Dear readers
Here is the digest for October 29th, 2004

1- Arafat: 'God willing, I will come back'
2- Jerusalem Municipality exempts a Kach affiliated organization from
Taxes



1- Arafat: 'God willing, I will come back'
Ghassan Andoni-IMEMC, October 29, 2004

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat landed in Paris on Friday
afternoon and boarded a helicopter to a military hospital outside the
French capital for medical treatment.

Jordanian helicopters transported Arafat from Ramallah to Amman. From
there, he flew to a military airfield near Paris aboard a military
plane equipped with a medical team.

French Defense Ministry said at least a dozen police cars were parked
in front of the Hopital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, southwest
of Paris.

ercy, a military hospital with a major trauma center, also specializes
in the treatment of blood disorders.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat left Ramallah at about 7:20 Friday
morning for the first time in more than two years.

Amid tears and chants of bystanders, Arafat boarded the Jordanian
helicopter in military uniform.

After landing in Amman, Arafat was carried by doctors on a wheelchair
to a waiting French presidential jet.

"God willing, I will come back," Arafat told aides shortly before the
plane departed for Paris.

Arafat in Way to Paris, Abbas is the Likely Temporary Replacement

In few minutes, a jordanian helicopter will move Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat to Jordan where 2 French airplanes, one of them prepared
as a flying hospital, will move Arafat to a military hospital in
France.

The decision to move Arafat to a well equipped hospital was made by hi
team of doctors late Thursday night, and was made possible by Israeli
Prime minister Ariel Sharon's announcement that Israel will allow
Arafat to come back to Ramallah after completing his medical treatment
abroad.

But, Israel apparently acted on the assumption that Arafat is
terminally ill, meaning the issue of his return might never arise.

"From our standpoint, he is dead politically, even if he is not dead
physically," said an Israeli defense ministry official.

In order to deny rumors that the President was in a coma state,
Palestinian leaders allowed reporters to broadcast photos of Arafat
sitting with a group of his medical team. Arafat looked pale and week,
but was joking and smiling.

So far, Arafat's main advisor Nabil Abu-Rudeinah dismissed media
reports about forming a three member committee to takeover Arafat's
responsibilities in his absence.

Reports that a committee of former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas,
Current Prime minister Ahmed Qurei, and either the head of the
palestinian national council (PNA) Salim Zanoun or the head of the
Palestinian legislative council (PLC) Raouhi Fatouh was appointed to
run the Palestinian Authority affairs were widely circulated.

In the absence of a Palestinian vice-president, the Palestinian
constitution states that the head of the PLC, in this case Raouhi
Fatouh, replaces the president in case it is decided that the later is
unable to fulfill the duties of his position.

Yet, Fatouh is not a known prominent leader to be able to fulfill the
duties of the central leader of the PA.

Internal PA unofficial sources said Thursday that it is more likely
for Mahmoud Abbas, who acts as the executive secretary of the PLO
executive committee and considered to be second in rank after Arafat,
to take the responsibilities of the president, with Ahmed Qurei
continuing with his duties as a prime minister.

Such arrangements are possible if approved by the palestinian
legislative council, which is expected to be soon called to convene to
decide on the issue, and likely to be accepted on the bases that the
palestinian constitution requires the PA to act under the leadership
of the PLO.
The main obstacle lies inside Fatah's central committee. Abbas,s while
in office, stepped into a serious crisis with Fatah's main decision
making body, which ultimately led to his resignation.

From his side, Hamas leader in Gaza Ismael Haneiah called for
establishing a unified leadership, which represents all the
palestinian political factions, to run public affairs in the absence
of Arafat.

Even when Haneiah's proposal has been under consideration for a while,
it is unlikely that the PA leaders would accept to introduce such a
radical change in the leadership level at the moment.




2- Jerusalem Municipality exempts a Kach affiliated organization from
Taxes
George Rishmawi-IMEMC & Agencies, October 29, 2004

The Municipality of Jerusalem approved on Thursday a tax exempt order
to a religious institute in the city called "Hara'ayon Hayehudi"
meaning the Jewish Idea, which is affiliated with the outlawed right
wing movement Kach.

The order exempts this institute of paying NIS 31 thousand (around
$7000) of local tax.

Media sources in Israel said Israeli police raided this center several
time in the past looking for Terrorist Jewish groups shortly after the
assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995.

The source said, the police arrested some of the members of that
institute when they found ammunition and incitement leaflets in their
premises.

Sa'ar Netane'l from the left wing Meretz party said that this tax
exempt is like funding Kach organization.

In 1968, Rabbi Meir Kahane established the Jewish Defense League, the
forerunner of the Kach movement.

Kahane immigrated to Israel in 1969 and spoke out against the black
Jews in the Negev area and later spoke openly about expelling the
Palestinians out of Israel.

In 1980, Kahane was sentenced to six months in prison for plotting
with others to commit a grave act of provocation in the Haram Al-
Sharif area.

The Kach movement thus ran for election in 1984, winning 26,000 votes,
and Kahane became a member of Knesset. He announced that Kach would
not support any government that did not advocate the expulsion of the
Palestinians.

In November 1992, following the movements' support of the grenade
attack in the butchers' market in the Old City of Jerusalem, Minister
Amnon Rubinstein asked the Attorney-General to initiate a criminal
proceedings against the leaders of the two movements, on the charge of
incitement to terrorism.

In 1990 Kahane was killed in New York, and his followers established a
movement called Kahane Chai, meaning Kahane Alive led by his son
Benjamine Kahane, who was killed and his wife by Palestinians in a
drive-by shooting in December 2000 in the West Bank.