Israel tries to make life unlivable
PLO calls Feb. 23 day of protest of apartheid wall
By Richard Becker
Although largely ignored by the corporate
media, Israel's harsh repression against the Palestinian
population has intensified in the West Bank and Gaza in recent
weeks and months.
At least nine Palestinians were killed and 10 others wounded
in Israeli army attacks on Gaza City on Jan. 28. Most of those
killed died defending their community against the Israeli
incursion, and several were apparently executed.
Bakr Abu Saffiyeh, head of emergency services at Al-Shifa
hospital in Gaza City, told AFP (French Press Agency) that five
had been shot with "a single bullet to the head or the nape of
the neck."
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, Nabil Abu
Rudeina, responded to the attack, saying, "the Israeli
government must bear the responsibility for this massacre."
In response to the ongoing construction of an apartheid wall
aimed at fencing in the Palestinian population in the West
Bank, the Palestine Liberation Organ iz ation Executive
Committee has called a day of protest for Feb. 23.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon occa sionally makes
statements about "peace" for public relations. His government's
objective, however, is clearly to make life unlivable for the
people enduring under occupation and force as many as possible
to leave.
Since Jan. 16, Israeli tanks and bulldozers have made more
than 600 people homeless in the Rafah refugee camp alone. Rafah
camp sits on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Israeli
military operations have been particularly extensive in Rafah.
Since October 2000, hundreds of Rafah residents have been
killed or wounded, and more than 10,000 people have lost their
homes in the extremely impoverished camp.
Peter Hansen, head of a UN agency for Pales tinian refugees,
condemned the Israeli policy of massive home destruction and
said that it would cost $30 million to replace the destroyed
houses. The needed funds, however, do not exist and Hansen was
jostled by an angry crowd of Rafah residents on a visit to the
devastated camp on Jan. 24.
Israeli repression has been especially heavy in Gaza.
On Jan. 20, Israeli troops opened fire without warning on
thousands of workers at the Erez crossing in northern Gaza with
live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas. At
least 25 workers were hospitalized after the attack. The
workers were lined up at the crossing for work.
A few days earlier, a young Gazan woman had killed herself
and four Israeli border troops at the same crossing in a
suicide bombing protesting occupation. The Jan. 20 shooting was
apparently a form of collective punishment for the bombing.
On Jan. 22, Israeli troops shot and killed a 15-year-old boy
while he was collecting firewood on the Gaza Strip. Mohsen
Aldaur from Jebalia Camp in Gaza City and five friends were
gathering wood when the troops fired on them with live
ammunition.
Doctors in Gaza said that multiple gunshot wounds had killed
Mohsen, and two of his friends were also shot and injured.
Israeli occupying forces made a large number of arrests and
began demolishing an apartment building during another invasion
of Nablus the morning of Jan. 26.
Arrests and demolition in Nablus
Israeli occupation forces have staged numerous raids in
Nablus, the West Bank's largest city and a center of
Palestinian resistance, over the past several weeks. The city
of more than 150,000 people has been repeatedly isolated from
the outside world, and placed under shoot-to-kill curfews.
According to the Palestine Monitor web site, at about 6 a.m.
on Jan. 22 Israeli troops attacked the area around Abu Obayda
Street in the western part of the city. The troops, firing live
ammunition, rubber bullets and sound bombs, began
house-to-house searches and arrested a large number of
Palestinians.
The soldiers then surrounded a three-story apartment
building with armored vehi cles. Hadija Assaruyan, who lives in
a neighboring building, told Palestine Monitor that she was
awakened by the Israeli troops firing on the apartments and
using loudspeakers to call on those inside to surrender.
Bulldozers then began to demolish the building for sheltering
militants. Assaruyan said she had seen no one arrested from the
building.
26-foot-high wall cuts East Jerusalem
In a move that shocked and angered Palestinians everywhere,
on Jan. 12 Israeli construction workers began building a
26-foot-high concrete wall in East Jerusalem, an area illegally
annexed by Israel following the 1967 war when it conquered and
seized the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and the Golan
Heights.
Most media in the U.S. have reported that the wall
technically separates East Jerusalem from the West Bank village
of Abu Dis. In reality it cuts right through the Palestinian
community. The huge wall is being built down the center of Abu
Dis's main street. Most Abu Dis residents hold Jerusalem
identification papers. They work, go to school and receive
medical care in Jerusalem.
Where previously the nearest hospital was a few minutes away
on foot, now the nearest health care facility will be 15 miles
away in the West Bank.
The Jerusalem section is just one part of a wall that is
projected to be about 240 miles long.
Reminiscent of the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, the
wall is intended to isolate and fence-in the Palestinian
population in the West Bank, as the Palestin ians are now
fenced-in in Gaza.
Yazid Abu-Hliel is an Abu Dis resident. His four children
will no longer be able to attend their Jerusalem school. He
himself will no longer be able to continue his job as a floor
polisher. As he explained: "They are putting us into
prisons."
Reprinted from the Feb. 5, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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