Day of Rage in West
Bank, Gaza as
Israel targets Palestinian
infrastructure
By
Joyce Chediac
By
imposing economic sanctions, sealing borders and blockading Palestinian cities,
Israel has "devastated the economy of the West Bank and Gaza" according to a
Dec. 4 United Nations report. Israel has prevented Palestinian workers in the
West Bank and Gaza from going to their jobs in Israel, stopped the flow of
supplies to Palestinian factories and held back taxes due the Palestinian
Authority.
At
the same time, in what Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called "a broad
operation against the Palestinian infrastructure," the Israeli military is
systematically bombing the economic base of the West Bank and Gaza. This is much
the same as past Pentagon bombings targeting the civilian infrastructure in Iraq
and
Yugoslavia.
Under
the guise of "retaliation," "destroying sniper hiding places" or "protecting
Israeli settlers," Israel has demolished factories and administrative and police
centers of the Palestinian Authority, leveled fields and greenhouses in an
attempt to destroy the economic base for an independent Palestinian state.
The
oppressed Palestinian people's response to this war against them has been to
intensify their fight for independence and self-determination. Thousands took to
the streets on Dec. 8 for a "Day of Rage."
Even
the New York Times, no friend of the Palestinians, noted this determined
response. "As this long period of violence produces a mounting toll of death,
injury and property damage," the Times wrote Dec. 10, "the Palestinian
population grows steadily angrier and the voices of moderation get even
quieter...A fresh wave of rage is breaking on the shores of accumulated
humiliation and resentment."
"Three
years of progress [in the Palestinian economy] have been wiped out in two months
of conflict," said Terje Rod Larsen, the UN special coordinator for the Middle
East, who presented the UN report in Gaza on Dec. 4.
Palestinians
lose $500 million in
wages
Israeli
restrictions on Palestinian goods and workers have cost the Palestinians more
than $500 million in lost wages and sales since the new uprising, the Al-Aqsa
Intifada, began Sept. 28. Unemployment has tripled.
About
190,000 Palestinians have lost their jobs, and 760,500 dependents no longer have
regular household incomes. Close to half of the population live on $2 a day or
less, according to the UN.
Palestinian
economic activity has been cut in half, with an estimated $388 million drop in
local economic output.
Israel
is barely transferring tax payments to the Palestinians from custom duties and
other taxes on goods bought and sold in Palestinian territories. These payments,
which usually average more than $50 million a month, meet the entire Palestinian
government payroll, including doctors, teachers and police. In the past seven
weeks the transfers came to no more than $8
million.
Excluded
from the UN's estimate of financial damage to the Palestinian economy is the
tens of millions of dollars in damage to Palestinian "buildings, infrastructure
and vehicles, due mainly to the Israeli Army's use of heavy weapons, including
rockets, tank shells and high-caliber automatic weapons," according to the
report.
In
the first six weeks of the Palestinian uprising Israeli attacks resulted in the
partial or total destruction of 431 private homes, 13 public buildings, 10
factories and 14 religious buildings, the UN said.
Destroying
offices and
trees
On
Nov. 20, for example, Israeli missiles fired from helicopters wrecked Gaza
police stations, TV studios and office suites. The Israeli Army bulldozed fields
of eucalyptus trees and fruit orchards. Barak called this "a broad operation
against Palestinian Authority infrastructure in Gaza." (New York Times, Nov. 22)
He visited Gaza the next day to personally assess its
results.
According
to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Israeli bulldozers destroyed about
600 acres of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip alone. But this Israeli "bomb
and destroy" campaign reaches beyond Gaza. When the West Bank town of Beit Jala
was bombed and strafed from U.S.-supplied Cobra helicopters in mid-November, a
factory was hardest hit.
Israeli
rockets have also targeted greenhouses, under the guise that these
plastic-covered wooden frames provide shelter for Palestinian snipers. Olive
groves have been destroyed with the same excuse.
And
Israeli settlers, acting as an unofficial arm of the military, have been firing
on Palestinians in the West Bank trying to harvest their olive crops. (Wall
Street Journal, Nov. 7)
This
year saw a bumper crop of olives after two years of drought. Many Palestinians
who survived by selling their olives were in serious debt and dependent on this
crop to remain solvent. For other Palestinians, olives are a subsistence crop,
one of the few things to be relied upon in lean times.
On
Nov. 1, Israeli tanks fired more than a dozen rockets at the Oasis Casino
complex in Jericho, also hitting the new Intercontinental Hotel there. Jericho,
the crossroads between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, was being
developed as a tourist center. Two months ago, it had 2,500 visitors daily and
its casino was thriving. Now this has
stopped.
Additionally,
the Palestinian Health Ministry reports that out of the 10,000 Palestinians
injured by Israeli soldiers, more than 900 sustained serious physical or
neurological injuries requiring long-term health care. Many Palestinians feel
that this maiming is deliberate, and meant to place lifetime burdens on the
families of those who will care for the seriously wounded.
U.S.
supplies Israeli
weapons
The
Israeli Army uses the U.S.-made M-16 rifle, which has a range of more than a
mile. According to Palestinian doctors, a major source of the maiming injuries
is using these high-velocity bullets at close range.
Washington
not only supplies the weapons used to kill and maim, U.S. aid of $10 million a
day actually keeps the Israeli state afloat. The U.S. views Israel as a
battering ram against the Arab revolution, securing Wall Street's grip on Middle
Eastern oil.
Even
now, while sponsoring a new commission to "establish peace" in the Middle East,
Washington is far from an "honest broker" in the region. While providing the
weapons used to pummel the Palestinians, the U.S. government is seeking to ease
the burden that the two-month Palestinian uprising has placed in the Israeli
government.
According
to the UN report, Israeli "economists have lopped a full percentage point off
their growth estimates for the country for the year, a billion-dollar
correction. Tourism vanished. Farmers and contractors who depend on Palestinian
workers are demanding bailout aid," and the high-tech sector is scaling back
spending.
While
no additional U.S. aid is planned for the Palestinians, the Clinton
administration is seeking to cushion the effect of the Intifada on the Israeli
economy with an additional $450 million this
year.
In
every way, this is a U.S.-Israeli war against the Palestinian people. The
working class and other concerned people in the U.S. are in a unique position to
give solidarity to the Palestinian struggle by demanding that the U.S. stop all
aid to Israel.
Day
of
rage
Meanwhile,
the Palestinian people remain defiant and determined. Thousands participated in
demonstrations in a Dec. 8 "Day of Rage" marking the beginning of the first
Intifada 13 years ago.
The
killing of four Palestinian policeman, shelled by an Israeli tank operator who
saw them only as "Palestinians with guns," set off a protest of thousands in
Jenin. And enraged youths responded to the murder of a 16-year old in East
Jerusalem by burning down an Israeli police station. Funerals the next day
erupted into angry mass demonstrations in many
locations.
Far
from defeating the people, the daily humiliations and hardships are bringing new
layers into the struggle. Take Omar Dhuheir and Donya Dhuheir. Together they
worked a two-acre parcel of Gaza land and raised their nine children. Their
orchards, and especially their greenhouses of tomatoes and cucumbers required
24-hour care.
They
were not involved in the Intifada. Their children did not throw stones. They
just wanted to be left alone. This month, the Dhuheir family's property was
razed to expand a road for Israeli settlers.
There
was no warning. Israeli tractors, bulldozed the fields, demolished the
greenhouse, and tore into the seven-room house as the Dhuheir family ran out the
back door. All the Dhuheirs have now is a tent in the
sand.
"Enough
with the Intifada," said Donya Dhuheir. "I hope there will be a war
now."
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