Jerusalem Post, Aug. 27, 2002

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Israeli hopes to keep a low profile at the UN World Summit for Sustainable Development were already dashed on the first day of the conference Monday, when Palestinians accused Israel of torturing children, stealing land, and poisoning Palestinian water.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had expressed hope that the summit would be a positive, apolitical event, but the Simon Wiesenthal Center accused the South African government Monday of taking a political stand by endorsing the Palestinian delegation's calls for Israel to release terrorist Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti's lawyer, Khader Shikrat, met on Monday with South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, who agreed to support the "Free Barghouti campaign," Wiesenthal Center international liaison director Shimon Samuels told The Jerusalem Post from Johannesburg.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela is a member of the Free Barghouti movement, which has the support of several officials from South Africa's ruling African National Congress Party.
Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, held a press conference at the summit Monday in which she compared her husband to Mandela and proclaimed him a freedom fighter. "Marwan is not in favor of killing civilians, but he is in favor of legitimate resistance," she said, in front of a banner that read: "Stop the Holocaust in Palestine Now."

Mark Sofer, a senior Foreign Ministry official, told reporters after the press conference that Barghouti chairs the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which has taken credit for the murders of Israeli men, women, and children.
He said any attempt to compare Barghouti to Mandela was farcical.

"I think I've heard Barghouti compared to [Slobodan] Milosevic and Saddam Hussein," Sofer said. "To compare him to Mandela is a travesty of the highest regard."

Fadwa Barghouti accused Israel of torturing her husband, who has been in Israeli custody since April and was charged August 14 with masterminding 37 terror attacks that claimed the lives of 26 Israelis.

When Shikrat joined her and accused Israel of torturing 230 Palestinian children in Shin Bet basements, some 50 Israelis from the World Union of Jewish Students stood up in protest, revealing their T-shirts, which read, "Stop hijacking the summit" on the front and "Stop Durbanizing the WSSD" on the back, alluding to the anti-Israel atmosphere that pervaded the UN World Summit on Racism held a year ago in Durban, South Africa.
After they refused to sit down, dozens of police came in and removed the Israeli students, who went outside and sang peace songs in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, students present at the event said.

Palestinian students then tried to outshout the Israelis with chants of "Free Palestine." When some Israeli and Palestinian students started calling each other names, the police forced them to go their separate ways.

The Palestinian event was organized by the "Palestinian Solidarity Committee of South Africa," which is planning demonstrations throughout the two-week long summit and across the country through September 28, the second anniversary of the Palestinian uprising.

Israeli officials at the summit stressed that, unlike the Durban conference, the official deliberations in Johannesburg have not grown political. However, friction has erupted on the sidelines.
Palestinians are trying to collect thousands of signatures on a petition demanding that Israel free Barghouti and South Africa close its embassy in Tel Aviv and freeze its diplomatic ties with Israel. The petition also calls for supporting Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The Jewish National Fund, the only Israeli non-governmental organization exhibiting at the conference, has been under consistent attack by Palestinian demonstrators and Muslim local radio on political grounds.

The PA has its own booth some 15 meters from the exhibition void of any environmental information, adorned with a banner reading "Viva Intifada." At the booth Palestinians are handing out anti-Israel newspapers and keffiyehs with a map of Israel on the back that says "Palestine."

After the Barghouti event, a group of Palestinian students came to the JNF platform and accused the JNF of stealing Palestinian land in 1948. An Israeli peace activist came and supported the Palestinian students, who called on delegates to the conference to protest during the JNF's workshop on deforestation tomorrow.
Some members of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee wore T-shirts bearing a picture of terrorist Osama bin Laden. Daniel Rubinstein, the vice chairman of the South African Union of Jewish Students, said that when he entered the Barghouti event, the head of the Palestinian committee remarked, "You can smell the Zionists."


News agencies contributed to this report.

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