The Israeli Policy of Assassinating Truth…Eight Journalists Killed and 304 Wounded During Al-Aqsa Intifada
International Press Center (Palestinian National Authority) 10/1/2003
Since the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada on September 28, 2000, journalists have played a vital role on the international, regional and local levels, through documenting and uncovering the Israeli crimes- against the Palestinian people- to the whole world. Palestinian journalists have proved, through their professionalism and rare bravery, that they're capable of going above and beyond the call of duty, the thing that irritated the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and made them target those journalists.
In light of the competition of the IT [information technology] the world's going through, it was impossible for the Israeli government to stop the flow of information and news through the different channels of media, which gave it no choice but to target the journalists themselves.
Targeting Journalists: As the Intifada enters its fourth year, the number of journalists killed by the occupation forces reached eight, the last of which was James Miller, a British cameraman working for Home Box Office (HBO), who was murdered by the occupation forces on May 3, 2003 in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, of while covering the destruction Palestinian houses there by Israeli bulldozers.
Another cameraman, Nazih Darwazeh, working for Palestine TV, faced the same fate as Miller, as he was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Nablus on April 19, 2003 despite being in close proximity to the soldier which allowed Darwazeh to inform the soldier of his journalist identity minutes before he was murdered.
Dignity, Solidarity and the Penal Colony
By Edward Said, Palestine Media Center 10/1/2003
[An Excerpt from The Politics of Anti-Semitism, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair] -- Aside from the obvious physical discomforts, being ill for a long period of time fills the spirit with a terrible feeling of helplessness, but also with periods of analytic lucidity, which, of course, must be treasured. For the past three months now I have been in and out of the hospital, with days marked by lengthy and painful treatments, blood transfusions, endless tests, hours and hours of unproductive time spent staring at the ceiling, draining fatigue and infection, inability to do normal work, and thinking, thinking, thinking.
But there are also the intermittent passages of lucidity and reflection that sometimes give the mind a perspective on daily life that allows it to see things (without being able to do much about them) from a different perspective. Reading the news from Palestine and seeing the frightful images of death and destruction on television, it has been my experience to be utterly amazed and aghast at what I have deduced from those details about Israeli government policy, more particularly about what has been going on in the mind of Ariel Sharon. And when, after the recent Gaza bombing by one of his F-16s in which nine children were massacred, he was quoted as congratulating the pilot and boasting of a great Israeli success, I was able to form a much clearer idea than before of what a pathologically deranged mind is capable of, not only in terms of what it plans and orders but, worse, how it manages to persuade other minds to think in the same delusional and criminal way. Getting inside the official Israeli mind is a worthwhile, if lurid, experience.
Our own ticking bomb
By Gideon Samet, Ha'aretz 10/1/2003
....The Israeli leadership has succeeded in persuading a majority that there is no good reason to make any diplomatic effort to extricate this country from crisis. Over the years, this majority, who believes that the Palestinian leadership is solely responsible for our national crisis, has grown only larger. It allowed the "what's the use?" argument to become the primary tool for quashing criticism of the local leadership. When the 27 pilots announced their refusal to follow orders, the spearhead of the counterattack - which ran the gamut from dismissive scowls to charges of treason - was of course that their act entirely disregarded the necessity to teach the Arabs a lesson, without any flinching. The more than 800 Israeli dead were enlisted once more to serve as defense counsel for the incompetence of the government, which says that had it not taken the actions that so infuriated the pilots, there would have been more dead.
In so acting, Israel is now in the throes of reenacting some of the most dismal chapters of its history, raising from the thousands of graves of the Yom Kippur War, as in an act of necromancy, the accursed pattern of a failed - yet widely agreed-upon - national viewpoint. In the case of the pilots, the present conception, like its predecessor, denies the considerations of individuals and groups opposed to the totality of a malfunctioning Israeli road to peace and security. Sub-viewpoints that stem from this road are sanctified. First and foremost is, "We tried everything ... We offered them everything" but it didn't work. Sharon isn't the only one thus deceiving his voters. The man he beat, Ehud Barak, made a sizable contribution to popularizing the theory that "We have no choice, we have no one to talk to."
A Barrier to Peace
By Baha Abushaqra and Barbara Bakewell, Palestine Chronicle 10/1/2003
"The sad reality is that Israel is not a safe haven for Jews, and the barrier will not change this. Only a mutual peace agreement based on respect of international law and conventions is the guarantee of security and peace .." -- It is ironic, as an Israeli Jewish friend noted, that Israel is the place where Jews feel the least safe. Will Israel's "security fence" change this?
Israel began constructing the barrier in June 2002 to separate Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, creating new "realities" on the ground -- very disconcerting ones. This barrier, comprised of concrete wall, electric fences, razor wire, trenches and security patrols and whose cost is expected to exceed $1 billion, is being widely criticized.
Israel's idea is, by barricading the West Bank, like Gaza, Israel would be safer. Never mind that Gaza's "security fence" seems incapable of stopping even Hamas' homemade Qassam missiles. Israel's security fence and other security measures, such as "preemptive strikes" and "preventive detentions" has turned Gaza, a city much revered in Jewish tradition, into a forbidden land for Jews, lest they be targeted for vengeance.
Widely ignored by mainstream media is the tragedy the barricading of Gaza is inflicting on the "contained" Palestinians. UNSCO notes that "loss of income as a result of closures and restrictions far exceeds anything that the international aid community can provide." Consequently, the poverty level in Gaza is now at 70% (and 55% in the West Bank), based on two dollars or less consumption per day. One report concludes that "13% of children in Gaza exhibit moderate to severe acute malnutrition and 18% exhibit chronic malnourishment" putting them "on par with children in countries such as Nigeria and Chad."
If the military prosecutor says so, it must be so
Ha'aretz 10/1/2003
Attorneys from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and B'Tselem investigators are unable to think of a court ruling which stated expressly that separations between two legal systems in the territories is legally valid. -- Deliberately or not, it's a military prosecutor who has underscored that a new Israel Defense Forces draft refusal affair is founded upon a substantive, normative debate. Captain Yaron Kostilitz, the military court prosecutor in a trial of six draft resisters, said the following on September 18 in his cross examination of Hagi Matar:
"You and your associates have for hours forwarded foolish claims, and submitted a deceitful, defamatory indictment of IDF activities; the sad thing is that not only has the Supreme Court of Israel never said that activities undertaken each day by the army are illegal, but it has also affirmed that these actions are entirely legal, and adhere to laws of the state and of the international arena."
Kostilitz summed up his understanding of what the Supreme Court has in recent years authorized:
"The Supreme Court examines IDF activities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and rules that they are legal. The Supreme Court has determined that it is permissible to demolish houses in which terrorists lived, that an army commander [in the territories] is obligated to protect the welfare of settlers, that the code of law which applies to Jewish residents in these areas differs from the law of other [Palestinian] residents...The Supreme Court has authorized the use of selective assassinations...and the uprooting and pruning of olive trees in order to prevent terror attacks...The Supreme Court has found that administrative arrests are legal; the Supreme Court has determined that the IDF acts in accordance with international laws which relate to warfare and the occupation of territories."
Where Does Hope Come From?
By Hazem Saghieh, Al-Hayat 10/1/2003
The Palestinian cause has never been further from establishing a state than it is now, three years after the Intifada. Israel's security has never been more fragile and loose than it is now, three years after the counter-Intifada sponsored by the ruling Likud and a clique of settlers.
The lesson, which the 'Intifadists' from both sides don't care for is: either they lose together, as is the case now, or they win together.
With Sharon, comes Ahmad Yassin, and vice-versa, and the catastrophe befalls everyone. With settlements, come suicide operations, and vice-versa, and disaster hits everyone.
This is not lecturing. It is a description of the obvious that we are discovering, day after day, corpse after corpse, since three years. Declaring this simple fact is the only narrow space left to the mind and the conscience at the same time, away from the overwhelming incitement, mobilization and agitation. The equation that says that harming the other is a delayed harm for oneself has never been truer. It is true in Israel as much as it is in Palestine. True in human and political costs as much as it is true in economics. The logic, which is applicable in other places, is not applicable here; where confrontation, to both sides, is a matter of existence or nonexistence. When things are linked to existence and nonexistence, forget about reaping concessions under pressure.
Dissolve the Palestinian Authority to save Palestine
By Paul Beran, Miftah 9/30/2003
Success like that enjoyed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in mid-September, when the Israeli government authorized his removal, does not come often. After surviving nearly two years confined in his bombed-out Muqataa in Ramallah, he is now seemingly back on top of the Palestinian pile.
Again Arafat has confounded and defeated Israeli and tacit US attempts to isolate and remove him. After the Israeli expulsion decision, he rallied the support of thousands of Palestinians, forced Israel to publicly step back from its resolution, and showed that he can still end and create political careers for Palestinian Authority (PA) prime ministers. By so doing, he has proven that he is the indispensable player in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet this success begs a paradoxical question: Should the PA dissolve itself?
The idea of dissolving the PA has already been broached. Noted Gazan commentator Eyad al-Sarraj said as much on Aug. 24 when he maintained that the PA should abdicate power and acknowledge that it is no longer a useful entity for achieving Palestinian national rights. Dissolution indeed makes sense when framed in this way.
US Muslim 'Witch-Hunt' Not Overstatement
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 10/1/2003
A mixture of fear and dismay gripped many members of the American Arab and Muslim communities when the news of the arrest of Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi was confirmed.
Al-Amoudi is not just an “activist”. He is a community leader, and a vibrant one. One can argue that he manifested a new breed of American Muslim leaders, a breed that adheres to the causes that concern most of the 8 million Muslims in the United States, but chooses political and social integration rather than isolationism or confrontation to ease the mounting pressure faced by Muslims.
To the surprise of many who knew and conversed with al-Amoudi, a US citizen of Yemeni heritage, he was detained at a Virginia airport on September 29, 2003. The news has also indicated that al-Amoudi’s house and office have been raided. At one point, the man, who was a founding member of the American Islamic Council, had served as a goodwill ambassador to Muslim countries under President Bill Clinton’s administration, says the Muslim American Society in a press release on the day of the arrest, titled: “Government ‘Witch Hunt’ Continues with Arrest of Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi.”
Under the chopped down olive tree
By Dafna Golan-Agnon, Ha'aretz 10/1/2003
"Reconciliation is that place between forgiveness and vengeance," Pat Anderson of the Aboriginal leadership in Australia told about 30 physicians, philosophers, leaders and scholars who convened last weekend in London to discuss the possibilities of reconciliation in a collapsing world.
"I cannot forget what they did to my mother," she said. "Nor what they did to my sisters or to the generations of children that were kidnapped. We are not speaking about forgetting or causing others to forget the discrimination, the dispossession and the persecution from which we suffered for 300 years. We want to start out on a new pathway, to preserve our culture and our heritage - and to talk about our common future in Australia. We want to go beyond hatred, beyond pain and beyond the feeling of impotence, and be part of an Australia that shares with us the wealth that belongs to us all."
Conference participants from Japan, India, Pakistan, the United States, New Zealand, Zambia, South Africa, Bosnia and Australia spoke about the beginnings of reconciliation processes. And we, the Israelis, had very little to offer.
At the conference, I heard about millions of people all over the world who in the midst of the insanity of terror and war and are looking for ways toward reconciliation. And I asked myself if any of the generals who lead us, who are busy asking whom to liquidate tomorrow morning and with whom not to speak are also interested in the difference between reconciliation, peace and forgiveness.
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