BY ROHAN PEARCE
While the leaders of the top imperialist countries argue over attacking Iraq, Israel's war on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories continues.
A report by the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, covering events between October 10-16, noted that "Israeli forces have maintained the total siege imposed on the [Occupied Territories], collectively punishing Palestinian people. Israeli forces have partitioned Palestinian areas, transforming them into cantons, violating Palestinian civilians' economic, social and cultural rights."
A September 30 statement by Amnesty International drew attention to the suffering of Palestinian children, reporting that more than 250 have been killed since the Palestinian intifada began in September 2000; 70 Israeli children have also been killed. According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, a dozen Palestinian children have been killed during the last four months by soldiers enforcing curfews in the Occupied Territories.
Palestinian children continue to be the "collateral damage" of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's vicious war. Tawfiq Bereka, a three-year-old, was crushed to death by rubble when Israeli soldiers dynamited a nearby house in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The tragedy occurred on October 10, during one of the two Israeli raids on Rafah in the week October 10-16.
At 7am, during the same raid in which Bereka was killed, Tha'er Salah al Hout, a 12-year-old, was killed by a bullet that struck his left eye as he was on his way to school. The two children were among five who were killed in the attack. Of the four Palestinians injured, one was 14 and two were 16.
On October 16, Ahmed Salah Abu Sha'ar, a 12-year-old, was wounded in the shoulder and chest by heavy calibre bullets. Sha'ar was shot while he was at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school near the Salah al Din Gate, south of Rafah. Israeli gunfire in the area lasted from 4pm to 6pm. A total of 15 Palestinians were wounded, including three-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud al Sha'er. One of the wounded later died in Gaza's Shifa' Hospital.
While the frequent rampages through Palestinian towns and refugee camps by Israel's army are the most visible brutalities of the occupation, the Sharon government's oppression of Palestinians has many components.
The Israeli policy of "closure" outlawing travel within and between the Occupied Territories and the enforcement of near-continual curfews in most Palestinian towns has ensured dire food shortages.
Olive harvests offer the last chance of some sustenance for many Palestinian families. However, in many areas harvests have been prevented by paramilitary Israeli settlers and the military.
An October 14 report in the British Guardian provided one graphic example: "A light rain signalled the beginning of olive-picking in Aqraba, near Nablus. Dozens of residents made their way down the steep hillside, barely noticing the two tractors from the eight-mile-long Itamar settlement running the length of a neighbouring hilltop. Then they were surrounded by settlers wielding guns.
"'Some of us who speak Hebrew told them: 'If you want the olives, take them', said Salim Nasser. 'They got off their tractors and surrounded us. They ordered us to sit on the ground and then hit us with the butt of their guns. Some hit us with rocks.' Salim's 45-year-old mother, Inbesat, threw herself between her son and his attackers... Mrs Nasser and her son display numerous wounds as evidence of the attack. Another man, Ghalid Beni Jaber, lost an eye to a rifle butt.
"Next day, the tensions escalated and [Palestinian] Hani Bani Minyeh was killed. The pickers from Aqraba had again ventured out, but this time the settlers responded with gunfire. The town's mayor, Ghaleb Mayadmeh, called the Israeli army which sent a patrol, but the soldiers did little more than tell the Palestinians to go home.
"Minyeh was shot in the back as he scrambled up the hillside to do just that. The 24-year-old died within minutes."
On October 7, Israelis in the Occupied Territories began a campaign of destroying Palestinian olive plantations. By October 13, around 600,000 square metres of olive plantations had been razed and five wells destroyed.
The constant invasions, demolitions (over 5000 buildings), curfews and Israel's closure policy render everyday life impossible for Palestinians. The repression of mass acts of resistance has meant that the Islamic organisations which carry out suicide bombings, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have significant support.
Despite the fierce Israeli repression, during the recent siege of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound young Palestinians staged mass protests.
Resistance, in the form of terrorist acts or mass civil disobedience, will continue as long as Israel's onslaught shows no sign of stopping.
The Jerusalem Post on October 6 reported that by next summer, all divisions of the Israeli army stationed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will have their own D-9 bulldozers. D-9s were used during the destruction of the PA's compound in Ramallah and have been used for the demolition of houses and the levelling of Palestinians' farms. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on October 8 that a senior Israeli defence official had told the US government that a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip is just a matter of time.
In a further sign of atrocities to come, in the week of October 10 Israeli schools began to teach lessons on Rehavam Ze'evi. Ze'evi was killed by a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine last October, in response to Israel's assassination of PFLP secretary-general Abu Ali Mustafa.
Ze'evi helped popularise the policy of "transfer" the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Territories. He urged: "get rid of the [Palestinians] who are not Israeli citizens the same way you get rid of lice".
From Green Left Weekly, October 23, 2002.
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