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- WORLD, Page 51World NotesMIDDLE EASTFaxless In Gaza
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- The Israel Defense Forces have identified and banned a new
- form of subversion: intifadeh by facsimile machine. Last week
- the I.D.F. ruled that residents of the Gaza Strip can no longer
- own or operate faxes without a special license. There were fewer
- than 15 machines in the hands of Gaza's Palestinian residents,
- but most of them were at the offices of local press agencies
- that sell reports on the uprising to the international media.
- The restriction already exists for Palestinians in the West
- Bank.
-
- This antifax action could be a mistake, the Israeli daily
- Ha'aretz said, because it "will obviously serve as a juicy news
- item throughout the world." Since the occupation of Gaza and
- the West Bank is "unjustified" and "foolish," said Knesset
- member Ran Cohen, a peace activist, "such occupation produces
- foolish and cruel orders." But the Israelis have banned
- communications before. From February 1988 to February 1989,
- Palestinians in the occupied territories were forbidden to make
- overseas phone calls.
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