Palestinians protest Saddam death sentence, threaten reprisals

[Behind the Aegis]

JENIN - Schoolgirls marched and shopkeepers closed down their stores in this West Bank town on Monday in protest at the death sentence handed down against Saddam Hussein by a Baghdad court which found him guilty of crimes against humanity.

Carrying pictures of Saddam, about 250 girls from seven to 13 years old paraded through the town's refugee camp, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," the same slogan shouted by jubilant Palestinians when Iraqi rockets slammed into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War - before the marchers were born.

Under Saddam's rule Iraq donated $25,000 per household for Jenin residents to rebuild homes destroyed in a 2002 Israeli military offensive there.

In the Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, masked gunmen from a previously unknown group calling itself Arafat's Army threatened reprisals against foreign citizens in the Palestinian territories if the sentence against Saddam is carried out.


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[haymark]

1. Beloved Saddam

Maybe they will elect Saddam as their leader next election. He could be an improvement over the Hamas crowd which has ruined what little they had of an economy.

[sugapablo]

2. Strike Tel Aviv!

Saddam has been found guilty! Strike Tel Aviv!
The US is in Iraq! Strike Tel Aviv!
The Steelers lost! Strike Tel Aviv!
Borat wasn't as funny as we were led to believe! Strike Tel Aviv!
FOX is neither fair nor balanced! Strike Tel Aviv!
Madonna is kidding herself as a "Kabbalist"! Strike Tel Aviv!
No Arab Football team has won the World Cup lately! Strike Tel Aviv!
We've struck Tel Aviv! Strike Tel Aviv!

[question everything]

3. Reprisals? Against whom?

the Israelis?

[Dune]

4. passe

These guys are like the the dumbist people on the planet. If they really had any balls, or talking points, they would simply hurl themselves at the state of Israel and take over. They always want it both ways. Put up or shut up.

[msmcghee]

6. Are you criticizing them because . .

. . they haven't been successful yet? Please expand. I don't quite get your drift.

[cali]

5. Seeing children used in this way is

always tremendously sad, whether it's the photo of the little Israeli girls signing bombs or this story. I predict cognitive dissonance in the reactions of many I/P regulars.

[geek tragedy]

7. Because backing Saddam in 1991 proved to

be such a positive thing for the Palestinian people.