Congressman Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
Muslims urged to contact congressman to demands retraction, apology
http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0502-11.htm
WASHINGTON - May 2 - CAIR is calling on all people of conscience to
contact House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) to demand that he
retract his call for ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Last
night on MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews had the following
dialogue with Rep. Armey:
ARMEY: I'm content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank.
MATTHEWS: Well, where do you put the Palestinian state, in Norway? Once
the Israelis take back the West Bank permanently and annex it, there's
no place else for the Palestinians to have a state.
ARMEY: No, no, that's not--that's not at all true. There are many Arab
nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land and--and
soil and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian state.
MATTHEWS: So you would transport--you would transport the Palestinians
from Palestine to somewhere else and call it their state?
ARMEY: I would be perfectly content to have a homeland, just as--most
of...
MATTHEWS: But not in Palestine?
ARMEY: Most of the people who now populate Israel were transported from
all over the world to that land and they made it their home. The
Palestinians can do the same, and we're per--perfectly content to work
with the Palestinians in doing that...
MATTHEWS: Right, no. No, that's not the question and that's not your
answer. The question here is: What is the future of the Palestinians who
are fighting Israel right now? You say there future is somewhere besides
Palestine. That runs in the way of US policy going back to 1948. It
runs--it runs completely against the president's policy and every policy
I've heard a president take, which is that Israel has to give up its
settlements on the West Bank and give it back to the Arabs in exchange
for peace. You say the deal should be the Palestinians leave?
ARMEY: That's right...I happened to believe that the Palestinians should
leave.
MATTHEWS: Have you ever told George Bush, the president from your home
state of Texas, that you think the Palestinians should get up and go and
leave Palestine and that's the solution?
ARMEY: I'm probably telling him that right now.
MATTHEWS: Well, just to repeat, you believe that the Palestinians who
are now living on the West Bank should get out of there?
ARMEY: Yes.
"It is beyond belief that Representative Armey would openly call for the
ethnic cleansing of the entire Muslim and Christian Palestinian
population, something that violates every norm of international law and
human rights. Even the most extreme Israelis are reluctant to publicly
advocate such an insane policy," said CAIR Governmental Affairs Director
Jason Erb.
Erb demanded an immediate retraction and apology from Armey. He said
CAIR has received many complaints about Armey's remarks.
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