Israeli troops gun down solidarity activists
U.S.-backed Tel Aviv regime steps up war on Palestinians,
supporters
By Leslie Feinberg
While the eyes of the world are focused on the
crimes of the Pentagon in its war of conquest against Iraq,
Palestinian officials accuse Tel Aviv of quietly escalating its
siege against the Palestinian people.
Statements by Israeli officials themselves back up that
charge. "I hope that in the era after the toppling of Saddam
Hussein's regime, the Palestinians will understand that the
world has changed," Israeli "Defense" Minister Shaul Mofaz
said. (Reuters, April 10)
President George W. Bush, trying to quell roiling Arab rage
about the U.S.-led colonial occupation of Iraq, is paying lip
service to a "road map" to a Palestinian state by the year
2005.
How seriously does this administration take this
proposition? According to a senior U.S. official, Secretary of
State Colin Powell privately told European leaders in Brussels
in early April, "Please understand that it can't just be issued
and magical things happen, and it's not going to be just
imposed." (Al-Jazeera, April 4)
Washington has appointed retired Gen. Jay Garner to rule as
its colonial warlord in Iraq. He is a strong supporter of the
Israeli garrison state and Ariel Sharon's government. Garner
has ties to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
which liaisons between Pentagon officials and the Israeli
military.
Garner was one of more than 250 retired U.S. military
officers who traveled to Israel on a JINSA junket. He once
signed a pro-Israeli statement that charged the Palestinians
with filling their children with hate. (The Scotsman, April
10)
And while the White House is talking peace and waging war,
it is looking the other way as Tel Aviv is carrying out this
virtual state of siege against the Palestinian population. The
all-war, all-the-time monopoly media scarcely seems to notice
this military aggression.
Forced diaspora in slow motion
Terror has been the hallmark of the Israeli apartheid regime
since its creation in historic Palestine in 1948. But efforts
to force mass expulsions of Palestinians have ratcheted up in
the last two years, and pressure is being exerted now to hasten
the pace.
More than 100 people have already signed onto a petition
being circulated by Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace that
states, "What has actually been taking place since the
beginning of the 35 years of occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, but at an unprecedented rate for the last two
years, is a systematic process of demolition of Palestinian
private and public property, and mass expropriation of
Palestinian land on behalf of settlers."
The petition lists the methods used in Israel's territorial
expansion and efforts to drive the Palestinian population into
a mass expulsion: huge-scale harassment, prolonged curfews,
road blocks, humiliations, creating fearsome ghettos, poverty,
beatings, military invasions, detention of thousands without
trial under sub-humane conditions and obstruction of access to
work, medical care, schools and universities.
Frequent military terror raids are a form of short-term
occupation. Many feel this is a dress-rehearsal for more
long-term occupations and mass "transfers"-that is,
expulsion--of the population.
On April 9, for example, residents in the refugee camp in
Tulkarm, just inside the occupied West Bank, awakened to the
crack of gunfire, boom of stun grenades and thunder of
helicopter warships. One thousand male residents aged 15 to 40
were driven from their homes, taken to a nearby school,
searched and reportedly warned they would be shot if they
returned home in the next two days. (Scottish Sunday Herald,
April 13)
The Herald reported, "The sweeping raid provoked a renewal
of the 'war crime' allegations leveled at Israel over last
year's Operation Defensive Shield, which led to the bloody
battle of Jenin and the attacks on Palestinian President Yassir
Arafat's headquarters."
"We urge the international community not to allow Israel to
continue exploiting the war with Iraq to achieve its end goal,"
stressed Palestinian cabinet member Saeb Eerekat.
"Israeli left-wingers were equally critical," the Herald
noted. Yossi Beilin, chairperson of the Shahar movement, said
the Tulkarm mass round-up "conjures up some chilling
memories."
Resistance still burning
The Israeli government assassinated senior Hamas member Said
Arbid in Gaza City on April 8. Arbid and two of his associates
were killed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet. And a
helicopter gunship fired a missile at onlookers who gathered
near the wreck age. Seven Palestin ians were killed and 48
wounded. (The Guardian, April 10)
President Yasser Arafat denounced the April 8 air strike,
characterizing it as "a massacre and an unforgivable crime.
This crime is a challenge for Palestinians," he said,
emphasizing that "Israel is taking advantage of the war on Iraq
to cover up its daily massacres against Palestinian civilians."
(Xinhuanet, April 9)
The following accounts, which support this charge, are only
a few of the attacks by Israeli military forces since April 7
that resulted in Palestinian deaths and injuries.
Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in a predawn raid on
the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah on April 10. The army
sparked resistance when it brought in 40 tanks and a number of
military bulldozers. Mahmoud Shaath was killed by an Israel
tank shell. Wissam Al Shaar and Ibrahim Shaluf died after being
struck by a missile fired from an assault helicopter.
Also on April 10, the army shot a 14-year-old boy to death
in the West Bank town of Qalqilya and killed a man in Nablus.
And Iyad Alyan was killed by tank fire east of Jabalya. Eight
other Palestinians were injured, two critically. (Al-Jazeera,
April 13)
Their deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed to
2,350 since the Intifada against Israeli occupation began in
September 2000. Less than a third as many Israelis have been
killed in the same time period, further revealing the Goliath
vs. David character of the high-tech war waged by the
Pentagon-backed Israeli garrison state against a people without
an army.
And in an act of extra-legal lynching, a Zionist death squad
group calling itself "Revenge of the Babies" claimed
responsibility for an April 9 explosion in a school in
Al-Jarba, a northern West Bank village six miles south of
Jenin, that injured 29 Palestinian children, four seriously.
(Middle East Online)
But Palestinian resistance and solidarity with it has not
been crushed by this overwhelming military force.
More than 4,000 Palestinians marched through the streets of
Rafah in a demonstration called by Fatah on April 7 that
characterized the Pentagon-led war against Iraq as a "new
occupation in the region." (French Press Agency, April 7)
The same day in Gaza City, marchers took to the streets
against U.S. military aggression in Iraq in a demonstration
called by the Arab Liberation Front.
Doctors and health workers protested on World Health Day,
denouncing "U.S. and British aggression against the Iraqi
people, their land and infrastructure."
More than 150 activists from Israel, the Occupied
Territories and a dozen countries marched through the town of
Mas'ha on April 6 to protest the Israeli construction of a
225-mile, 25-foot-high apartheid wall along the entire length
of the West Bank. They characterized the wall, which further
encroaches into Palestinian-held territory, as a land grab for
Zionist settlements and "part of the Israeli government policy
of 'encouraging transfer' (ethnic cleansing)."
The wall would sever Mas'ha's access to 97 percent of its
farmland, greenhouses and olive groves--the source of income
for its 2,000 inhabitants. (International Solidarity Movement
report, April 7)
The protesters caught the army unprepared by setting up a
Peace Camp to block construction of the wall. Despite being
menaced by settlers moonlighting as security guards, army brass
and military bulldozers, the activists held their ground and
the standoff continues.
"Peace tents" were also set up in the village of Bidia.
Palestinians, Israelis and international solidarity activists
have been occupying that ground day and night to stave off the
bulldozers. (Yediot Aharonot, April 10)
In the spirit of Rachel Corrie
International Solidarity Movement activists have witnessed
violence against the Palestinians.
For instance, on April 10, members related the details of an
undercover operation in which Israeli forces, dressed as
civilians and traveling in a mini-van with Palestinian plates,
assassinated two people and injured four in Tulkarm. The same
day they reported the shooting of two civilians--teenaged
brothers--in their home in the Jibna area of Rafah. (ISM
report, April 10)
As a result, ISM activists are being increasingly targeted
by the Israeli military. An ISM spokesperson stated: "It now
seems like it is open season on international peace activists.
They just want us out so they can get on with their business
without international observation."
ISM activist Tom Hurndall from Man chester, England, was
shot in the head April 11 by Israeli troops in the Rafah refu
gee camp. Hurndall was trying to help two little girls and
their mother get out of the line of fire. He was declared
clinically dead.
There had been no earlier exchange of gunfire between
Israelis and Palestinians that day, reported the April 12
Guardian.
"A group of ISM people were trying to set up a small protest
tent alongside the road used by the army. The soldiers opened
fire," said ISM member Khalil Abdullah.
On March 16, U.S. activist Rachel Corrie was also killed in
Rafah-deliberately, witnesses report--after a long standoff
with an Israeli military bulldozer that was attempting to raze
a civilian home.
ISM activist Brian Avery from New Mexico was seriously
injured by soldiers on April 5 in the Jenin area. The military
had locked down the area in a curfew for two days. No
Palestinians were reportedly on the street.
Avery and other internationals were confronted by two
Armored Personnel Carriers. They raised their hands over their
heads and stood without moving for about 10 minutes. They were
wearing fluorescent red vests with reflective white crosses on
the front and back.
Abruptly, troops fired a burst of high-speed bullets from a
machine gun at the ground in front of them. Under the Israeli
army's own rules of engagement, soldiers are only allowed to
fire warning shots from hand-held weapons pointed away from
their target, not from mounted weapons.
Danish ISM member Lasse Schmidt was wounded in the leg by
shrapnel. The left side of Avery's face was virtually shot off.
When a specialist at the local hospital recommended
Avery be immediately transferred to a hospital in Afula in
Israel, the military refused to allow his ambulance safe
passage for more than an hour. (ISM news release, April 7)
Maria Santelli, an organizer with the New Mexico Network,
said Avery had just written home "about Rachel Corrie. He was
just letting people know back home what happened and that
people were standing in her name and continuing her work." (AFP
and AP, April 5)
Reprinted from the April 24, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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