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WORLD NEWS Saturday 4 March 2023
Army blocks Israeli rally supporting torched West Bank town

Associated Press — mostly older men and
HAWARA, West Bank (AP) women, both Jews and
— Israeli troops fired stun Arab citizens — stepped off
grenades and tear gas on buses that were stopped by
Friday to block busloads Israeli soldiers and headed
of Israeli left-wing activists down the highway toward
from staging a solidarity ral- Hawara.
ly in a Palestinian town that Palestinian motorists
was set ablaze by radical honked in support. The
Jewish settlers earlier this protesters chanted, "No to
week, protesters said. occupation" and "End Jew-
The soldiers shoved pro- ish terror." Facing the mass
testers to the ground in the of police and troops de-
occupied West Bank town ployed to halt their peace-
of Hawara, activists said, ful protest, they shouted,
pressing their knees into "Where were you when
their necks and backs be- Hawara happened?" — re-
fore briefly detaining them. ferring to the intense ram-
According to Sally Abed page that went largely un-
from the group Standing checked and unpunished.
Together, at least two pro- Unlike Palestinian cities like
testers were briefly arrested. Ramallah that are under
The army threw them to the the control of the Palestin-
ground, kicking and hand- Israeli border police officers block hundreds of Israeli left-wing activists from staging a solidarity ian Authority, Hawara is
cuffing them, she said. rally in the Palestinian town that was set ablaze by radical Jewish settlers earlier this week, next to mostly under Israeli security
In another case, a group the West Bank town of Hawara, Friday, March 3, 2023. control. The Israeli army has
of soldiers violently pushed Associated Press said that the ferocity and
former Israeli parliament scope of the settler mobs
speaker, Avraham Burg, forces used tear gas and Hundreds of settlers, some wara as we speak, but we earlier this week caught
until he stumbled to the other means to disperse armed with knives and — Israeli Jews and Arabs them by surprise. The De-
ground. the crowds and maintain guns, rampaged through who wish to show our soli- fense Ministry has sent two
The Israeli army said it had order, the military said. Hawara on Sunday and darity — are told that there suspected ringleaders of
decided to declare Ha- Spokesperson Lt. Col. Rich- torched dozens of homes is no entry," Standing To- the violence to administra-
wara a closed military zone ard Hecht said that the and businesses after two gether said. The group said tive detention.
because of the soaring military would pursue "a Israeli brothers were shot the rally was coordinated A town of 7,000 Palestinians
tensions following Sunday's de-escalation policy in the and killed nearby. One Pal- with the local council and surrounded by ideological
settler-led attack. When region" after "this complex estinian was killed in the residents. settlements, Hawara long
Israeli and Palestinian ac- and tragic week for all mob assault. On Friday, some 500 peo- been a flashpoint for vio-
tivists attempted to violate sides." He did not elabo- "It is ridiculous that the army ple holding signs of solidar- lence between Israelis and
the military order, security rate. allows settlers to enter Ha- ity and Palestinian flags Palestinians.q

Residents of Japan seek compensation from N. Korea for abuses

By MARI YAMAGUCHI yen ($900,000) each in cause others are sick or
Associated Press compensation for "illegal have died. A ruling is ex-
TOKYO (AP) — A group of solicitation and detain- pected in May.
residents of Japan who ment." The court acknowl- One plaintiff, Eiko Kawa-
say they suffered decades edged that the plaintiffs saki, now 80, was 17 when
of human rights abuses in had moved to North Korea she took a ship to North Ko-
North Korea after being because of false informa- rea in 1960 and was stuck
lured there by false prom- tion that was provided by there until she was able to
ises of a "Paradise on Earth" the North and a pro-North flee back to Japan in 2003,
asked a Japanese appeals Korean organization in leaving behind her grown
court on Friday to rule that Japan, Chongryon. But it children.
the North should pay them ruled in March 2022 that the About half a million ethnic
compensation. statute of limitations had Koreans currently live in Ja-
The five plaintiffs, includ- expired and that Japanese pan and face discrimina-
ing ethnic Koreans and courts do not have jurisdic- tion in school, at work and
Japanese, moved to North tion because the plaintiffs' in their daily lives. Many Two of five plaintiffs, Hiroko Saito, far right, and Eiko Kawasaki,
Korea under a 1959-1984 suffering took place out- are descendants of Kore- second from right, their lawyers and supporters stand outside
program in which the North side Japan. ans who came to Japan, of the Tokyo High Court, Friday, March 3, 2023, in Tokyo, after
their first hearing in the appeals trial demanding North Korea
promised free health care, In their appeal to the Tokyo many forcibly, to work in pay damages over the 1959-1984 repatriation program which
education, jobs and other High Court on Friday, law- mines and factories during they say was illegal solicitation and detainment.
benefits. But they said none yers for the plaintiffs argued Japan's colonization of the Associated Press
was available and they that Japan has jurisdiction Korean Peninsula — a past
were mostly assigned man- because their ordeal be- that still strains relations be- the North to make up for and helped arrange for
ual work at mines, forests or gan when they boarded tween Japan and the Ko- workers killed during the people to travel to North
farms. ships in a Japanese port, reas. Korean War. The Japanese Korea. About 93,000 ethnic
The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit lawyer Kenji Fukuda said. In 1959, North Korea began government, viewing eth- Korean residents of Japan
in 2018 with Tokyo District Only two of the original a resettlement program to nic Koreans as outsiders, and their family members
Court seeking 100 million plaintiffs participated be- bring overseas Koreans to welcomed the program moved to the North.q