NABLUS/CAIRO, 9 January 2003 — Israeli forces yesterday gunned down a Palestinian activist for allegedly trying to infiltrate the northeast of the country, hours after killing two Palestinians in an increased crackdown on activists in the wake of a bomb attack in Tel Aviv.
Amid the latest violence, the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s election campaign bogged deeper in stinging corruption allegations. Sharon went on the counteroffensive against the allegations which have damaged his standing just three weeks ahead of general elections.
Under mounting pressure to answer damaging corruption allegations in the Israeli press, Sharon lashed out at snowballing reports of financial misdealings to bankroll his 1999 Likud leadership campaign. "This is a shameful political slander and I will prove it, by facts and documents," Sharon told public radio. "Whoever is behind this has but one goal: to overthrow a prime minister."
The allegations center on a $1.5-million bank guarantee he and his sons reportedly secured from a South African businessman to cover debts he was obliged to pay back for illegal campaign contributions run up during his 1999 Likud leadership race.
A poll released yesterday showed that 31 percent of Israelis consider Sharon unfit to stay on as premier after the scandal. It was the first time his personal popularity has been hit despite a series of damaging corruption affairs dogging his extreme right-wing Likud party in the run-up to Israel’s Jan. 28 general election.
The South African businessman, Cyril Kern, has acknowledged making the payment, saying he was an old friend of Sharon. The charges came on the heels of a vote-buying scandal in Likud. Likud called the latest reports "lies", blaming them on the opposition Labour party.
Israeli troops patrolling the northeastern border area shot dead an unidentified armed man and captured another. The two men were trying to infiltrate the Jewish state in the area where Israel borders Arab neighbors Jordan and Syria, Israeli military sources said.
They allegedly opened fire on the patrol in the Hamat Gader area, a natural spring beside the Yarmuk River marking the border with Jordan and some 15 kilometers from Syria, Israeli military sources added.
Earlier yesterday, the Israeli Army shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian in the northern West Bank village of Saida near Tulkarm, Palestinian witnesses said. They said he was a civilian standing on the roof of a building near a house which soldiers were demolishing when one of them opened fire on him.
Another Palestinian man was also gunned down by Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, a few hundred meters from the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian witnesses said. Israel has reoccupied all West Bank cities and towns except Jericho since last June in a bid to dismantle what it calls Palestinian "terrorist cells."
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said he had criticized "Israel’s policy of force" in dealing with the Palestinians during a meeting yesterday with an aide to Sharon. "There are differences between the points of view of Egypt and Israel; this appeared clearly during the discussions with the Israeli official," Ephraim Halevy, Maher told reporters after the meeting. (Agencies)
