Iman: Executing another child in Rafah
By Omar Barghouti, Electronic Intifada 10/29/2004
Iman al-Hams was a 13-year old refugee schoolgirl who was executed -- after being wounded -- by an Israeli platoon commander on the sad sands of Rafah. According to testimonies given by soldiers in the same company to the mass Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, a soldier in the watchtower identified Iman and cautioned his commander shouting, "Don''t shoot. It''s a little girl." The company commander, the soldiers testified, "approached her, shot two bullets into her [head], walked back towards the force, turned back to her, switched his weapon to automatic and emptied his entire magazine into her."(1) Eyewitnesses corroborated the soldiers'' account, saying that Iman was shot almost 70 meters away from the Israeli military position. After a bullet hit her leg, Iman, who was wearing her school uniform, fell. Then, they said, the officer went over to her, saw that she was bleeding from her wounds, but still shot her twice in the head to "confirm the killing," an Israeli euphemism for the practice of executing a wounded Palestinian. A cursory army investigation later cleared him of any "unethical" conduct, as is customary, and suspended him only because of "poor relations with subordinates."(2)
Don''t interfere, they''re looking for an heir
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 10/29/2004
From the Palestinians'' point of view, Arafat''s removal from the political stage leaves a big vacuum that will be hard to fill. During his political life over more than 50 years, Arafat managed to revive the National Palestinian Movement. It had fallen apart after Israel''s War of Independence in 1948, known as the tragedy - the "Nakba" - of Israel''s Arabs. He is considered the "father" of the new Palestinian nation. In the modern era the Palestinians have only had one leader who can compare to Arafat in status and prestige - the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who led Israel''s Arabs at the time of the British Mandate against Jewish settlement and against the British. Since his election in 1968 as chairman of the PLO''s executive committee, Arafat''s status and political power soared to heights that cast a shadow even on the mufti''s position in his heyday. ....There is no senior Palestinian figure who can win this respect. The consequence may be that law and order will totally collapse in the West Bank and Gaza after Arafat. The Palestinian Authority''s mechanisms for rule may even crumble to the extent that outside intervention is required. How should Israel prepare for these developments? Israel should not try to encourage or promote a certain Palestinian figure. If even a shadow of doubt surfaces that Israel is trying to push someone''s candidacy, he would immediately be declared a foreign agent and lose any chance of being a legitimate leader in his nation''s eyes.
How could it have been different?
By Ahmad Sub Laban, Electronic Intifada 10/29/2004
Sixty-eight years ago,..claimed an Israeli newspaper article.., Ghoul''s grandfather had saved a neighboring Jewish village from any harm during the Palestinian revolt of 1936. The fates of the two Ghouls is an interesting illustration of the understandings of the two peoples about their histories. -- On October 21, Israel assassinated Adnan Ghoul, the number two man on its hit list in the Palestinian territories, after three previous assassination attempts on his life over the past four years had failed. Sixty-eight years ago, however, claimed an Israeli newspaper article two days later, Ghoul''s grandfather had saved a neighboring Jewish village from any harm during the Palestinian revolt of 1936. The fates of the two Ghouls is an interesting illustration of the understandings of the two peoples about their histories. The Israeli writer, the grandson of one of the leaders of that Jewish village, was nonplussed as to how a grandson could turn out so different, and relatives of Adnan for their part could not see how that author did not understand that it could not have been otherwise. Israel considered Ghoul, 47, Hamas'' chief manufacturer of Qassam rockets. He was killed, along with his companion, Imad Abbas, when an unmanned Israeli surveillance plane fired a missile at his car, which also injured six passersby on Yaffa Street in the Tuffah Quarter of Gaza City.
Why I Liked Thomas Friedman''s Latest Column Before I Didn''t
By Kathleen Christison, CounterPunch 10/26/2004
I read two articles on Sunday that made quite an impact. The first was a Thomas Friedman column. Reading Friedman is always an interesting, usually an angering, experience. This one didn''t anger me right off the bat, but his thesis disturbed me. Friedman said some startling things, for him. It was gratifying to see that, after three post-9/11 years of blaming the root causes of terrorism on Arab backwardness and lack of democracy, he is finally ready to acknowledge that the obscenely close U.S. relationship with Israel and what he frankly called Israeli "bashing" of Palestinians has something to do with arousing Arab and Muslim anger and the kind of hatred of Israel and the U.S. that provokes terrorism. He even went so far as to remark that the Bush administration''s embrace of Ariel Sharon is so tight that "it''s impossible to know anymore where U.S. policy stops and Mr. Sharon''s begins." Way to go, Tom! But something about the main thrust of Friedman''s column gnawed at me until finally I realized what was wrong. After recounting a conversation with another journalist, just returned from Iraq, about the fact that Americans are frequently referred to by angry Iraqis as "the Jews," a handy moniker for anyone seen to oppress Arabs, Friedman worries that this identification of Americans with Jews and Israel seriously endangers all three parties and makes them vulnerable to Islamic terrorism. The widespread perception across the Arab and Muslim world that these three are one and that they together constitute the "great enemy of Islam" seriously endangers all three.
Israel blew it, big time
By Nazir Majali, Ha''aretz 10/29/2004
It''s hard to be objective when you''re writing in Hebrew about Yasser Arafat. The hatred in Israel toward that man has long transcended all boundaries of reason. It had become hatred for its own sake, more than his personality, acts and mistakes could justify. The Israelis have always hated him because they saw him as their No. 1 enemy. It would have been possible perhaps to understand that hatred in the midst of the hostilities. But after Oslo the situation was supposed to have changed - this attitude was to have been replaced by the "peace of the brave," historical reconciliation, olive branches handed to IDF soldiers in Ramallah and the joint Nobel Prize given Yitzhak Rabin, Arafat and Shimon Peres. But no. In Israel people continued hating him. Rabin''s opponents turned Arafat''s kaffiyeh into a symbol of all the awful things attributed to Rabin. Only the SS officer''s uniform was worse. To this day many say that Peres lost the elections in 1996 because of the picture the Likud spread, showing Peres and Arafat ascending a staircase clasping each other''s hands.
Israel''s unchanging truth about the Golan Heights
By Yossi Sarid, Daily Star 10/29/2004
In recent months the Syrian president has been signaling that he is interested in renewing negotiations for a peace treaty with Israel. The government has been turning a cold - nay, frozen - shoulder. It is indifferent, as if it cannot even hear. Thirty-five years ago, I went to Golda Meir, excited as could be, bearing an indirect but sanctioned message from the Egyptian president that Anwar Sadat was willing to have peace talks. Golda fixed a cold eye on me and asked, "Do you know what he wants from us? He wants all of the Sinai, and it''s out of the question. If looks could kill, I would have been dead long ago." After this refusal, the October 1973 war came down upon us, and, four years later, Menachem Begin rose to power, conceded all of the Sinai with the active assistance of Ariel Sharon - and peace became a reality. The current Syrian bungle reminds me of that Egyptian bungle of 35 years ago. Leaving Golda''s room, I was sad, disappointed and worried. She got on the phone to a few of her friends and my friends to report that "something has happened" to Yossi in the past few weeks, that he''d gone completely mad.
Why the U.S. should engage moderate Muslims everywhere
By Radwan A. Masmoudi, Daily Star 10/26/2004
On Sept. 11, 2001, a group of 19 terrorists who called themselves Muslim but whose actions and behavior were anything but Islamic, committed a terrible crime by attacking and killing 3,000 innocent American civilians in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Since that tragic day, Americans and honorable human beings everywhere have been engaged in a struggle to stop terrorism from spreading or threatening the lives, security, peace, or freedom of people around the globe. Since that fateful event, terrorist attacks have been waged from Indonesia to Morocco and from Madrid to Istanbul. The world, it seems, is on the verge of a major confrontation between the U.S. and a group of ignorant thugs and criminals who are trying to hijack Islam, the second largest and fastest-growing religion on earth. ...The need for Americans to understand Islam, and the need for Muslims to understand America, has never been greater. In both camps, voices of ignorance, prejudice and stereotypes are growing stronger and creating hatred and fear. Moderate and peace-loving Christians, Muslims and Jews must bond together to work for justice, peace, harmony and respect in our shrinking global village. Nonviolent struggle for justice, freedom and equality, combined with dialogue and understanding, are the only way to address grievances, resolve disputes, or establish peace on earth. This is where someone like Tariq Ramadan comes in. Prof. Ramadan is one of the best-known and most popular Islamic scholars and leaders on the planet today. Few other leaders connect to the disaffected Muslim youth of America, Europe and the Middle East like he does. He offers them hope and a vision for living as Muslims in the 21st century, for being true to their Islamic heritage, culture and faith while embracing modern, progressive and democratic values and ideals. If somebody like Tariq Ramadan did not exist, the U.S. would have needed to invent him...
One Hundred Forty Funerals, and the Rest is History
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 10/21/2004
"The Palestinian narrative – even if it’s closest to the truth – holds little weight in much of the Western, especially US mainstream media .." -- A 17-day Israeli onslaught in northern Gaza left in its wake nearly 140 dead, one-third of them children. The newest tragedy to visit the impoverished strip, was neither the first, nor will it be the last. But, in many ways, it was reminiscent of the invasion of Jenin in April 2002. There too, hundreds of people were killed and maimed, and thousands more were left grief-stricken, homeless and defenseless. Those who understand the depth of the tragedy – unhampered by the desensitising Arabic media and dehumanising Western counterpart – may often wonder why such blatant state terrorism would compel no serious response, especially from those who endlessly decry poor human rights records of countries far superior to Israel in their respect for international law and human rights treaties. “I understand the politics of it all,” a friend wrote as Israel announced its ‘redeployment’ in northern Gaza, “but what really bothers me is the benign response of average people everywhere. How callous have we become?”
Stolen Prosperity
Editorial, Miftah 10/25/2004
"The new greedy monster is the Separation Wall, which will detach 280,000 Palestinians living in 126 towns and villages from their lands and olive trees, the 720 KM long Wall will slash out 18% of the West Bank; leaving 2.132.500 olive trees isolated." -- Prosperity is a term that retrieves its full meaning whenever October sets its sail in Palestine’s fertile lands. October happens to be the holy month of the olive harvest. Olive harvest has become an inevitable part of our lives, every year thousands of men, women and children pack their will along with their lunches, mint and tea into the break of dawn with the same enthusiasm and excitement, as if they are on their way to a new beginning. Hundreds of stories about our history and culture have been embroidered by the same hands that picked up the olives from the highest branches of the trees and the grips of pebbles. Palestinians take pride in their harvest that they managed to cultivate even through the darkest years of occupation. Despite the farmer’s immeasurable bravery, Israeli occupation seems to invent new ways every year to steal the prosperity of this season, a season that thousands of households depend on to get through their years, especially in small communities and villages spread across West Bank and Gaza. The total area of land planted with olive trees in the West bank is approximately 750.000 Dunums holding more or less 12 million olive trees.
Israel rampant
By Azmi Bishara, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 10/21/2004
The Sinai bombings present Sharon with an opportunity to further marginalise the Palestinian cause. He will exploit it with relish -- That Israel''s Gaza rampage was not just a response to the firing of Qassam missiles does not mean we have to subscribe to claims that Israel needs no excuse for its actions. That argument, with its implication that no means of combat can influence Israeli policy or behaviour, is self-defeating. The latest Israeli incursion into Gaza was not unrelated to the rudimentary weapon -- missile is perhaps too grand a term for these devices -- Gazans have developed to fight the situation into which they have been thrust, a situation, unprecedented in modern history, that essentially locks a million and a half people into a prison with two gates. Israeli violence in Gaza, in Jenin and Nablus, is structurally integral to the problems of disengagement -- you cannot impose a unilateral solution to a conflict without recourse to extraordinary levels of violence. Unlike the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon where a sovereign state claimed control and responsibility on the evacuated areas, the issue in Gaza is not just one of unilateral withdrawal, but of redeployment on conditions Israel believes will consolidate its control over areas of the West Bank. It hopes to control Gaza with less friction from the outside and annex parts of the West Bank while at the same time improving its international standing and alleviating international pressures to engage in a settlement process Israel neither wants nor can engage in given its current leadership and the state of public opinion. (Sharon''s determination to abort any possibility of negotiations with Syria has been splashed across Israeli newspapers.)
Devastation most vicious
By Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 10/21/2004
Israel steps up its barbaric military campaign in Gaza -- A report released on Monday by the human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), incriminated Israel for the wanton destruction of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip. The report, which coincides with the recent demolition by the Israeli army of more than 100 Palestinian homes in northern Gaza, accused the Zionist regime of demolishing Palestinian homes for political reasons. The 135-page document, entitled "Razing Rafah: Mass home demolitions in the Gaza Strip", indicts Israel for carrying out wanton house demolitions in Rafah in May which it says go far beyond any military necessity. ....The report also criticises Caterpillar INC, the US-based company that produces the powerful D-9 bulldozer used by the Israeli army. HRW called on Caterpillar to suspend sales of D-9 bulldozers parts or maintenance services to the Israeli army so long as they use the machinery in illegal demolition.... ....Since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation, it is believed that the Israeli army has destroyed as many as 8,000 Palestinian homes and buildings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, leaving as many as 40,000 people homeless. The demolitions, aimed mainly at punishing the Palestinians and inflicting maximum social and economic suffering on them, are considered a war crime under international law.
Sharon''s True Face Exposed (and Ignored)
By Dr. Ran HaCohen, Palestine Chronicle 10/21/2004
(ANTIWAR.COM) - While Israel''s military, purportedly on its way to get out of the Gaza Strip, is getting deeper and deeper into it, exercising its long terrorist tradition of forcing the civilian population to collaborate in massive killing and the destruction of homes and infrastructure, Sharon''s top advisor Dov Weisglass made it to Ha''aretz''s front page (Oct. 6, 2004): "The significance of [Sharon''s] disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. … The disengagement is actually formaldehyde, it supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians. … What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns. That is the significance of what we did." ....So, just like in the Oslo years, the media again betrayed their duty and deceived their audience by portraying a Plan against Peace as if it were a Peace Plan. If you think Weisglass'' "scoop" changes something, think again. The world wants to be cheated, and one can hardly blame Sharon for delivering the deceitful goods....
It''s a battle for the future of Israel
By Gideon Samet, Ha''aretz 10/22/2004
There''s a lot of noise, scare tactics warning of worst-case scenarios, rabbinical declarations that almost make the revelation at Mt. Sinai look ridiculous; there are signs of a new Jewish underground, and once again threats against the life of the prime minister. What there is not, surprisingly, is a profound awareness of the significance of the disengagement plan. To many people it is not clear to what extent the decision is a national moment of reckoning that will determine - one way or another - the quality of our life here, the Israeli future. No less than that. The disengagement is only a small part of what has to take place between us and the Palestinians in the coming years. With all the pain it involves, it is only a symbol. But if it is trampled underfoot, the damage to Israeli existence may be irreparable. Non-implementation of the exit from the Gaza Strip and the removal of settlements in occupied areas, as even the prime minister describes them, will dissipate all the energies that are now being invested in this important struggle. Who will still have the emotional and political strength to repeat the failed experiment? Not Prime Minister Sharon, certainly not his possible successor Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and not the Israeli public if it is called to the polls.
The injustice of the new formula
By Meron Benvenisti, Ha''aretz 10/22/2004
In recent weeks, the discussion of the chances of the struggle for the establishment of a Palestinian state as a way to resolve the conflict has become sharper and more profound, and alternatives to the formula "two states for two peoples" have been raised; despair over implementing this solution is reinforcing the idea of "one binational state." As long as there were only "a few more or less naive Israelis, who were caught up in the foolish idea of a binational state" (Avraham Tal, Haaretz, October 14), the issue could be treated with condescending dismissiveness. But when the matter is starting to be discussed by groups and people who belong to the heart of the political and military establishment in both the Israeli and the Palestinian camps, and the attention being devoted to it by pundits and journalists the world over is reaching new heights, the sense heightens that a process of a paradigm change has begun, and that it won''t be long before a contest erupts as to who owns the patent for the new formula. After all, the slogan "two states" is less than 20 years old, and many of those who are rejecting the binational formula scornfully and aggressively had the same hostile attitude toward the two-state formula, until it gained legitimacy - after being emptied of meaning.
Bush and Kerry dance to the tune of Ariel Sharon
By Simon Tisdall, The Guardian 10/20/2004
In the Middle East maelstrom, all parties acknowledge one fixed point: forceful US diplomatic engagement is essential if the central Israel-Palestine conflict is ever to be resolved. But far from taking the lead over the past four years, the Bush administration has been mostly led by the nose. The man responsible for this extraordinary feat is Israel''s prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Mr Sharon was running a "war on terror" when George Bush was still running a baseball team in Texas. So not surprisingly, perhaps, it is Mr Bush who, since 9/11, has followed Mr Sharon''s example rather than the other way round. In his many visits to the Bush White House, Mr Sharon has exerted telling influence on America''s post-9/11 agenda. Knowing Mr Bush was bent on war in Iraq, he helpfully highlighted Saddam Hussein''s links to terrorist groups and financial aid to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Now he eggs on the US in its confrontations with Israel''s enemies, Iran and Syria. It was Israel that, as far back as 1967, perfected the concept of pre-emptive war. It is Mr Sharon, not Mr Bush, who is the present master of the targeted assassination and mass detention without trial. It is Israeli military tactics that the US now apes in places like Falluja and Najaf.
"Did You Two Squabble?" - A Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian Child
By Yitzhak Laor, CounterPunch 10/20/2004
Editors'' Note: This trenchant essay by Israeli novelist Yitzhak Laor was originally submitted to the London Review of Books, which in the past has frequently published Laor''s writing. But they refused to run this skewering of the Israeli Left with the LRB''s editor chiding Laor that "in my editorial judgment (to be pompous) this piece won''t help anyone." CounterPunch is honored to publish it. One of the times I was detained (it was after a demonstration), I shared a cell with a young burglar, all blood and broken teeth, beaten twice. The first time was when he tried to escape, as detectives came to arrest him, since attempted escapes had become a sort of free license for police violence. The second time was a bit later when he was taken to hospital to stop his bleeding. Handcuffed he entered the ER, chained to a cop, and the doctor asked them both: "Did you two squabble?" The burglar did what he had to do: he spat his blood right into the face of the enlightened MD, and of course was beaten again, right there, still handcuffed, under the indifferent eyes of the medical staff. I liked my cellmate, I cannot forget his story, nor his pride. From that day on, June the 8th 1982, the question "did you two squabble?" became for me the image of the real description for the bystander. A month after the Intifada began, four years ago, Major General Amos Malka, by then No. 3 in the military hierarchy, and until 2001 the head of Israeli military Intelligence (MI), asked one of his officers (Major Kuperwasser) how many 5.56 bullets the Central Command had fired during that month (that is, only in the West Bank). Three years later Malka talked about these horrific figures. This is what he said to Ha''aretz''s diplomatic commentator, Akiva Eldar about the first month of the Intifada, 30 days of unrest, no terrorist attacks yet, no Palestinian shooting: Kuperwasser got back to me with the number, 850,000 bullets. My figure was 1.3 million bullets in the West Bank and Gaza. This is a strategic figure that says that our soldiers are shooting and shooting and shooting. I asked: "Is this what you intended in your preparations?" and he replied in the negative. I said: "Then the significance is that we are determining the height of the flames." (HaAretz, 11.6.2004).
Harassment as a Military Duty
By Amira Hass, Palestine Chronicle 10/21/2004
"In the narrow columns rationed out in the media for reports about the occupation, the confiscation of ID cards cannot compete with the killing of children or the obstruction of olive harvests.." -- Every day soldiers confiscate the identity cards of West Bank Palestinians even though this is prohibited by the law - even by military orders, except under very specific conditions. It looks like a concentrated mass violation of army instructions. Every day soldiers confiscate the identity cards of West Bank Palestinians even though this is prohibited by the law - even by military orders, except under very specific conditions. In the best cases, people are delayed for five, six, or seven hours - far more than any reasonable security check - and then they get their cards back at the end of the day. In the worst cases the ID cards get lost in the shuffle between soldiers'' shifts. Often, the soldiers tell people "come tomorrow" to some place where they will get their ID card back - the district coordination office, another checkpoint. The West Bankers show up the next day and are greeted by apathetic shrugs. In the narrow columns rationed out in the media for reports about the occupation, the confiscation of ID cards cannot compete with the killing of children, the obstruction of olive harvests, the demolition of homes. But the confiscation of documents, like the hours of delays at the checkpoints using "security checks" as an excuse, are some of the most common harassment measures that define the Israeli to Palestinians - arbitrary, malicious, negligent, arrogant, brutal.
U.S. Diplomatic Delegation Shocked by Oppression and Devastation in Palestine
By WRMEA, Miftah 10/21/2004
IN MAY OF this year, 82 former American diplomats wrote President George W. Bush to express their firm belief that his April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral “disengagement plan” was not in the best interests of the U.S., or Israel, or the Palestinians. Through his endorsement Bush had closed the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state. His acceptance of the Israeli prime minister’s plan to reject the rights of three million Palestinians, to deny the right of refugees to return to their homeland, and to retain five large illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank severely damaged longstanding U.S. Middle East policy. Even Israel’s Knesset refused to accept the plan that our president so quickly embraced. Retired American diplomats—Republicans and Democrats alike—who care deeply about their country and its foreign policy continue to add their names to this letter (visit for the complete text and list of signatures). Our initiative attracted a fair amount of attention in Europe and the Middle East, but little coverage at home. Nor did the White House or State Department ever reply to our requests for a meeting to discuss our concerns. Palestinians both here in the United States and in the occupied territories did respond to our letter, however. The Palestinian American Congress invited a delegation of diplomats and journalists from the Washington Report to visit Palestine and meet with President Yasser Arafat, who remains isolated and besieged in his demolished Ramallah compound.
Guava in Jabalia: First Bite, Last Breath
By Sami Abu Salem, Electronic Intifada 10/20/2004
The seeds of guava were still between 13-year-old Saber Assaliya''s lips when an Israeli tank shot him in the waist. The boy was playing in a nearby orchard at the southern tip of the Jabalia Refugee Camp, in the north of Gaza. Craving ripe guava, Saber and his cousins headed to the orchard close to his house. He was happy, sporting a new hair cut and new clothes. "Dad, look, it is a new hair style. Is it nice, dad?" Saber asked his father, soon after he had his fresh haircut and minutes before being murdered. On October 3, Saber was showing off for his neighbours and cousins the hair gel he used for the first time. He joined a group of children playing and helping their neighbour collect chickens after Israeli bulldozers destroyed his chicken coop. Saber''s cousin and eyewitness Mohammed Assaliya, aged 13, said that Saber was eating guava when three bullets hit him in the waist. "The owner of the destroyed farm asked us to help him collect the chickens; some of us were helping him and others were playing football," Mohammed explained while revisiting the scene of the crime. Mohammed was scared when we walked among the guava, orange, and olive trees where Saber was murdered. Mohammed stood and looked at the place were the Israeli tank was positioned, kept silent for awhile, then pointed and said, "there, the tank was there."
Dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian water dispute
By Gershon Baskin, Ph.D, Israeli Insider 10/17/2004
The following is an attempt to propose a creative non-conventional way of removing the dispute from the Israeli-Palestinian water issue. This idea was first presented by Israeli journalist Gideon Eshet at an IPCRI Israeli-Palestinian water meeting. We must look at our water problem in an integrative way. We have many shared water resources. Dividing them on any basis will never meet the needs and desires of both sides. Palestinians insist on resolving the dispute by agreeing to their water rights. Israelis insist that we must deal with water needs and supply problems. Arguing about rights will never create a win-win situation. We must deal with the issue on a demand management basis and we must be able to ensure that whatever the demand for water, it will be met. Here is how I see the problem and a possible solution -- this is very primary in its development and needs a lot of work to have the idea thrashed out. It is a solution that probably will not be accepted by both sides, not because it is not good and worthy, but simply because people and countries don?t relate to water and water conflicts logically and rationally. If they did, then a possible solution would or could look something like this...
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Ariel Sharon''s Worldview
By Uri Avnery, CounterPunch 10/18/2004
Only Israel and the US Matter -- What really is important is not what he said or why he said it, but the world-view that animates him. By now, everybody has had a go at analyzing the interview with Dov ("Dubby") Weisglass, Ariel Sharon''s most intimate confidant. But there is precious little to analyze. His statement is crystal clear: the "redeployment plan" was designed to "freeze" the peace process for decades, to put all peace plans "in formaldehyde", to put an end to the possibility of a Palestinian state, once and for all. A dozen small settlements will be dismantled in order to keep practically all the 250,000 West Bank settlers where they are. Israel will "concede" the Gaza Strip, which constitutes 1.3% of pre-1948 Palestine, in order to take permanent possession of the West Bank, which is 16 times larger. The Gaza Strip will be cut off from the world on land, by sea and in the air, as will the seven or eight similar Palestinian enclaves that will come into being on the West Bank. Why did "Dubby" disclose this plan? After all, the disclosure was like spitting in the face of the Labor Party, exactly when Sharon needed them most! The answer is simple: Sharon wants to convince the right and has only contempt for the left. 13 out of the 40 members of his Likud faction in the Knesset abstained from voting for him this week, although the vote was about nothing more then a resolution to "take notice" of an unimportant speech of his. Sharon wants to explain to the extreme right wing of his own party that "disengagement" is a war-plan rather than a peace-plan, a plan to annex territories rather than a plan to "give up" territories, a plan for the rapid expansion of the West Bank settlements rather than a plan to dismantle the settlements in the Gaza Strip.
October 2000, revisited
By Dan Rabinowitz, Ha''aretz 10/19/2004
The events of October 2000 included hundreds of incidents spread out over two weeks. They are seared in the collective Israeli memory as a series of conflicts between Arab demonstrators, who in some cases numbered in the thousands, and the police. But there is another aspect to those difficult days that has been erased over the years from the awareness of Israeli Jews: the riots initiated by Jews against mosques, Arab-owned businesses, residences and Arab passersby, in mixed cities and elsewhere. The blurred memory of those incidents is particularly worrisome because of the fact that the Or Commission devoted an entire chapter to those events, describing them in detail. One incident that stands out ended in the deaths of Omar Akawi and Wissam Yazbek, on the night of October 8, 2000, Yom Kippur eve, in the seam line between Upper Nazareth and Nazareth. The evening before, Jews from Upper Nazareth had attacked Arab-owned homes and businesses in the eastern neighborhood of Nazareth, and ahead of Yom Kippur, the police beefed up its forces in the area. On the afternoon of October 8, the police already knew about plans by some Jews to attack Arabs that evening. The police deployed troops along the seam line but did not prevent hundreds of youths from Upper Nazareth from reaching the Arab area, throwing stones and even going down into the streets of the neighborhood and vandalizing property.
Zarqawi - Bush''s man for all seasons
By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times 10/15/2004
Former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset turned Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, is set to give the go-ahead to what the US Army twice could not bring itself to carry out: the leveling of Fallujah. Following a purely military logic, this is the next step after the barrage of precision strikes that are killing dozens of Sunni Iraqi civilians, according to Fallujah hospital reports. Negotiations are going on. Allawi''s government sounds optimistic. Sheikh Khaled al-Jumeili is the key Fallujah negotiator. There seems to be a deal on the table according to which the Iraqi National Guard - including a number of Fallujah residents - will control security in the city of 300,000, and residents with relatives killed or wounded by the American offensives and precision strikes may receive compensation. But the key point is the handover of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Jumeili says there are only a few foreign jihadis in the city - a fact confirmed to Asia Times Online by sources in Baghdad close to the resistance in Fallujah. Al-Jumeili insists they are not terrorists, but plain mujahideen. One of the Baghdad sources is adamant, "What the Americans could not get the first time they are now getting through Allawi. Zarqawi is just an excuse for them to smash the spirit of the resistance." There''s another crucial point. Exactly which "Zarqawi" is everybody talking about?
Palestinian elections to break the deadlock
By Ali Abunimah, Daily Star 10/18/2004
President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry have avoided mentioning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in their campaigns. Politically, this is understandable. The Bush and Clinton administrations invested huge political capital in searching for a solution, and all their efforts lie in tatters as bloodshed continues to claim Palestinian and Israeli lives with no end in sight. Americans, preoccupied with Iraq, increasingly see the Palestinian-Israeli dispute as an intractable ethnic conflict with no short-term solution. But even if it has faded from Americans'' consciousness, after four years of grinding Israeli-Palestinian fighting, the United States still has a direct stake in seeing this conflict resolved fairly. In early October, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon''s top policy adviser, Dov Weisglass, dealt already dim prospects for peace a further heavy blow. Weisglass told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Sharon''s plan for "disengagement" from the occupied Gaza Strip was just a "maneuver" to "freeze" the peace process. He added: "When you freeze that process you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress." This statement, if left unchallenged by American action, confirms the worst suspicions of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims that the U.S. is in cahoots with Israel to allow Israel to complete the colonization of the West Bank.
The ball is in Israel''s court
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 10/18/2004
To sum up in a few words the position that has crystallized among the Palestinians in recent months with regard to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon''s disengagement plan, it could be said that as far as they are concerned, the plan is irrelevant. In scores of Palestinian statements it has been said that the plan is bad and that it has been drawn up and advanced without an agreement with them and without taking them into account. From the Palestinians'' point of view, if Sharon succeeds in implementing his scheme, it will be bad for them. But the opposite is also true: If Sharon does not succeed, the situation will remain as it is and then, too, things will be no better for them. Na''im al-Ashab, a veteran of the Palestinian left, says that the Palestinian leadership is following with interest the severe political crisis that has emerged in Israel because of the disengagement plan. However, to the Palestinians'' regret, the crisis in Israel is not helping them any. Because of its weakness, the Palestinian leadership is unable to extract any benefit from the crisis in Israel. The Fatah movement, the Palestinian ruling national party, has lost its ability to lead the people. Its people are hardly in control at all and they are devoting very little of their time to the struggle with Israel. Most of their energy is devoted to internal squabbles over positions of power, which are expressed in violent confrontations, abductions and murders.
An author''s catharsis: Arab-Israeli MP gets his message across
By Olivia Snaije, Daily Star 10/19/2004
Writing ''Checkpoint'' helped Azmi Bishara through tough times -- PARIS: Azmi Bishara, Israel''s most famous Palestinian politician, radiates energy. A Knesset MP for the past eight years, charismatic and articulate in four languages, Bishara is a tireless advocate for human rights and the Palestinian cause. He motivates the less morally combative to get up in the morning. But what drives Bishara? At a time when the situation in Palestine and the Occupied Territories is looking bleaker than ever, how does he get up in the morning? "Two things help me," he says soberly. "First of all, my daughter and my son. I want to kiss them goodbye before they go to school. My other motivation is this internal feeling of duty. You do the right thing, even if you don''t have an explanation for it." Bishara, too, has days when he has to drag himself out of bed. The publication this year of his first work of fiction - "Checkpoint: Fragments of a Novel," in Arabic and in French - is the fruit of an emotional outpouring that sustained him through the most difficult of times. "I wrote ''Checkpoint'' during the hardest year of my life. It was the beginning of the second intifada and I myself was an object of violence," says Bishara, referring to attempts to set fire to his home in Nazareth, and living and working in a general atmosphere of intense hostility.
The "Days of Penitence": Gaza Sinks in a Sea of Blood
By Mohammed Omer, Electronic Intifada 10/18/2004
It smells unbelievably bad here. To walk down any street, if you dare to, you skirt, or sometimes unavoidably walk through, pools of blood. There are shreds of human flesh, some of them unrecognizable as human remains -- all over, on rooftops, plastered to broken windows, on the street. The stench of rotting blood mixes with the more acrid odor of flesh burnt to black char by the rockets fired by the Israeli Army''s American-made Apache helicopters. The sky is full of black smoke, some from the rocket explosions, but even more, it sometimes seems, from the endless fires of tires and other debris that people keep stoking. The smoke confuses the heat-seeking unmanned drone surveillance planes, so setting fires in any relatively open area may draw fire and let a bomb explode somewhat harmlessly. All this smoke mixed with plaster and cement dust is a blessing and a curse. The stench of burning flesh and rotting blood masks to some extent the smell of raw sewage from broken sewer pipes and the tens of thousands of bodies unwashed for over a week now. Water to drink is a rare and precious commodity here, baths and showers have become impossible luxuries.
Spelling out Sharon''s real plan
By Henry Siegman, International Herald Tribune 10/12/2004
NEW YORK Israel''s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is approaching its fifth decade. It is an occupation that has inflicted unspeakable cruelty on a civilian population of 3.5 million Palestinians, not to speak of the suffering inflicted on Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism. With certain notable exceptions, the overwhelming majority of Israelis have anesthetized their reactions to these cruelties by buying into a contrived narrative that absolves them of all responsibility. They have convinced themselves that "there is no Palestinian partner for a peace process." A perverse Palestinian leadership, the current argument typically runs, is now sabotaging the latest opportunity created by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon''s promise of a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza by failing to prevent terror attacks on Israeli civilian targets, proving once again that despite Israel''s best efforts, there is no Palestinian interlocutor for peace. Against this background, Sharon''s senior adviser and until recently his chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, in an interview in Haaretz, describes in gleeful detail why the proposed disengagement from Gaza - which he and Sharon had persuaded President George W. Bush and both houses of Congress to endorse - was actually intended to prevent a peace process, to consign Bush''s "road map" to oblivion and to preclude the emergence of a Palestinian state of any kind.
Illusions and delusions of combat
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 10/13/2004
In Jabalya refugee camp, one of the residents says people believe 20-40 Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian fighters resisting the IDF incursion. Hamas spread this story. In Jabalya refugee camp, one of the residents says people believe 20-40 Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian fighters resisting the IDF incursion. Hamas spread this story. For those who believe the tall tale, it is easier to bear the hard results of the two-week military offensive, which has yet to end. More than 100 Palestinians are dead and over 400 injured. Around 40 percent of the casualties are children. About 80 homes have been destroyed, agricultural land has been devastated - the exact amount remains to be assessed - 38,000 children have been unable to get to school, neighborhoods are under siege, streets are singed black. All this is accompanied by the constant, violent, omnipotent and all-present buzz of fire-spitting helicopters, drones, tanks, shells, armored vehicles, machine gun fire, sniper fire, open and hidden military positions, the hoarse sound of speakers calling on people to immediately get out of their homes. The very macho and televised show of armed men roaming the alleyways or masked men firing Qassam rockets from under the nose of tanks and helicopters serve to help those who prefer to delude themselves into thinking of this as resistance, combat and defense.
Double standards that kill
By Hasan Abu Nimah, Electronic Intifada 10/13/2004
As usual, there has been a disproportionate and unbalanced reaction to recent and ongoing violence in our region. Since late September, Israel has been butchering civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip. As I write, the death toll has passed 115, of which over 30 are children. Israel routinely kills 10 to 12 Palestinians per day, the daily equivalent of a Palestinian suicide bombing or two. Israel is engaged in the mass destruction of the Gaza Strip, subjecting people who have been suffering for decades from what in any other circumstances world leaders would denounce as ethnic cleansing if not outright genocide. Yet, other than pro forma criticism, there is great tolerance for the ongoing massacre. Not only that, but some parties have even rushed to Israel''s assistance. At the beginning of this month, Israel accused UNRWA, the UN agency that has been providing basic services to Palestinian refugees since their expulsion from their homeland, of allowing an ambulance to be used by Palestinians to transport rockets for attacks on Israel. Israel''s ambassador at the UN was quick to demand the dismissal of UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen. Instead of rejecting the Israeli charges as the obvious fabrications and propaganda that they were, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan immediately appointed a team of investigators and rushed them to Israel to investigate the accusations. This gave entirely undeserved credibility to the Israeli claims, which it eventually embarrassingly withdrew, and cast UNRWA in a highly unfavourable light. While Israel was embarrassed, the damage had been done as the American media often report only the initial charges and rarely follows a story to the end.
Amin Salem 1969 - 2004: UHWC staff member killed during Israeli operation
By Dr. Mona El Farra, Electronic Intifada 10/12/2004
Yesterday I arrived at work to the most shocking news. A colleague of mine, Amin Salem from the human resources department, was killed when an Israeli army tank shelled his home in Beit Lahia. Amin''s uncle also died in the shelling and three family members were seriously injured. Everyone at the office is in a state of disbelief. I still cannot come to terms with our loss. Only a few hours before he was killed, Amin walked into my office with some paper work, smiling as usual despite the unbearable situation caused by the occupation army. It was the first time I had seen him in ten days; he was unable to leave Beit Lahia because of the Israeli military operation in northern Gaza (Operation Days of Penitence, now ongoing for 12 days). When I asked how they were keeping he said that the situation was very difficult, but that "Allah will protect us". Amin was married and had a four year old daughter called Asil. He was very dedicated to his work and had a smiley disposition that was never dampened by tough times. Amin''s family originated from the village of Herbia, now inside Israel, a few kilometers away from Beit Lahia. But like so many Palestinians, they were made refugees by Israeli militant groups advancing on Palestinian towns and village in 1948.
Culture and dissent: Khalil Sakakini Center looks towards creative resistance
By Am Johal, Electronic Intifada 10/12/2004
About a fifteen minute walk from the street vendors and businesses of the downtown Palestinian cultural capital of Ramallah, is a dangerous subversive place according to the Israeli authorities. So much so that in 2002 they raided the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center and according to the Miami Herald "seized a computer and a cellphone, broke dozens of windows, swept books off shelves, peppered walls with shrapnel and bullets, spit pumpkin seeds on the floor and allegedly stole 3,700 shekels." In Occupied Palestine, it is as if you live a dehumanized existence from the day you''re born. You are uneqal. You feel it everyday in how power is exercised. That relationship is rarely altered. You are second class and relegated to a Bantustan-like existence. When the people in power talk peace, you see the situation deteriorate. You see loved ones die, killed off by security forces. You learn to hate because you''re isolated and you know nothing else. Today you can still see the broken glass of the picture, the bullet holes and a broken door left in the board room, curated like an art exhibit. The Sakakini Center has at different times received funding from the Japanese Government, the United Nations Development Program, the Ford Foundation, the European Union, and Dutch benefactors - hardly radical organizations in the grand scheme of things.
Bargouthi: “The Initiative is not a new faction; it is to create a wide Coalition"
By Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, International Middle East Media Center September 2004
INTERVIEW: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative said that the Initiative is not a new faction but it came to create the widest National Coalition, with a new modern spirit which supports the people instead of containing them. The following interview was conducted by Palestine News Network Website; PNN: Did the Initiative represent the third stream which was suggested since ten years ago; does it exceed the crises which the Palestinian Factions and Movements face? Bargouthi: The Initiative was formed by four Palestinian figures; Dr. Haidar Abdul-Shafi, Mr. Ibrahim Al-Daqqag, Late Dr. Edward Sa’id, and me, but those who formed the statement of the Initiative were five hundred persons from several Palestinian territories including national figures in the Palestinian society. The Initiative is a Political – Social – National movement which aims to help the Palestinian achieve their rights of liberty and freedom, is it the third stream, I would say yes it is. In the Palestinian territories there are two main streams; Fatah and the P. A, and Hamas and the Islamic faction, while there is a huge silent majority, we call it silent because its not part of the decision making process, the only was to enable it to have an effective role is lections, free and democratic elections, we are not alone, and we welcome negotiations with all factions, national and social movements, and national figures who are ready to observe themselves as part of the third stream.
Israel and the Arafat Question
By Robert Malley, Miftah 10/11/2004
Review - The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 840 pp., $35.00 -- 1. Few issues of US foreign policy have been as thoroughly identified with one man as was the "Arab–Israeli peace process" with Dennis Ross. During the four years of the first Bush administration and, even more so, the eight of Clinton''s presidency, Ross virtually was the process, allowed to work independently of bureaucratic institutions, personally devising US strategy for negotiations in the Middle East, and carrying it out. Ross attended every significant meeting; he has a prodigious memory and his note-taking was legendary. All of which makes his book important to read, his factual account difficult to dispute, and his conclusions all the more deserving of close scrutiny.... 4. There''s a contradiction at the heart of Ross''s exposition, and it brings us to an issue that clearly preoccupies him. Ross devotes countless pages to the intricacies of Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, explaining why they failed. Yet he also introduces another theory—it is hard to tell if it is an alternative or a complement—which boils down to a single word: Arafat. Arafat is the "missing peace" of the title. The book opens with the Palestinian leader and closes with him. Ross castigates the administration of George W. Bush in virtually all but one respect, conceding: "President Bush and those around him were right to believe that we had indulged Arafat too much." Oslo failed, he argues, because neither Israelis nor Palestinians underwent the necessary transformation. Yet, he adds, Rabin took a revolutionary psychological leap when he recognized the PLO in 1993, whereas Arafat recognized Israel "not because he made a choice, but because he had no choice"—as if eminently practical and pragmatic considerations (such as the first Palestinian intifada and the burdens of occupation) were not also on Rabin''s mind. "To be sure," he adds, "I would not now be writing about the failings of Oslo if it had not been for Yasir Arafat."
Gaza Cries for Help but Who''s Listening?
By Linda Heard, Palestine Chronicle 10/6/2004
"If anyone thinks that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is remorseful concerning the deaths of those innocents, they should think again.." -- Israel calls its latest murder spree ‘Days of Penitence’. I often wonder who dreams up those supposedly inspirational titles designed to make uniformed killers feel better about their ruthless missions. Just as the US military brought ‘Enduring Freedom’ to thousands of lifeless Iraqi women and children, Israel has forced over 60 Palestinian residents of Gaza to ‘atone’ with their lives for the firing of rockets into the southern Israeli town of Sderot, resulting in the demise of two Israeli toddlers. Since March this year, there have been more than 90 child victims of Israel’s ‘as many eyes as possible for an eye’ campaign; ten of those struck down during Operation Days of Penitence. If anyone thinks that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is remorseful concerning the deaths of those innocents, they should think again. On Sunday, he announced the indefinite expansion of the bloody post-September 29 offensive amid a backdrop of demolished Palestinian homes, razed orchards, damaged roads, contaminated wells, and the disruption of essential services.
Sharon''s plan will perpetuate war
By Ephraim Sneh, Ha''aretz 10/11/2004
What Prime Minister Ariel Sharon played down in his Rosh Hashanah interviews was clearly exposed by his former bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, in an interview in Haaretz Magazine (October 8). The goal of the disengagement plan is to perpetuate Israeli control in most of the West Bank, and to repel any internal or external pressure for a different political solution. Sharon is consistently trying to realize his vision: Israeli control over the eastern and western slopes of the West Bank, and maintaining traffic corridors along its length and breadth. The Palestinians will be left with seven enclaves connected by special highways for their use. The disengagement plan will facilitate the realization of this vision, at a bargain price from his point of view: He is giving up the Gaza Strip, where 37 percent of the Palestinians live, but whose area is only 1.25 percent of the Land of Israel. Anyone touring the West Bank will have no doubts regarding the hidden agenda of the disengagement plan. Building in the settlements, including the illegal ones, is proceeding at full speed. About 4,000 housing units are now under construction. When they are populated, the number of settlers in the West Bank will grow by approximately 10 percent. Most of the Israeli public supports the Sharon plan. It naively believes that its realization will bring about the end of the war and a significant economic improvement. The international community also supports the plan. It is tired of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is no longer investing any real input in attempts to solve it.
Twilight Zone / His story
By Gideon Levy, Ha''aretz 10/8/2004
This one man embodies it all: Here you have the whole story of Palestinian suffering and struggle encapsulated in one person''s biography. If it weren''t a true story, one might suspect it was some sort of propaganda. Yusef al-Mughrabi, an amputee and bereaved father, an exile who has roamed far and wide in the Arab world, a father of three terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails, is now sitting on the ruins of his home for the third, or maybe fourth, time - due to no fault of his own. While Yusef al-Mughrabi continues to walk his personal path of torment, he still manages to smile from time to time. Both peoples deserve to live, he says - right after he has compared Israel''s actions to Hitler''s. The son of refugees, he was born in Hebron two years after his family''s village was destroyed. When he was six, the family continued its wanderings and moved from Hebron to the Deheisheh refugee camp next to Bethlehem. When he was 18, a year after the Israeli occupation began in 1967, he lost a leg to a mine that exploded underneath him next to the Mar Elias monastery at the entrance to Bethlehem. "An Israeli mine," he is careful to point out. Young Yusef traveled to Lebanon to seek medical care for his leg and got stuck . For the next 14 years, he lived in the Ein el-Hilwa refugee camp there. His five sons - Ahmed, Mohammed, Mahmoud, Omar and Ali - and his only daughter, Darin, were all born there. During the Lebanon War, when the Israel Defense Forces reached the camp, his home was blown up.
Not ''another UN conference on Palestine''?
By Mervat Tallawy, Daily Star 10/9/2004
Beirut will host a key conference on the Palestinian economy on Monday. This event comes at a time when Israeli forces are bombarding Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have systematically destroyed most of the infrastructure in the Palestinian territories and unemployment has reached alarming levels. United Nations conferences, reports and resolutions on the question of Palestine are all too familiar to seasoned observers of international affairs. The issue has been on the agenda of the United Nations since its inception almost 60 years ago. In numerous seminars and conferences around the world. The issue has been addressed in all of its complexities and developments. Resolutions to the conflict have been adopted and schemes for the alleviation of the suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation have been identified. But so far a just and comprehensive solution has been elusive. In spite of the systematic international attention to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it has progressed relentlessly, claiming tens of thousands of lives and affecting millions of others, Palestinians and Arabs, Israelis and others. The crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory has reached unprecedented levels since 2000. According to a recent United Nations report, 47 per cent of Palestinian households lost more that 50 per cent of their income. Poverty rates have reached 63 per cent and approximately two million Palestinians live on $2.1 per day, while Palestinian unemployment has reached 70 percent in some areas. The World Bank has described the Palestinian economic recession as being among the worst in modern history. Under such conditions, it was necessary that the focus of relief efforts shifted from socio-economic development to urgent humanitarian aid.
Judging the Intifada
By Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali, Electronic Intifada 10/8/2004
The fourth anniversary of Israel''s violent crackdown on the Palestinian uprising, which coincided with its latest massacre of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, occasioned a number of analyses, many concluding — wishfully — that the Intifada has been "counterproductive" for the Palestinians, or even a "failure." Ha''aretz analyst Bradley Burston wrote an article headlined, "The war that Palestine couldn''t lose - and did." US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, asked on Al-Jazeera, "What has [the Intifada] accomplished for the Palestinian people? Has it produced progress toward a Palestinian state? Has it defeated Israel on the battlefield?" Concluding it had not, he declared, "it is time to end this process. It is time to end the Intifada." The standard that Mr. Powell set for assessing Palestinian success or failure is disengenuous and absurd. No one expected that Palestinians could defeat Israel''s astronomically superior, US-backed armed forces. But as the ongoing resistance, both nonviolent and armed, demonstrates every day, the Palestinians are not close to defeat, nor are the Israelis close to victory. Despite all of Israel''s killing and cruelty for decades, the Palestinians are unbroken; they have neither abandoned their rights, nor resigned themselves to living permanently under Israeli dictatorship.
Women''s Committees in the Occupied Territories From the Book "Daughters of Palestine"
By Amal Kawar, Jerusalemites
On March 8, 1984, Israeli soldiers set up a roadblock at the Ram intersection on the Jerusalem-Ramallah Road in the West Bank. Ram is one of the Palestinian towns and villages that extend from the suburbs of Jerusalem in a residential chain north to al-Bireh and Ramallah. The intersection at the entrance to the town is a familiar checkpoint, used by the Israeli Defense Forces to close off Jerusalem to the rest of the Palestinians living in the West Bank. The task for the soldiers was extraordinary that day, for it said to order back Palestinian women and children. The Palestinians were on their way to attend festivities held in and around Jerusalem to honor International Women''s Day. The Israeli military authorities, holding the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967, knew that International Women''s Day had become a yearly occasion where the PLO recognized Palestinian women. The soldiers, however, were not completely successful for on that day and the next, hundreds of Palestinian women and children circumvented the roadblock by using out-of-the-way roads to get to Jerusalem, and celebrations were held all over the West Bank. Jerusalem''s Palestinian newspaper al-Fajr, noting the barring of the women, then proceeded to report on the festivities in Jerusalem, Ramallah and al-Bireh cities and in the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. The celebrations included the familiar spectrum of Palestinian political festivals, but it was also apparent that a great deal of preparation had gone into the programs. The newspaper said the audiences heard speeches about the current political situation and about the changing roles of women. Participants listened to commemorations of local martyrs and messages sent by political prisoners. The entertainment included folk dancing, poetry, songs, and skits. Bazaars set up for the occasion sold traditional Palestinian embroidery.
The Israeli Invasion of North Gaza: Days of Penitence
By Jennifer Loewenstein, CounterPunch 10/8/2004
On Sept. 29th Members of the militant wing of Hamas fired a Qassam rocket across the Gaza border into the Israeli town of Sederot killing two small children. This is not the first time Hamas members have fired rockets into Israel, though it is one of the only times such an act has killed civilians. The Qassam strikes are largely symbolic attempts to send Israel the message that Palestinians will not acquiesce in the decades'' old occupation of their land and Israel''s long-term designs. Besides being illegal and immoral since they target innocent civilians- these strikes are strategically stupid: They present Israel with the perfect pretext for carrying out its goals of grabbing more land, appropriating for itself all of the natural resources, and evicting and re-concentrating the indigenous population into isolated, overcrowded and militarily enclosed landed prisons. Sure enough, Israel has once again made cynical use of the terrible deaths of innocents by using them as an excuse to launch "Operation Days of Penitence," an open-ended massive military incursion into the northern Gaza Strip one that has likely been planned for months if not years. Already, in just over a week, Israeli soldiers have killed nearly 100 people, many of them civilians and more than a quarter of them children. They have demolished the homes of dozens of families, torn up whole streets, wrecked businesses, uprooted trees, forced schools to close, cut off the water and electricity supplies to thousands of people, carried out air raids, extra-judicial killings and shut down the heavily fortified checkpoints within Gaza and along its borders preventing the flow of human and vehicular traffic....
American Ballots and Israeli Bullets
By Ahmed Amr, Palestine Chronicle 10/6/2004
Ariel Sharon certainly knows how to time an atrocity. His career reveals a war criminal constantly in search of ideal opportunities to practice his murderous craft. Very early in his career, the Israeli military establishment detected his natural aptitude for slaughtering innocents. In his late twenties he distinguished himself as the commander of Unit 101, a terrorist brigade that specialized in indiscriminate assaults on Palestinian villagers. The horrors we are witnessing in Jabalaya are merely an encore performance of his earlier atrocities in Qibya, Sabra and Shatila, Jenin, Rafah, Nablus and Bethlehem. In Sharon’s estimate, the occasion of the first American presidential debate presented a perfect opportunity to commence another massacre of Palestinians. The Israelis know all too well that both Democrats and Republicans are accustomed to financing their campaigns with innocent Palestinian blood. As if to prove Sharon’s point, neither candidate bothered to mention the Palestinians during the latest foreign policy debate.
Save the collapsing Palestinian system
By Robert Malley, Daily Star 10/8/2004
Besieged from without and divided from within, the Palestinian political system is coming apart. It is hard pressed to deliver vital services or ensure law and order and is virtually incapable of producing basic decisions, let alone generating a coherent political program. Ariel Sharon, Israel''s prime minister, who openly exhibits his contempt for the current Palestinian leadership, and U.S. President George W. Bush, who seldom conceals his disdain toward it, may see little reason to fret. But while the costs to Palestinians of the political vacuum are evident, they should be no less clear to Israelis seeking peace and security and to Americans who can only watch as a dangerous blend of desperation and rage takes hold. Destabilized by its leaders'' policies, paralyzed by internal rivalries and battered by Israeli military and economic measures, the Palestinian National Authority is no longer national and barely exercises authority. Security forces have borne the brunt of Israeli attacks; largely disarmed and unable to move freely, their activities have become haphazard at best. Fatah, the backbone of the Palestinian national movement, is politically and geographically fragmented. Divided, with some of its most dynamic leaders behind Israeli prison bars, it may not survive the coming succession struggle.
The Eyes That Cannot See Beyond Jabaliya and Samarra
By Simon Tisdall, Palestine Chronicle 10/6/2004
"On both sides of the divide this dread downward spiral creates a kind of unseeing rage to which all are held hostage: blind in Iraq, eyeless in Gaza.." -- At first glance the violence in Jabaliya in Palestine and in the Iraqi town of Samarra appear to be unconnected. The Israeli army''s incursion into northern Gaza looks like just another deadeningly familiar episode in the unending conflict between Palestinians and Jews. The US-led weekend assault on insurgents in mainly Sunni Samarra seems to be broadly typical of the continuing turmoil in Iraq. But peer beneath the headlines and it is clear that these ostensibly separate events are far from routine, and are closely linked in many ways, directly and indirectly. In both Jabaliya and Samarra modern armies with state-of-the-art weaponry and unanswerable air power attacked residential areas, causing numerous civilian casualties. In both cases the degree of lethal force used was grossly disproportionate to the assessed threat. Three US and two Iraqi battalions - about 5,000 men - were sent against 200-300 insurgents in Samarra. In Gaza, in order to deter the sort of vicious home-made Hamas rocket attacks that killed two children in Sderot last week, the Israelis have deployed an estimated 2,000 soldiers and 200 tanks, and are threatening an escalation.
Why a ''right of return'' is necessary
By Sari Hanafi, Daily Star 10/7/2004
The right of return of Palestinian refugees to their place of origin is enshrined in four separate bodies of international law: humanitarian law, human rights law, the law of nationality as applied to state succession, and refugee law. Beyond these bodies of laws, which apply to all refugees in the world, the UN General Assembly specified the Palestinian case in Resolution 194, paragraph 11, which sets forth a framework for a solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees, including the possibility of return: "The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible." To understand the importance of the refugee issue to Palestinians, we must understand that the Palestinian nation and Palestinian nationalism as it exists today was born following the expulsion of over half the Palestinian population from their land in 1948, and that one of the fundamental aspects of Palestinian identity is "refugeehood." Such an understanding obliges us to address the problem of the Palestinian refugees as fundamental to any solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Palestinians in Budrus: We Will Never Give up Our Lands
By Kim Bullimore, Palestine Chronicle 10/6/2004
"The local IDF office told the village leaders they would do everything in their power to stop the movement, even if that meant that people died.." -- On the fourth anniversary of the second Palestinian intifada, the residents of the small village of Budrus once again faced off teargas, sound grenades and rubber bullets to protest the wall that is dividing their land. The September 28 protest was the 45th consecutive demonstration to stop the construction of the Apartheid Wall that is resulting in olive groves being destroyed and farmland being stolen. The violence and the injustice of the Israeli occupation is not new to Budrus or nearby villages. In 1948, the Israeli forces confiscated 80% of the village''s land. In 1953, Israel''s current prime minister, Ariel Sharon, led a massacre of 60 people in the neighbouring village of Qibya. Today, Sharon and his government are trying to steal 45% of Budrus’s remaining land through the wall. But the residents of Budrus, which is located west of Ramallah, have refused to concede. Since November 2003, the village has mounted a popular campaign of resistance, based on unity and non-violent action....
Intervention by Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights to the European Parliament
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 10/5/2004
[Acrobat (PDF) format] -- Four years after the second Intifada was sparked by a visit by the Israeli Prime Minister to the al Aqsa Mosque on the 29th of September 2000 many people involved in the Intifada, on both sides, have taken the opportunity to reflect on the current status of this historical conflict. Any reflection on the current status must indicate that after four years of Intifada the PLO and the leadership of the belligerent Israeli occupation are further away then ever before from peace, human rights and democracy. Throughout these reflections there has been a noticeable lack of focus on the extreme violations of human rights which have been committed by the occupation forces since the start of the Intifada. It is imperative that the High Contracting Parties to the Convention, as well as the EU states (both collectively and individually) take firm action against Israel for its continuing human rights violations in the oPt. The current situation in Jabalya, as well as the continuing and accelerated construction of the West Bank Annexation Wall are resulting in very real hardships for Palestinian civilians. Further the Gaza “disengagement plan” will allow Israel to divide the oPt into four distinct and separate sections with no access to each other or to the outside world. This will render the two state solution virtually impossible. The EU, if it is genuinely concerned with the rule of law and human rights must act to uphold these principles. States and International Organisations have obligations to act, not simply to behave as academic institutions.
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
By Tarif Abboushi, CounterPunch 10/6/2004
John Kerry and John Edwards used their debates with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to tell America that if the incumbents are re-elected, as far as Iraq goes we can expect ''More of the same.'' Those four words exemplify the essence of the Democrats'' argument for regime change in the U.S., a Kerry-Edwards mantra, if you will, that defines the Bush administration''s plan for dealing with the debacle they got us into in Iraq. But there''s another mantra that bodes equally ill for our efforts to win the peace in Iraq, one that is used by Democrats and Republicans alike to encapsulate their approach to dealing with the mother of all issues in the region: ''Israel has a right to defend itself.'' When John Edwards was pointedly asked to explain his party''s plan for dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflict, he ignored the question to wax indelible about Israel''s right to self-defense. Offered his opportunity to articulate the incumbency''s position, Cheney could only agree with his opponent. It would be closer to the truth for both parties to acknowledge that their plans for Israel-Palestine are one and the same: whatever Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon''s foot-soldiers inside the beltway tell them it''s going to be. At its heart, more of the same twisted logic that ascribes the right to self-defense to the occupier, but not the occupied.
Anatomy of Palestinian Outrage
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 10/6/2004
One can only imagine the utter outrage that would engage world leaders and media if a series of Palestinian bombings rocked an Israeli town, spontaneously, and in less than four days killed 60 people and wounded hundreds, mostly innocent civilians. Not even the most open-minded of media pundits could dare justify the crime; not even the most lucid of government officials could rationalise the orgy of flesh and blood made of mingled bodies, some so beyond repair, that you wish them death for their own sake. How repulsive, albeit insensitive if Fox News decided to inundate its helpless viewers with self-congratulating ‘terrorism experts’ describing the ‘surgical procedure’ followed by the Palestinian bombers whose intent was merely to target a few unidentified Israeli army officers accused of threatening the life of Palestinian civilians. Picture the horror on the dusty faces as firefighters amassing in a small Tel Aviv street to quell an inferno of homes, shops and roofless buses while medics, too busy to tend to the blown up bodies, are frantically hoping to revive the surviving few.
What would Israel do without UNRWA?
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 10/6/2004
Peter Hansen, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency in the territories, is being persecuted for having spoken the truth: Members of Hamas work in UNRWA. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department is concerned and the Israeli Foreign Ministry is not upset over the "revelation." Two days after the broadcast of aerial photos that allegedly show, according to Israel, Palestinians loading a Qassam rocket into a UNRWA ambulance, Hansen''s words could strengthen Israeli accusations that "UNRWA is collaborating with terrorists." But the Israeli assault on UNRWA could turn out to be a double-edged sword, if it leads to a cutback in the donations upon which the organization''s budget depends. Because UNRWA is one of the most important safety nets the international community has spread out under Israel, which, as an occupying power, has been unwilling to recognize its responsibility for the occupied civilian population. For the past three years, the UN has been regularly providing food aid to about half the Palestinian population, which is in a state of "food insecurity." UNRWA alone provides regular food aid to about 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The 1992 El Al Bijlmer crash: a cover-up of a chemical inferno?
By Lizzy Bloem, Electronic Intifada 10/4/2004
On Sunday, October 4, 1992, an El Al Boeing airplane carrying unspecified military cargo crashed into an apartment building in the Bijlmer neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Forty-three people directly lost their lives. More people have died since then, and many are still suffering from unidentified diseases. The Dutch government denies any connection between Bijlmer residents'' health ailments and the disaster, though hundreds of people inhaled poisonous smoke from the burning airplane and the apartment building. Some of the El Al plane''s cargo is still unknown, but three of the four components of sarin nerve gas were present at the crash site. The flats contained asbestos and lots of plastics. What is known is that the destroyed Boeing aircraft carried 75 tons of kerosene and 10 tons of chemicals. From the plane itself, at least 152 kg of depleted uranium counterweights are missing. Most probably, they burnt into particles. Because of the very sensitive cargo aboard the doomed aircraft, official investigations into the causes and repercussions of the 1992 crash have been shrouded in secrecy, denial and misinformation.
The myths and reality of Palestinian refugees in Syria: An interview with Lex Takkenberg
By Victor Kattan, Electronic Intifada 10/5/2004
Syria is a country that few people in the West know much about, or care to visit. After all, it is one of the countries that George W. Bush declared part of the "Axis of Evil." [incorrect - Ed.] But when I travelled to Syria for the first time, I could not find anything "evil" about it. Indeed, I did not find anything "evil" in the way Syria treats Palestinians who were forced to flee their homeland in 1948; and after my interview with Lex Takkenburg, Deputy Director-General of the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Syria, I concluded that "compassionate" would be a more accurate description of Syria than "evil." Greeting me at his office with a cup of tea, Lex Takkenberg and I sat down to talk about the predicament of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. Takkenberg is one of the world''s leading experts on the legal status of Palestinian refugees, combining fifteen years of experience working for UNRWA with academic distinction. Takkenberg spent ten of the fifteen years working for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. After many years of working in the Palestinian territories one gets the feeling that Takkenberg enjoys the change of working in Syria - in an environment that has been very welcoming to the Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian unity
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha''aretz 10/3/2004
Putting aside the declarations of a national emergency, the strikes in places of business, the demonstrations, and the calls for assistance in view of the massacres of the "Disengagement War," as one of the Palestinian spokesmen termed the Israel Defense Forces operation in the northern Gaza Strip, the bloody confrontation has revealed some interesting aspects of the people in the territories. The first is that there is greater audacity in the Palestinian operations. Many of the Palestinian spokesmen noted in the past two days the determination in the fighting spirit of the young fighters of Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs'' Brigades of the Fatah in the Gaza Strip. The spokesmen highlighted the attempt to carry out an attack against the Erez crossing, which failed; the efforts to cross the fence that encircles the Gaza Strip, and cross into Israel; and the attacks against the military positions. "There is today more willingness to sacrifice than ever before," a senior Palestinian Authority official said yesterday. A journalist in East Jerusalem said that the level of hatred and desire for revenge on the Palestinian street has reached an unprecedented peak. The second point is the silence of the Palestinian opposition and the unified rallying around the leadership of Yasser Arafat. This phenomenon stems from the notion that in the midst of the crisis one does not change his mount, and all internal bickering is stopped.
American Arabs and Muslims have a mountain to climb
By William Fisher, Daily Star 10/5/2004
FBI Director Robert Mueller says he is "vitally concerned that the rights of Arab Americans, Muslims and Sikhs be protected." But how does this sentiment contrast with events on the ground? According to The Washington Post, agencies of the federal government will start an aggressive campaign to thwart terrorist plots between now and the presidential inauguration in January. The paper says the FBI is "sharply limiting personal leave and transferring hundreds of agents to the effort, which will focus heavily on individuals within the United States who are suspected of having ties to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups or who sympathize with their causes." The tactics "will include aggressive and often overt surveillance, widespread interviews and, in some cases, arrests. Local police will be urged to run the names of suspicious people through the federal government''s terrorism watch list, even during traffic stops and other minor encounters." These steps will come as no surprise to Muslim-Americans. Since Sept. 11, 2001, they have had to deal with reactions like this: In a New York suburb, a Republican Congressional candidate stated, "Muslims in the U.S. military should be investigated for possible terror ties. ... Arabs in the armed forces could be working to undermine national security. ... We want to make sure that these people aren''t infiltrating the military as some kind of sleeper cell."
The forgotten side of Resolution 1559
By Chibli Mallat, Daily Star 10/5/2004
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan''s words in his report issued last Friday on implementation of Resolution 1559 and the extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud''s mandate should be saluted. If taken up seriously by the Security Council this week, they provide a missing ingredient in response to a perennial problem that has afflicted the Middle East during the last four decades: the absence of a regular, nonviolent alternation of power at the top. To quote from Annan''s report (written by Terje Roed-Larsen, who nevertheless was quoting from a previous statement of the secretary general), "governments and leaders should not hold on to office beyond prescribed term limits." I commend Annan because I have repeatedly had my differences with the secretary general on his points of emphasis in various matters Middle Eastern. He has not been forthcoming enough in opposing the positions of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, though it has systematically undermined the efforts of the Quartet in its search for a comprehensive peace. On Iraq, Annan was too often ambiguous in his dealings with Saddam Hussein: In 1998, for example, he personally engineered a diplomatic exit for the Iraqi leader at the time of the imbroglio over inspections of the presidential palaces, unnecessarily delaying a showdown with the Iraqi regime. More importantly, Annan was unable last year to chart a way out for the UN amid divisions in the organization over Iraq, culminating in its post-war departure from the country after the bomb attack against its headquarters in Baghdad. Many in Syria and Lebanon have already brushed aside Annan''s statements on Resolution 1559. However, that does not really matter, as much depends on what the Security Council will do this week with the secretary general''s devastatingly accurate diagnosis of the Syrian-Lebanese relationship.
Next year in Tehran
By Amir Oren, Ha''aretz 10/1/2004
For the past three years the central war game of the U.S. armed forces has been centered on Iran. But what exactly will await them there, even they do not purport to know -- Six divisional task forces of the U.S. armed forces, subordinate to three corps commands arrive simultaneously from six different directions; two airborne expeditionary forces (combat wings, transport, command and control, intelligence, refueling); five aircraft carriers at a distance of up to 1,500 kilometers from their northernmost targets; three Special Forces battalions - all struck at Iran and pushed to seize its capital city. The Iranians sent a far larger ground force into action against them, consisting of 15-17 corps commands, suffering blatantly from air inferiority but trained to use drones against the invader, along with missiles and weapons of mass destruction (most likely chemical and biological, not nuclear. The fighting centered on Tehran, where the Americans were out to topple the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was 30 days away from installing a nuclear warhead on a surface-to-surface missile, whose range included American targets. It is on the basis of this scenario that, for the past three years, the central war game of the U.S. armed forces has been conducted, under the codename Unified Quest, or UQ for short. The stages of the game continue throughout the year and it reaches its peak in one feverish week in May, at the War College in Carlyle, Pennsylvania.
It''s the Occupation, Stupid!
By Am Johal, International Middle East Media Center 9/29/2004
Jerusalem - Four years ago on September 28, 2000, when Ariel Sharon made his operatic visit to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem igniting the Second Intifada, no one could have predicted how dire the situation would become so quickly: Close to 6,000 dead, the building of the Separation Wall along inside the West Bank in Palestinian Territory despite an International Court of Justice decision calling it illegal, mass movement restrictions, continued West Bank settlement expansion, the Gaza withdrawal still on hold and the Roadmap to Peace ostensibly dead. This is seemingly the pathetic legacy of the Al Aqsa Intifada years and Ariel Sharon''s Likud government. The First Intifada between the years 1987-1993 was largely seen as a mass Palestinian movement which put the Palestinian agenda for an independent state on the radar of both Israel and the international community. It led to the Oslo Peace Process in 1993 and a hopeful time in Israeli-Palestinian relations until the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. The Al Aqsa Intifada, as the Second Intifada, began as a Palestinian uprising to get the peace process back on the table and to set the stage for an independent Palestinian state. But it has been a far bloodier incarnation of the First Intifada with fewer achievements on the diplomatic front.
Four years on, what are the conclusions?
By Danny Rabinowitz, Ha''aretz 10/1/2004
We need reminding of the reasons for the events of October, 2000. First, there was the surge in the identification of young Arabs in Israel with Palestinian nationalism, which turned into an angry wave of distrust after Israel''s behavior at Camp David in the summer of 2000. Second is the feeling of structural discrimination that increases the despair of the Arab population. This moderated in Yitzhak Rabin''s time but waxed even stronger during the tenures of prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak as they perpetuated civil inequality and blocked prosperity. Third, there was the mistaken concept was adopted by the police, according to which the Arab population had chosen a path of confrontation with the state - a concept that eventually became a self-fulfilling prophecy. But alongside the core processes it is important to understand the sequence of events of the weekend of the 28th of September to October 1, 2000, to identify their weight in lighting the fires and to draw conclusions from them for the future.
Where Are We After Four Years Of Intifada?
By Haithem El-Zabri, International Middle East Media Center 9/30/2004
The Palestinian Position: "Give me liberty or give me death" Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of the Palestinian people''s uprising against the illegal Israeli occupation. In spite of the enormous imbalance of power, and in spite of the very heavy losses the Palestinians are suffering on a daily basis, all signs indicate that the struggle for freedom is not about to stop. All indications show that the Palestinians will no longer accept the miserable status quo, and are willing to pay with their lives for liberty. During the past four years, 3,236 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces, the vast majority unarmed civilians, including 621 children. In comparison, 1,008 Israelis have been killed, 112 of them children. Israel still practises the abhorent policy of extra-judicial "targeted assassinations," by which they have murdered 230 Palestinian leaders and almost as many bystanders. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been injured, many of them permanently. More than 7,500 Palestinians languish in Israeli prisons under inhumane conditions, many without due process, including women and children. Healthwise, more than 30% of Palestinian children are suffering from chronic malnutrition, which often results in permanent damage. Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, is without clean drinking water and on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
Half an hour later, people were still collecting body parts
By Amira Hass, Ha''aretz 10/1/2004
At 10 A.M., B. arrived at his family''s house in the Jabalya refugee camp to try and persuade his parents, uncles and sisters to leave the danger zone and spend a few days at his house in Gaza City. Since Tuesday night, the camp has been under incessant fire, from missiles, tank and helicopter guns and snipers. Bulldozers destroyed houses and uprooted orchards. The electricity was cut, fixed and cut again. In many houses, the water was running out: Bulldozers and tanks had damaged the wells and pipes. B. pleaded with his family until 12:30 P.M. But his parents, both in their 70s, refused to leave their home. At 4:30 P.M. (3:30 Israel time), a tank shell exploded 20 or 30 meters from their house on Madaras Street. B.''s sister A., a 30-year-old lawyer, heard the explosion, which shook the whole house, and afterward, "like rain," pieces of metal falling on the roof, and then the shouts and groans, which penetrated the house along with the smoke and dust. In a telephone conversation, she said she assumed it was a flechette shell, which emits nail-like darts when it explodes - particularly after she saw the lacerated bodies and limbs in the street. Many of the wounded were children, she said. Half an hour later, people were still collecting body parts. The tank remained where it was. But that explosion convinced the street''s residents to leave. B''s family went by back streets to the taxi station, and then to Gaza City.
Palestinians count intifada''s gains and cost
By Laila El-Haddad iand Khaled, Al-Jazeera 10/1/2004
Al-Aqsa Intifada enters its fifth year this week, with a steadily mounting death toll, increasing Israeli repression and little prospect of an end to the conflict. The past two months have seen an escalation in Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, resulting in a large number of Palestinian civilian casualties. According to a report by the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committee''s Dr Mustapha Barghouthi, 3335 Palestinians have been killed during the last four years, a startling 82% of whom were civilians. In the same period, 1017 Israeli soldiers, paramilitary settlers and civilians were also killed. About one in five Palestinian dead were children, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed with live-ammunition injuries to the upper body. Some 53, 000 Palestinian have been injured, 2500 of which have become permanently disabled. Altered field: The past year has also been marked by regional and domestic changes that have significantly altered the playing field in more ways than one. This time last year, throngs of Palestinians from across the political spectrum marched through Gaza''s streets to mark the intifada''s third anniversary. Fast forward one year, and save for a symbolic show of force in the Rafah stadium by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Gaza''s streets were all but empty. The Islamic Resistance Group, Hamas, having suffered seve |
