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American Morning

UN Agrees to Changes to Makeup of Jenin Fact-finding Team

Aired April 26, 2002 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, the UN agrees to some changes in the makeup of the fact-finding team that heads to Jenin tomorrow but while talks between Israel and UN officials resume in New York this hour, many Israelis from the president on down accuse the international community of having a Palestinian bias, even to the point of being anti-Semitic.

CNN's Matthew Chance just returned from covering demonstrations in Ramallah.

Matthew, what did you see? Good morning.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Paula. Good morning to you as well. We'll get to that issue of alleged bias in the way the international community views Israel and judges the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in a moment.

I just want to will tell you though about the scenes I've been witnessing here in Ramallah, the West Bank town of Jabal is under Palestinian control here on the West Bank. Seen as some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks between Israeli forces and Palestinians. And of course, the place where Yasser Arafat continues to be holed up inside his presidential compound with around about 400 of his supporters around him.

It's very interesting to see, Paula, just how quickly frustration on the streets here in Ramallah turns into anger. These scenes you're seeing now that started out as a relatively peaceful demonstration expressing their continued sense of resistance to the Israeli military just passed the barricades they've erected there just in front of Yasser Arafat's compound. That march was met with very sharp -- with a very sharp response from the Palestinians, as you can see there. Stun grenades were exploded in the air above the protesters and indeed, on the ground as well. The air was thick with tear gas. And I can tell you now, Paula, my eyes are still stinging as a result of that. I can tell you a number of live rounds also fired. We did also hear a tank shell being fired into an empty building close to vantage point where we are standing now.

The other thing though is that I wanted to get on to, as we mentioned earlier, is the situation in Israel. Just yesterday, I was with Israeli in West Jerusalem talking to them about how they perceive the international community and how it's -- how the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is judged in their view. Here's what some of them had to say, including the president, Moshe Katsav.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice over): The battleground of Jenin, thorn in the side of Israel's relations with the rest of the world. Already European delegates are visiting the devastation. By the weekend, a UN team could be investigating how many Palestinian militants and civilians were killed here. Israel's President told me double standards were behind this Security Council sanctioned inquiry.

MOSHE KATSAV, ISRAELI PRESIDENT: The volume of their action is not same. To investigate what happened in Jenin is OK, but to ignore from the backing of the Palestinian Authority to this bloodshed I can not tolerate. You can not accept it.

CHANCE (on camera): These are very serious accusations you're leveling against the international community. What possible motivation could there be for that?

KATSAV: Maybe lack of information. I can not say that they are innocent, this international community by their actions toward us, but I prefer to say that it's a lack of information.

CHANCE (voice over): And these are more than just presidential views. On Ben Yahuda Street in West Jerusalem, repeated targets for suicide attacks, not hard to find anger at the outside world and at the UN in particular.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are Jewish. We want to live here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The United States is anti-Semitic.

CHANCE (on camera): It's the international community. It's the representative of the international community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Well, there's a problem. The United Nations is a circus. That's what the United Nations is. It has never been objective about what is going on in the Middle East.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anti-Jewish United Nations. Anti-Jewish.

CHANCE: The impression that we have is that when Jews are massacred, the word massacred, in a hotel on the satyr evening, which you know is a holiday, a very special day when Jews, Passover. When you see the Jews are bombed in a bus, we don't hear the world screaming and crying or turning to the Arabs saying, you know --

CHANCE: If --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, let me finish. If you don't stop it, we're going to do X, Y, or Z. CHANCE (on camera): There are, of course an array of different opinions in this country, but it's true to say that many Israelis honestly believe the rest of the world is unjustly against them right now. Jenin, they say, is just one example of that, and a bitter illustration of just how isolated many people in this country feel they have become.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Well that report, Paula, showing just how at odd many Israelis feel including the president there with the rest of the international community. Now the United Nations just very briefly has gone some way to addressing some of the Israeli government concerns about the UN team offering to put two military experts on that team before it goes into Jenin at the weekend. Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: All right. Matthew Chance thanks so much for that live update.

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