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News from Palestine & Israel
Posted May 9, 2002
There
is a solution to this filthy war - foreign occupation
(Robert Fisk, The Independent, 08 May 2002)
Ariel Sharon's "peace" plan presented to President
Bush in Washington last night - get rid of Arafat, devise
a more obedient Palestinian Authority and keep building settlements
for Jews and Jews only on Palestinian land - is fantasy. .
. . That the Americans should smooth his way by claiming
that Arafat's need to reform his authority is more important
than a halt to settlement-building - the gormless contribution
of Condoleezza Rice, the US National Security Adviser, to
this sterile debate - shows just how out of touch the Bush
administration is. . . . if the Palestinians have
to go on watching the Jewish settlements surrounding them
on their land, they are not going to make peace with Israel.
And contrary to song, myth and legend, the Israeli army has
been behaving more like a militia than a disciplined military
force. The reports of mass looting by Israeli troops in Ramallah,
especially of jewellery and cash, have reached epic proportions.
Israel may publicly claim that this is Palestinian propaganda,
but the Israeli army's high command knows the stories are
true - one officer referred to it as "the wide-scale,
ugly phenomenon of vandalism". . . . it is their
own insane policy of settlement-building that has brought
about such misery for Israelis. . . . Europeans are
becoming weary of this cynical, ruthless conflict, tired of
being called anti-Semites when they object to Israel's occupation
and equally sick of Arafat's corruption and nepotism and his
inability to prevent Palestinian suiciders from killing children.
. . . I think that, in time, we will close down the Middle
East war. With Russian and EU and UN support, there will,
eventually, be American and Nato troops in Jerusalem. There
will be a Western protection force in the West Bank and Gaza
- and in Israel. The Israeli and Palestinian armies will have
to return to barracks. Jerusalem will be an international
city. The Palestinians will have security. So will the Israelis.
Torture
en masse
(Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 25 April - 1 May 2002)
Palestinians captured during Israel's invasion of the West
Bank are being held in conditions that breach international
human rights law. . . . Lawyers and international observers
are excluded from Ofer detention camp at Betunia, near Ramallah,
where it is believed 1,400 prisoners are currently being held.
More than 5,000 Palestinians have passed through the camp
since the start of Israel's "Defensive Shield" operation.
. . . The human rights groups B'tselem also fears that captured
men on Israel's wanted list -- who are still being held and
have been unable to testify -- were tortured during their
interrogation. It has evidence it claims it obtained
from a guard that these mens' fingers and toes were broken
to extract information. . . . Every time a tank crew
returned, he says, he and his brother Fa'ek were hit and kicked
in the stomach, back and face. "They were doing it for
fun," he said. . . . "Occasionally our blindfolds
would be removed so that a group of soldiers could have a
picture taken standing over us. To prove how brave they were,
I suppose." . . . Fedayel described the conditions at
Ofer camp, where he was later transferred, as being "unfit
for animals." He was sleeping with 40 others in
a tent without beds and many had no blankets. Some were held
for up to two weeks without the chance to wash or change clothes.
. . . Yossi Volfson, a lawyer with the Israeli human rights
advocacy group Hamoked, said: "There can be no excuse
for this kind of mistreatment of Palestinians. Israel can
call up 30,000 reserve soldiers and feed, clothe and accommodate
them at short notice, so why can't it do the same for detainees?"
. . . Hamoked and other organisations accuse Israel
of breaking its obligations to civilian non-combatants under
the Geneva Convention and also under Israeli law.
Posted May 7, 2002
Leave
Our Kids Alone
(Andrew Friedman, Pacific News Service, May 6, 2002)
Last month's call by "official" and "radical"
Palestinian groups for a ban on suicide bombings and other
military operations by children could prove to be the first
nail in the coffin of the al-Aqsa Intifada, and even of Yasser
Arafat's corrupt regime. . . . for the first time in
memory a family has stood up to the terror organizations that
rule the Palestinian Authority. Certainly it is the first
time the charges have been strong enough to put the terrorist
groups on the defensive. . . . For any Palestinian
organization to issue such a call reeks of cynicism. The use
of children and civilians as defensive shields by the various
Palestinian Authority security forces, as well as rejectionist
factions like Hamas and Arafat's own Fatah, has been well
documented throughout the 19-month-old uprising. . . . ordinary
Palestinians starting to speak out is a positive sign.
Families like that of Yusuf Zaqout have paid dearly, not only
for the al-Aqsa Intifada, but for a decade of Palestinian
Authority corruption. They are the ones who get shut out of
their jobs when terror attacks force Israel to close its borders.
They are the ones who have lost sons and homes and businesses
to two Intifadas. . . . Now that Arafat will be free to travel,
Palestinians would be wise to keep pressure on him and his
henchmen to leave their children alone. . . . With Palestinian
officials on the defensive, ordinary Palestinians have a rare
chance to reclaim their lives, their economy and their government.
Should they choose to capitalize, the current situation could
be a first glimmer of light for Palestinian society, and,
by extension, for the entire Middle East.
Posted May 5, 2002
Sharon
the merciless and Arafat the corrupt have nothing meaningful
to offer each other
(Robert Fisk, The Independent, 04 May 2002)
Self-delusion has crossed the Atlantic. George Bush
is having visions again - just as he did before the
most recent bloodbath in Israel and Palestine - and Colin
Powell, whose latest Middle East mission was a wholesale disaster,
wants to devise "a set of principles" for an Arab-Israeli
peace. And, as usual, it is the occupied, not the occupier,
who is warned this is the "last chance" for peace.
. . . It was impossible, in Jerusalem yesterday, to take any
of this seriously. . . . A glance at the events of the
past 24 hours shows just how far the Bush administration has
strayed from reality. For days, the US President demanded
that Israel withdraw its troops from West Bank cities. Mr
Sharon simply ignored him. "When I say withdraw, I mean
it," Mr Bush snapped at one point. Mr Sharon ignored
him. . . . Yesterday, as Mr Powell warned Mr Arafat that it
was his "last chance" to show his leadership, the
Israeli Prime Minister was sending an armoured column to re-invade
the Palestinian city of Nablus for the second time in two
weeks. There was to be no "last chance" for Mr Sharon;
only for the iniquitous Mr Arafat. . . . Never, since the
end of the 1991 Gulf War, have Israelis and Palestinians been
so far apart. So what possible inducements can Washington
extend to either side? . . . It is only a matter of
time before the next vicious Palestinian suicide bomber blows
up himself or herself in an Israeli city. And thus only a
matter of time before Israel smashes its way into West Bank
cities all over again. . . . In fact, Israel doesn't need
an excuse to do this any more. . . . Yesterday's thrust
into Nablus was another precedent. Far from being a retaliation,
Israel did not invade Palestinian territory in response to
Palestinian attacks. It said it had entered Nablus to prevent
"future" attacks. Needless to say, the nature of
this precedent went unreported.
Posted May 3, 2002
Human
rights group finds evidence of war crimes in Jenin
(Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves, The Indepentend, 03 May 2002)
Today's 48-page report is proof that the details of Israel's
violations of the Geneva conventions in Jenin are slowly emerging,
despite Israel's efforts to conceal them. . . . almost half
the Palestinian dead identified so far in Jenin were civilians.
Today's HRW report contains detailed accounts of those killings,
and says several of them should be investigated as possible
war crimes. It identifies 22 civilians among the Palestinian
dead - three times the number Israel is claiming. . . . The
report contains disturbing new evidence of the extrajudicial
execution of a civilian by Israeli soldiers - a war crime
- and horrifying new accounts from Palestinian civilians forced
to act as human shields by Israeli soldiers. . . .
The report contains extensive evidence from many witnesses
that Israeli soldiers used civilians as human shields, a clear
breach of the Geneva conventions, and a practice that has
caused international revulsion when used in other conflicts.
. . . "The abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely
serious, and in some cases appear to be war crimes,"
said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher at HRW and one of
the authors of today's report. "Criminal investigations
are needed to ascertain individual responsibility for the
most serious violations."
Posted May 2, 2002
Corporate
America and Israeli Occupation
(Sam Bahour, PalestineChronicle.com, May 01 2002)
Corporate America and corporate boardrooms across the globe
wield enormous political influence. It may in fact be argued
that in today's material world corporate interests are the
primary motivating factors for political action. . . . In
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that power, for a multitude
of reasons, has been unjustly mobilized to help sustain 35
years of an illegal Israeli military and economic domination
of the Palestinian people. . . . the time has come for
corporate boardrooms of companies involved in that region
to reassess their role, even if that role has been to remain
silent for all these years. . . . Millions of U.S.
corporate and citizen tax dollars spent on building the Palestinian
economy were lost in this latest Israeli offensive against
the Palestinian civil and national infrastructure. It would
be negligent for corporate America to remain silent while
its government recommits yet more tax dollars to the region
without addressing the source of the conflict. Ending
Israeli occupation is the only solution that will put the
region back on track. . . . U.S. military-related
corporations support Israeli occupation by way of an institutionalized
mechanism provided for by Congress. Congress has stipulated
that seventy-five percent of U.S. foreign military aid to
Israel, which amounts to over $2 billion annually, must be
spent buying U.S. products and services. Firms like Lockheed,
Boeing, United Technologies, Raytheon, ExxonMobil, Northrop,
Pgsus, General Dynamics and Oshkosh among others are directly
contributing to the tools that Israel uses to violate international
and humanitarian law. . . . Microsoft Israel put company executives
in Redmond, Seattle in an awkward position when they sponsored
two large billboards on a main Israeli highway saluting Israel's
armed forces at the same time the Israeli military was indiscriminately
bombing the Jenin refugee camp into what is rapidly amounting
to war crimes. . . . Corporate boardrooms in America
and around the world are positioned to contribute to ending
Israel's occupation. Not only is it part of their moral and
legal obligation to do so, in the end it will make good business
sense.
Posted April 30, 2002
430
heroes in Israel
(Boston Globe Editorial, 4/27/2002)
As long as there has been state power, there have been individuals
who say no to that power, appealing to the moral call of conscience
as the sole authority for their defiance of the state. . .
. So it is with the 430 Israeli reservists who have signed
an open letter to their compatriots declaring that they ''shall
not continue to fight this War of the Settlements'' and explaining
that they are combat officers in the Israeli Defense Forces
who ''understand now that the price of occupation is the loss
of the IDF's human character and the corruption of the entire
Israeli society.'' . . . In the language of the open
letter, these reserve officers and soldiers say they ''were
issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with
the security of our country and that had the sole purpose
of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people.''
. . . These Israeli voices of conscience should be
heeded in Israel and among Israel's supporters. In response,
there ought to be similar moral appeals against terrorism
from the Palestinian camp.
Sharon
gives succour to Saddam
(Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, April 29, 2002)
Israel's obstruction of the UN team set to investigate the
attack on Jenin has given support to the Iraqi dictator, who
has used the same tactics with weapons inspectors for years
. . . As in the case of Iraq and the weapons inspections,
there are good reasons for having a thorough investigation
of events in Jenin to determine whether Israel has met its
international obligations and - to borrow the Pentagon's phrase
- "to demonstrate the consequences" if it turns
out to have violated them. . . . For Saddam Hussein,
the standoff between Israel and the UN is extremely good news.
The United States wants to remove him from power and is looking
for a plausible reason to do so. Until recently, his obstruction
of UN weapons inspections offered the most likely justification
for an attack. . . . But now Israel has gone down
the same route as Iraq, obstructing the UN over Jenin. That
can only weaken the Pentagon's case for teaching Saddam Hussein
"the consequences of violating international obligations"
- unless, in some unaccustomed moment of lucidity, the US
resolves to enforce compliance with international obligations
... by all countries, equally.
Apartheid
in the Holy Land
(Desmond Tutu, The Guardian, April 29, 2002)
I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land;
it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people
in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians
at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young
white police officers prevented us from moving about. . .
. I say why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish
sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they
forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions,
in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs
on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they
forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?
. . . The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty,
will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it
will only intensify the hatred. . . . We should put out a
clarion call to the government of the people of Israel, to
the Palestinian people and say: peace is possible, peace based
on justice is possible. We will do all we can to assist you
to achieve this peace, because it is God's dream, and you
will be able to live amicably together as sisters and brothers.
Ambassadors
of ill will
(Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, April 30, 2002)
The order issued by Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) to
prevent the entry into Israel of anyone suspected of being
a supporter of the Palestinians is being carried out in full
and to the letter; and it is creating a growing number of
ambassadors of ill will. . . . With the thought police at
the airport, even the few who still turn up are compelled
to convince the officials of the Interior Ministry that they
are lovers of Zion and answer an embarrassing volley of questions.
. . . This is not the behavior one expects from an open
country that takes pride in being a democracy. The amazing
thing is that no one here seems to care what impression we
create, otherwise it is difficult to understand the
expulsion policy. . . . Israel's current image as a country
that is closing itself off to the world and is lashing out
at its critics while throwing out its guests is harmful to
its own interests. . . . In recent years, Europe has been
speaking in a new language, which Israel is unwilling to accept.
Human rights have become of paramount value in the political
culture of Europe, and upholding those rights has become a
central goal of foreign policy. As far as Israel is
concerned, however, human rights are still perceived primarily
as an obstacle to security policies. The new world
is not ready to accept this, just as it was not ready to accept
it in the Balkans.
The
Real Aim
(Uri Avnery, Palestine Chronicle, April 27 2002)
The real aim of "Operation Defensive Shield" was
not to "destroy the infrastructure of terrorism".
This was merely a good slogan for uniting the people of Israel,
who are angry and afraid after the suicide bombings. . . .
But destroying the infrastructure of terrorism is not Ariel
Sharon's aim. His program is far more radical: to break
the backbone of the Palestinian people, crush their governmental
institutions, turn the people into human wreckage that can
be dealt with as he wishes. This may entail shutting
them up in several enclaves or even driving them out of the
country altogether. . . . Even the people most critical
of the Palestinian Authority admitted that these two ministries
- Education and Health - had been functioning well. They have
been utterly destroyed. . . . This happened to virtually
all the Palestinian government offices. Gone is the information
pertaining to land registration and housing, taxes and government
expenditure, car tests and drivers' licenses, everything necessary
for administrating a modern society. . . . The headquarters
of the security services were destroyed, files burned, computers
crushed, the information concerning armed underground organizations
and all other details pertaining to the war against terrorism
were obliterated. There is no better evidence of the
aims of this operation: not war on terrorism, but destruction
of organized Palestinian society. . . . Even at this
time, the Palestinians know the difference between the Israeli
peace camp and those who responsible for this brutal attack.
Here, perhaps, lies the only glimmer of hope.
Posted April 28, 2002
Gaza
braces for Sharon to send in tanks in next phase of war
(Robert Fisk, The Indepentend, 27 April 2002)
The odd thing is that if the Israeli Prime Minister really
wants to dismantle the "network of terror'' of which
he speaks so frequently, Gaza - the one place the Israeli
army has not yet dared to reoccupy - should perhaps have been
his first target. For here are militias aplenty, Palestinians
who know how to destroy Merkava-3 tanks, who can manufacture
short-range rockets and mortars and know the principles of
booby traps better than the refugee gunmen of Jenin. As one
local put it yesterday: "This place is wired.'' . . .
Its people are certainly preparing for the worst. The
banks report massive withdrawals. Human rights groups are
duplicating their files. Everyone knows what happened
to the computerised archives of the Palestinian ministries
in Ramallah and Nablus and Jenin . . . Raja Sourani, a human
rights lawyer with the most eloquent, if pessimistic, view
of the coming weeks - or days - has few illusions. "I
think it's going to be bleak, black and bloody and I can see
the blood that will be shed will be Israeli as well as Palestinian.
The Palestinians are not ready to be good victims any more.
They have nothing to lose. . . . "We heard what
happened to women in Ramallah who had thousands of dollars
of jewellery stolen by the Israeli troops who entered their
homes,'' . . . I listen to the news in Hebrew from Israel.
Gaza sets the tone there - the Israelis can't complete their
objectives without Gaza. It's here that Palestinian history
has been decided for the past 54 years.''
Posted April 26, 2002
Israel
Begins West Bank Construction
(The Associated Press, April 24, 2002)
The first stages of construction work are under way to connect
two West Bank settlements by building housing for 480 Jewish
families, an Israeli official said Wednesday. . . . About
700 Jewish families now live in Elkana and Shaarei Tikva settlements.
Throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, about 200,000 Jews
live in 150 settlements among 3 million Palestinians. . .
. The settlement issue is one of the main stumbling blocks
in the search for a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. The
Palestinians demand removal of settlements from West Bank
land they consider part of any future state.
Posted April 25, 2002
What
really happened when Israeli forces went into Jenin?
(Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves, The Independent, April 25,
2002)
Although [Israel's] daily behaviour in the occupied territories
contradicts this claim - it insists that it did everything
possible to protect civilians. . . . But The Independent has
unearthed a different story. We have found that, while the
Israeli operation clearly dealt a devastating blow to the
militant organisations - in the short term, at least - nearly
half of the Palestinian dead who have been identified so far
were civilians, including women, children and the elderly.
They died amid a ruthless and brutal Israeli operation, in
which many individual atrocities occurred, and which Israel
is seeking to hide by launching a massive propaganda drive.
. . . Not all the civilians were cut down in crossfire.
Some, according to eyewitness accounts, were deliberately
targeted by Israeli forces. Sami Abu Sba'a told us
how his 65-year-old father, Mohammed Abu Sba'a, was shot dead
by Israeli soldiers after he warned the driver of an approaching
bulldozer that his house was packed with families sheltering
from the fighting. . . . Israeli troops also shot dead a Palestinian
nurse as she tried to help a wounded man. Ms Jamma was
wearing a white nurse's uniform clearly marked with a red
crescent, the emblem of Palestinian medical workers, when
the soldiers shot her. . . . they had shot dead Ahmad
Hamduni, a man in his eighties, before Mr Tawafshi's eyes.
Mr Hamduni had sought shelter in Mr Tawafshi's house, but
the Israeli soldiers had blown the door open. Part of the
metal door landed next to the two men. Mr Hamduni was hunched
with age, and Mr Tawafshi thinks the soldiers may have mistakenly
thought he was wearing a suicide-bomb belt. They shot him
on sight. . . . Even children were not immune from the
Israeli onslaught. Faris Zeben, a 14-year-old boy,
was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in cold blood. There was
not even any fighting at the time. The curfew on Jenin had
been lifted for a few hours and the boy went to buy groceries.
. . . The Independent has more such accounts. There
simply is not enough space to print them all. . .
. The events at Jenin - which have passed almost unquestioned
inside Israel - have created a crisis in Israel's relations
with the outside world. . . . What is beyond dispute is that
the misery of Jenin is not over. There are Palestinians still
searching for missing people, although it is not clear whether
they are in Israeli detention, buried deep under the rubble,
or in graves elsewhere. . . . These are the facts that
the Israeli government does not want the world to know.
To them should be added the preliminary conclusion of Amnesty
International, which has found evidence of severe
abuses of human rights - including extra-judicial executions
- and has called for a war crimes inquiry.
Posted April 24, 2002
The
Massacre in Jenin and Israel's Propaganda War
(Tanya Reinhart, Media Monitors Network, April 23, 2002)
In Israel, Jenin is perceived mainly as a public relations
problem . . . The first principle: No pictures or information
in real time! . . . On the seventh day of Israel's 'operation'
in Jenin, (April 9), it was reported in the Israeli media
that the army was nevertheless worried. "Officers of
the IDF expressed their shock" about what happened in
Jenin: "When the world will see the pictures of what
we have done there, it will cause us enormous damage."
. . . The second principle of the propaganda battle: If you
have full control over the local media, you can pass anything.
. . . What did clearly happen in Jenin is that the army
simply ignored the fact that there were an unknown number
of individuals and families in the areas which were bombarded
day and night by missiles from 'Cobra' helicopters, or even
in some of the houses erased by bulldozers to pave ways for
the tanks. No one came to shoot them individually; they were
just buried under their bombarded or bulldozed homes. Others
died of their wounds in the alleys, or cried for days under
the ruins, until their voices faded away. . . . Bit
by bit, testimonies of reserve soldiers are filtering through
the back pages of the Israeli media . . . the instructions
were clear: shoot every window, sew every house - whether
someone shoots from there or not. . . . "The last
days, the majority of those who came out of the houses were
old people, women and children, who were there the whole time
and absorbed our fire. These people were not given any chance
to leave the camp, and we are talking about many people"
. . . It may take a while before we (Israelis) start to digest
what we did in Jenin. I don't have the words yet to speak
about my shame, my horrible pain for the Palestinian people.
. . . But outside our bubble, nobody watches Itai Angel. They
watch the ruins of Jenin. We are turning the whole Muslim
world against us.
Letter
from US citizen and eye-witness in Palestine to the US Consulate
(Paul Larudee, Media Monitors Network, April 24, 2002)
I and two other Americans, as well as the other members of
our group, arrived in Nablus by walking over some very rough
territory for half a day to avoid the checkpoint which refused
to let our bus through. . . . was in Nablus for five days,
and I can see why the Israeli authorities did not want
to let us or journalists or even outside medical personnel
in to see what they were doing. My host on the very
first night was a 54-year-old man who had only the previous
day been released from a detention area which the Israeli
occupation forces had set up in the suburb of Huwara. According
to him, he had been held there for four days, was shackled
the entire time, was never allowed to stand, received no food
or water, and was beaten and interrogated periodically. He
showed me the marks on his wrists and the release slip given
to him. This was a story that we heard over and over again
from many men aged 15-64 during our stay. It was clear
that thousands had been held at one time or another, and when
they were released, many were fired upon because they had
to make their way home for up to 10 kilometers or
more, without protection under total curfew, sometimes at
night. . . . The most striking thing about Nablus was the
wanton and indiscriminate destruction. The tanks and other
military vehicles obviously went out of their way to crush
virtually every vehicle they came across, as well as all public
lighting, traffic signals, water lines, and every other prominent
fixture in or near the streets. . . . In the old city, the
destruction was even greater. I have no idea how old the church/monastery
in the Yasmeena district was, but it is now just a very large
pile of stones, courtesy of one or more air-to-ground missiles
from an F-16 . . . On the few occasions where I actually heard
the soldiers' reactions, amusement seemed to the main form
of statement, such as when a pregnant woman miscarried
in a house requisitioned by troops, which elicited laughter
from a soldier as she was taken away in an ambulance, with
the fetus in a plastic bag. . . . I'm sure it all
pales by comparison to what happened in Jenin.
Franciscans
will tell all the story of the Palestinian Holocaust -
Siege in Bethlehem
(Labib Kobti, Media Monitors Network, April 24, 2002)
Israelis have besieged the compound which is the very place
where our Lord Jesus Christ was born and where the Angels
chanted "Glory to God ... and Peace to Earth." .
. . The Franciscans who refuse to leave the church are
of the same order of those Franciscans who helped Jews in
Assisi, Rome and many other European cities against Nazis
who were trying to exterminate them. Now, these same Franciscans
are trying to save the Palestinians from Zionism. .
. . The Friars courageously dared to expose the lies of the
Israeli and American Media which stated that they were taken
as hostages by the Palestinians. They have openly declared
that: We share with them everything, we love them, they love
us, we stand with them. We shared food, water, electricity
and medical aid. . . . Israelis refuse to allow the Palestinians
to properly bury two people--one Christian-Palestinian, the
Bell ringer and another Muslim-Palestinian who came to extinguish
the fire that Israeli bombs created . . . This is the
first time in the history of the Church of the Nativity that
it has been under assault by an occupation army. Romans,
Persians, Byzantine, Muslims, Ottomans have maintained power
in the region prior to the Israelis, yet all of the above
groups have always respected the holiness of the place. .
. . One can no longer claim that this is a religious conflict
between Israelis and Muslims, for Palestinian Muslims and
Christians alike are more united than ever to fight for the
liberation of their land, and to end the humiliation that
they have endured together by Israel with the support of the
USA. . . . And as they once told the world of their
experiences saving Jews in the Second World War from the Nazis
Holocaust, may they live to one day tell the world about their
experiences in trying to save the Palestinians from Zionist
Palocaust (Palestinian Holocaust).
Posted April 23, 2002
The
Middle East According to Robert Fisk
(Marc Cooper, LA Weekly, April 22, 2002)
I can remember being in southern Lebanon in 1993 reporting
on the Hamas, and one of their militants offered me Shimon
Peres' home phone number. That's how close the relations were!
So let's remember that the Israelis do have direct
contact with those they label even more terrorist than Arafat.
. . . Sharon never thinks through the ramifications of what
he's going to do, beyond next week or the week after. That's
what we are seeing now. . . . It's interesting to note that
the European Union is now pointing out to the Israelis that
$17 million of our taxpayers' money, investment in the West
Bank infrastructure as part of the American peace plan, has
been bombed and smashed to pieces by the Israeli military.
. . . [Arafat's] task was always to control his people. Not
to lead his people. Not to lead a friendly state that would
live next to Israel. His job was to control his people, just
like all the other Arab dictators do -- usually on our behalf.
. . . Way back in 1982, Sharon said he was going to
root out terror when 17,500 Arabs were slaughtered during
three months in Lebanon. And here we are again. .
. . Powell does not ask to go to Jenin. Why? Because the dead
are Palestinians? Because they are Arabs? Because they are
Muslim? Why on earth doesn't he go to Jenin? . . . Powell
is not being evenhanded. American policy never has been. It's
a totally bankrupt policy. . . . Europe has a much clearer
understanding of the Middle East. Owing partly to much more
forthright press and television coverage of the region, of
what's going on. We do not hide from our readers and viewers
what's happening there. Unlike the American press,
we do not hide the brutality of the Israelis. And we certainly
do not hide the brutality of the Palestinians. . . . How
odd. Here's a superpower with enormous leverage, if you care
to use it, over the Israelis. Yet you don't do so.
Posted April 22, 2002
Microsoft
advertisement supports Israeli military operations in Palestine
(Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Palestine Chronicle, April 21 2002)
Israelis traveling on the main highways in the Tel Aviv area
were treated to enormous billboards bearing the Microsoft
logo under the text, "From the depth of our heart - thanks
to The Israeli Defense Forces," on a background made
of the Israeli flag. . . . [Gush Shalom] mounted a worldwide
appeal to its supporters requesting that they write to Bill
Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft
Corporation, protesting Microsoft's dissemination of "crude
nationalistic and militaristic propaganda at the Israeli population
centers," and supporting a war "sharply censured
by the international community and controversial among the
citizens of Israel itself." . . . "We urge
you to take care that this activity is terminated forthwith,
and that the estimated tens of thousands of dollars invested
in the above mentioned billboards be used instead (for) activities
aimed at stopping the bloodshed and promoting an equitable
Israeli-Palestinian peace." . . . Radio talk
show host and human rights activist Andy Martin, the only
American talk radio host who supports Palestinian rights,
will hold an Internet forum on his radio program on Monday,
April 22 at 1:00 p.m. to attack Microsoft Corporation for
endorsing racism and genocide in Israel and to demand a worldwide
boycott of Microsoft products. . . . "Now a major scandal
is developing throughout the civilized world. I call on human
beings everywhere to boycott Microsoft products in support
of the Palestinian people." . . . "The Israeli
Peace movement is outraged," said Martin. "Civilized
human beings are outraged. What business does American business
have endorsing mass murder of Palestinians? I salute the brave
Israeli peace movement that has condemned Microsoft, and I
join their condemnation."
Posted April 21, 2002
Israeli
national singer compares the Israeli army to the Nazis
(Shraga Elam, Spotlight, 14 April 2002)
Israeli national singer Yafa Yarkoni has compared the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF) with the Nazis. . . . Yarkoni, who
won an Israeli prize for her life's work, is known also as
"the wars singer", because she used to sing before
the soldiers to raise their morale during past wars, starting
with 1948. . . . Yarkoni expressed her support for the refusal
to serve in the military, saying: "What we are
doing in the territories [occupied since 1967] has aroused
them [the Palestinians]. I understand them. If somebody had
done the same things to us, we would have reacted exactly
like them."
Something
Stinks in Jenin - Uri Avnery reports of Israeli war crimes
(Uri Avnery, Meida Monitors Network, April 22, 2002)
The Palestinians speak about hundreds of dead, the Minister
of Defense asserts categorically that exactly 43 were killed.
. . . The truth lies buried under the debris, and it smells
atrociously. . . . During two weeks of fighting, the IDF did
not allow any journalist, Israeli or foreign, into the camp.
Even after the fighting had died down, no journalist was let
in. . . . Simple common sense would hold that if one
forcibly denies access to journalists, one has something to
hide. . . . During the fighting and afterwards, ambulances
and rescue teams were not allowed to get close. Those that
tried to approach were shot at. The result was that the wounded
bled to death in the streets, even if they had relatively
light injuries. This is a war crime, a "manifestly illegal
order" . . . As a method of warfare it is inhuman.
. . . During all the days of fighting, no one was allowed
to bring in medications, water and food. I myself took part
in a mass march of Israeli peace activists who tried, after
the fighting was over, to accompany a convoy of trucks carrying
such supplies to the camp. . . . An objective person could
only draw the conclusion that the army wanted to prevent the
entrance of eye-witnesses into the camp at any price. . .
. The most damning evidence about what happened is the fact
that immediately after the end of the fighting, top
government and army officials started to discuss ways of preventing
a shock reaction in Israel and abroad once the facts became
known. . . . filled the first page of every important
British newspaper. The front-page headline in the Times was
"Inside the Camp of Death". Underneath was a giant
photo and a report by a star war correspondent, who wrote
that in all the wars she had covered, such as Bosnia, Kosovo,
Chechnya and others, she had never seen such a terrible
sight as this. . . . The result is that again a huge
gap was created between Israelis and the rest of the world.
. . . Only a fool would believe that this will end the
resistance to the occupation.
What
Israel has done - Can Israel be a state like all others?
(Edward Said, Al-Ahram, April 18-24,2002)
Evidence provides stunning proof of what Israel's campaign
has actually (has always) been about: the irreversible conquest
of Palestinian land and society. . . . No other state
on earth could have done what Israel has done with as much
approbation and support as the US has given it. None has been
more intransigent and destructive, less out of touch with
its own realities, than Israel. . . . By what inhuman
calculus did Israel's army, using 50 tanks, 250 missile strikes
a day, and dozens of F-16 sorties, besiege Jenin's refugee
camp for over a week, a one square kilometre patch of shacks
housing 15,000 refugees and a few dozen men armed with automatic
rifles and with no defences whatever, no leaders, no missiles,
no tanks, nothing, and call it a response to terrorist violence
and the threat to Israel's survival? . . . Gone from public
memory are the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948
and the creation of a dispossessed people; the conquest of
the West Bank and Gaza and their military occupation since
1967; the invasion of 1982 with its 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinian
dead and the Sabra and Shatila massacres; the continuous assault
on Palestinian schools, refugee camps, hospitals, civil installations
of every kind. . . . Is it not clear that Sharon is
bent not only on "breaking" the Palestinians, but
on trying to eliminate them as a people with national institutions?
. . . In 1948 Palestinians lost 78 per cent of Palestine.
In 1967 they lost the last 22 per cent, both times to Israel.
. . . so far all we hear is that Palestinians must give up
violence and condemn terror. Is nothing substantive
ever demanded of Israel? Can it go on doing what it
has without a thought for the consequences? That is the real
question of its existence: whether it can exist as a state
like all others, or must always be above the constraints and
duties of all other states in the world today. The record
is not reassuring.
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