On Resistance
By Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, Palestine Chronicle 5/27/2004
The symptoms of anxiety, trauma, frustration, and the desire to revenge prevailed as a result of Israeli assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, and intensified by assassinating Dr. Abdel Aziz El-Rantessi. In a research study conducted by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, it was revealed that less than 3% of the population do not display symptoms of stress, depression, or trauma; and more than 30% of the population show enough symptoms to need therapeutic intervention. The people''s spirits were refreshed a little when the resistance of Iraqis intensified against the American occupation in Faluja. That was followed by the brutal scenes of Iraqi prisoners which certified the American regime as an enemy of human rights and democracy in this era. The illusion that America is an example of justice and respect for human dignity was finally dead. The truth came out crystal clear despite the apologies, investigations. Then some Muslims slaughtered an American publicly on TV… As if they are saying to the Americans that we are equal in brutality and moral slump. I heard an American general saying, "This is for you to know the enemy that we are dealing with", in a clear finger pointing to Islam and Muslims.
The stain is spreading
By Ze''ev Sternhell, Ha''aretz 5/28/2004
Sometimes a harsh occurrence, ostensibly is limited to a time and place, exposes subterranean currents in a society that it prefers to suppress in more ordinary times. The punishment campaign in Rafah was such an event. That there is profound polarization in society is nothing new, but now its dimensions are getting to be frightening. On one side, some people asked themselves at the sight of the dead Palestinian children and the new refugees - the second and third generation of the 1948 refugees, getting out by the skin of their teeth from under the same occupier - if this isn''t proof positive of the original sin that underlies Zionism. On the other side they saw the loss of life, the suffering and the destruction as a matter of routine - what happened in Rafah was a mere "incident," of those that happened so often in the past and will continue in the future. This is because there will be no end to the war over the land until the Arabs accept Jewish ownership.
The Crimes of War: Between Al-Zeitoun (Gaza) and Rafah
By Tamar Gozansky, Electronic Intifada 5/26/2004
The burning tires are not the only expression of the hate of the occupation. Attention is now drawn to the Israeli war crimes committed by the IDF in Rafah on May 19; especially to the numerous victims of the shelling by Israeli tanks of a civilian demonstration, mostly youth and children, at high noon. I watched the horrific live TV images of wounded children, youth running for shelter and smoke rising from the shelled location, in the company of the head of the Palestinian Internal Security in Gaza City, Rashid Abu Shbak, alias Abu Khatem. Abu Shbak refuted the excuses offered by the Sharon Government to justify their bloody invasion of Rafah. He said: "The Israeli Army has been fighting the tunnels for three years and failed. Official Israel is lying when they claim that the Palestinian Authority smuggles weapons (into the Gaza strip) through the tunnels. We proposed to Israel to allow the PA to handle the tunnel issue. Nine months ago we took a few steps to close the tunnels. But after we would close a tunnel, which ended in a certain house, the Israeli Army would destroy the house and shoot at our forces....
From Rafah to Sachnin
By Leonard Fein, Forward 5/28/2004
Call them juxtapositions, call them contradictions — Israel overflows with them. Three examples from my recent six week-long visit there: During a week in which international attention was focused on events in Rafah in southern Gaza, the attention of Israelis was divided. The destruction in Rafah was impossible to avoid, and the controversy over what was happening there — what Israel was doing there, to be more precise — was searing. At the same time, the papers and the television were flooded with the grand news from Sachnin, an Arab town whose soccer team had just won the national championship. "Arab town" conjures up a variety of images, but for sure the innocent observer will not have supposed that the soccer team fielded by this Arab town includes three Jews, a Brazilian, a player from Guinea, one from Cameroon and a Jewish coach along with its Israeli Arab majority. Sachnin''s opponent in the final game was Hapoel Haifa, which has three Israeli Arab players in its starting lineup, one actually from Sachnin. Some 30,000 fans from Sachnin and neighboring towns came to Ramat Gan, just outside Tel Aviv, for the game, as did the president of Israel, Moshe Katzav, all the Arab members of Israel''s Knesset and assorted other dignitaries.
Deficient sovereignty
By Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/27/2004
...the main obstacle that will continue to prevent the dream of regional peace and stability from ever materialising is the refusal of Israel, particularly under the Sharon government, to relinquish its status as a country enjoying some sort of supra-sovereignty. -- Is the present crisis in the peace process inbuilt in the process itself? -- Like the hero in George Orwell''s 1984, the Middle East is the victim of a huge scam, a monstrous lie couched in doublespeak. The deception is represented in the substitution of one word for another, more specifically, in endowing a word, sovereignty, with a meaning that is the exact opposite of what it stands for, namely, occupation and subordination. Perhaps the most blatant example of doublespeak is the notion of a Palestinian state as endorsed by George W Bush. The US president talks of an independent, sovereign state living peacefully side by side with Israel even though he knows that a condition for its establishment is that it will be demilitarised. A country without an army to defend itself is obviously lacking an essential attribute of sovereignty, and yet the proposed demilitarised Palestinian state is being touted as "sovereign". Nor is its demilitarised status open to discussion by any of the concerned parties; the decision has been made from on high and must be accepted as part of the package.
Sharon''s right hand
By Azmi Bishara, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/27/2004
While demolitions and assassinations continue to be the methods preferred by Israel to subjugate Palestinians by force, the Israeli left has run out of ideas -- For Israel, demolition is a way of life, a path it has chosen, building itself on the ruins of the Palestinian people. Rafah is not an aberration. As soon as Israel took East Jerusalem in June 1967, it proceeded to raze Amwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba on the road to the Mediterranean, and Al-Magharba neighbourhood, near Al-Buraq (wailing) wall. Few would remember the news conference Moshe Dayan held on 3 June 1969 to commemorate the second anniversary of the 1967 War. In that conference, Dayan said that Israel has killed 750 "saboteurs" and demolished 250 houses. The demolition of homes is an Israeli trademark, so is the blasting out of holes in the side of buildings for soldiers to use as doors. This invention proved such a success that the Americans are copying it. In August 1971, Israel evacuated thousands from Jabalia to build "safe roads" as part of a clampdown on Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. The man who gave the demolition order was none other than General Ariel Sharon, at that time commander of the southern sector. Much -- actually little -- water has run down the River Jordan since then. And thousands upon thousands of Palestinian homes have been demolished in a war fought primarily by bulldozers. Earth-moving equipment is at the heart of Zionism, as it has been since the 1948 War. Home demolition is Israel''s favourite punishment for Palestinians resisting the occupation.
''Rafah is our Falluja''
By Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/27/2004
Israeli tanks left Rafah on Tuesday, leaving behind a bloody trail of death and destruction -- Rafah''s 140,000 inhabitants are counting the cost of Israel''s latest and most brutal blitz of murder, terror and house demolitions. Palestinians see the Israeli aggression as "ethnic cleansing" and "a holocaust". Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, name it "war crimes against humanity". Even some Israeli ministers have admitted that the scenes of misery and destruction in Rafah are reminiscent of and similar to scenes from war-devastated Europe. According to Said Zurub, Rafah''s mayor, the Israeli army reduced much of his town to "a graveyard of concrete rubble, twisted iron bars, sand mounds and depression". "I can''t describe what happened in words. It is a holocaust," said Zurub shortly after he took part in the funeral of some 16 women and children whose bodies were kept inside refrigerators for several days as the local hospital''s mortuary was filled to capacity with other victim''s bodies.
Nothing Can Come Between Me and My Land
By PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, Stop The Wall 5/28/2004
Personal Testimony, PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, May 28th, 2004 -- Omar Said -Abu Mohammad- is a farmer from Qalqiliya, and a father of five. Omar''s story is an example of how farmers in communities that have their lands isolated behind the Wall suffer to reach their lands. Omar owns eight dunums of agricultural land to the north of Qalqiliya city, the land is mainly planted with olive trees, and is the family’s main source of income. Omar''s story starts with the building of Zufin settlement North West Qalqiliya city. At that time Occupation forces confiscated 3 dunums of his land for the settlement bypass road. When the Apartheid Wall was built around Qalqiliya city, Omar''s land became trapped between the bypass road and the Wall. Shortly thereafter, in October 2003, Occupation forces declared all lands behind the Wall as a “closed military area”, and imposed a permit system on the people who needed to reach their lands behind the Wall. Omar and his wife were given a permit to reach their lands, however, Omar was not able to get a permit for his car, and he and his wife are forced to walk 5 kms on foot to reach their fields.
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
By Josh Ruebner, Palestine Chronicle 5/27/2004
On Thursday I set fire to my Israeli military deferral papers across the street from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. This act of civil disobedience took place during a protest organized by a Jewish American peace organization against the atrocities that Israel is committing in the occupied Gaza Strip. In the first half of May, Israel made homeless close to 2,200 Palestinians through the purposeful destruction of their homes. Since Tuesday in Rafah, Israel has killed at least 40 Palestinians, some of whom were children engaged in nonviolent protest when they were killed. Amnesty International has described these acts of wanton death and destruction as "war crimes." Although I am a Jewish American, born and raised in the United States, I am also a citizen of Israel by virtue of my father''s birth in that country. Israel''s laws automatically confer citizenship on the children of citizens regardless of their place of birth. Like all other Jewish citizens of Israel, I am required to serve in the Israeli army.
Washington must talk to Hamas, albeit conditionally
By Yehuda Lukacs, Daily Star 5/27/2004
New political dynamics emerged in Palestinian society following the assassinations of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Yassin''s successor. An immediate consequence of the killings was that Palestinians rallied around Hamas - including staunch supporters of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas may well emerge as the legitimate successor of the PA, which has lost power, prestige and credibility during the last three years since the beginning of the second intifada. Should Israel proceed with its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, the home base of Hamas, this would further enhance its stature inside and outside the Occupied Territories.
Celebrating Life in Rafah
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 5/27/2004
"Israel can assassinate any Palestinian at the time of its choosing. It killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in those ''targeted killing'' sprees. Yet, Palestinians are condemned if they show the mere desire to respond. So what is it that Palestinians are permitted to do in self-defense, in accordance with the so twisted pro-Israeli Bush doctrine?.." -- Rafah, Jenin, Khan Yunis, Zeitun: Foreign sounding names of so distanced and disturbing a reality. All that we know of them is what media has selectively determined to impart, if we are interested to hear the story. The Rafah refugee camp, a small strip of land at the southern edge of Gaza was the target of Israel’s most ruthless attack in years. Between May 17-20, forty three Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Among them, nine children, most who were struck by missiles while protesting peacefully with flags and banners: “End the Siege on Rafah”, declared a white banner, torn and saturated with blood.
''Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles''
By Ahmad V. Majdoubeh, Jordan Times 5/28/2004
What is our difference with Israel (rather, Israel''s difference with us) all about? It is about many things, but I think it is largely about land. Most of Israel''s pretexts, arguments, tactics, manoeuvres and actions have the confiscation of Palestinian land as both their immediate and ultimate objective. Israel is an occupier, and what it wants is Palestinian land. After more than fifty years of Israeli occupation and usurpation, this has become crystal clear. It is greed, pure and simple. Our land is not up for grabs by anyone who covets it; it is ours, we need it, and we cannot allow others to take it from us. We want it back. We want it to build our homes on, to cultivate it and live off it, the way peoples all over the world do. What is our difference with America (rather, America''s difference with us) regarding Iraq all about? It is about many things, but I think it is largely about oil — or so-called strategic interests. As in the case of Israel, so it is in the case of America: most of America''s pretexts, arguments, tactics, manoeuvres and actions have the confiscation (control, if you will) of Iraqi oil, or Iraq''s strategic territory, as their immediate and ultimate objective. After more than a year of America''s unwelcome presence in Iraq (a presence which has transformed overnight from liberation to occupation), this has become crystal clear. It is also greed, pure and simple.
The Rape of Rafah
By Uri Avnery, CounterPunch 5/23/2004
The immense might of the Israeli army, assembled from all over the country, has attacked a small Palestinian township on the margin of the destitute Gaza Strip. Palestinians, both fighters and civilians, are being killed by the dozen, homes are being destroyed wholesale, the sight of the fleeing population bring back memories of 1948. All this--for what? At first sight, the whole action is absurd. Ariel Sharon has proposed a unilateral withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, and his original plan included the evacuation of the "Philadelphi Axis", a narrow buffer zone cutting Gaza off from Egypt. This means that he does not consider this entire territory necessary for the security of Israel. According to him, the Gaza Strip is a military and demographic burden, and the quicker we get out of it, the better.
Qalandia, Qalandia
By John, International Solidarity Movement 5/22/2004
Ramallah, 22 May 04 -- [Qalandia] Jerusalem was closed on Sunday, May 15. When we arrived at the checkpoint, Hisham had already heard that there was a closure. Traffic was backed up a half mile from the checkpoint. Horns were blaring, dust swirling, and voices rising as we got out of the taxi and headed through the crowd. As we neared the checkpoint I noticed an Army jeep at the junction of the road, the airport, and the new barrier. Crouching behind the wall was a soldier pointing his gun toward the crowd. As he leaned around the corner several stones ricocheted off the wall. With all the traffic and pedestrians it was difficult to tell where the stones were coming from, but this did not deter the soldiers who were firing tear gas into the crowds of passerby attempting to reach the checkpoint. To me, this checkpoint has always been a symbol of the insanity and indecency of the occupation. It is the only point of entry to Jerusalem from Ramallah to the north. When I first saw it in January of 2002, it was little more than a series of concrete blocks, plastic barriers, and a couple of guard towers. Each time I have returned the checkpoint seems more permanent and more bureaucratic. Now, the pedestrian crossing has a metal detector, fences, and a roof. The soldiers processing the ID’s sit behind barriers and desks. The checkpoint runs along the edge of a runway that was once part of Jerusalem Airport. The airport has been closed for years and is now a military base. Every time I have crossed this checkpoint I have witnessed soldiers shooting at kids. In times past they would drive their jeeps across the tarmac, jump out and begin firing at shebab throwing stones 50 yards away on the other side of the fence. Of course, if the military didn’t respond, the kids wouldn’t be throwing stones. Now there is the infamous “Apartheid wall”. When I first saw the wall here, I was appalled. It is at least a twenty-foot high concrete barrier with a fence topped with razor wire in front of it, I suppose so the shebab can’t spray the wall with graffiti. The first thought I had when I saw it was, “Finally, the soldiers won’t kill kids here anymore.” But I was wrong.
The Things Bush Didn''t Say in His Speech
By Robert Fisk, CounterPunch/The Independent 5/26/2004
I can''t wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to rubble by the Americans--at the request of the new Iraqi government, of course. It will be turned to dust in order to destroy a symbol of Saddam''s brutality. That''s what President Bush tells us. So the re-writing of history still goes on. Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib--by my favourite US General Janis Karpinski, no less--to see the million-dollar US refurbishment of this vile place. Squeaky clean cells and toothpaste tubes and fresh pairs of pants for the "terrorist" inmates. But now, suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer an American torture centre. It''s still an Iraqi torture centre, and thus worthy of demolition. The re-writing of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed. Weapons of mass destruction? Forget it. Links between Saddam and al-Qa''ida? Forget it. Liberating the Iraqis from Saddam''s Abu Ghraib life of torture? Forget it. Wedding party slaughtered? Forget it. Clear the decks for both "full (sic) sovereignty" and "chaotic events". This is, at any rate, according to Mr Bush. When I heard his hesitant pronunciation of Abu Ghraib as "Abu Grub" on Monday night, I could only profoundly agree.
Through the heart
By Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian 5/26/2004
Israel''s 100km ''security barrier'' makes life a misery, and a two-state solution a virtual impossibility -- The graffiti artists have barely begun. There are a few slogans sprayed in red or black on the tall slabs of grey concrete - "Welcome to the Ghetto" and the like - but the elaborate murals and lurid colours of the Berlin wall or Belfast peace line are yet to appear. This wall is too new for that. Israel calls it the security barrier, necessary to prevent would-be suicide bombers coming in from the West Bank. Bit by bit it is going up across those lands, sometimes in the form of a tight wire fence, sometimes solid concrete eight metres high - as it is here. Except here is not what most people would think of as the West Bank. This is Jerusalem, the city Israel claims as its "eternal and undivided capital". While most eyes have been on the barrier as it stretches north and south, few have noticed the journey the wall is making in and around Jerusalem itself - snaking its way from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, sometimes even street to street. When it''s done it should stretch for 100km; more than 20km are up already.
The price of withdrawal
By Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/21/2004
Israel''s invasion of Rafah stirred Palestinian memories of the past and deepened all their fears for the future. -- A woman pulls a wooden cart laden with bedding, kitchen utensils and water tanks through a jagged landscape of destroyed homes and smouldering rubbish. It could be a still from the 1948 war which saw the new Jewish state born and most of the Palestinians'' ancestral homeland lost -- events whose 56th anniversary was commemorated last weekend in rallies and marches throughout Israel, the occupied territories and the wider Palestinian diasporas. It is Rafah refugee camp, Sunday 16 May, one day ahead of Israel''s most massive military incursion into Gaza since it was occupied in the 1967 war. "We knew it would come," said one local, as he steered refugees living on Rafah''s border with Egypt to new tent cities pitched by the UN and Gaza Islamic charity organisations. There are now 2,000 Palestinians squatting in these and in schools set up as "emergency absorption centres". They join 12,000 Palestinians in Rafah displaced from their homes as a result of Israel''s earlier, tidal-like invasions into the town. Rafah is home to 140,000 Palestinians, 90,000 of them refugees.
Who really smuggled weapons to Rafah?
By Arjan El Fassed, Electronic Intifada 5/20/2004
Israel''s ongoing assault on human lives and property, killing civilians and demolishing homes is, according to Israeli spokespersons, "aimed at preventing a huge shipment of arms from being smuggled". According to Israeli spokespersons, Israel launched "Operation Rainbow", its largest military raid on Palestinian civilians since "Operation Defensive Shield", in a bid "to rid the border zone of its tunnels and capture the militants using them." The past four days, Israeli forces have killed 39 Palestinians. Its military assault on Palestinians in Rafah includes extensive house demolitions along the so-called "Philadelphi route" that runs along the border. What no one asks, however, is the question who supplies Israel''s military occupation of Gaza, a strip of land, slightly more than twice the size of Washington DC, housing at least 1.2 million Palestinians and 6,000 Israeli settlers. It is not hard to guess that the U.S. administration is the largest supplier of arms and aid to Israel. The common figure given for U.S. aid to Israel is $3 billion per year—$1.2 billion in economic aid and $1.8 billion in military aid, representing about one-sixth of total U.S. foreign aid. Israel is one of the U.S.'' largest arms importers.
Photostory: Israel''s Rafah operation and its May 19th attack on a peaceful march (graphic content)
By Johannes Abeling, Electronic Intifada 5/21/2004
17 May 2004. Rafah residents in Block ''J'' rush to save their belongings before an expected Israeli incursion in the refugee camp. Their fears were well founded....18 May 2004. Palestinian women mourning in the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Rafah. A Palestinian killed by an Israeli missile near Block ''O'' in Rafah, surrounded by mourning relatives. Israeli human rights organisation B''Tselem reported today that "IDF forces launched an incursion into the Rafah Refugee Camp early this morning....According to al-Khatib, the IDF has dug trenches around Tel a-Sultan, preventing ambulances from entering the neighborhood. The Red Crescent received calls to treat 15 wounded and four dead in the area shelled by the IDF, however they are unable to evacuate them....19 May 2004. Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza reported today that since the beginning of the Israeli incursion on 18 May 2004, 99 children and 18 female teachers and workers were detained in the orphanage run by the SOS association in the Tel Al-Sultan district of Rafah. The manager of the orphanage, who lives in the premises with his family, confirmed that Israeli troops opened fire on the orphanage at several occasions. Loudspeakers were heard in Tel Al-Sultan calling all men over the age of 16 to gather in a neighborhood school....With haze from the Israeli helicopter missiles and tank shells in the background, Palestinians run with a wounded man to a nearby medical facility....
Caterpillar Should Do the Right Thing, Now
By Elizabeth Corrie, Palestine Chronicle 5/20/2004
"When I pointedly mention that Caterpillar manufactured the bulldozer used to kill Rachel, I am sometimes asked whether it is reasonable to suggest that.." -- Unable to sleep, I decided to write. For the past week, my email box has been flooded with desperate pleas for help from the people in Rafah, a Palestinian village on the border with Egypt. Since last week, the Israeli Army has relentlessly hammered the people of Rafah, destroying over 100 hundred homes, leaving at least 1000 civilians homeless. The image of these people, standing by helplessly as they watch their walls and roofs cave in under the pressure of the armored, D-9 and D-10 American made Caterpillar bulldozers--supplied to the Israeli army by the US government--has destroyed my sleep. This image would make anyone of conscience sleepless, but it makes me sleepless because I cannot stop thinking about the horror my cousin Rachel Corrie would have felt witnessing this attack. Rachel worked in Rafah. Undoubtedly, she knew some of the people killed, wounded and/or made homeless by this latest attack. Rachel died in Rafah. She herself fell victim to the crushing blade of the bulldozer, the driver so intent on destroying a home that he had to destroy human life to do so.
Razing Gaza to Approve a ''''Peace'''' Plan
Editorial, Miftah 5/21/2004
After Palestinian sources reported that Israeli forces were pulling out of three areas from Rafah’s refugee camp, Israeli military forces confirmed that operation “Rainbow” might be scaled down and the troops might leave the areas where their mission is completed. However the Israeli military confirmed that it will not fully withdraw until its objectives are completely met. This operation, which started last Tuesday and was internationally and widely criticized, killed at least 57 Palestinians, 46 of them civilians, including 13 children. Ten Palestinians, mainly children and teenagers, were killed on Wednesday and 50 people injured when an Israeli tank shell ripped through a crowd of peaceful protesters in Gaza. The incident underscored the Israeli army’s complete disregard for human life.
We''re in bad hands
By Gideon Samet, Ha''aretz 5/21/2004
It is incredible how the commanders of such an experienced army have walked straight into their own booby trap. Many humble non-combatants have discreetly asked themselves this week what the point is of the operation in Rafah. How could it possibly succeed? How could something not go wrong? The defense minister and the chief of staff added to these misgivings with their insipid, worrying remarks. Dangerous tunnels, terrorist infrastructure, wanted men, plans to advance slowly this time - and raze hundreds of buildings. And as they said these things, Operation Rainbow turned into one of the Israel Defense Forces'' most embarrassing campaigns yet. The troops may have moved slowly, but failure came fast. And over it fluttered a black flag of violating international law.
More carnage in Gaza as the US mutters its disapproval
By Jonathan Steele, The Guardian 5/21/2004
Israel''s revenge attacks are, as ever, completely disproportionate -- Israel''s latest outrages in Gaza have produced a rare but tiny hint of American disapproval. For the first time since the Israeli assault on West Bank cities two years ago, the United States has abstained on a critical UN resolution rather than vetoing it. Colin Powell, the secretary of state, said Israel''s actions "have caused a problem and worsened the situation". James Cunningham, representing the US at the UN, said the Israeli behaviour has "not enhanced Israeli security". But if Israeli forces pull back shortly, as many Israeli commentators assume, it will not be because the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is listening to Washington. It is more likely to be out of fear that more Israeli soldiers will die. Thirteen have been killed by the Palestinians'' armed resistance in the Gaza Strip over the last three weeks. In spite of the Israeli army''s vastly superior fire-power and its ruthless willingness to use it even in crowded city streets, it cannot avoid casualties on its own side.
A phone call from under siege in Rafah
By B. Samed, Electronic Intifada/Live from Palestine 5/19/2004
It was just before midnight (Tuesday, May 18th.), when I tried to contact my friend Mohammad from the worst hit neighborhoods in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Earlier on, during the day, I made several attempts to contact my friend, but with no success. News from Rafah started to become extremely worrying about the high number of killed Palestinians at the Tel Al-Sultan area of Rafah. The Israeli army killed fourteen people in the morning of Tuesday alone. Journalist inside the area talked over the phone about injured people in the streets bleeding to death and calling for immediate help. But, Israeli snipers prevented ambulances and private cars from reaching the dead or injured by shooting at any one who came near those lying in the middle of the street. I was increasingly becoming worried Mohammad. I tried again and the phone rang on the other end of the line and finally after about a minute or so, a deep, low, and tired voice answered. Mohammad said that his house was actually in the middle of Israeli army military operations.
One step ahead of the bulldozer
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 5/21/2004
RAFAH - Palestinian families who live close to the Egyptian border learned the lesson years ago: They keep small bags filled with important documents, some cash and a few sentimental items always ready. Whenever bulldozers plowed toward them, or whenever tank shells crashed nearby, or whenever helicopters hovered above - as happened as recently as May 12 - they grabbed their bags and fled. But, feeling secure in a relatively quiet part of oft-battered Rafah, members of Wa''il Mansur''s family, like those of his parents, grandparents and neighbors, never bothered to pack such bags. They live in the Brazil neighborhood, some 700 meters from the border. A few rows of houses used to stand between their residence and the border. Two such rows have already been razed. Nonetheless, members of Mansur''s family reasoned that their residence was far enough from the border to be out of harm''s way.
The outpost test
By Aluf Benn, Ha''aretz 5/20/2004
The saga known as "evacuation of the settlement outposts in the West Bank" set two new records for absurdity this week. On Monday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz came to the Prime Minister''s Office in Jerusalem and showed Ariel Sharon a binder of aerial photographs. One might have assumed some secret mission across the border was being considered but Mofaz''s photos documented not nuclear facilities in Iran, nor Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon - but the progress of construction of settlement outposts. That''s how it is in the IDF - the ground forces defend the outposts, and the air force is sent on photographic sorties to track their development. One wonders if they will be sending the bill for the flying hours to the Yesha Council. Sharon and Mofaz concluded the discussion with a decision to accelerate the evacuation of the "unauthorized" settlement outposts. ...the performance was far from convincing - maybe because the same outpost had already been evacuated last year and was immediately rebuilt, or maybe because the decision to step up the pace of evacuations had been reached so many times in the past, and never been brought to fruition.
Black is for mourning, to say "we''re not conforming," to war crimes in the Middle East
By Laurie King-Irani, Electronic Intifada 5/19/2004
The deadly operation launched by Ariel Sharon this week in Rafah, the southernmost city of the crowded and occupied Gaza Strip, is picturesquely code-named "Operation Rainbow." Dressing up a murderous assault on unarmed civilians with an ancient symbol of glittering hope is obscene. One hue never present in any rainbow is black. But that''s the shade I''d like to focus on in this essay and call for action. In the last 36 hours, I have received dozens of e-mail appeals urging people of good conscience to write letters to top officials in Washington and Tel Aviv in an effort to halt the war crimes we are watching hourly on our television screens. Bitter experience gained from three years working on a war crimes case filed by survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in a Belgian court under the principle of universal jurisdiction, only to be halted in its tracks by Donald Rumsfeld last June, [1] has taught me to expect nothing from the current incumbents of high political office in the US and Israel (all of whom are Likudniks, regardless of their religious affiliations).
Genocide By Public Policy
By Sam Bahour and Michael, Arabic Media Internet Network 5/19/2004
Many words are taboo when used to describe Israel’s actions against Palestinians. One word in specific, genocide, sparks emotions that echo across Israel, Europe and America. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” What is happening in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip today is dangerously encroaching on genocide, close enough so that the pictures of Palestinians in Rafah loading their meager belongings on carts and evacuating their homes are too reminiscent of another time, another place and another people. These very same images should be setting off alarms in the hearts and minds of Israelis. Unfortunately, at stake is not the lexicon of conflict but rather, our children, and we refuse to sit still to watch a deaf, dumb and blind world steal their future from them. A few weeks ago, Israeli Professor and Political Sociologist at Ben Gurion University Lev Grinberg wrote an article that created an uproar in Israel titled, Symbolic Genocide (1). In it Professor Grinberg wrote, “Unable to recover from the Holocaust trauma and the insecurity it caused, the Jewish people, the ultimate victim of genocide, is currently inflicting a symbolic genocide upon the Palestinian people…What is symbolic genocide? Every people has its symbols, national leaders and political institutions, a home land, past and future generations, and hopes. All these symbolically represent a people. Israel is systematically damaging, destroying and eradicating all of these, with unbelievable bureaucratic jargon.”
Past Time for Sanctions on Israel
By BADIL, Miftah 5/18/2004
Israel''s continuing rampage of destruction in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip not only violates Geneva conventions, it is a war crime. It is now well past time for the imposition of economic and other sanctions against Israel. So far this month, more than 2,000 Palestinians, most of them refugees, have been made homeless, some for a second time in the past two years and more house demolitions have been promised by the Israeli authorities. Almost 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been made homeless in the last three years by Israeli housing demolitions. Governments and human rights organizations throughout the world have been pointing out Israel''s illegal actions. The U.S. State department says in a report released on 18 May that Israel has carried out policies of demolitions, strict curfews and closures that directly punished innocent civilians. The international development committee of the British House of Commons earlier this year called on the British Government to urge the European Union to impose trade sanctions on Israel by suspending the favorable conditions Israel enjoys in its trade with the EU. This call was echoed was a group of 275 European politicians, 210 European NGOs this month for an end to Israel''s favorable trading terms with the EU.
While `rumors kill Rafah''
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 5/18/2004
RAFAH - 04:00-04:15 - Lengthy bursts of machine gun fire wake up the neighborhood. There are explosions from the border area. Y. explains that it''s routine, almost every night. IDF patrols shoot at the abandoned houses on the border. 07:20-08:00 - Phone calls come in reporting tanks, APCs and bulldozers are gathering east of Rafah, east of Salah a Din Road, the main route through the Gaza Strip. A helicopter is overhead. UNRWA tells its staffers the army plans to block Salah a Din Road between Khan Yunis and Rafah, before a major operation. UNRWA suggests that its employees from out of Rafah go home and that its staffers who live in Rafah leave the area. The IDF announces it''s closing the Rafah border crossing. Travelers waiting to cross into Egypt are sent home. Everyone is quoting the Israeli press headlines about the army preparing a major operation. 08:15 - Reports come in that some APCs and bulldozers left the south Gush Katif area and destroyed some 20 dunam of tomatoes and cucumbers on Palestinian farmland near Morag.
Abu Sabri Thuqan hands the Key Over to His Grandchild
By Amin Abu Wardeh, translated, International Middle East Media Center 5/15/2004
In a very emotional and enthusiastic look, as his tears were dripping on his rough face, 76 year old Mahmoud Thuqan gives his 6 year old granddaughter Safa'' a key saying, "it is your turn now, we had many promises that our misery will end, but I guess no body can do it for us, we have to do it ourselves". The key that he gave to her is not a key for a car, or a safe, yet a house that he left 56 years ago in 1948 when his story as a refugee started. Thuqan, known as Abu Sabri, (meaning Father of Sabri, his oldest son; the way people call a man with a son out of respect) used to live in the town of Al-Sawalmeh near Jafa until he and his family were forced to leave.
No sign of fatigue
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 5/17/2004
This year, the Nakba assemblies were much better attended than in the past, with a commensurate increase in media coverage of the subject. Why? "Because the Nakba continues," explained Palestinian spokesmen who wrote and spoke about it. -- This Sunday, Palestinians marked the 56th anniversary of the end of the British Mandate in Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel - the day of their Nakba (catastrophe). Processions, assemblies and demonstrations were held throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Yasser Arafat delivered a gala speech in which he called on his people to persist in the struggle, and the Palestinian newspapers issued special supplements with pictures of 1948 refugees who still carry with them the keys of their homes in Jaffa, Lod and Haifa. A small demonstration was also held by a few dozen protesters in East Jerusalem, near the American consulate on Nablus Road. One of the diplomatic commentators holding court in a coffee house in the nearby market told the story of an Arab with serious troubles, who was disgusted with life. He went to a fortune teller, who informed him that for the next five years, his situation would be even worse. And what about after that? asked the man. After that you''ll get used to it, said the fortune teller. After 56 years, the Palestinians have also become used to living with the catastrophe, said the coffee house commentator.
Splitting halves into ''fives'' with poetic license
By Tamim al-Barghouti, Daily Star 5/18/2004
Arab Culture and Identity -- Critics spill a lot of ink discussing the relation between form and content; I have always found it difficult to see the difference between the two concepts. The classical Arabic poem is made of lines of equal feet, all lines end in the same rhyme, and each line is divided into two symmetrical halves. The first half of the line is usually an incomplete sentence, the completion of which comes in the second half. There is no rhyming scheme for the first halves, though in terms of meter, they are identical to the second halves. The first halves are called Al-Sodour, or the fronts, and the second halves are called Al-A''jaz, the backs. In a previous article I discussed the meaning of such a structure - the fact that the fronts have no meaning by themselves, but still are musically identical to the backs, allows them to act as reminders; once a person knows the first half of the line, the second half easily comes to mind.
Shinui holds the key
Editorial, Ha''aretz 5/17/2004
The lesson to be learned from the mass demonstration in Rabin Square on Saturday night is that a wide swath of the Israeli public is hoping for a change in our relationship with the Palestinians and does not accept Likud members'' decision to reject the disengagement plan. This message fits with Ariel Sharon''s stated intent to bring the plan, in a new guise that does not change its substance, to the cabinet for approval in another two to three weeks. The challenge facing the prime minister is to translate this intention into concrete political action that will achieve the goal stated in the plan: a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. The key to the chains that currently constrain Sharon''s political maneuvering ability are in the hands of Yosef (Tommy) Lapid. Shinui''s leader will be tested in the coming days on his determination to achieve his demand that Sharon and the Likud take immediate action either to implement the disengagement plan or to sponsor an alternative diplomatic move.
Today Rafah, tomorrow Jenin
By Gideon Levy, Ha''aretz 5/16/2004
It is easy to criticize the scenes in Rafah as inhumane Palestinian cruelty. But the hard truth is even harder to digest - what we are seeing is the inevitable result of years of abuse of a helpless population. The 13 soldiers who died in the Gaza Strip were not pointless victims because their sacrifice points the way to a withdrawal from the territory. Israel will prove yet again what it has known for a long time - the only language it really understands is the language of force. Withdrawals come only when so much blood is shed that the country''s majority is persuaded that the country has no choice but to pull out. But the public consensus which is now, very belatedly, materializing in favor of an immediate withdrawal from the Gaza Strip also breeds illusions. Withdrawal from Gaza will not solve anything between ourselves and the Palestinians. Such a partial pull out, done for the wrong reasons, will not reduce tensions. On the contrary, what happened last week in Gaza - a process which our commentators have called "Lebanization" - will spread very quickly to the rest of the territories. Only then, as in Lebanon, will we pull out. Lebanon in the past, and Gaza today, were and are struggles against Israel''s occupation by any means at the residents'' disposal. Rafah today is Jenin tomorrow.
Suspicious sanctions
By Brian Whitaker, The Guardian 5/17/2004
George Bush''s recent moves against Syria will play well at home but have little effect on President Assad''s regime -- President Bush finally got round to imposing sanctions on Syria last week, much to the delight of Israel. "This is an important decision that proves, once again, the resolve of the United States to wage all-out war - not just against terrorist groups, but also against the countries that harbour them," a statement from the Israeli foreign ministry said. Whatever the foreign ministry may think, the sanctions are scarcely "all-out war" and will probably harm the US more than they harm Syria. They are unlikely to have much impact on Damascus apart from making the regime dig its heels in - the opposite of what they are supposed to do. For the US, meanwhile, they will add further to its image problem, providing yet another example of double standards in foreign policy. They also conflict with one of the main principles of the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative, which argues that trade and economic development - rather than sanctions - should be used to promote democracy and to counter terrorism.
So what if they celebrate?
By Meir Bleich, Maariv 5/17/2004
Any withdrawal from occupied territory looks like a victory for the liberated people. The idea that we must first revenge our dead and restore our deterrent force is causing paralysis and bloodshed on both sides -- The 13 soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip last week did not cause 150,000 people to demonstrate in Rabin Square on Saturday night. The soldiers from the Givati Brigade did not die defending Gush Katif but they were in Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood and along the Philadelphi route because of the settlements. People in Rabin Square were demonstrating against the occupation and for withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and from all of the territories. The 150,000 demonstrators agreed with Yinon Ashkenazi, the father of the late Erez Ashkenazi a naval commando who was killed in Gaza, when he said that the 1,000 victims of the al-Aqsa intifada do not justify that we remain there. Quite the contrary, every day that we remain in the territories conquered in 1967 only pushes the conflict further towards the point of no-return. Therefore, we should make every effort to conclude an agreement that will make it possible for us to leave. Even though the polls show that most Israelis, including their prime minister, have already made their peace with the idea that Israel cannot continue to control the territories for an extended period of time, withdrawal is still not visible on the horizon. Many words will still be written about the long-term solution. However, we should consider the fact that with every passing year the abyss of hatred between the two peoples widens. On both sides of the Green Line, a generation that knows nothing but occupation and terrorism has matured. This awareness is not prescription for the success of diplomatic initiatives that require painful compromise on both sides, which means that there is neither a winner nor a loser.
The Legal Status of Palestinian POWs
By Issa Qaraqea, Jerusalem Times 5/13/2004
The treatment of Prisoners of War at times of war and peace has received extensive attention from experts in international humanitarian law, who have spared no effort to coin a binding humanitarian law that obligates the international community in its entirety. Since the issue of POWs has become an international affair due to its humanitarian dimension, it has consumed a great chunk of international humanitarian law, raising the need to inspect the place of Palestinian prisoners in laws and agreements concerning POWs in the shadow of the mistreatment the POWs endure in Israeli prisons. One of the motives for this investigation is the lack of legal protection by international law for Palestinian POWs.
A West Bank Town Tries To Protest The Wall Non-Violently
By Ben Lynfield, Palestine Monitor/Christian Science Monitor 5/6/2004
Biddu, West Bank - An all-women''s demonstration against Israel''s construction of a West Bank separation barrier was supposed to be a quiet, nonconfrontational affair. Israeli participant Molly Malekar says that she and Palestinian and foreign organizers ruled out male participation to ensure that Israeli security forces would not feel threatened. But the April 25 march of about 70 women who hoisted signs and sang was broken up by tear gas, stun grenades, and mounted police, says Ms. Malekar, the director of the Bat Shalom Israeli feminist peace group. One mounted policewoman clubbed her on the head with a baton. And in an assault that was photographed, another mounted policeman clubbed her on the back, Malekar recalls. "Later I understood that all the conventions we thought we had about demonstrations are not relevant anymore," says Malekar. "The security forces have crossed the red lines." Police say the women were engaged in a riot.
For the left, the future is now
By Lily Galili, Ha''aretz 5/14/2004
Ending a condolence call to actor Shlomo Vishinski yesterday, Shimon Peres sounded more resolute than he has been for years. "I''ve never felt as charged up as I do right now, when I see such potential stacked up against such tremendous dangers," Peres said. Once Peres'' own political hopes are separated from the equation, the opposition leader who has already celebrated his 80th birthday, expresses the mood now gripping the Israeli peace camp. This is an atmosphere of renewal, and hope. This week''s two catastrophes in the Gaza Strip added new life to the left. It seemed as though this is the season of the left''s resurgence. Feelings of irrelevance which have plagued the left over the last five years have suddenly been replaced by a sense that the peace camp has moved back to center stage - and the stage is to be set up at Rabin Square, tomorrow night. "We''re going to the square not as representatives of the left, but as delegates of all of Israel, apart from the settlers," a young leftist stated. "That''s the main message that I hope will be sent out by this rally."
Sharon''s victory may end up provoking his worst nightmare
By Mustafa Barghouthi, Daily Star 5/14/2004
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon''s Likud Party rejected his Gaza disengagement plan, but Sharon is unlikely to let this temporary setback stop him. The Likud vote will impose modifications on his plan, but ever since he returned, starry eyed, from Washington last month, the prime minister has been fixated on disengagement as the first step toward final victory. As Sharon stood at the White House listening to President George W. Bush''s declaration of support, he swelled with pleasure. At a stroke, Bush swept aside decades of US diplomacy, all international laws forbidding the acquisition of land by conquest, and numerous UN resolutions regarding the rights of Palestinian refugees and the illegal status of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. As the international community, and particularly the Arab world, gasped in horror at what Bush had done, Sharon gloated at the potential realization of a life-long ambition.... .....Yet in the years to come, Sharon may find that this moment of imagined triumph in fact marked the day when his worst nightmare would come true. Bush''s statement may have provoked a fundamental shift in the strategy of the Palestinian struggle. By denying the Palestinians all hope of a viable and free homeland, Sharon may have ensured they would have no choice but to push for a single binational democratic state.
Report: ''Let Them Suffocate''
By Arab Association for Human, Electronic Intifada 5/14/2004
''LET THEM SUFFOCATE'': POLICE BRUTALITY DURING HOUSE DEMOLITION IN UPPER GALILEE VILLAGE OF AL-BEA''NEH, FEBRUARY 25, 2004 -- This report examines in detail the behavior of the Israeli police in the enforcement of house demolitions in the Arab village of al-Bea''neh in the Upper Galilee on February 25, 2004. The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) based in Nazareth recognizes that house demolitions inside the state of Israel are a government policy directed almost entirely against the country''s Palestinian Arab citizens, who are both deprived of land on which to build homes and face grossly unfair obstacles to gaining permits to build on land they do own. The HRA harshly criticizes Israel''s policy of systematically denying the Palestinian Arab minority citizens, which make up approximately 20% of the whole population, their basic human rights to an adequate standard of housing and living and the right to integrity of the private sphere. In particular the HRA condemns the manner in which these demolition operations are carried out.
From Unilateralism to Multilateralism: Suggestions to Rescue Middle East Peace
By Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Arabic Media Internet Network 5/12/2004
In one fell blow, US President George W. Bush, having carried out a revolutionary reversal in American policy towards the Middle East, “succeeded” in subverting not only the road map, but any prospects for peace in the region. By lending legitimacy to the Israeli occupation’s lawlessness and violations of international law, the US has ultimately negated UN resolutions, including 194, 242, 338, 1397, international humanitarian law, and all other legal foundations on which a viable and just peace must be based. By fully accommodating Sharon and his extremist government, the US is preempting and negatively prejudging permanent status issues—primarily boundaries, settlements, Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and water rights. Furthermore, President Bush has become complicit with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon in completely excluding the Palestinians as partners in negotiations that determine their future. Ironically, Bush thereby gave himself license not only to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians, but also to compromise and relinquish their inalienable rights.
Gaza Disengagement Plan: An Economic Viewpoint
By Dr. Mohammed El-Samhouri, Miftah 5/12/2004
Sharon’s unilateral “disengagement" plan from Gaza does not seem to bode well for the future of the economy of the Gaza Strip. A careful reflection on the economic ramifications of what the plan has to offer will lead to this unfortunate outcome. According to the plan, and apart from evacuating the settlements in Gaza, Israel will continue to maintain full control of the border, airspace, and coastline envelope of the Gaza Strip. All border crossings connecting Gaza with Israel and Egypt, and through them with the outside world, will remain under Israel’s tight grip. No airport, no seaport. The existing system of tight restrictions on the movements of Palestinian goods and people which has notoriously defined much of the post-Oslo era will remain intact. Furthermore, the same flawed Paris protocol that has governed economic relations with Israel since April 1994 will continue to apply. In fact, nothing under this unilateral disengagement plan will lessen the economic dominance of Israel over Gaza.
Either Israelis or settlers
By Ari Shavit, Ha''aretz 5/13/2004
Ten days after the Likud''s disengagement referendum, one gets the impression that the settlers have not yet fathomed the tragedy they brought down on themselves with their victory. All too pleased with themselves, their delegates in the Knesset building behave as if they owned the place. Drunk with power, their proxies sit in Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv''s Metzudat Ze''ev as masters of all they survey. They''re enjoying their fresh achievement to the hilt, and the knowledge that their power has never been greater. Never before have they had such a stranglehold on the neck of the government. At first glance, the settlers have it right: they revolted against the prime minister, and succeeded. They provoked President Bush, and survived. They conspired against the Israeli majority, and escaped unpunished. Middle-of-the-road Israelis accepted the violent act perpetrated against them with a bizarre equanimity. Nevertheless, if truth be told, the settlers are mistaken. Bitterly mistaken. The prime minister will not forget; President Bush will not forget. Neither the rancher from the Western Negev or the rancher from South Texas are the sort of people who submissively wipe such spit off their faces. But what is even more serious from the settlers'' point of view is that the Israeli majority on which the settlers'' fantasies were imposed last week, now understands exactly who they are dealing with. The majority understands that the relationship between it and the minority tyrannizing it is one of ruler and subject.
The State Comptroller Report for 2003: House Demolitions in the West Bank
By Meir Margalit, Electronic Intifada/ICAHD 5/13/2004
The State Comptroller Report for 2003, published recently, exposes a harsh phenomenon that we have known about for a long time and has now received the validation of the highest authority in the country: The funding of illegal building and construction in the West Bank. According to the report, between the beginning of the year 2000 and June 2003, the Housing and Construction Ministry funded construction and development projects in 33 places in the West Bank. This was done in violation of the Planning and Construction Law due either to a lack of government authorization, a lack of up-to-date planning programs or reasons related to property ownership. The funding amounts to NIS 29.7 million. Of the 33 places which received funding, 18 are not included within the boundary of any Jewish settlement. In addition, the Housing and Construction Ministry funded the setting-up of infrastructure in places where the Civil Administration had already issued demolishing orders.
The poor pay the price
By Yael Paz-Melamed, Maariv 5/13/2004
The results of the referendum prove once again well-known connection between poverty and nationalism, with most of the country’s poor supporting hard line positions. -- "What will be"? That''s the question Moshe asks me at the entrance to the old city of Acre, and it''s impossible not to understand the desperation in his voice. Coincidentally, our conversation hints that I''m not the first person he asks for answers to his forlorn situation and to his even more forlorn city, Acre. He''s been unemployed for a year and a half already, his handicapped wife receives a stipend from the National Insurance, which barely covers a week of their living expenses. He has four kids, three of whom are still in school, but sometimes they go to school without books and notebooks because there''s no money. It doesn''t matter, not to the Acre municipality and not even to the State. Moshe and his family, it can be assumed, are part of a growing population of families below the poverty line. According to a report from National Insurance, there are 340,000 families, which is about a million people. Our conversation gets a little heated, and I''m feeling a little restrained to ask him about his political position. Moshe is one of 200,000 members of the Likud party, and is one of those who voted in the disengagement referendum. "Of course I''m against disengagement. What, we''ll run away like mice? Those poor settlers. They want to take them out of their homes".
Look to Gaza to escape from the embarrassment in Iraq
By Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star 5/12/2004
If the United States wants to pull itself out of the mess in Iraq and the particularly uncomfortable stain of some of its troops'' degrading treatment of Iraqi prisoners, it would do well to look to Gaza, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general. Palestine and Iraq may be two very different issues for Washington, but Arabs - and most of the rest of the world, I think - see these as two sides of the single problem of American policy in the Middle East. With Washington''s credibility throughout most of the Middle East at rock bottom, American officials speak less often these days about promoting Arab democracy or mediating to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Their words simply carry much less force today than they did months or years ago.
The Logic of Occupation
By Jaffer Ali, Media Monitors Network 5/11/2004
"Occupation has its own logic. Strike...counter-strike. The rubbish of winning the "hearts and minds" never changes. Initially occupiers like to think of themselves as morally superior. Why not? Having superior weaponry confers arrogance. Whoever has the bigger gun is more powerful." -- The deluge of coverage of the prisoner abuse scandal is rather puzzling. Everyone seems to be acting like Claude Rains in Casablanca. You might recall he was disingenuously "shocked" that gambling was taking place at Rick''s casino. Soon after declaring this shock and shutting down the casino, a croupier slipped him his winnings. The shock over torturing Iraqi prisoners is all a show. How many people reading this BELIEVE that torturing Iraqis is new? How many people believe that this was just an isolated incident of six wayward soldiers who had not been trained properly? There are twenty open cases of systematic torture under investigation that we know of right now. But this is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Americans are coming face-to-face with what occupation means. Succinctly put; occupation destroys the moral fiber of both the occupied and occupier.
Terrorists, seven times
Ha''aretz 5/12/2004
On May 2, policemen from the Nachshon unit of the Prison Services severely beat six Palestinian detainees who were brought from the Russian Compound to the military courtroom at Ofer for the commencement of their trial. The policemen beat the men in front of their families, lawyers and a few officers of the court (including the military prosecutor and the translator). The Prison Services told Haaretz that "fighters of the Nachshon Unit [of the Prison Services, who are in charge of the terrorists, the security detainees in the military prisons] overcame six terrorists who started to riot - and who tried to make (physical) contact with members of their families, and this is contrary to the Prison Services'' standing orders and regulations." Eyewitnesses confirmed that the detainees tried to speak with their families. But they denied the prisoners "became unruly" and that they tried, or could, make any physical contact with their families who were sitting on the back benches, separated from their sons by soldiers....
Analysis / A victory for Hamas
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 5/12/2004
Displays of body parts are not unusual in the Palestinian street. Every time Israel killed a wanted man in Gaza with a missile, and sometimes in the West Bank as well, hundreds of young men would crowd around the ruined car, remove parts of the dead man''s body and display them to the crowd. That is what happened when Israel killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whose body was completely dismembered with the parts having to be buried in plastic bags. The Palestinian media, and the Arab media in general, often show pictures of this nature, and newspapers in the territories often publish pictures of dead bodies, Palestinian and Israeli alike. A senior source in Gaza said last night that negotiations over the return of the soldiers'' body parts to Israel are expected to be very difficult, as they are held by several different organizations. "Every clan in Gaza has something," he said.
Another plan, another insult, another failure
By Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi, Media Monitors Network 5/11/2004
For the last few years, Middle East peace initiatives have become somewhat fashionable. Unfortunately, so have their shortcomings. Almost all have failed to realise, or even recognise, the human, legal and political rights of the Palestinian people, who are victims of the longest military occupation in modern history, and who constitute the largest, most enduring refugee population in the world. Coming hot on the heels of the disastrous "disengagement" plan, the latest proposal - drawn up by Israel''s National Security Council chief Major General Giora Eiland, and reported by the country''s top-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot as having the approval of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - is further evidence that the mistakes of the past are still trendy. Interestingly, however, this plan not only short-changes the Palestinians, but also the Egyptians.
Silence in the court
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 5/9/2004
Palestinian detainees who tried to greet their families in a military courtroom were set upon and beaten by police guards, their lawyers say. Here is their testimony The lawyers who were sitting in the waiting room at the Military Court at the Ofer Israel Defense Forces base, southwest of Ramallah, suddenly heard a scream. This was on Sunday, May 2, at around 1 P.M. They ran out. "I saw a heap of policeman, maybe eight or 10 of them, flailing and flailing, and I could see some heads, legs, arms of the beaten detainees, maybe three of them, or four, who were lying on the floor. The lawyers shouted `Why? Why? Why?'' and the police officer in charge shouted, `Guys, guys, get all the lawyers out of here,'' related attorney Khaled Kuzmar of Ramallah. ..."...One of the detainees - I don''t know his name - was talking to his family, to his mother. He was standing there and speaking from a distance. A policeman (prison service official) said to the detainee: `Don''t talk. Sit down. I decide what happens here,'' and they began to argue. The policeman sat him down forcibly, pushed him down onto the bench. After he pushed him, the detainee stood up again. The other detainees stood up to tell him to let him talk to his family and then about 10 policemen came in. They attacked the people and a whole mess broke out..."
Palestinian Refugees and the Sudetenland Germans
By Victor Kattan, YellowTimes.org 5/9/2004
On 1 May 2004, 10 new countries joined the European Union. This means another 75 million people have joined the club, bringing the E.U.''s total population to 450 million. Already the Israeli press is claiming this as a victory in their propaganda war against the "Arab enemy." They believe the new accession countries understand Israel''s concerns due to a common history of "terror." The headlines last weekend in Israel were: "From Prague with Love" by Lior Kodner and "Europe and the Right of Return" by Amnon Rubinstein, both in Ha''aretz newspaper (30 April 2004). The essence of their argument is that the Palestinian refugees have no right of return to their homes because they are "terrorists." Further justification for this position can be found in the words of Professor Benny Morris of Ben Gurion University in his interview "Survival of the Fittest" with Ari Shavit in Ha''artez. Such nonsense, however, is not only confined to that paper. In a supplement on Palestinian refugees in another Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, it is stated: "[T]here is a parallel between the German Sudets and the Palestinian refugees -- except that the latter refuse to accept the universal code that aggressors must pay for their acts." Effectively, it is arguing that Palestinian refugees deserve to be treated just like the Nazis and their supporters after the Second World War.
Disengaging Sharon
By Yacov Ben Efrat, Electronic Intifada/Challenge 5/11/2004
Most Israelis consider it pointless to keep settlements in Gaza, where 7,500 of their countrymen live beside 1.3 million mostly impoverished Palestinians. In recent opinion polls, 56% or more of Israeli Jews backed the disconnection plan of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, calling for the evacuation of all 21 Gazan settlements plus four in the West Bank. It foundered, however.... ...Sharon regarded Bush''s letter as a decisive answer to his opponents, as well as "the harshest blow to fall on the Palestinians since 1948." (Knesset speech, April 22.) Thus he tried to package his plan in a right-wing wrapper, to which he added the assassinations of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi. In this, however, Sharon committed the same mistake as previous Israeli leaders. One cannot defeat the right wing on its own ground.
The Israeli Torture Template
By Wayne Madsen, CounterPunch 5/10/2004
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks -- With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad''s Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters worse." According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel itself.
Suicide bombers driven more by politics than religious fundamentalism
By Riaz Hassan, Electronic Intifada 5/7/2004
ELIMINATING, LESSENING GRIEVANCES BEST WAY TO ADDRESS ATTACKS -- ADELAIDE, Australia -- At a time when the Western world worries about weapons of mass destruction in terrorist hands, a more basic device has emerged as the weapon of choice - a life itself. This use of life as a weapon - now exercised mainly by Islamic youths - is frequently presented as the manifestation of Islamic fanaticism. But studies by serious scholars and recent surveys show that the spate of suicide attacks in the Middle East is linked more to politics than to religion. Data shows that the incidence of suicide attacks has increased from 31 in the 1980s to 98 in 2003 alone. The war in Iraq and escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have led to such an increase. Also, US foreign policy may be contributing to an acceleration of this trend.
Letter to Bush informs of P10K intent to bring 10,000 Western citizens to Palestine
By Ken O''Keefe, Electronic Intifada/P10K 5/7/2004
Aloha George, It is my great honour to inform you of the P10K Force; a true peace keeping force without weapons, which has been created in order to fill the void left by inept and/or corrupt nation/state governments and the United Nations (UN). As you are surely aware, numerous public and legal requests by the Palestinian people through their democratically elected leaders in accordance with established legal channels have been made for an International Peacekeeping Force and/or International Observers to mobilize in Palestine in order to protect them against ongoing loss of life inflicted by the occupying power, Israel. These requests have been made due to conclusively documented human rights violations, including legitimate claims of mass murder in Jenin and other locations within the occupied territories that remain uninvestigated at Israel''s (the accused party''s) insistence. Despite these repeated requests, no satisfying action has been taken by western governments nor the UN, atrocities continue to be alleged and it is this inaction which has necessitated the formation of the P10K Force.
They shouldn''t probe themselves
Editorial, Ha''aretz 5/11/2004
The prosecution today is apparently going to drop all charges in the Nazareth District Court against three Israeli Arabs - Yusuf Sabih, Sharif Eid and Tarek Nujeidat, of Kafr Kana - who were indicted for the murder of IDF soldier Oleg Shaichat last year. The prosecution decided to indict the three on the basis of recommendations from the Northern Police District and against the position of the Shin Bet, which interrogated the accused, but doubted the credibility of a confession and crime reenactment made by one of the defendants. Three months ago, Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut ruled the three could be held by police until the end of the legal proceedings against them. She based her ruling on statements made by Nujeidat during the reenactment, and on what she called "a detailed and orderly version of the events in which he incriminated himself and his friends." Fortunately, three weeks ago, other suspects in the Shaichat case were arrested. If the trial of the three had ended in conviction, it would have become another case in which defendants were convicted of murder based on confessions made after the application of inappropriate methods.
The Wall Revisited
By Karen Nakamura, Coastal Post 5/6/2004
The International Court of Justice in The Hague is deliberating a lawsuit brought by Palestine against Israel over its building of a security fence/barrier/wall in the West Bank. Israel claims the barrier is necessary to ward off suicide bombers. The Palestinians responded that if Israel thinks it needs a fence, it can build it on the Israeli side of the Green Line, the 1967 border between Palestine and Israel. Palestine claims its territory is being confiscated in incremental pieces. Israel says it conquered Palestine in the ''67 war and can do as it pleases. Civil rights activists worldwide are appalled by Israel''s occupation of Palestine and its current building of The Wall. To these people, the security barrier harks back to atrocities committed against Jews during World War II and symbolizes the imprisonment and subjugation of an entire people. It goes to the terrible incongruity of seeing Jews carrying out the same abominations against others that they suffered so devastatingly in W.W.II. It''s extremely important to remember that the brutal repression by the Sharon administration and the Israelis'' silent acquiescence are what are fueling the so-called "rising tide of anti-Semitism," not hatred towards our dear Jewish friends and beloved neighbors. Many of them have joined us in our abhorrence.
Not for the faint-hearted
By Aviv Lavie, Ha''aretz 5/5/2004
After Lev Grinberg finished reading all 241 responses on the Maariv Web site - the vast majority of which described him as a hater of Israel and generally told him to go to hell, he said, "This is a lesson in the sociology of what''s happening here, I''m telling you. The best lesson I''ve had." Grinberg knows what he''s talking about: A lecturer in political sociology at Ben-Gurion University, for the past few weeks he has been at the center of a storm that is giving him a chance to draw several conclusions about Israeli society''s current psychological state. Ever since this (distorted) headline appeared in Maariv: "Israeli lecturer in Belgium: The state is perpetrating genocide," the education minister has been boycotting the university on his account, various Web sites have been rumbling with threats and prominent people have dubbed his views as "lunatic." On Independence Day, Grinberg - as befitting a true member of the Argentinean immigrant community - celebrated with an asado barbecue with friends in the garden of his Jerusalem home.
Flagging symbols
By Azmi Bishara, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/7/2004
Torture is about physical subjugation; but then so is occupation, writes Azmi Bishara. The two go hand -- Just as we were contemplating a new flag, fashioned with digital graphics and with no reference to a history or a people, we heard news about torture. The news had to come from America, or it wouldn''t be news. The flag is just a piece of coloured cloth. But in the mysterious lore of patriotism and statehood it is the standard of the people, of the warden and the prisoner, of the master and lackeys. We all experienced flags as children, shivering in the schoolyard during our daily salute; as adults, in the army, or when spitting on the flag in whose name attrocious crimes are perpetrated. We have a love-hate relation with flags, an intense relationship that brings people together. Yet, there will always be those who scoff at the idea of the flag. Flags do not change with coups unless to signify a new historical epoch. Tampering with symbols brings psychological disturbance in its wake, calling into question the legitimacy of the entity for which they are supposed to stand. Coups have taken place in Iraq without a change in flag, or at least its colours. There is something to be gleaned from this, even if understood in the language of symbols that is so repulsive to those who have smashed idols and condemned fetishism on their way to enlightenment. There is a long- standing popular acknowledgment that certain colours are associated with the fertile crescent. Blue is not one of them.
Yes to a ''Greater Middle East,'' but one that is our own
By Hazem Saghieh, Daily Star 5/7/2004
An old joke talks about two folk characters, a Turk and an Iranian, known for their extravagant exaggeration. The Turk tells the Iranian that the Turkish Sultan Abdul-Hamid had started building a palace 20 years earlier, and that a nail that fell from the builder''s hand when work started is still on its way to the ground. The Iranian responds that the shah planted a cabbage which grew and expanded and pushed northward toward Russia, then to Europe, crossed the Atlantic to America, then to Japan and the rest of Asia. At this point, the Turk makes a gesture indicating the Iranian is exaggerating, to which the Iranian responds that the cabbage has reached Turkey, and that unless he lets the nail reach the ground, he will stuff the cabbage down Abdul Hamid''s throat. Current talk about the "Greater Middle East Initiative" reminds one of this joke, for we do not need exceptional intelligence to realize that anyone who fails to establish a smaller Palestine cannot possibly succeed in building a greater Middle East. Furthermore, how can we believe that the current US administration intends for Arabs to become democratic at a time when it does not share the global will to cleanse the environment, rid the world of land mines, establish an international criminal court, and accommodate millions of poor African farmers because it insists on supporting its own agricultural monopolies?
Resistance lives on
By Omayma Abdel-Latif, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/7/2004
Hizbullah remains an iconic resistance movement -- Haret Hureek -- or simply Al-Hara (the alleyway) as it is commonly known -- in the southern suburb of Beirut is the heartland of Lebanon''s Shias. The space here is covered in symbols, banners and images of Hizbullah leaders past and present. There are murals invoking historic events such as Karbala and Ashoura, as well as pictures of iconic figures such as Imam Musa Al- Sadr, Abbas Al-Musawi and Hizbullah''s current Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Pictures of the movement''s martyrs hang from every lamppost. While the images speak volumes about Hizbullah''s standing in the Lebanese politics and society of today, the movement''s sphere of influence also stretches far beyond the Lebanese borders. In the eyes of most Arabs, Hizbullah remains the symbol of resistance movements in the region, since this is the only movement which managed to expel Israel from occupied Arab territory.
Letters and parameters
By Abdel-Moneim Said, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 5/7/2004
US officials scramble to convince leaders and peoples that nothing has changed in Washington''s stance towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. Their claims won''t wash -- It has been claimed by the US administration that the letter given by President Bush to Prime Minister Sharon does not depart from previous American policies towards the Middle East conflict. Steven Hadley and Elliot Abrams, in the name of the White House, insisted that President Bush''s statements "do not mark a major shift in US policy". More recently, the respected Israeli Policy Forum published a paper by Steve Spiegel and the Forum''s staff claiming "the Clinton parameters of 2001 and the Bush letter of 2004 do not, in any substantial way, contradict each other." I beg to differ. President Bush''s letter departs irrevocably from traditional US policy regarding the Middle East conflict and will cause damage to the cause of peace in the region.
And Then There Was One
By Gideon Levy, Miftah/Ha''aretz 5/6/2004
Athidel and Mazan Azuka had three sons. Osama was killed three years ago, at the age of 13. Mohammed was killed two weeks ago, after taking a high-school exam in English. Only Marwan is left On the way back from Jenin we heard about the killing of the mother and four daughters of the Hatuel family, from Gush Katif. Athidel and Mazan Azuka have lost two sons, and their killings are not considered criminal acts of murder. Mazan, a grocer, and his wife, Athidel, had three sons, and now only one is left. Osama was killed by soldiers during a demonstration as he walked with his father and his older brother, Mohammed. Mohammed was shot during an assassination operation two weeks ago. He was a high-school student, a passerby, who was on his way from an examination to sign up for a trip, when soldiers shot him in the head, about half an hour after liquidating the people they were after. There are times when anyone walking the streets of Jenin is marked for death, because of the war against terrorism.
The danger at home
Editorial, Ha''aretz 5/5/2004
The results of the Likud''s referendum on the disengagement plan sent shock waves throughout broad segments of the public. Once again it became evident that the settlers set the agenda for the State of Israel. While they are a small minority, they are highly motivated, well organized with a firm ideology and enormous financial resources - some directly from government ministries - and driven with a messianic passion and readiness for sacrifice, including life. Nothing stands up against them. There is no parliament or extra-parliamentary movement that forms a counter-balance to the settlers. Peace Now, which used to turn out hundreds of thousands to demonstrations in favor of the peace process, has grown tired and evaporated. And all this happened when a majority of the public actually favors a withdrawal from Gaza and supports reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians, even if it means far-reaching concessions.
Biddu: The struggle against the Wall
By Tanya Reinhart, Electronic Intifada 5/6/2004
Biddu is a beautiful Palestinian village, surrounded with vines and fruit orchards, a few miles to the east of the Israeli border of 1967. In the last couple of months, the village, that has lived in peace with its Israeli neighbors even during the present Intifada, has become yet another symbol in the history of Israel/Palestine. The misfortune of this village is that its lands, as well as the lands of the other small Palestinian villages nearby, border the "Jerusalem corridor" - a sequence of Israeli neighborhoods to the North of Jerusalem. Israeli control of this land would enable territorial continuity "clean of Palestinians" from this corridor to the settlement of Givat Zeev, built deep inside the occupied West Bank, close to Ramallah. In the massive annexation project of Sharon and the Israeli army, this is the kind of land one "does not give up". For this reason, Israel is imprisoning the villagers inside a wall, and is grabbing their land. Biddu, and the ten villages around it, are allowed only one option - to sit quietly and watch as the fruit orchards that they have nourished from one generation to another, turn into the real-estate reserves of the Jerusalem corridor.
Beginning of the end of Likud rule
By Gideon Samet, Ha''aretz 5/5/2004
There''s a long list of mistakes Prime Minister Sharon made on the road to defeat in the Likud referendum. And there is one positive outcome - unintentionally, Sharon has clarified what kind of disengagement has taken place between the will of his party and the will of most Israelis. That may be the only revolution he has managed in the three years he has been in office. That important fact in the political landscape can also be seen without the mistakes of the referendum. But the drama of the challenge was necessary to make it stand out with such theatrical sharpness. The importance of the Likud rank and file''s tardiness - the spirit of the times - goes far beyond the realm of once isolated political incident. It means the ruling party has ceased being what it pretended in the last three decades since it first won office in 1977. In the political folklore of the era, the Likud was regarded as a movement reflecting the people. Labor was the one in arrears, except for a brief period of glory under Rabin. People kept disparagingly calling it "the Alignment."
Sharon''s Plan: A Shift from Occupation to Siege
Electronic Intifada 5/6/2004
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claims that his pullout from Gaza will end Israel''s responsibility for the Palestinian population. However, Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out that under international law the besieging power has the same responsibilities for the population it is besieging as an occupying power has for a population living under occupation. Bennis spoke at the Palestine Center on Monday April 26th, having just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Bennis noted that all the evidence is that Palestinians will remain under siege in the event of an Israeli pullout. Israel would retain control over what it calls the "Gaza envelope." This means that although settlers would leave the Strip, Israel would control the airspace, coastline, border with Egypt and every point of interaction between Gaza and the outer world. Bennis made the point that withdrawing the settlers from Gaza is not itself a great difficulty. Most of them are not fundamentalists motivated by messianic visions such as those who have settled in the West Bank. They are rather economic opportunists taking advantage of the subsidized housing and other incentives for settlement. Furthermore, there are only about 7,000 settlers, and almost four times that many soldiers are required to protect them.
The bypass that failed
By Ze''ev Sternhell, Ha''aretz 5/6/2004
It''s a bit strange to keep hearing the contention that a tiny minority has decided and is dictating national policy. People who see things in this way grasp democracy in its most naive meaning. Indeed, well-organized and determined minorities have a head-start over their adversaries. That advantage is a fact and, it has to be said, it also partakes of a certain kind of justice. The overriding fact of political life is that it is a struggle for power: People who can''t stand the heat should keep out of the kitchen and not complain that an organized minority, representing 3 percent of the population, pulled the rug from under its feet. Anyone who was still in need of proof, got it. There are no bypasses in history. What was right and essential before 1949 is today a disaster for which the Israeli society will pay the price for many years to come. However, the settlement enterprise is the only organized political-social force in the country. The ideological settler sees history as being guided by divine providence and demonstrates readiness for sacrifice without limit.
The Golem Turns on his Creator
By Uri Avnery, Miftah 5/4/2004
In Jewish legend, the Golem was a man-made creature endowed with enormous strength. Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, also know as the Maharal, created him of clay and gave him life by putting a piece of paper with the secret name of God under his tongue. The Golem helped the Jews defend themselves against anti-Semitic rioters, but one day he turned against his creator. He sowed ruin and destruction, until, at the last moment, the rabbi succeeded in extracting the piece of paper from his mouth. The Golem turned back into a heap of clay. Ariel Sharon is not a rabbi and the Kabbalah is a closed book to him. But he has created a Golem: the settlement movement in the occupied territories.
Sharon is now eyeless, thanks to Gaza
By Barak Barfi, Daily Star 5/4/2004
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon submitted his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip to his Likud Party for approval. He lost. The choices now before him are stark. Israelis from several camps had expressed deep skepticism about the plan. Critics charged it was Sharon''s latest ploy to stall negotiations with the Palestinians and deflect attention from the scandals hounding him. Others felt a withdrawal entailing dismantling communities in Gaza would undermine the settler movement. With his popularity plummeting to all-time lows and nothing to show for three years in office, Sharon was desperate for a tangible achievement. His Gaza withdrawal plan looked promising enough in desperate times to draw the approval of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but domestic Israeli politics may doom the initiative. The first shoe fell with the Likud referendum. Will the second - namely abandonment of the plan altogether - necessarily follow?
Post-war Lebanon: Between the devil and the deep blue sea
By Paul Salem, Daily Star 4/30/2004
Lebanon in Limbo: Post-War Society and State in an Uncertain Regional Environment, Ed. Nawaf Salam and Theodor Hanf. -- Where does Lebanon stand today, 14 years after the end of its long civil war, 60 years after independence and almost 80 years after its constitution was set up? Is Lebanon a s |
