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Part I: (ISM reports)
Part II: (Articles and News)
Not Allowed to Live On the morning of July 2, 2002, a group of seven internationals, working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), accompanied a group of Palestinian farmers from the village of Halhoul, outside Hebron, to harvest their fields. The fields are close to the settlement of Karme Tzur, and the farmers have been routinely denied access to their lands by soldiers and attacked by settlers when they attempt to work there. As we approached the first roadblock, a family came climbing over. An elderly woman was crying and shouting, clutching her head in pain. The family had been working on their land when settlers attacked, throwing stones. The woman had been hit in the head and had a laceration as well as a lemon-sized lump over her left eye. She was very upset and frightened, and in a lot of pain. As we tried to comfort her and call an ambulance, the soldiers came. They pulled up in an APC, three soldiers sticking their heads up out of the hatch. The farmers began to tell the soldiers that the woman had been attacked and needed medical attention. One soldier repeated, “I don’t care. This road is closed. You have to get off.” The other two kept their rifles trained on us. The farmers we were escorting had written permission from the police to work their land, and we showed this to the soldiers. They didn’t care; they just kept getting angrier, shouting at us to get off the road and firing in the air. One woman from CPT got the chief of police on the phone and convinced the soldier doing most of the yelling to talk to him. A few moments of quiet while they talk, just the sound of the woman crying. He handed the phone back. “They cannot be on this road. There is a curfew on this road and these fields.” There was no curfew in Hebron or in Halhoul, but there suddenly was a “curfew” in the exact place where we needed to be. We argued some more, and the soldiers began firing again, first in the air and then at us, over our heads. They threw a sound bomb, and we retreated down the road a short distance. At this point the APC turned around and headed down the newly-closed road. An ambulance arrived to take the injured woman to the hospital, and we waited for several hours by the side of the road while the farmers discussed what to do. Finally we approached the roadblock again. A jeep pulled up, and we attempted to reason with the soldiers again; we were again unsuccessful. This time, the soldier in charge physically pushed us away from the roadblock, and gave us a vague promise that we could come back “later.” Most of us headed back to the home of one of the farmers for lunch and rest, while two of us headed back to Hebron. When we reached the bridge between Hebron and Halhoul, however, we found out it was closed; snipers shot at us when we tried to cross. There was a large group of Palestinians waiting for the shooting to stop so that they could get through to Hebron. We returned to the farmer’s house and spent the afternoon there. Around 4:30 p.m. we put in a call to TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron), who told us they hadn’t heard any shooting at the bridge for half an hour, so we made our way across. We are all back in Hebron now, and plan to try again in the morning. Eden C. To reach us in Hebron, please call – 056-389-317 For more information on the International Solidarity Movement: Huwaida Arraf – 052-642-709 or 067-473-308 Ghassan Andoni 052 595 319 Amaari Refugee Camp, Rammalah June 30 Today soldiers began to round up all of the men and boys between the ages of 15 and 50 at the Amaari refugee camp in Rammalah. I accompanied around 20 international peace activists into the camp in an attempt to lower the level of violence being implemented on the population. I observed many small pockets of men being held at different locations around the refugee camp. In one large field there were around 200 men being held. Our group decided to split up in order to be able to cover more territory and myself along with three other activists began to navigate the narrow alleyways observing soldiers going home to home with several soldiers entering each, often having to sledge hammer in the doors. Occasional explosions in the area made the tense situation worse. Women and children looked out of their homes and were very greatful for our presence. Sometimes inviting us in to look at the damage done by the soldiers, offering us beverages. Even in this situation hospitality was the rule. We witnessed one home that had been taken over by Israeli Soldiers who were enjoying the World Cup game in their confiscated living room. We observed several homes the soldiers had taken over at least one with a Palestinian man and we were informed, a baby girl that we believe were being held hostage inside. At one point an elderly man was being forced to walk ahead of the soldiers as a shield but was released when I informed the soldiers they were in flagrant violation of international law. In this same area a small baby was made to be out in the narrow alleyway along with her grandmother while the Soldiers occupied the house. There were approximately 12 soldiers guns at the ready, pointed in all directions with this small baby sitting in the street. A few meters away there was a young girl about 4 years of age obviously terrified wanting her mother but the soldiers were in her home and all around it's entrance. She held my hand and hid behind my leg until a young woman from the neighborhood also obviously frightened came and escorted her away. Through out the day soldiers forced all of the international observers to leave. Soon after the incident with the little girl those same soldiers chose to forcibly remove myself and the other three international observers from the area. When we challenged the authority they had to do this my arm was taken and twisted behind my back and another soldier attempted to put plastic handcuffs on me. I managed to squirm free but one of my companions was put in handcuffs and we seemed to have no choice but to get in the military jeep or be physicaly forced in. We were driven out of the refugee camp to the outskirts of Ramallah where some boys through rocks at the jeep and the soldiers jumped out and promptly responded with gunfire. We were unable to see if any of the children were wounded. We were dropped off just outside Rammalah and warned not to return. Mike McCurdy Haaretz (Israeli daily), July 02, 02 How Abd a-Samed became the 116th child killed in Gaza Some 26 percent of those killed by IDF fire in the Strip are children, compared to 15 percent in the West Bank By Amira Hass The June 21 funeral of Abd a-Samed Shamalekh, 10 : " What did he do that they shot him? He didn't even throw stones. " GAZA - He loved nothing more than to go down to the sea, swim, and fly his home-made kite - but on Friday morning, June 21, Abd a-Samed Shamalekh, aged 10, went instead to his family's plot of land to pick eggplants and cucumbers. This is how Abd a-Samed and his brother Mohammed, 12, spent their summer vacation - either by the sea, or working in the fields and selling vegetables. The family owns 4.5 dunams of land and the vegetables they grow on it support 15 people. The Shamalekh family lives in the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood, in the southern part of Gaza City. It is a crowded place of two-story homes built in the past two decades by people whose main livelihood comes from tilling the soil. The neighborhood sprawls over the sandy hill that rises from the beach. Red Bougainvillea sprout from the sand and climb over the iron gates and up the concrete plaster of the houses. The narrow, bottleneck of a coastal road separates the family's home from the sea. They ride in a donkey cart to the field, about 1.5 kilometers to the south. As in most of Sheikh Ajlin, the land was once planted with vines but the Shamalekh family switched to vegetables. A vineyard produced grapes once a year, but vegetables provide work and income throughout the whole year. On June 21, there was shooting early in the morning. Perhaps at 5, or maybe at 6 A.M. It's hard to remember exactly, the family says. When they looked outside, they saw the southbound traffic had come to a halt and realized it would be still impossible to get the field. Around 8:00 or 8:30, the cars began to move again and the family understood that the situation had calmed. Shooting, a traffic halt, more shooting, and then quiet again - it's a regular routine in the neighborhood. Netzarim settlement is 2 km to the southeast, guarded by " half the Israeli army " as they say in Gaza. Most of the agricultural land in the sand dunes surrounding Netzarim has already been destroyed in the past 22 months. Fields and hothouses have been crushed, raked over, and flattened, with grape vines uprooted or cut down. Dry tomato plants and remnants of grapevines are scattered on the sides of the road. Nonetheless, some green patches have survived and they continue to be worked by their owners or by those who have leased the plots - on the eastern and western sides of the coastal road. The asphalt road leading to Netzarim to the east is barred to Palestinian traffic and used only for tanks and jeeps. A single dwelling, belonging to the Abu Husa family, stands alone in the scorched earth. The IDF has taken up positions in this house for over a year, keeping close watch on the farmers returning to their fields and on the vehicles and carts on the road. Lots of blood Abd a-Samed and Mohammed went to the field that Friday morning to see what was happening - the curiosity of children. Rumors had reached the city that an Israeli bulldozer had begun to destroy and clear out the farm plots in the area. They also wanted to pick several kilos of vegetables and bring them in the cart to their father, so he could sell them in the market. Then they'd be able to return to the sea and play with the kite, the wind and waves. Just after 9 o'clock in the morning, about half an hour after the children left the house, word reached the parents that Mohammed was wounded. Then they were told that it was Abd a-Samed and that he had been rushed to the hospital. The parents found his dead body at the hospital with a bullet in his head. On that Friday morning, Palestinians had fired an improvised anti-tank rocket against an IDF position adjacent to the Netzarim settlement. A Givati soldier was seriously injured. Army sources told Ha'aretz that this had occurred at six or seven in the morning and that IDF forces " identified the sources of shooting and returned fire. " Later, the IDF destroyed a nearby position of the Palestinian naval police. According to the IDF Spokesman, the rocket had been fired from this naval base. Did Palestinians also fire at an IDF post at 9 A.M.? The IDF Spokesman told Ha'aretz that it is reasonable to assume that there was and that the IDF had fired in response. Journalists who visited the spot, a researcher for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and residents of the area said that the scene had already become quiet by 8:30 and there were no exchanges of gunfire. The fact is traffic had begun to move again, farmers had begun to hurry to their fields to see what had happened to their plots of land, and photographers came to take pictures of the bulldozer moving back and forth over the ground, crushing additional vegetable plants. Heavy fire suddenly broke through the quiet. The reporters and residents said that the shooting came either from the positions in Netzarim or from a tank that had just crossed the road. Dozens of people, mostly women and children, clung to the ground in fear, their faces buried in the sand and soil. Mohammed and his brother Abd a-Samed had had almost reached their family's land already when the shooting began. Like everyone else, they lay flat on the ground - or at least Mohammed thought so. After several minutes, he said to his brother that the shooting was apparently over and they could continue on. Abd a-Samed didn't answer and when Mohammed turned to look, he saw lots of blood. He called for help, but there was no ambulance in the area. Someone dragged Abd a-Samed to a donkey cart that somebody else brought. They took the child in this cart, not knowing whether he was still alive, until they reached an ambulance. " He was already gone when they brought him from there, " the father says. " What did he do that they shot at him? He didn't even throw stones. The soldiers have everything - cameras, binoculars - they always brag that they see everything. So they could know very well that this child didn't shoot at them. They could see very clearly that they were children and that they had no weapons. This was also in broad daylight, not in the dark. " Later, the bulldozer also plowed up the Shamalekh family's vegetable plot. All of the cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes were crushed. All of their livelihood for the summer and fall months was ruined in a matter of minutes. Three motorized pumps that brought water from the well were also destroyed. Since the days of the Turks, we have been working this land, " the father said. " Now we'll go and sell lupine beans in the street, " his wife said with a bitter laugh. Their son Mohammed contributes a small pittance to the family - he helps his uncle in construction work, returning home with black and blistered hands. The family still has another half a dunam, where it grows tomatoes. But since it is now impossible to export vegetables from Gaza to the West Bank or Israel, there is a huge supply of tomatoes and their low price in the Gaza market does not cover the cost of cultivation. A carton of 17 kilos of tomatoes sells for only three shekels. Killing Gaza kids Abd a-Samed Shamalekh, who was supposed to start Grade 4 after the summer vacation, was the 116th Palestinian child the IDF has killed in the Gaza Strip since September 28, 2000. According to figures compiled by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, 450 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF during the intifada as of yesterday. These figures do not include those who mounted offensives against IDF positions or settlements and were killed during these attacks. The numbers do include armed Palestinian civilians or security personnel who responded to IDF attacks against residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. According to these strict criteria, 1,398 people were killed by IDF fire in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the intifada as of June 18. (Since then, 8 more were killed in Gaza and at least 15 in the West Bank.) Of these 1,398 fatalities, 253 were children. This does not include Shamalekh, a 17-year old from Rafah, seven children killed by IDF fire during the past 10 days in the West Bank, and another child who died when his house collapsed after the IDF destroyed an adjacent home. Among the Palestinian dead are 77 women, including 18 in the Gaza Strip. Since this data was compiled on June 18, another woman was also killed by the IDF in Dir al-Balah. The proportion of children among those killed in Gaza is much higher than in the West Bank - 26 percent of the fatalities in Gaza were children, compared to 15 percent in the West Bank. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights attributes this to the higher population density in the Gaza Strip, to the fact that children make up over 50 percent of this crowded region, and to the close proximity of IDF bases to Palestinian communities. But the Center's analysts believe that the high number of child victims primarily indicates that IDF forces have often fired at civilians and residential areas without using the means at their disposal to confirm that their fire is indeed directed precisely " at the sources of [Palestinian] fire. " According to the Center, this high number of children killed also reflects the fact the IDF has sometimes responded to shootings hours after an incident, not as part of an exchange of fire. This is how Abd a-Samed Shamalekh was killed. Bush's constructive engagement Michigan Daily By Fadi Kiblawi July 01, 2002 In July 1986, in an address to the nation criticizing Nelson Mandela's African National Congress, former President Ronald Reagan affirmed, " The South African government is under no obligation to negotiate the future of the country with any organization that proclaims a goal of creating a communist state and uses terrorist tactics to achieve this. " Dיjא vu? The odd familiarity of this invective to last week's short-sighted singling out of the Palestinian leadership by President Bush marks a resurgence of United States complicity in the face of injustice. Countering this, the international community has been stirring due to an onslaught of public statements from a growing number of South Africans, including Mandela and Jewish Parliament Minister Ronnie Kasrils, analogizing Israel's occupation to apartheid. A quick look at a map of the West Bank, with its 13 isolated cantons embodying 287 enclosed areas, shows an uncanny resemblance, as echoed by a growing number of academics and scholars, to the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa. This cantonization, catalyzed by an 8-year peace process beginning with the Oslo Accords in 1993, was characterized with a recurring theme of full implementation by Israel of Palestinian concessions (including a recognition of an Israeli state on 78 percent of historic Palestine), in exchange for vague Israeli offers. To avoid implementing these, the Israelis, with a blind eye or a slap on the wrist by the United States, either cited ambiguity or insisted on renegotiating, until finally nearly everything the Palestinians were due was thrown into the imaginary vault reserved for " final-status talks. " In an article entitled, " Apartheid in the Holy Land, " Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu described the resulting suffering of the Palestinian people: " I've been very distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. " While the Israelis continue to slice the territories with Jewish-only by pass roads and settlements, they are resurrecting the same unsubstantiated rhetoric that the Afrikaners employed, and in turn the international community eventually rejected, in the 1980s. Just as the South African government offered the blacks non-contiguous self-determination within their " homelands, " so too did the Israelis with their not-so- " generous offer " to the Palestinians at Camp David in the summer of 2000. Just as the white government justified their subjugation of the black population as a war on terrorism, so too are the Israelis with their repression of the Palestinians. One victim, Breyten Breytenbach, who like Mandela, was incarcerated under the Terrorism Act of 1967, described what he saw on his visit to Palestine as, " resembling Bantustans - for only too often are they reminiscent of the ghettoes and the controlled camps of misery one knew in South Africa. " Just as Sharon, whose Likud Party's official platform opposes a Palestinian state on the baseless grounds that it will lead to the destruction of Israel, wants peace on his own intransigent terms; former South African President P.W. Botha, who repeatedly asserted that he was committed to change at his own pace, stated in his infamous 1985 Rubicon Speech, " I am not prepared to lead white South Africa and other minority groups on a road to abdication and suicide. " With the predominance of peaceful coexistence today, the antithesis has been confirmed. On the home front, the similarities continue. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration tacitly supported South African apartheid, which was militarily supplied by Israel, with a policy they called, " constructive engagement. " This approach, based on common strategic objectives, offered closer diplomatic ties and expressions of solidarity with the minority government. To marginalize Mandela's resistance movement, Reagan referred to the ANC, which like the Palestinian counterpart employed violent tactics, as a terrorist enemy in their, during the times of the Cold War, battle against communism. Replacing the war on " communism " with, ironically, its offshoot, the subjectively-based war on terrorism, Bush's platform against Palestine is identical. While there are merits for a call for new Palestinian leadership and reform, the fact remains that this, as The New York Times argued last week, is impossible under the Israeli occupation, the root cause of today's conflict. As the struggle against apartheid taught us, a peace based on justice will inevitably prevail. Unfortunately, with the Israeli right, full of its zealots and war criminals, in power, little room is left for hope for the time being. While we wait for an Israeli F.W. De Klerk, who is willing to take the necessary steps towards peace, we must pressure our administration to take a moral stand against Israel's violations of international law and human rights. In the words of Archbishop Tutu, who is a patron of a Holocaust center in South Africa: " If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction. " Kiblawi is an LSA senior, president of the University's chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, co-chair of the Minority Affairs Commission and a co-founder of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality. Post your feedback at: http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/07/01/3d1fc33e30c0e Strongly Recomended (Ghassan) Americans for Middle East Understanding has co-sponsored a publication that is extremely powerful. Please view it at www.whowillsavethechildren.org then order as many copies as you can distribute for the cost of postage only. The Penal Colonies by Tanya Reinhart (This is an expanded version of an article in Yediot Aharonot, June 30, 2002.) The Gaza strip is a perfect realization of the Israeli vision of " separation " . Surrounded with electric fences and army posts, completely sealed off the outside world, Gaza has become a huge prison. About onethird of its land was confiscated for the 7,000 Israeli settlers living there (and their defense array), while over a million Palestinians are crowded in the remaining areas of the prison. With no work or sources of income, about 80% of its residents depend, for their living, on UNRWA, or contributions from Arab states and charity organizations. Now Israel is considering the imprisonment there of families of suicide bombers from the West Bank (1). As a senior Israeli analyst stated, Gaza can now serve as " the penal colony " of Israel its " devils island, Alcatraz " . (Nahum Barnea, Yediot Aharonot June 21, 2002). This is the future that Sharon and the Israeli army designate for the West Bank as well. While the external fence is presently being built, Israel's current military operation is set to be the final step in the implementation the IDF plans for reestablishing full military rule (which was abolished in large parts of the West Bank during the Oslo process). Though Israel describes everything it does as a spontaneous reaction to terror, the plan was fully spelled out in the Israeli media already back in March 2001, soon after Sharon entered office. Alex Fishman, military and strategic analyst of Yediot Aharonot, explained at the time that since Oslo, " the IDF regarded the occupied territories as if they were one territorial cell " , and this placed some constraints on the IDF and enabled a certain amount of freedom for the PA and the Palestinian population. The new plan is a return to the concept of the military administration during the preOslo years: the occupied territories will be divided into tens of isolated " territorial cells " , each of which will be assigned a special military force, " and the local commander will have freedom to use his discretion " as to when and who to shoot. (Yediot Ahronot weekend supplement, March 9.2001). The first stage of this plan the destruction of the institutions of the Palestinian Authority was completed in the previous 'Operation Defensive Shield' in April of this year. In practice, from that time on, the towns and villages of the West Bank have been completely sealed. Even exit by foot, which was possible up to that point, became blocked, and movement between the " territorial cells " now requires formal permits from the Israeli military authorities. Soldiers and snipers prevent any " unauthorized " walking to agricultural fields, to places of work and study, or for medical treatment. However, unlike the preOslo period of Israeli military rule, the army makes it clear that there is no intention to construct any civil administration that will take care of the basic daily needs of the two million Palestinians, such as food supplies, health services, garbage and sewage. For these tasks, some form of a Palestinian Authority will be maintained, though in practice it will not be allowed to function. As a 'military source' told Ha'aretz, " Internal conclusions of the security echelons, following operation 'Defensive Shield', assessed that the functioning of the civil branches of the Palestinian Authority had reached an unprecedented nadir, mainly due to the destruction the IDF operation left behind in Ramallah (including the systematic destruction of computers and databases)... Combined with the severe restrictions on movement, the Palestinian population is becoming, as the military source defined it, 'poor, dependent, unemployed, rather hungry, and extreme'... The financial reserves of the Palestinian authority are reaching the bottom... In a future not far off, the majority of Palestinians will only be able to maintain a reasonable life through the help of international aid. " (Ha'aretz Hebrew edition, June 23, 2002, Amos Har'el). Thus, the West Bank is being driven to the level of poverty of the Gaza strip. Nevertheless, at the same time that Israel deprives the Palestinians of their means of income, it also makes a substantial effort to diminish or block international aid, under the pretext that the aid is used to support terrorists or their families. At the outset of its new 'operation', Israel " decided to stop the flow of foodaid and medicine from Iran and Iraq to Palestinians in the territories " (Ha'aretz, June 24, 2002, Amos Har'el). Iranian and Iraqi aid is an easy target for Israel, as these countries belong to the " Axis of Evil " . However, Israel started launching a more ambitious campaign: The EU the largest PA donor is under constant pressure from Israel to cut its aid, which is used, inter alia to pay the salaries of teachers and health workers. The tactics are always the same: Israel provides some documents presumably linking the PA to terror. Any aid to the PA is, therefore, aid to terror (2). UNRWA's aid is the next target. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA) has become a major source of food for Palestinians in the besieged territories. Its food supplies are now delivered not only to the refugee camps, but also in towns and villages. The amount of food UNRWA supplies has increased fourfold in two years (3). Recently, " Israel has begun a campaign in the United States and the United Nations to urge a reconsideration of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, operates. Israel charges that UNRWA workers simply ignored the fact that Palestinian organizations were turning the camps into terrorist bases and it is demanding the agency start reporting all military or terrorist actions within the camps to the UN.... Meanwhile, Jewish and proIsraeli lobbyists in the U.S. are waging a parallel campaign ... American Jewish lobbyists are basing their efforts on the fact that the U.S. currently contributes some 30 percent of UNRWA's $400 million a year budget, and is therefore in a position to influence the agency: A congressional refusal to approve UNRWA's funding could seriously disrupt its operations. (Ha'aretz June 29, 2002, Nathan Guttman). The campaign is not yet demanding cutting UNRWA's aid and presence altogether, but raising the impossible demand that UNRWA should serve as an active force in " the war against terror " ( " reporting military or terrorist actions " ) is the first step towards such a demand.(4) Since September 11, Sharon has been constructing an analogy between the occupied territories and Afghanistan (with the PA as Al Qaeda). He keeps declaring that the solution to Palestinian terror, and the required 'reforms', should be along the lines set in Afghanistan. The analogy is frighteningly revealing: As it established the 'reforms' in Afghanistan, the US forced starvation upon millions of people. This is how Noam Chomsky described it: " On Sept. 16, the New York Times reported that 'Washington has also demanded [from Pakistan] a cutoff of fuel supplies...and the elimination of truck convoys that provide much of the food and other supplies to Afghanistan's civilian population.' Astonishingly, that report elicited no detectable reaction in the West, a grim reminder of the nature of the Western civilization that leaders and elite commentators claim to uphold. In the following days, those demands were implemented... 'The country was on a lifeline,' one evacuated aid worker reports, 'and we just cut the line' (NY times Magazine, September 30). According to the world's leading newspaper, then, Washington demanded that Pakistan ensures the death of enormous numbers of Afghans, millions of them already on the brink of starvation, by cutting off the limited sustenance that was keeping them alive. " (Interview with Michael Albert, reprinted in Noam Chomsky, 911, Seven Stories, 2002). Arundhati Roy, summarized this at the time: " Witness the infinite justice of the new century. Civilians starving to death while they're waiting to be killed " (Guardian, Sept. 29). The new stage of Israel's 'separation' can no longer be compared to the Apartheid of South Africa. As Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's Minister of Water Affairs, said in an Interview with Al Ahram Weekly, " the South African apartheid regime never engaged in the sort of repression Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians " (Issue of March 28 April 3, 2002). We are witnessing the daily invisible killing of the sick and wounded being deprived of medical care, the weak who cannot survive in the new poverty conditions, and those who are bound to reach starvation. Nevertheless, the public debate in Israel revolves around questions of efficiency: Is it possible to stop terror in such methods. Let us suppose even that it is. Is it allowed? Is this what we (Israelis) want to be? One people stole the 'Lamb of its poor neighbor'(5): Gaza and the West Bank are 22% of the land of IsraelPalestine, where the Palestinians lived in the past. On this small piece of land, three million people live, with hopes, needs and dreams, just like ours. Since Oslo, they have been lured with promises that we are about to evacuate the settlements and give them back their land, at the very same time that we have been imprisoning them in Gaza, stealing more of their land in the West Bank, and leaving them no hope whatsoever. The Palestinian people are fighting for their freedom. The crimes of Palestinian terror do not remove our culpability for our own crimes. Before Oslo, as well, there was a wave of horrible terror attacks. But at that time, after each such attack, the call was heard get out of the territories! Then it was still understood that when you leave people no hope, there is no way to stop the madness of suicide bombing. It is not too late to get out of the territories. (1) In its meeting on Friday, June 21, 2002, the Israeli cabinet " decided in principle in favor both of the expulsion of families of suicide strikers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip... The implementation of this expulsion policy depends upon the outcome of a legal review. " ('IDF set to expel bombers' families' By Aluf Benn, Amos Harel and Gideon Alon, Ha'aretz June 23, 2002). (2) Here is one example of the pressure on the EU: " The documents seized from PA offices in recent months, some of which were included in the document compiled by minister without portfolio Dan Naveh following Operation Defensive Shield, were presented last week to the EC delegation in Israel and representatives of the International Monetary Fund at a meeting with IDF intelligence officers. Naveh claims the documents prove European financial aid has been used to finance terrorism and incitement, and has also found its way into the pockets of senior PA officials. The head of the EC's delegation to Israel, Giancarlo Chevallard, told Ha'aretz that at the meeting, the delegation saw evidence that Arafat is financing terrorism, but added Israel had not provided evidence that European financial aid which is designated to pay the salaries of PA employees is being used to finance terrorist attacks. Another senior delegation official said he was extremely skeptical Israel had evidence to prove European aid is being used by the PA to finance terrorism... Meanwhile, in the shadow of the Israeli accusations, the European Parliament's budgetary committee last week delayed the transfer of 18.7 million euros in financial aid to the PA until the EC reports how the money is to be distributed... " (Ha'aretz, June 6, 2002, Yair Ettinger) This specific frozen amount was released in the meanwhile, however Israel's pressure continues. (3) Amos Har'el, 'The IDF neutralizes the Palestinian Authority, and humanitarian organizations try to replace it', Ha'aretz Hebrew edition, June 23, 2002. (Quoted before). (4). The campaign against UNRWA started earlier: " In letters written to Annan in May, Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter and Democratic U.S. Representative Tom Lantos accused the U.N. agency of allowing and promoting terrorist activity in the camps. Specter said UNRWA schools promoted antiIsraeli and anti Semitic sentiments and Lantos said the agency allowed terrorists to organize in the camps. " (Inter Press Service, June 24, 2002) (5) Bible, Samuel II, 12:11: " 12:1The LORD sent Natan to David. He came to him, and said to him, " There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. 12:2The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 12:3but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter. 12:4A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him. " (http://ebible.org/bible/hnv/2Sam.htm) The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People 64 Star Street, P.O.Box 24 Beit Sahour - Palestine www.rapprochement.org The center is a non-profit making NGO, started in 1988 during the first Intifada. PCR runs community service programs, youth empowerment and training programs. PCR is also very much involved in the non-violent resistance against the Israeli Occupation to Palestine. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: |
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