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News Briefs
Yugoslav Jews protest
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Jewish community of Yugoslavia
has issued a protest against recent acts "inciting open
demonstrations of anti-Semitism” which are contrary to “the
constitutional and social order of Yugoslavia and her basic
political determinations,” it was reported here by the World Jewish
Congress.
The protest appeared as a front-page editorial in the most
recent issue of “The Jewish Review,” the official organ of the
Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, the central
representative body of Yugoslav Jewry.
Israel vessels seize hash
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israel naval vessels recently confiscated
two tons of hashish valued at about $24 million, discovered
aboard three vessels intercepted on their way from Lebanon to
Egypt. It was the biggest haul of the drug ever found by Israeli
agents.
The police of various countries and Interpol, the international
police organization, have been informed of the find along with the
identities and details of 10 Turks, two Lebanese and an Egyptian
found aboard the ship.
Baby ]gator stolen
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Rishon Lezion, the first—and so far
only—alligator born in Israel has been stolen. Keepers at the
alligator farm in Hamat on the Golan Heights, where a score of the
creatures have settled down after being flown from Florida to stock
Israel's first alligator farm, said that Rishon, born just over three
months ago, had been alive and well in its incubator on Saturday.
But when they came to look it over Sunday they found a tear in
the plastic sheeting and the 10-inch reptile was missing. Police are
now searching for somebody with a new pet with a yellow stripe
down its back and 40 small teeth. Farm owners appealed on radio
for the “finder” to take special care of the baby, which still requires
incubation and eats only chopped meat.-
Times reporter won't testify
NEW YORK (JTA)—The New York Times explained
Monday why it declined an invitation by the commission of
inquiry into the Beirut refugee camps massacre in Jerusalem for its
Beirut correspondent, Thomas Friedman, to give testimony before
the panel.
A statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by the Times’
foreign news editor, Craig Whitney, said: “Thomas L. Friedman,
Beirut correspondent of the New York Times, was invited to testify
by the Israeli commission. Mr. Friedman has reported all the
information at his disposal in the news columns of the New York
Times.
“He and his editors decided to decline the commission’s
invitation, in keeping with the general policy of the Times to avoid
participation in activities of official investigative bodies by
reporters when this is not necessary."
Court says Goodman not insane
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The State prosecutor rejected the
insanity plea of Alan Harry Goodman and charged the 38-year-old
American-born bachelor in court Sunday with premeditated
murder in a shooting rampage on the Temple Mount in the Old
City of Jerusalem last April 11 in which two Arabs were killed and
more than a dozen wounded.
Goodman based his defense on psychiatric testimony that he
was a paranoid schizophrenic. But Jerusalem District Attorney
Michael Kirsh said his statements to police after his apprehension
did not square with that plea.
According to Kirsh, Goodman told police that his actions were
politically motivated and that he had conceived the attack as long
ago as 1978 as “revenge" for the killing of Israelis in the terrorist
coastal road massacre that year. Only later did Goodman claim to
be the “Messiah" and express other delusions, the district attorney
said.
E
etter to the editor
On Timerman’s right to write
Editor:
Sunday's Atlanta newspapers
headlined “Writer fears Israel
losing its moral idea.” The writer
referred to is Jacobo Timerman,
former Argentine journalist,
who was imprisoned and tortured
there. Rumor has it that Israel
played no small role in gaining his
release after which he made a
beeline for that state.
He had no sooner arrived there
when he cut loose with every
conceivable criticism of his haven,
some possibly valid, but most the
outpouring of a tortured mind and
warped thinking.
He was asked why he decided to
speak out against Israel's invasion
of Lebanon. His answer: “Because
for the first time, Israel launched a
war that was not a response to
Arab provocation.” Perhaps
Timerman should ask the Israelis
living in north Galilee whether
they had been provoked. Does he
not know that for months, even
years, they had been on the
receiving end of shells sent their
way by the PLO in Lebanon? Does
he not know that night after night
children had to be confined to
bomb shelters? Does he not know
that many lie in early graves,
unable to refute his statement that
they were not provoked?
In answer to a question about
Israel's morality, Timerman goes
on “...Jews were a people
incapable of collectively doing
harm to any other people.
Normalcy was synonymous with
being peaceful... But Israel is now a
military power because of reasons
of security.” True, Mr. Timerman,
but what, may we ask, is wrong
with that? Would he prefer that
Israel not be a military power and
peacefully go to its extermination?
Space does not permit rebuttal
to each of Timerman’s distorted
accusations. It suffices to state that
while many both here and in Israel
are critical of Israeli actions, much
of it in retrospect, he should know
that Israel is a democracy second
to none, that unlike Argentina
from which he (led, the majority of
the populace can speak out and
readily does.
Of all those, however, who have
the right to lash out either fairly or
unfairly against the state of Israel,
Jacobo Timerman comes at or
near the bottom of the list.
Max Rob kin
Update on Shcharansky
The following background
report and update on Jewish
Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly
Shcharansky has been issued by
the National Conference on Soviet
Jewry.—Editor.
Anatoly Shcharansky began his
hunger strike on Sept. 27 in
Chistopol prison to protest the
Soviet authorities’ confiscation of
his mail and their refusal to allow
him to receive visits from his
family, despite such allowances
under the Soviet penal system.
His mother, 77-year-old Ida
Milgrom, has received no direct
contact from him since January
1982 when she visited briefly with
him at Chistopol and was shocked
by his poor physical appearance.
Since then, although in poor
health herself, Mrs. Milgrom twice
made the arduous near 500-mile
journey to the prison site from her
Moscow home—in April and in
July—with hope of seeing her son.
Instead, she received only vague
information from prison and
health officials about his
condition.
Mrs. Milgrom fears that
Shcharansky’s already weakened
state, prior to undertaking the
hunger strike, coupled with the
authorities’ continued refusal to
release substantial details on his
status, may signal that he is “near
death.” In the absence of visiting
the prison and seeing Shcharansky,
there are no means to accurately
gauge the precarious nature of his
status.
On Oct. 10, Mrs. Milgrom
visited the Office of Camp
Management in Moscow for
information on her son. Officials
there merely stated that he “is
alive” and would not verify her
fears. She planned to remain there
until she was granted a meeting
with members of the Central
Committee of the Communist
Party regarding her son’s
situation; officials, however, chose
not to acknowledge her demands.
Shcharansky
Col. Vyacheslav L. Romanov,
an official from the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, told Mrs.
Milgrom on Nov. 9 that her son
was in “satisfactory health” and
that she would be promptly
notified should there be any
danger to his health. Shortly
thereafter, she cabled new Soviet
leader Yuri Andropov on
Shcharansky’s behalf, but was
informed by a Central Committee
official that her appeals were to be
forwarded to the Procurator
General in Moscow, Aleksandr M.
Rekunkov.
Mrs. Milgrom and her other
son, i Leonid, were scheduled to
depaW for Chistopol on N<W. 19.
She had again hoped to meet with
prison officials to obtain details on
Shcharansky’s status, and planned
to remain close to the camp
location until authorities satisfied
her request. However, she was
confined to her bed on Dec. I as a
result of extreme emotional and
physical stress. Her fragile state
was due to concern about her son,
who on that same day, entered the
65th day of his hunger strike. Mrs.
Milgrom and Leonid were forced
to postpone their journey
indefinitely.
Medically, Shcharansky has far
exceeded the stage at which
irreparable biological deterioration
occurs during a hunger strike.
Although several variables must be
considered (weight, amount of
body fat, general health, etc.),
nutrition experts at the Cornell
University Medical School
estimate that a hunger striker can
sustain life for 30-35 days if water
is ingested.
Many observers believe that the
authorities, in an effort to keep
Shcharansky alive, are “force-
feeding” him with necessary
nutrients. However, according to
Iosif Mendelevich, a former
Prisoner of Conscience who
immigrated to Israel in 1980 and
who carried on a 54-day hunger
strike during his lengthy
incarceration, this procedure can
be “more painful than a
continuous hunger strike” and is a
“most fiercely sophisticated form
of torture.” Mendelevich was
artificially fed with nutrients
through special tubing. Recalling
the inhumane treatment he
received, he wrote:
Guards enter the cell, attack the
prisoner...they force open his
mouth with a special instrument...
A 0.8 centimeter-diameter tube is
placed in the prisoner's mouth with
direct access to the stomach. A
thousand calories worth of liquid
-food is poured through the tube. If
the hunger striker stops the
flow...then the tube is shoved up
his nose.
Aside from the brutal physical
treatment, Mendelevich stated
that “this type of feeding harms the
body's metabolism and causes
painful headaches and stomach
aches. As it is given between long
breaks, it forces the prisoner to
start the hunger strike over and
over again.”
Although Shcharansky “is
alive,” as the authorities have
stated, his present status remains
unknown. Data suggests that his
life may nevertheless be
endangered.
PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 24, 19S2