Zionists to display "Wanted" posters for alleged terrorists
Date: June 28, 2002
Publication: AP Worldstream
Author: JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer

AP Worldstream Dateline: BEACHWOOD, Ohio One of the nation's largest pro-Israel organizations will put up " Wanted" posters that advertise rewards for help in capturing Palestinians suspected of killing Americans in Israel.

Thousands of posters identifying dozens of alleged Palestinian terrorists will be displayed in cities such as Nablus and Ramallah, said Morton A. Klein, national president of the 50,000-member Zionist Organization of America.

Thirty-one Americans have been killed in Israel since the Oslo accord was signed in 1993, setting up peace talks. No one has been held responsible for the deaths.

"This is now nine years, not one indictment," Klein said Thursday following a speech at the Mandel Jewish Community Center in suburban Cleveland.

The State Department offers up to dlrs 5 million in rewards for information that prevents or leads to arrests in attacks on U.S. citizens and property under a program started in 1984 to combat international terrorism.

The Zionist Organization of America had campaigned for years for the program to include rewards in cases of Palestinian attacks on Americans in Israel.

Rewards were finally offered in those cases in December, but the State Department has not identified the suspects, only the names of the victims. In attacks on Americans in other countries, the State Department posts the suspects' names, mug shots and biographical information.

"This was their clever way to avoid really capturing these guys," Klein said.

He alleges that this reflects the government's desire to pressure Israel to give land away to the Palestinians and to protect Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's image so that peace talks may continue.

One of the posters seeks the arrest of Abu Daoud, whose real name is Mohammed Oudeh, a Palestine Liberation Organization leader whose Black September guerrillas took Israeli weightlifters hostage at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Two athletes were killed during the assault. Nine others died when German police bungled a rescue attempt.

Among the dead was David Berger, a weightlifter from the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights with dual citizenship who had moved to Israel to pursue his dream of being an Olympian.

The posters show a photo of the suspect under the caption "WANTED FOR MURDER." They list the suspect's last known city of residence, a description of the crime and contact information for the State Department's Rewards For Justice.

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On the Net:

www.zoa.org

www.rewardsforjustice.net

JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer, Zionists to display "Wanted" posters for alleged terrorists. , AP Worldstream, 06-28-2002.