By Munir K. Nasser
Chief Correspondent, Washington, DC
Albawaba
Muslim American organizations called on their members to protest a proposed Congressional legislation that would require the US Justice Department to set up a special office targeting Palestinians exclusively.
The recently introduced legislation would "require the US Attorney General to establish an office in the Department of Justice to monitor acts of international terrorism alleged to have been committed by Palestinian individuals or individuals acting on behalf of Palestinian organizations and to carry out certain other related activities.
Vaguely-worded provisions in the legislation include a requirement that the Justice Department permanently station "an appropriate number of United States officials in Israel, in territory administered by Israel, in territory administered by the Palestinian Authority, and elsewhere, to the extent practicable."
One of the bill's three co-sponsors is Republican Representative Rick Lazio of New York who was defeated by Hillary Clinton during his unsuccessful Senate campaign. During the campaign, Lazio attempted to link American Muslim leaders and groups to acts of violence in the Middle East.
Another co-sponsor, Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner, has been a key supporter of the use of secret evidence in the US Immigration Service deportation hearings. Arab and Muslim American leaders have always said secret evidence is used almost exclusively against Muslims and Arabs. Weiner has also called on President Clinton to free Jonathan Pollard, a naval analyst who was convicted in 1986 of transferring classified information to Israel. He recently sponsored legislation to cut US aid to the Palestinians.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group, described the legislation as "Nuremberg-style" legislation, similar to the Nazi Germany's infamous "Nuremberg Laws" which targeted the Jewish community in that country from 1935 to the end of World War II.
CAIR Board Chairman Omar Ahmad said the passage of this legislation would allow government monitoring of critics of Israel in the United States “placing American personnel in Palestinian territories would also put America in the position of helping to enforce Israel's brutal occupation,” he stressed. “It is unconscionable to propose legislation that targets a specific religious and ethnic group."
Ahmad added that any Justice Department office created by the bill should also monitor the documented torture of American citizens in Israeli prisons and the use of American weapons to kill Palestinian civilians.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
