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PALESTINE: Israel's war of terror continues19 June 2002
BY ROHAN PEARCE
Western media reporting on the Middle East over recent weeks has focussed on the deaths caused by a handful of suicide bombings in Israel. Missing from most of the coverage is the scale of the violence being unleashed on Palestinians, particularly those in the West Bank. Every week there are more assaults on Palestinian towns and villages, sieges, shootings and arrests. On June 10, Israeli tanks moved into Ramallah, laying siege to the headquarters of Palestinian Authority (PA) president Yasser Arafat (the Muqata'a). US-supplied Apache helicopter gunships covered the advance of around 20 tanks and other armoured vehicles, and loudspeakers threatened that people leaving their houses would be shot. The Israel Defense Force operation began the previous night when the IDF surrounded Ramallah and entered it from four sides at 4am. By 6am, six Palestinians had been arrested during house-to-house searches. On June 11, Israeli bulldozers used rubble to seal off the PA compound. Arafat's living quarters were among the rooms destroyed during the assault. A further 54 Palestinians were arrested on that day, including 30 at a teachers' seminar. Among those detained was Abdel Rahim Mallouh, deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP, along with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas, has refused ministerial positions in Arafat's “reformed” cabinet. The PFLP's leader, Ahmed Sa'adat, has been imprisoned by the PA since January, although last week the Palestinian Supreme Court ordered his release. According to Israel Radio, three buildings in the PA compound, already damaged in an Israeli attack on June 6, were destroyed. An article in the June 17 Time magazine quoted a US state department official commenting on the Israeli raid: “We went to the Israelis and said, `What's going on?' Their answer was, `We're going down to the Muqata'a, and we're going to blow up some buildings.' They haven't given us a particularly cogent reason why they decided to do this.” Israel's latest assault followed a suicide bombing on June 9 which killed 17 Israelis. Responsibility for the attack was taken by Islamic Jihad, an anti-PA group. Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said on June 10 that the US “again reminds Israel about the importance of remembering the repercussions of whatever action Israel takes today impacting the broader goals of achieving peace tomorrow”. However, the timing of the latest assault on Arafat's compound — just hours before Sharon met with Bush — was a clear statement that Israel isn't interested in any “peace process” unless it's on its terms: total Palestinian subservience. Raising the stakesIDF troops shot a Palestinian at the Amari refugee camp. The Daheisheh refugee camp and villages near Hebron, Kalkilya and Tulkarm were also raided. Two Palestinians were wounded by Israeli troops in Khan Yunes, in the south of the Gaza Strip. On June 12, an eight-year-old Palestinian was killed by the IDF near the Netzarim settlement. The child's mother, Selmia al-Matwi, said, “He was crying and he wanted to buy some sweets, but soon he was about to step outside the tent, bullets sprayed the whole area”.Before his Washington meeting with US President George Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised the stakes in any future “peace” talks by giving the go ahead for the construction of a wall which will cement (literally) Israel's control of areas surrounding the West Bank seized in the 1967 war. In some areas the wall annexes further Palestinian territory. A Hamas activist told Time that the wall won't prevent suicide bombings. What it will do, however, is impose further collective punishment on Palestinians by preventing many from travelling freely to other Palestinian-controlled areas and to work in Israeli-controlled areas, as well as tightening the Israeli government's control over the movement and lives of West Bank-residing Palestinians. Sharon's intentions in constructing this wall are more political than military. Fencing off areas of the West Bank will help him deal with Israelis who, given that the stated goals of Operation Defensive Shield (the orgy of destruction carried out by the IDF in the Occupied Territories, including the devastation of the Jenin refugee camp) have conspicuously failed, are demanding that the government do more to stop the suicide bombings, which are increasing again following Operation Defensive Shield. The wall also lays a basis, as international pressure for some form of Palestinian state grows, for minimising the area of pre-Israel Palestine over which Palestinians have sovereignty. A `temporary' stateIn an opinion piece in the June 9 New York Times, Sharon confirmed that “Israel will not return to the vulnerable 1967 armistice lines”. At a June 10 photo opportunity with Sharon at the White House, Bush barely refrained from openly supporting Sharon's stance, saying: “There are people in the Middle East who want to use terror as a way to dis-rail, derail any peace process. And we've got to work together to create the conditions that prevent a few from stopping what most people in the region want, which is peace. Israel has a right to defend itself.”Bush has refused to draw up a timetable for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. On June 8, at a meeting with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, he said, “We are not ready to lay down a specific calendar except for the fact that we've got to get started quickly, soon, so we can seize the moment”. In an interview in the June 12 issue of the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, US Secretary of State Colin Powell called for the establishment of a “temporary” Palestinian state. Saeb Erekat, a senior negotiator for the PA, responded: “I don't know what he [Powell] means by that. The main thing here is to end the Israeli occupation and to have Israel withdraw.” From Green Left Weekly, June 19, 2002.
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From: International News |
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