Ariel Sharon Article Draft 2 | radio.indymedia.org

By Anonymous (not verified) , 22 March, 2001

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aries

second draft

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Activists Follow Sharon
Visit from DC to NY

An Indymedia
Exclusive face="Helvetica">Aries de la Cruz

NEW YORK -- (IMC)
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharons visit to New York was
greeted by calls for his arrest yesterday as 60
demonstrators, organized by the Al-Awda Palestinian Right to
Return Coalition protested the controversial Prime Ministers
arrival at a Council of President's function outside the Sheraton
New York in inclement weather. It follows a series of
demonstrations earlier this week in Washington DC, organized by
the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

src="http://www.dc.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/sharondemo…"
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(Photo: face="Helvetica">Nancy Shia face="Helvetica"> href="http://www.dc.indymedia.org/search-process.php3?medium=image&keyword=sh…"> size="2" face="Helvetica">See more of the demonstrations earlier
this week from IMC DC)

Al-Awda is demanding an
investigation of Ariel Sharons war crimes and crimes
against humanity. As Israeli Minister of Defense during the
1980s, Sharon was responsible for the deaths of at least 20,000
Lebanese and Palestinian civilians during a three-month attack on
an air-defenseless Lebanon, specifially Sabra and Shatila, which
earned him the nickname Butcher of Beirut.

As prime minister for
less than a month, according to Al-Awda, Sharon has
already ordered measures which further violate the Fourth Geneva
Convention including blockades which have reduced the Palestinian
civilian population in the occupied territories to extreme
poverty and in some areas near starvation, and resulted in deaths
due to deliberate deprivation of access to medical care. "

"It is clear that the
main obstacle to peace today and I really hate to say that
is Chairman Arafat," Sharon told the Council of
Presidents of major Jewish organizations, as the protestors
outside, holding soaked signs that said "Ariel Sharon = War
Criminal," which was stapled on to the historic
"Bush=Racism" placards used in the January 20
Inauguration protests, chanted "One, two, three, four: we
wont take it anymore. Five, six, seven, eight, Israel is an
outlaw state" and "Shame, Shame Sheraton; For hosting a
war criminal." At one point, a speaker implored officers of
the New York City Police Department to arrest Sharon for war
crimes and crimes against humanity. A spokeswoman from Sheraton
New York declined to comment on the event, telling NYC Indymedia
that they did not discuss their client's private events.