And Sharon remains silent

Wednesday, September 3, 2003

Woman with pot, painting by Silvia Rosenberg 70x170 two-canvas painting

There were demands coming from the inside the police and Right wing circles for blanket pardons for all the policemen now likely to be investigated by recommendation of the Or commission into the October 2000 riots that left 13 citizens dead from police shootings.

But those calls, which were based on the precedent of the presidential pardons granted to Shin Bet officers - before they were even indicted - for the murder of two terrorists taken off the Egged Bus 300 outside Ashkelon in the 1980s, were rejected by President Moshe Katsav as well as Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein.

The prime minister, meanwhile, has not been heard on the subject of the commission, which laid responsibility at the feet of the government - and specifically the prime minister - for taking steps to enforce equality for Arab citizens as both individuals and as a community.

Nor has the prime minister been heard on the subject of his son, Gilad, who was back at the Bat Yam International Crimes and Fraud Squad headquarters, for questioning about why Likud activist and construction tycoon David Appel paid Gilad hundreds of thousands for 'marketing consultations' on a tourism project Appel was trying to promote on a Greek island.

Investigators believe that Appel's payments to the Sharon son, who had no experience in marketing any tourism projects, were in effect a bribery payment to the Sharon family for then-foreign minister Ariel Sharon's intervention on Appel's behalf with the Greek government, from whom Appel wanted permission to build his resort. Gilad has so far remained silent when questioned by police on the issue. Police say they will have no choice but to question the prime minister, who has so far remained silent about the Appel inqury. Indeed, not since a tempestuous emergency press conference in January this year, at which Sharon denied any wrongdoing by himself or his sons, has the prime minister been asked by the press about the investigations, though he has said that public officials must cooperate with police inquiries.

On the Palestinian front, there was mounting tension in the Palestinian Authority ahead of tomorrow's Palestinian Legislative Council session at which Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will report on his first 100 days in office -- and where he might tender his resignation, frustrated by Yasser Arafat's obstructionism, or be voted out of office in a no-confidence vote. According to a Reuter report this morning, Abbas will issue an ultimatum to the PLC -- and through it to Arafat -- for the powers he believes he needs and which Arafat is so far denying him.

Arafat's interview to CNN, in which he said Israel and the U.S. had killed the roadmap, was extensively quoted on Israel Radio, which called Arafat's statement the 'official' burial of the U.S. plan. But nothing is permanent nowadays -- the Egyptians were said to be giving Hamas an ultimatum to accept a new cease-fire, while the Moroccans, hosting Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, were saying they were planning to step in to revive the cease-fire and help resume the political process.

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