With Israeli tanks back in Palestinian population centers and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Washington, the following analysts are available for interviews:

MITRI RAHEB
Raheb is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and author of I Am a Palestinian Christian.
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SIMONA SHARONI
Sharoni is professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle East politics at Evergreen State College and executive director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development. On an August 3 news release from IPA, she said: “The targeted assassinations campaign against Palestinian leaders is likely to provoke a violent response. In fact, one wonders if Israel is using these illegal attacks to provoke such a response and then use that as a pretext to reoccupy the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip.” She said today: “Now that the re-occupation of the West Bank is well underway, it is incumbent upon the United Nations and the international community to hold Israel — finally — accountable for its violations of international law. The Bush administration condemned Israel’s actions for the wrong reasons — fear that these actions threaten an already weak coalition of Middle East regimes. Americans should criticize the Israeli occupation on moral grounds.”
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LINDA BEVIS and ED MAST
Bevis and Mast were in the West Bank in August with the International Solidarity Movement to End the Occupation. They witnessed firefights on the streets of Bethlehem. Mast said today: “These so-called ‘invasions’ are part of the continuous Israeli attempt to terrorize a civilian population into submitting to apartheid. They go in, beat up and shoot people, and then go back to their military outposts. Can we call it ‘invasion’ when the Israeli tanks only move in a mile and a half from where they always stand waiting?”

YVONNE HADDAD
Professor with the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, Haddad said today: “Part of the effect of Sharon shelling places like Bethlehem and Beit Jalla is to pressure even more of the Christian population — which used to be 20 percent and is now only 1.8 percent of the Palestinians in the West Bank — into leaving. This would have the net effect of making the conflict more of a Jew-Muslim one.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; Norman Solomon, (415) 552-5378