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Interviews Available: Mideast Crisis

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DIAA HADID
Hadid, an Australian citizen, is assisting Ittijah, a Haifa-based network of Arab associations. With many phone lines in the West Bank cut, Ittijah is connecting media to Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
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NAJEH JARRAR
Professor of sociology at An-Najah National University, which is in Nablus, Jarrar is currently in Jenin. He said today: “For 10 days, we’ve been under curfew, no electricity, no water, a shortage of food. The Israelis conquered the city four days ago and searched the houses one by one. Today they forced out the residents of the refugee camp. Some of the people from the refugee camp are estimating that about 200 people have been killed. The Israelis are using bulldozers to demolish houses and are collecting the bodies of those killed; they are not allowing reporters — or the Red Cross or Red Crescent — into the camp. There are airplanes in the sky, with helicopters occasionally firing into the city.”
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NASEER ARURI
Chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of The Obstruction of Peace: The U.S., Israel, and the Palestinians, Aruri said today: “In Jenin, they are not able to count the bodies; there are clearly massacres…. Clearly there was a green light given to the Israelis to be attacking Palestinians. Still, there are people in the U.S. establishment who see that this could be bad for the U.S. and for Israel. There are the outlines of agreement between Powell’s Nov. 13 address, the Europeans’ position and what the Arab leaders said at the recent summit: a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza. The question remains, is the U.S. serious about that or is it just going through motions now to allow it to launch a major attack on Iraq…”
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RABBI MICHAEL LERNER
Editor of Tikkun magazine, Lerner and noted author Cornel West will be participating in a demonstration at the State Department at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 11.
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RITA GIACAMAN
Giacaman, professor of public health at Birzeit University, is doing damage assessment in the West Bank.
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SISTER ELAINE KELLEY
Administrative director of Friends of Sabeel, an ecumenical organization which works with Palestinian Christians, Kelley said today: “We not only call on Israel to withdraw from the population centers it has recently invaded, but also to end the Israeli occupation…. The U.S. has wrongly supported Israel with tens of billions of dollars of military apparatus, which has led to this tragedy.”
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JOHN QUIGLEY
Professor of law at Ohio State University and author of Genocide in Cambodia and Palestine and Israel, Quigley said today: “Targeting civilians — like having helicopters fire missiles at residential areas, as Israel is doing — is a war crime. Yesterday, the 60th country ratified the International Criminal Court treaty. The ICC will have the authority to prosecute crimes beginning July 1. The ICC could indict persons who engage in war crimes after that date, if certain jurisdictional qualifications are met….”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167