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American Morning

Six Israeli Men Arrested, Could be Charged With Treason

Aired July 19, 2002 - 08:29   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From overseas, six Israeli men have been arrested and could be charged with treason. They're suspected of stealing ammunition from Israel's Army then selling it to Palestinians.

From Jerusalem, Chris Burns joins us live with an update on him, this story. He's tracking it now -- Chris, hello.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

It's a wrenching story, especially because some of those men who were arrested, these Israeli men, were settlers in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank that was attacked in April, the Adora (ph) settlement, and there were four people killed, including a little girl who were killed in an attack there. And Israeli authorities believe that perhaps some of those bullets that were sold to the Palestinians may have been actually fired on, during this attack.

So it's an especially wrenching story, especially for the people in that Jewish settlement. Six Israelis arrested. One an Army reservist. Two, there are two pairs of brothers. Theses are military people who are accused of selling weapons as well as 60,000 rounds of bullets to Palestinians on the West Bank.

In fact, there is a story in the "Jerusalem Post" today showing the latest arrest of that Army reservist and saying that these men who are accused could face the death penalty because they will be tried, they would be tried with treason if the case goes ahead. Treason is a capital offense.

More arrests could be expected, officials say, and the suspects remain in custody at the moment. Again, as I say, they could face the death penalty, that the reservist is a 26-year-old man who was, lived in Israel. However, the five others were living on Israeli Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Those settlements, many of them, have been subject to attacks by Palestinians and just the thought that some of them had been, could have been selling weapons and ammunition to the Palestinians outrages a lot of the settlers there -- Bill.

HEMMER: And, Chris, just a quick point on this. It's long been suspected that there is an intense black market that has been on the underground throughout the Middle East for quite some time. But is it the fact that these were settlers that has so many people so riled up? BURNS: Absolutely. And it's the settlers especially, you know. There are some 200,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Countless settlements out there and many of them live in great fear of being attacked. The Palestinian militants say that those settlements have no business being there and that's why they do attack, even though these people are civilians.

The latest attack was just last week against a bus outside of the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel. Nine people killed. The ninth person who died was a young woman of 21.

So the Jewish settlers being very much right there on the front line and they're fearful that perhaps there could be an enemy within -- Bill.

HEMMER: Thank you, Chris.

Chris Burns again live in Jerusalem.

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