President Saleh not to attend Arab SummitArab states call for war crime trials for Israelis [Archives:2004/739/Front Page]

As Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's announcement that he would not attend next Arab Summit scheduled in Tunis next week, Arab governments on Tuesday described Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip as a war crime and ethnic cleansing, and said they would start judicial steps to bring Israelis to trial.
In a statement after an Arab League meeting in Cairo, the Arab governments also called on the United States and the U.N. Security Council to stop Israel going ahead with plans to destroy hundreds more homes in Rafah, on Egypt's border.
“(The council)…holds the government of Israel wholly responsible for the consequences of the crimes it is committing against the unarmed Palestinian people, and condemns them as war crimes aimed at ethnic cleansing and collective punishment,” said the governments, meeting at the level of permanent representatives to the Arab League.
According to U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard, Israeli troops made 2,197 Palestinians homeless in the first half of May by destroying 191 buildings throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday that hundreds of houses would be demolished to keep forces in the border zone safe from gunmen and to stop Palestinians digging tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
Reuters
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