Jerusalem, 20 December 2000
Minister Milo Appointed to Oversee Liaison with Mitchell Fact-Finding Committee
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Minister Ronni Milo, who has been appointed by Prime Minister
Ehud Barak to liaise with former US Senator George Mitchell's
fact-finding committee, today (Wednesday), December 20, 2000,
directed the Israeli team to formulate by the end of the week - a
position paper that will be submitted to the committee in
approximately 10 days.
In a discussion he held with representatives of the Prime
Minister's Office and the Foreign and Defense ministries,
Minister Milo said that the paper must make the Palestinians'
responsibility for the outbreak of the violence unequivocally
clear, and must describe specific instances in which members of
the Palestinian establishment were directly involved in
encouraging and participating in acts of violence.
Minister Milo noted that in light of the Palestinians' planned
propaganda campaign, Israel must make it clear to the entire
world - by means of the report to be submitted to the Mitchell
committee as well - that Israel is the side under attack and that
all of its actions are designed to protect itself, its citizens
and its soldiers.
The Israeli team is currently working on the documents and
evidentiary material that will accompany the position paper.