on

Regional Mission for  Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific

For Immediate Release 12 February 2003

iefs of U Current Affairs & Ethnic Editors

The Head of the General Palestinian Delegation to Australia, Mr All Kazak said today the  Foreign Minister Alexander Downer’s failure to mention Israel, when asked of other countries in  the Middle East that possess weapons of mass destruction at the National Press Gallery luncheon  and what actions were going to be taken towards them, was deliberate.

nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the Middle East and the sixth largest stockpile  worldwide and poses an enormous danger to the Middle East and the world at large?

Middle East policy and the double-standard it adopts when dealing with Israel.

by the Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama states Israel’s nuclear arsenal has grown from an  estimated 13 nuclear bombs in 1967 to 400 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. It possesses  missiles which are capable of reaching any city anywhere in the world with the support of its  military satellites and even Israel’s navy could deploy nuclear weapons on the fleet of three  German-built submarines.

“Israel refuses to accept international inspection of its weapons facilities and refuses to  be committed to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, despite repeated resolutions by the UN  General Assembly and the Security Council to place its nuclear facilities under the International  Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. All Arab countries have signed the NNPT,

1982 wars and attempted to assassinate a Hamas leader in Jordan with a biological weapon in  1997. As well, Israel has threatened to use nuclear warheads against the Arab countries, has put  its nuclear warheads on full alert in the 1973 war and senior Israeli officials recently threatened  to use weapons of mass destruction against Iraq.

“Underlining the real danger in the Middle East is Israel’s Prime Minister General  Sharon’s history of massacres and war crimes as well as the fact that Israel’s religious fanatics  and extremists, who assassinated their own prime minister Rabin, are found everywhere,  including in the nuclear weapons industry and its control rooms. Weapons of mass destruction  are already in the hands of very dangerous people.

1948, 37 of which specifically relate to the 1967-occupied Palestinian territories.

set of principles to all countries including Israel. Inte~ational law and UN resolutions must be  implemented on all. Israel should not be allowed to continue to be above international law and  we should not forget that Israel itself was established in Palestine by UN resolution 18 1” Mr  Kazak said.

“How could  Mr Downer fail to mention the country which has the largest stockpile of

“Mr Downer’s cover-up on Israel reveals once again the bias and problem of Australia’s

A recent US report The Third Temple’s Holy of Holies: Israel’s Nuclear Weapons issued

“Israel used chemical weapons such as napalm and phosphorous bombs in its 1967 and

“Israel has defied 87 Security Council resolutions relevant to the Palestine question since

“It is time Australia put an end to its double standard and hypocrisy and employ the same

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