Palestine, against the Jews, until
the victory of Allah is attained.

2.  The land must be cleansed from the impurity and evil of the tyrant
conquerors.

3.  Under the wings of Islam, coexistence with members of other religions is
possible.  When Islam is not ruling, hypocrisy, hatred, division, corruption,
and oppression prevail.

4.  According to the prophet's order, the Muslims must fight the Jews and kill
them wherever they may be.

5.  Hamas aspires to establish an entity in which Allah is the supreme goal,
the Koran is the constitution, jihad (holy war) is the mean, and death for the
sake of Allah is the supreme aspiration.

6.  Palestine is a holy Islamic asset (waqf) until the end of time.
Therefore, no one may negotiate or forsake it.

7.  It is a personal religious rite for every Muslim to carry on with jihad
until the land has been salvaged.

8.  Hamas opposes international discussions, negotiations, and peace
arrangements of any kind.  Sovereignty over the land is a religious matter,
and negotiations about it mean giving up on part of the believers' control
over it.

9.  The Jews have taken hold of the world media and financial centers.
Through revolutions, wars, and movements such as the Freemasons, communism,
capitalism, Zionism, Rotary, Lions, B'nai B'rith, and so forth, they aspire to
undermine the foundations of the entire human society in order to destroy it,
cultivate their evil and corruption, and conquer the world through their
favored institutions such as the League of Nations, the United Nations, and
the Security Council.  Their plots are described in detail in the Protocols of
the Elders of Zion.

10.  Hamas opposes the secular state which the PLO wishes to set up in
Palestine because it would be an anti-Islamic state by nature.  However, if
the PLO were to adopt Islam and make it its guiding light, all members of the
Hamas movement would become soldiers of the liberation and 'set the fire that
would quell the enemy.'

*The 10 _Principles of Faith_ as summarized by Raphael Israeli of the Hebrew
University's Truman Institute, HA'ARETZ 1 Jan 1993, FBIS 5 Jan 1993
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                            The Charter of HAMAS:
Introduction: ..."The Islamic Resistance Movement emerged to carry out its
role through striving for the sake of the Creator, its arms intertwined with
those of all the fighters for the liberation of Palestine...Our struggle
against the Jews is very great and very serious...The Movement is but one
squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast
Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is
realized..."

Article 6:..."[The Islamic Resistance Movement] strives to raise the banner of
Allah over every inch of Palestine..."

Article 7: ..."The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:
`The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews
(killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees.  The
stones and trees will say O Moslem, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come
and kill him...'" Article 8: "Allah is the target, the Prophet is its model,
the Koran its constitution; Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah
is the loftiest of wishes."

Article 11: ..."Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [sacred property] land...It, or
any part of it, should not be given up..."

Article 13:..."There is no solution for the Palestinian question except
through Jihad.  Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a
waste of time and vain endeavors..."

Article 14..."Liberation of Palestine is then an individual duty for every
Moslem wherever he may be..."
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       Hamas and the kidnap-murder of Israeli policeman Nissim Toledano:

o   Hamas termed Toledano's murder the latest phase in its aim to "liberate
Palestine from Zionist occupation." The killing was said to be the "first in a
series the organization plans to take to force Israelis to `leave Palestine.'"
(Amman, Jordan Times, December 15, 1992, as quoted in FBIS 16 Dec 92)

                         Hamas and peace negotiations:

o   Ibrahim Ghawshah, spokesman for Hamas in Amman, '...has said that Hamas
denounces the negotiations and announces to the world that dialogue with the
Israeli enemy can only be held through the barrel of a gun...He said that the
recent operation by Hamas [the murder of Nissim Toledano] was aimed at
breaking the arrogance of the Israeli occupation in front of world, Arab, and
Palestinian public opinion and at proving that occupation troops can be
pursued and killed...'(Amman SAWT AL-SHA'B 17 Dec 92, as quoted in FBIS 17 Dec
92)

            Hamas and the murder of Shin Bet officer Haim Nahmani:

o   The "Islamic Resistance Movement-Hamas issued a statement today affirming
that the Israeli government understands only the language of bayonets and that
the jihad against the Israeli soldiers and border guards is legitimate and
acknowledged by all norms and values and is recognized by the UN charter."
(Paris Radio Monte Carlo in Arabic 4 Jan 93, as quoted in FBIS 5 Jan 93)

                  Examples of leaflets distributed by Hamas:

o   Leaflet #65 (October 21, 1990): "Every Jew and settler will be a target
for murder; his blood and possessions are expendable." (IDF Spokesman,
Information Branch, 17 Dec 90)

A special leaflet distributed in the Gaza district (mid-November 1990): "We
call upon all the strength of our people and our fighters to increase their
attacks with knives, grenades and guns against the cowardly Jews wherever they
may be...The attacks of our fighters will reach the Jews within their homes
and will turn their days into darkness and their lives into an intolerable
hell." (IDF Spokesman, Information Branch, 17 Dec 90)

In an interview in Britain in May 1990, the official spokesman of HAMAS stated
that "`We cannot avoid the fact that the time has come for the struggle
against the enemy to be fought not only with the machine-gun and the bomb, but
also with the plane and the rocket.  This is the way that it will be possible
to reach an understanding with the Zionist enemy.'" (IDF Spokesman's Unit, The
HAMAS Background, Dec 1992)
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                     UN's Double Standard Targets Israel

{Arab spokesmen and their supporters have recently charged the international
community with applying a double standard when it imposed UN sanctions against
Iraq for the invasion of Kuwait but not against Israel for deporting Hamas
militants to Lebanon.  The outlandish charges are the latest chapter in the
Arab campaign to delegitimize Israel in the forum of the United Nations.  It
is Israel, not Iraq, that has been subjected to a relentless and pernicious
double standard.}

o   No similarity whatever exists between the defensive Israeli action that
removed known leaders of Hamas, an organization openly professing
responsibility for terrorist killings and dedicated to the destruction of
Israel, and Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.  Iraq's bloody, unprovoked
aggression and annexation of a sovereign state cost hundreds of thousands of
lives and vast global disruption.  Israel's deportation of Islamic extremists
sworn to fight "until the last Jew in the world is exterminated" has not cost
a single life.

o   Not a word of criticism ushered from the halls of the UN when more than
300,000 Palestinians were driven out of Kuwait.  No UN voice was heard in
condemnation of Saudi Arabia for its peremptory expulsion of nearly 800,000
Yemenis in the wake of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.  The desperate condition of
black Sudanese Christians and animists, more than 400,000 of whom were driven
into the desert in early 1992 by their Islamic overlords, was greeted with
total silence by the minions of the UN.  (The decades-old slaughter of black
Christians that has taken at least 600,000 lives has never been addressed at
the UN)

o   The genocidal mass deportations of Tibetans from their homeland and mass
murder of Cambodians under thrall of the Khmer Rouge were ignored by the
United Nations.

o   Israel's limited action to halt the surge of attacks by Muslim
fundamentalists is a dramatic counterpoint to the ruthless policies pursued by
other states in the region against rising indigenous fundamentalism.  In the
aftermath of the killings of a half dozen of its soldiers in 1982, Syria slew
20,000 people in the Muslim stronghold of Hama.  In Egypt, according to
Amnesty International and Middle East Watch, fundamentalists have been rounded
up, imprisoned and tortured.  Algeria has engaged in mass arrests, long-term
detention and the abrupt suspension of democratic reforms.  The UN's response
in each instance: silence.

o   In UN debates dictators, military strongmen and feudal monarchs denounce
the Middle East's sole democracy, while vetoing discussion of their own
crimes.  Among actions taken in the UN over many years have been efforts by
the erstwhile Soviet bloc in collusion with Arab states to eject Israel from
the organization; efforts to prevent international trade with Israel;
exclusion of Israel from UN committees and secretarial bodies; exclusion of
Israel from the same UN councils in which the PLO has been permitted to
participate; the slandering of Zionism, the national liberation movement of
the Jewish people, as a form of racism; condemnation of Israel for
archeological digs in Jerusalem deemed justifiable by the UN's own experts;
relentless condemnation of Israel for responding to terror assaults against
her Jewish and Arab citizens; refusal to permit Israel its rightful turn as a
member of the Security Council; and on and on.

o   Never in the decades of terrorist attack - whether at the Munich Olympics,
on the beaches of Tel Aviv, in tourist hotels, in kibbutz classrooms, on
commuter buses, in Jerusalem marketplaces and throughout the Jewish state -
has the United Nations ever denounced an Arab or PLO assault against Israelis.
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                                JUST THE FACTS

    Committee whose secretary stated in September, 1948 that "The fact that
  there are these [Palestinian Arab] refugees is the direct consequence of the
  act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state.  The Arab
     states agreed upon this policy unanimously, and they must share in the
                           solution of the problem.":
                 Palestine Arab Higher Committee (Emile Ghoury)

   Proclamation which stated "In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call
   upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of
  peace and to play their part in the development of the state, with full and
  equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions,
                           provisional or permanent":
              Israel's Proclamation of Independence, May 14, 1948

     Organization which distributed leaflets asking the Arabs to return to
                                    Israel:
                                 the Histadrut

  Group that urged Arabs to evacuate Palestine for two weeks in 1948, stating
       that "`A cannon cannot differentiate between a Jew and an Arab.'":
                             the Arab High Command

     Estimated number of children from Bangladesh sold into Arab slavery in
                                 recent years:
                                     95,000

  Amount of money Yasir Arafat gave Erich Honecker as a parting gift when the
                     East German dictator went into exile:
                                    $150,000

            UN-member nation never elected to the Security Council:
                                     Israel

         Number of Arab League members elected to the Security Council:
                                       15

  Number of Security Council resolutions and drafts condemning Israel between
                                   1967-1991:
                                       69

   Number of UN General Assembly resolutions criticizing Israel within a week
          of repealing resolution 3379 (equating Zionism with racism):
                                       4

  Number of Security Council resolutions condemning PLO or Arab terror attacks
                                against Israel:
                                       0

  Number of Security Council resolutions condemning Iraq for gassing of 5,000
                                     Kurds:
                                       0

     Number of Security Council resolutions condemning Syria for killing of
                                20,000 at Hama:
                                       0

    Organization that observes every November 29 as the International Day of
                    Solidarity with the Palestinian People:
                               the United Nations

      Reason why the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali was never
         permitted to hold the full title of Foreign Minister of Egypt:
                          Religion (He is not Muslim)

  Nation in which school songs have been changed to Islamic absolutist anthems
                              in praise of jihad:
                                     Sudan

   Spiritual leader of Egypt's outlawed Jihad revolutionary group who issued
  the fatwa, or Islamic sanction, for the assassination of Egyptian president
                                  Anwar Sadat:
                            Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman

    City in which Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman preaches jihad from local mosques:
                                  Brooklyn, NY

         Number of Nigerians deported from Saudi Arabia in August 1992:
                                      600

           Number of Albanians expelled from Greece in February 1993:
                                      400

          Government expelling 2 Palestinians suspected of terrorism:
                                     Sweden

   Number of Palestinians under the age of 15 deported from Kuwait and other
                        Gulf states after the Gulf War :
                                    135,000

    Nation in which a Muslim newspaper claims that "`Israel ...  is training
                 Serb fighters to massacre Muslims in Bosnia'":
                                     Egypt

  Number of Muslim refugees absorbed by Israel in February 1993 from war-torn
                                    Bosnia:
                                       84

    City to which a 35 member Israeli medical team is scheduled to travel in
              early 1993 to treat casualties of ongoing civil war:
                                    Sarajevo

Sources:
  1-4 Midstream, June/July 1992; 5 Boston Globe, 12/16/92; 6 Washington Post,
  1/14/93; 7-11Myths and Facts, 1992; 12-13 St.  Petersburg Times, 2/4/93; 14
  "For the Rights of the Palestinians: The Work of the Committee on the
  Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People," UN, 12/1992;
  15-16 "Sudan: The Copts: Passive Survivors under Threat," Africa Watch,
  2/10/93; 17-18 Wall Street Journal, 1/6/93; 19 Xinhua New Service, 8/23/92;
  20 Boston Globe, 2/7/93; 21 Asociated Press, 12/11/92; 22 World Refugee
  Survey, 1992; 23 The Economist, 8/1/92; 24 New York Times, 2/18/93; 25
  Jerusalem Report , 2/25/93
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              Facts About Israel and the Fourth Geneva Convention

    {Israel has been accused of violating the Fourth Geneva Convention when it
periodically deports those involved either directly or indirectly in terrorism
against Jewish and Arab Israelis.  The temporary expulsion of 417 adherents of
Hamas in December 1992 again triggered these false assertions.}

What is the "Fourth Geneva Convention"?
    The Geneva Conventions were first instituted in 1864 in an effort to
ensure humane treatment of civilians and military personnel in times of war.
After World War II, and the Nazi atrocities involving mass transfers of
populations to slave labor and death camps, additional protocols were added,
including the Fourth Geneva Convention in August, 1949.

Does the Convention apply in the West Bank and Gaza?
    Many experts, including Eugene Rostow and Yehuda Blum, argue the Fourth
Geneva Convention does not, in fact, apply to these areas because the
Convention requires the occupying power to comply with the pre-existing laws
governing the territory in question.  The laws relevant to the West Bank and
Gaza are those of the last recognized sovereign, the British Mandatory
authority, which permit deportations in times of emergency (Regulation 112,
Defense Regulations of 1945).  Israel's Supreme Court, known for its
independence and willingness to rule against government decisions, upheld the
legality of Israel~s recent deportation of Hamas adherents.

Has Israel violated the Convention?
    If the Convention did legally apply to the West Bank and Gaza Israel
would, nevertheless, not have violated its tenets in deporting the Hamas
militants.  First, the Convention stipulates that expulsions may occur if "the
security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand." The
terrorist killings of five Israeli soldiers and a policeman that triggered the
expulsions presented an unprecedented internal challenge to the state's
ability to protect its citizens and its security forces.  Second, the Fourth
Geneva Convention was not meant to hobble a responsible democracy acting in
self-defense but to prevent any future genocidal campaign by Hitlerite
dictators.
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                       Section III, Article 49 (excerpt)

    Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of
protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying
Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited,
regardless of their motive.
    Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total or partial
evacuation of a given area if the security of the population or imperative
military reasons so demand.  Such evacuations may not involve the displacement
of protected persons outside the bounds of the occupied territory except when
for material reasons it is impossible to avoid such displacement.  Persons
thus evacuated shall be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities
in the area in question have ceased.
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                         How to Counter Misinformation

1. _Write a letter_ to campus newspapers, magazines and other publications.

2.  _Monitor your newspaper_.  How many articles, editorials, letters and
photos give the Israeli version of events versus the Arab version?  Keep track
for a month.  Then, if you find a problem, hold a meeting with the editors to
share your concerns.

3.  _Join the staff_ of campus publications needing better balance in their
Middle East articles.

4.  _Encourage sympathetic faculty members and alumni_ to write letters and
provide you help and advice.

5.  _Let us know what's happening on campus_.  Are your college publications
providing accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East?  How
have students responded when coverage has been one-sided and unfair?  Write us
at CAMERA, Box 428, Boston, MA 02258.
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                                  JOIN CAMERA

 CAMERA is a non-denominational, non-partisan, educational media-watch group
 dedicated to the promotion of fair and balanced coverage of the Middle East.
 The CAMERA National Media Resource Center documents print and electronic
 coverage of the Middle East and provides information, programs and support to
 other concerned organizations and individuals around the country.  PLEASE
 SUPPORT THIS ESSENTIAL WORK.  Send your tax-deductible contribution to:

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