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- WORLD, Page 49World NotesHUMAN RIGHTSTough Talk To a Friend
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- For 13 years the U.S. has assessed human rights abuses
- around the world. But never has a friend figured as prominently
- as one has this year, when twelve pages of the State
- Department's survey were devoted to the "substantial increase in
- human rights violations" by Israel in the occupied West Bank and
- Gaza Strip. The report sketched a picture of excessive force by
- the Israeli army, resulting in "many avoidable deaths," against
- the Palestinian uprising. This account of shootings, beatings,
- imprisonment and deportation is the most critical U.S. review
- ever of Israeli actions in the territories.
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- Israeli officials condemned the report as "harsh" and
- "one-sided," but did not dispute the particulars. Instead they
- argued that the U.S. had ignored the "constant provocations" by
- "extremist elements." Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir charged that
- the "media exaggerate" and said that "the behavior of our army
- is equal to that of any other army in the Western world."
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