World Journalists condemn Israeli atrocities against media
Brussels, April 5, IRNA -- The International Federation of Journalists
Friday launched a new appeal to Israel to stop targeting journalists
and media after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a crowd of television
and press reporters staff trying to cover the meeting between United
States envoy Anthony Zinni and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
''Israeli must stop targeting media people,'' said Aidan White,
the Brussels-based IFJ General Secretary after Israeli soldiers
opened fire with stun grenades and rubber bullets on the crowd of more
than two dozen journalists waiting outside the Ramallah compound where
Yasser Arafat is under siege.
''It is a miracle that someone was not seriously hurt, but tragedy
is inevitable unless Israel tells its troops to stop firing on
reporters.''
The IFJ says that there have already been four journalists killed
and more than 50 incidents of violence and intimidation of media
during the current Intifada.
The IFJ wrote to Zionist Premier Ariel Sharon a few days ago
appealing for an end to targeting of media in the current conflict.
''Israel must recognise that journalists carrying out their
professional duties are non-combatants who are protected by the Geneva
Conventions,'' said White.
''The whole world is watching and waiting nervously for news of
events on the ground, but journalists are being terrorised just for
doing their job. It is completely unacceptable.''
The IFJ, the world's largest journalists' group, represents more
than 450,000 journalists in 100 countries.
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Leader calls for Islamic oil embargo against Israel and its allies
Tehran, April 5, IRNA -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah
Seyed Ali Khamenei said here Friday that the Zionist regime, backed by
the US administration, is currently engaged in creating one of the
deepest human catastrophes in the history of mankind inside occupied
Palestine and encouraged the Arab and Islamic countries to launch an
oil embargo against Israel and its allies and supporters.
Ayatollah Khamenei said that his proposed oil embargo, that is
similar to the United states usage of wheat as a strategic weapon,
does not necessarily have to last for good, and can be applied
"symbolically" and merely for one month.
The Iranian leader also praised Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's decision not to yield to the Zionists' pressure, and to
resist until probable martyrdom.
During the fist sermon of Tehran's Friary Prayer, performed at
the central campus of Tehran University for thousands of worshipers,
which was led by Ayatollah Khamenei this week, the leader also
evaluated the intensity and depth of the ongoing Israeli crimes as
rarely-precedented" and asked the Islamic world nations to support the
oppressed Palestinian nation financially.
The leader further reiterated: "the Zionist regime, as the symbol
of blood-thirstiness, barbarianism, and observing nonchalance towards
all rules of ethics and human rights is standing on one side (of the
Middle East crisis) and the desperate, brave and oppressed Palestinian
nation, on the other side."
Ayatollah Khamenei said that the reality of the ongoing crisis in
occupied Palestine is that a well-arrayed nation (the Palestinians),
is bravely defending against the usurpers of its motherland.
Inviting the global community and the world's collective
conscience to have an unbiased judgment about the ongoing realities
in Palestine, the ayatollah emphasized: "although the Zionists have
exerted their hegemony over most of the world news media, even the
limited and censored portrait of the ongoing crisis there, which
depicts merely bits and pieces of the horrendous reality in Palestine
today, can help the global conscience reach a just judgment on the
issue."
Inviting the world Christians to voice their collective objection
owards the Zionist military incursion into the holy Beit Lahm
(Bethelhem) Church during which a priest was killed, Ayatollah
Khamenei added: "Palestine issue is not merely an Islamic issue, but
one with global dimensions in which humanity of the whole mankind is
at stake, and therefore, any human being is entitled to judge and
react about it, relying on human ethics and values."
Oil producing Arab nations used oil as a weapon in 1973 for the
first time, which caused a global energy crisis.
OPEC and Saudi Arabia have already ruled out using an oil embargo
against Israeli and its allies, following an Iraqi proposal on the
issue, made during the recent OIC ministerial summit in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
A more detailed account of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution's
Tehran Friday Prayer sermons will follow on English IRNA's telex and
website.
NA/AR
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