Israel Asper Letter 01 10-May-2002 They left their hearts in Tel AvivIsraelis deep into organ trafficing
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http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/outrageous/organtraffic.asp
The speech given by President Abbas won huge Palestinian public and popular support, even among the Palestinian opposition. The speech directly addressed the lies of the USA and Israeli governments and a number of Western countries who claim their support for the Arab revolutions for democracy, but who stand against the will of Palestinians who have lived under the Israeli occupation since decades. The historical speech of Abbas could be described as a reiteration before the UN General assembly of the basic demands of all Palestinians in the occupied territories and in exile.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rose to the level of sanctity among his nation, including the opposition in Palestine, since he challenged the appeals of the US-Israel-Quartet representative to return to so called “peace talks” last Friday Sep. 23 2011 and asked the UN to recognize an Independent Palestinian State in the borders of 1967 and defended the Right of Return for all Palestinians who were expelled during the Nakba.
At the level of contradiction with the position of the US government from the Palestinian State recognition and Palestinian people rights and during United Nations General Assembly Sixty-sixth Session, a scandalous stink news was revealed the US secretly approved the transfer of 55 “bunker buster” bombs (GBU-28), a form of deep-penetrating bombs to the zionist state of Israel to bomb Palestinian in Gaza and the Islamic Republic of Iran.“Raise your head you’re a Palestinian! NO to the USA!”
The Palestinian Authority will discuss another option such as the return to the useless “negotiations”. If the PNA chooses to continue “negotiating” with Israel without that Israel at least freezes the expansion of the settlements and commits unmistakably to the 1967 borders as a reference for the negotiating process, such a decision would have a negative effect on its credibility, and I doubt that the PNA will sacrifice their credibility among Palestinians after the full support which President Abbas received because of his challenge to the threats of the USA and Israel. The difference between this full support and the doubt of most Palestinians about him and the PNA was clear enough to see after his request for the recognition of Palestine at the UN and his defiance of the occupation.
The other cruel and harsh option is, if the US and EU carry out their threats against the Palestinians and the PA and continue supporting the occupying forces in Palestine, then the Palestinian Authority may dismantle its bodies and put the Palestinians against under full responsibility of the Israeli occupation. This option has been amply discussed because it is known that the Israeli side avoids it at all costs, as it would establish their irrefutable responsibility for all Palestinians in international law, delegitimizing the occupation and the israeli position over night. It is difficult to see Israel desisting from its crimes even in this case, and this scenario would mean that all options and solutions are available to the people, including armed struggle or struggle by other means against Israel and its interest in and outside Palestine. This option would mean a return to the years before the start of the first Intifada.
A last scenario, remote but not unimaginable, is the possibility that the appearance of Abbas at the UN was a charade set in scene by the PA, Israel and conspirers, a scheme calculated to gain Abbas the needed popular support to cement a legitimacy he lacks as a result of the expiry of his mandate in 2009, so that he and the PA could then proceed to sell off all of Palestine and all rights of the Palestinians to the occupation. If such a scenario came to pass, it would also mean an end of the legitimacy of the PA and a return to the times before the first Intifada, including armed struggle and many other dangerous appearances.We will see what unfolds during the next days and weeks as a result of the speech of Abbas at the UN. What must be understood is that, despite its apparent invincibility because of its military superiority and the protection by the USA, the position of Israel is precarious and ultimately unsustainable if they continue operating under their current strategy of unnecessarily seeking the enmity of everybody in the region.
Looking at Israel through the lens of international law and institutions, Israel has also managed to firmly establish itself as the problem of everybody. While israelis and their supporters around the world constantly protest about a supposed “right to exist” to distract from the real problems, the prosaic reality is that the governments of many nations have recognized that there is no reason for Israel to reject Palestinian statehood without delay, without reservations and unconditionally. If Israel continues on its rejectionist and violent path, the results will be worse for all involved.Israel and its allies would do better if they stop delaying, hindering and denying the political will and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian nation. It is the only solution which will allow for any measure of peace in Palestine and the region.
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| THE HANDSTAND | MARCH 2004 |
 New Unabridged Israeli DictionaryBy Edna YaghiThe following terms are designed to provide a greater insight into rephrasing a language, giving it a depth of new meanings and taking propaganda to a place it has never been before. General terminology1. art of the possible - Israeli politics based on the ideology that Palestinians must at all costs continue to be the victims of Israeli expediency.2. centre - midway between advocating the genocide of Palestinians or only killing a portion of them. 3. centrist - an Israeli who believes in killing some but not necessarily all Palestinians. 4. checkpoints - places where Palestinians are stopped on their own land. And humiliated and "inspected" by Israeli soldiers.  5. civil rights - fundamental protections and individual freedoms enjoyed by all citizens under the Israeli constitution EXCEPT and UNLESS they are Palestinian. 6. closures and blockades - the act of sealing off one Palestinian area from another and the prevention of supplies being distributed. 7. collective punishment - Israeli mass punishment meted out to ALL Palestinians because they dare to resist the Israeli occupation. 8. diplomacy - the skill in managing negotiations, a skill Israelis manage best at gunpoint. 9. domestic - relating to political affairs carried on within Eretz Israel and includes the belief that  Israelis are far, far, far superior to gentiles.10. establishment - Israeli ruling class and institutions by which Israel maintains its existing disorder in its own society exclusive of Palestinians. 11. franchise - the right to vote on how to liquidate Palestinians; reserved for Israeli Jews only. 12. freedom of speech - reserved for Israeli Jews only. Any Palestinian daring to say what he/she  believes in will be dealt with brute force to silence them.13. free enterprise - Israeli freedom to crush Palestinian economy and lives. 14. free thought - reserved for Israeli Jews only. Palestinians guilty of engaging in this activity will be severely punished. 15. geopolitics - how to exterminate or drive out the indigenous population of Palestine. 16. hard line - brute force, excessive punishment, shoot-to-kill and then complain to the world that  Israelis are the victims of Palestinian violence.17. ideology - Israeli socio-political theories and programmes bent on the liquidation of Palestinians and the best means of achieving it. 18. independence - freedom from political control or domination by othersa taboo word for Palestinians. 19. iron hand - how Israelis deal with Palestinian babies who dare to play in the street.  20. laissez-faire - the idea that all Israelis should be free to shoot and kill as many Palestinians as they wish to. 21. liberalism - belief in personal liberty and autonomy, progress and government aid to Israeli Jews only, and never to Palestinians. 22. liberation - to free Israel from Palestinians. 23. liberty - freedom to exercise various rights, especially the choice of one's government and individual freedoms, but not meant for Palestinians.  24. national socialism - neo-Nazis, Israelis.(note images on tank, reverse and place back to back) 25. neo-Fascism - the Israeli platform. 26. New Left - movement advocating radical political and social change or, in other words, getting rid of the Palestinians. 27. New Right - movement advocating conservative social values and nationalistic foreign policy or, in other words, it is OK to kill some but not all Palestinians. 28. non-partisan - holding views to liquidate Palestinians without regard to a party or party platform  .29. oppression - unfair, harsh exercise of authority and highly recommended by Israeli government in treatment of Palestinians. 30. patriotism - love of one's country and loyalty to its government -- reserved for Israeli Jews only. Palestinians found guilty of patriotism will be executed. 31. political science - the study of how to lie about Palestinian history and convince the world that Palestine was always Israeli.  32. power elite - Israelis wielding inordinate political power over the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. 33. proportional representation - system in which each party is represented in legislature in proportion to its percentage of its electorate with the exception of the Palestinians.  34. reactionary - holding ultra-conservative views (increase settlements, decrease Palestinian population) that firmly support the status quo and advocate suppression of those favouring change (Palestinians). Criminal terminology1. aggravated assault - when a child throws a stone at a heavily armed Israeli soldier. 2. battery - the lawful beating or physical violence against Palestinians. 3. breaking and entering - what Israeli soldiers do in the wee hours of the night in Palestinian homes. 4. brutality - the more meted out against the Palestinians the better.  5. capital crime - when a Palestinian child throws a stone at an armoured tank. Not a capital crime - when an Israeli soldier murders a Palestinian infant. 6. concealment - how to cover up Israeli atrocities. 7. condemned - the sentence of all Palestinians by the Israeli government. 8. connivance - when Americans and other Western countries aid in Israeli illegal acts, thereby consenting to them. 9. crime - throwing a stone. 10. delict - encouraged acts by Israelis against Palestinians such as the Palestinian Holocaust and the confiscation of Palestinian towns, homes and land.  11. disorderly conduct - when a Palestinian breathes. 12. extortion - act of taking away Palestinian property by trickery or fraud but considered honourable in the eyes of Israeli governments. 13. graft - bribery, especially of a public official, a practice rampant in Israel where most of the leaders are known killers of Palestinians. 14. involuntary manslaughter - wilful killing of Palestinians but judged as criminal negligence.  15. lawbreaker - a Palestinian child wielding a stone. 16. lawless - all Israeli soldiers. 17. malfeasance - act of which all Israeli leaders are guilty. 18. misdemeanour - when an Israeli kills Palestinians.  19. offence - when Palestinians are guilty of living. Military terminology1. act of war - when a child dares to confront an Israeli tank.2. aggression - normal routine of suppressing Palestinians. 3. air raid - often done by Israelis when Palestinians are asleep.  4. ally - all the world with Israelis against Palestinians. 5. barricade - obstacles across roadways to prevent Palestinians moving from one place to another. 6. bloodbath - how considerate Israelis bathe Palestinians. 7. containment - policy and actions to prevent Palestinians from venturing outside their homes. 8. deployment - positioning of Israeli troops on Palestinian hilltops in readiness to shoot and kill. 9. enemy - Palestinian babies. 10. laws of war - universal ethical guidelines governing basic conduct of forces towards enemies in  wartime -- something the Israeli army never adheres to.11. massacre - what the Israeli army does every day to Palestinians. 12. sabre rattling - show or threat of Israeli military force used to intimidate Palestinians. 13. show of force - intentional display of Israeli military strength to deter babies from playing in the  street.14. security - Israeli excuses to massacre Palestinians. 15. spasm warfare - brief, cataclysmic conflict that uses all forces and resources without regard to consequences to civilian Palestinian population. 16. trench warfare - when Israelis dig trenches in order to further isolate and strangulate Palestinian cities and villages from one another. 17. unconventional warfare - what Israelis do that defies logic.  18. war crimes - unethical, criminal behaviour and actions contrary to laws of war. All Israeli leaders are rewarded for their war crimes. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Edna Yaghi is an American freelance writer specializing in social and political affairs in the Middle East  | |
Early in the morning of November 22, five Palestinian children were blown to pieces by an Israeli mine or bomb as they headed to school in Khan Younis. The children were 6 to 14 years-of-age, all from the Al Astel family. It is unclear if the explosion was set off by the children tripping over or kicking the device, or via remote control.
The next day, a senior Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) official was quoted on Israel Radio as saying “a big mistake was done.” The officer admitted an undercover army unit planted the device “in the area,” yet evaded any explanation as to why it was planted in the vicinity of a school. Yesterday, the IDF issued its first official statement regarding the killings. An IDF investigation revealed serious flaws in the planting and operation of the ordnance. Following the usual script, the IDF feigned “sorrow over the deaths of five children.” The IDF claims the device was planted in an area used by Palestinians to fire mortars at nearby Israeli colonial settlements and army positions. Israel Radio quoted IDF officials as saying the “device was meant to remain well hidden and was to be set off when the Palestinian shooters returned to the area.” (quoting Ha’aretz, 11/25/01)
Israeli opposition leader MK Yossi Sarid of Meretz, responding to IDF claims that their recent operations in Khan Younis were designed to prevent Palestinian attacks, stated: “That’s a targeted hit? Do you know who will pass by the area [where the bomb is planted]? It’s a residential area. What kind of bombs do you place in an area where school children pass by?” (Ha’aretz, 11/24/01)
MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) has called for a Knesset committee to investigate the incident, expressing dismay that the IDF sat quietly for two days before putting out an official statement that amounts to little more than a cover-up.
MK Uri Ariel (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) disagreed, stating that IDF investigations take time because they are thorough. “I have faith in the IDF,” he stated. “[Ariel] said that the army was is in the throes of the battle in the territories, and was busy assassinating Mahmoud Abu Hanoud [of Hamas] and so could not concentrate solely on the investigation that Cohen demanded.” (Ha’aretz, 11/25/01)
In other words: we were too busy trying to assassinate a Palestinian leader to investigate our killing of Palestinian children, but now that we’ve taken a five-minute breather from our assassination campaign we can conclude from our thorough investigation that a regretful mistake was made. Sorry kids, we’ll try to do a better job of killing the right folks next time.
The Israelis have not condemned the killings, though some officials say an apology might perhaps be in order.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the total number of Palestinians killed since the second Intifada erupted on September 29, 2000 is 821. 16,661 Palestinians have been injured, many maimed for life. Palestinian children under the age of 18 represent about 1/4 of those killed.
The Israeli military’s killing of Palestinian children is not a sometimes accidental by-product of 34 years of occupation. It is in fact a matter of deliberate policy.
In a chilling interview conducted by Ha’aretz correspondent Amira Hass, an IDF sharpshooter admitted it was IDF policy to shoot at children above the age of 12. Here is an excerpt [AH = Hass, IS = Sharpshooter]:
(AH) You haven’t shot children.
(IS) “All the sharpshooters haven’t shot children.”
(AH) But nonetheless there are children who were hit, wounded or killed after they were hit in the head. Unless these were mistakes.
(IS) “If they were children, they were mistakes.”
(AH) Do they talk about this?
(IS) “They talk to us about this a lot. They forbid us to shoot at children.”
(AH) How do they say this?
(IS) “You don’t shoot a child who is 12 or younger.”
(AH) That is, a child of 12 or older is allowed?
(IS) “Twelve and up is allowed. He’s not a child any more, he’s already after his bar mitzvah. Something like that.”
(AH) Thirteen is bar mitzvah age.
(IS) “Twelve and up, you’re allowed to shoot. That’s what they tell us.”
(AH) Again: Twelve and up you’re allowed to shoot children.
(IS) “Because this already doesn’t look to me like a child by definition, even though in the United States a child can be 23.”
(AH) Under international law, a child is defined as someone up to the age of 18.
(IS) “Up until 18 is a child?”
(AH) So, according to the IDF, it is 12?
(IS) “According to what the IDF says to its soldiers. I don’t know if this is what the IDF says to the media.”
(AH) And children are from 12 down. Is there no order that between 12 and 18 you shoot at the legs and not the head?
(IS) “Of course we try to see to it that he really is over 20.”
(AH) In the 10 seconds that you have.
(IS) “In the 10 seconds that I have, I have to estimate how old he is.”
(AH) And in what direction the wind is blowing, and the deviation here and there, and which way he’ll jump the next moment.
(IS) “Yes, but there are hardly any mistakes by sharpshooters. The mistakes are made by people who aren’t sharpshooters.”
(AH) And it turns out that they happen to hit the children’s heads, and all this is just by chance?
(IS) “If you say you have seen children that have been hit in the head a lot, then it is sharpshooters.”
(AH) So what you’re saying is that our definition of children is different.
(IS) “Your definition is different.”
(AH) Because for you it’s someone who is 12.
(IS) “Yes.”
(AH) But a child of 13 doesn’t bear arms, no matter what you call him, a boy or a teenager or an adult.
(IS) “He isn’t holding a gun but a firebomb, and in certain places it is possible also to fire on people who throw firebombs.”
["Don't shoot till you can see they're over the age of 12," Ha'aretz, November 20, 2000]
In another article, Hass reported that a group of Western diplomats traveling from Jerusalem to Ramallah witnessed Israeli troops fire live ammunition at a group of stone-throwing Palestinian children, “even though the children were too far to pose a risk to the soldiers.” “The diplomats say that shots were fired even though a long line of civilian cars were traveling past the children at the time.” “[One of the diplomats] says that he saw a second soldier in the observation tower clapping and raising his hands as if in victory after his colleague fired at the children.” ["Envoys say they saw IDF fire at children." Ha'aretz, July 26, 2001]
In a damning indictment of Israeli military criminality and pathology, New York Times Middle East Bureau chief Chris Hedges writes: “Yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon they kill an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wound four more, three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered-death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo-but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.” ["Gaza Diary: Scenes from the Palestinian Uprising," Harper's Magazine, October 2001]
In a report released last week, B’Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, blasted what it called a “shallow and superficial” Israeli army investigation into the shooting death of an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy, Khalil al-Mughrabi.
On July 7, Khalil and twenty to thirty other children played soccer in the Yubneh Refugee Camp, in Rafah, near the Egyptian border. After they finished playing, the children sat on some mounds of sand near the border fence. Suddenly, Khalil’s head burst into parts from a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier in a nearby observation post. The soldiers proceeded to unleash “intense fire” on the other children. Ibrahim Abu Susin, 10, and Suleiman Abu Rijal, 12, were badly wounded.
B’Tselem concludes: “An eleven-year-old child was killed and two children were injured for no reason. However, the army failed to open any investigation against the soldiers responsible, even though all the army officials involved in the review of the incident clearly knew that the soldiers had used lethal weapons when their lives were not in jeopardy and had violated army regulations.”
B’Tselem notes that despite the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians since the Intifada broke out, “the Military Police only opened some twenty investigation files relating to the illegal use of weapons. In none of the cases were indictments filed.” The report goes on to say that, “Over the years, B’Tselem has received hundreds of letters from the Judge Advocate General’s office regarding events in which Palestinians were killed, injured, or beaten by soldiers. In some of the cases, Military Police investigations were opened, and in some, the Judge Advocate General’s office only conducted an internal investigation. Most of the replies that B’Tselem received state that the soldiers acted properly and that no action was taken against the soldiers involved.” ["Whitewash: The Office of the Judge Advocate General's Examination of the Death of Khalil al-Mughrabi, 11, on 7 July 2001," B,Tselem, 11/13/01]
Given the well known history of the Israeli military’s farcical self “investigations,” don’t hold your breath for an honest accounting of the killing of the five children in Khan Younis.
The message Israeli troops receive from the lack of serious investigation into and punishment for military criminality is clear: you can murder civilians — even little children — for no reason at all, and you can do it with impunity.
True to form, the US has also refused to condemn its client’s murderous actions.
US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker expressed “regret” over the latest killing of Palestinian children, saying the incident served as a “strong reminder” of the consequences of the ongoing violence. “The United States deeply regrets the tragic accidental deaths of five Palestinian children . . . when they came in contact with unexploded ordnance. It was a terrible tragedy. We understand that the Israeli army has begun an investigation into the circumstances of these deaths and we expect that investigation will thoroughly determine what happened. This incident… is a strong reminder of why both sides should do all they can to end the violence, reduce tensions and resume negotiations,” he added.
And so it goes, the children of Palestine suffer, the occupation continues, Israeli state terrorism accelerates and the best that the Palestinians can expect from the US by way of Colin Powell is a PR performance that does nothing in substance to pressure our Israeli client from desisting. Instead, the US puts the burden of responsibility for “ending the violence” squarely on the Palestinians, while calling for an end to the Intifada, an uprising (however flawed) that is both a reaction to Israel’s brutal occupation and the Palestinian Authority’s corruption, incompetence and selling out of the cause.
To steal a quip from Palestinian writer Sam Bahour, US statements are “equivalent to that of a policeman walking past a rape victim, still pinned under her assailant, and verbally scolding both parties by advising them to work out their differences.”
Israel has little to fear that its continuing rampages through the occupied Palestinian territories and the latest incident of child killings will jeopardize the staggering $3-5 billion of military and economic “aid” it receives from the US annually. Nor should Israel fear that America’s vaunted “War on Terror” will extend to them. It’s simply a matter of whose side you are on.
Our tax dollars at work as they say. And still we wonder why the US is the object of anger and resentment to many around the world.
Given the overwhelming US military, economic and diplomatic support for Israel, the moral imperative is on us to end our government’s decisive role in Israel’s ongoing colonial conquest and occupation of Palestinian lands and its people. CP
Sunil Sharma is a musician, writer and activist based in Northern California. He is the editor of Dissident Voice, a semi-regular newsletter “dedicated to challenging the lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves.” He can be contacted at dissidentvoice@earthlink.net
Addameer is gravely concerned about the renewed implementation of a travel ban on a member of its Board of Directors, Yousef Habash, a longtime human rights defender working for the Health Work Committees (HWC), less than three months after he was prevented from traveling to Jordan and Europe under similar circumstances.
(click picture/view image/open in new tab - window, to see full size complete)
On 13 September 2011, Mr. Habash arrived at the King Hussein Bridge terminal, intending to exit the occupied Palestinian territory on his way to France where he was due to finalize his application for a scholarship at a French university and his French residency permit. After presenting his travel documents at the Israeli passport control desk, however, he was stopped and questioned for one hour about the purpose and length of his trip. He was then told that he was not allowed to travel but was given no further information on the reasons for, or duration of, his travel ban. Although he asked to speak to a superior, he was denied this request and instead sent back on a bus to Jericho after being told that he could contact the Israeli Security Agency from Ramallah.
Less than three months prior, on 29 June 2011, Mr. Habash had been prevented from traveling to Jordan and Europe where he was due to meet with a range of civil society organizations as part of his work with the HWC and other Palestinian platforms. These repeated denials clearly indicate that a travel ban has been imposed on Mr. Habash, although he has yet to be informed of the duration of, or the reason for, this ban.
Addameer strongly condemns Mr. Habash’s continued travel ban, which not only violates his fundamental human rights, namely his right to freedom of movement, but also disregards the special protections afforded to him as a human rights defender according to the United Nations General Assembly Declaration on human rights defenders. “Human rights defenders” are formally defined as persons who work, peacefully, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mr. Habash, who currently works as the HWC’s public relations officer, also serves on the board of the First Ramallah Group, is a member of the Euromed Non-Governmental Platform, represents Palestine in the International Forum of national NGO platforms (IFP), is a card-carrying member of the Palestinian Journalist Association and has served on the Steering Committee of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) in the past. His work therefore clearly falls within the category of a human rights defender, in that his activities are peaceful in nature and aimed at the promotion of human rights.
Given that Mr. Habash has now been prevented from travelling twice in less than three months, Addameer calls on the international community to intervene immediately with the Israeli authorities to lift Mr. Habash’s travel ban so that he may continue to carry out his work as a human rights defender unimpeded.
You are requested to send appeals and letters of protest to the Israeli embassy/consulates in your country, and to your own foreign ministry.
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ZIONIST TERROR
In the previous chapter, we examined the Zionists' view that the Jews' return to Palestine is a "holy goal" and that the war launched to reach this goal would be a "holy war." This idea plays an important role in the Israelis' education. In fact, prominent Israeli leaders sometimes express their view that children should be required to undergo a "Zionist" education. For example, the Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat announced on one of the most violent days of the al-Aqsa Intifada that "the country's children would henceforth be required to receive a Jewish-Zionist education" and that "Schools were part of the internal security of the state of Israel."27 The Old Testament has a special place in this education system, which the Zionists designed to focus upon certain verses. The book recalls with pride the acts of brutality inflicted (or allegedly inflicted) by the Children of Israel, led by Joshua, upon the native Palestinians.
In his classic The Case of Israel: A Study of Political Zionism, Roger Garaudy explains the attitude like this:
The behavior exhibited by Israeli soldiers raised with such ideas is consistent with this attitude. Today in occupied Palestine, some dreadful scenes have become part of everyday life: 18-month-old babies dying in their beds when their houses are attacked by Israeli helicopter gunships, young girls working in the olive groves being shot and killed for no reason, and children returning home from school being wounded and permanently disabled. The Zionist education system is at the root of these inhuman, and all-too-common, episodes. Research shows that this education and brainwashing has been extremely effective. In a test conducted by Tel Aviv University psychologist G. Tamarin, a statement describing the Jericho massacre from the Old Testament's Book of Joshua was distributed to fourth- and eighth-grade students. They were asked: "Suppose the Israeli Army occupies an Arab village in a battle. Do you think it would be proper, or not, to act against the inhabitants as did Joshua with the people of Jericho?" The number who answered "Yes" varied between 66% and 95%, according to the school attended or the kibbutz or town where the children lived.29
Garaudy emphasizes that the Book of Joshua and the Old Testament in general are the source of Zionist terror:
This conception of the "promise", together with the means for its realisation (as the leaders of political Zionism derive these from the Book wherein Joshua recounts his feats of extermination of the previous inhabitants, which he carried out at God's command and with his support), plus the themes of "the chosen people" and of "Greater Israel", from the Nile to the Euphrates, constitute the ideological foundation of political Zionism.30
The memoirs of an Israeli soldier published in the Israeli newspaper Davar are an important example of this. The soldier in question participated in an operation to seize the Palestinian village of Ed-Dawayma in 1948, and described the scenes of brutality he witnessed:
They killed between eighty to one hundred Arab men, women, and children. To kill the children, they (soldiers) fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one home without corpses. The men and women of the village were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite them.
One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a building he was about to blow up... Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman and her baby were made to clean up the place for a couple of days, then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered "good guys" ... became base murderers, and this is not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remain, the better.31
This is just one of the many brutal episodes that have occurred over the last 50 years.
Before the Israeli government was founded, the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern gangs were responsible for removing Palestinians from their lands. These terrorist organizations prior to 1948, and the Israeli army after 1948, conducted a terrorist campaign on Arab civilians. Menachem Begin, the Irgun's leader and a future prime minister, explained their strategy: "The Arabs fought tenaciously in defense of their homes, their women and their children."32 In other words, the Zionists' war would be waged against innocent people.
The truth is that since that date, the Palestinians have struggled to protect their homes, women, and children from Israel's official policy of terrorizing the entire Palestinian people. Newspaper reporter and Middle East expert Flora Lewis explains Israeli-style brutality in this article in the International Herald Tribune:
| EXECUTION ON THE STREET...
AND SLAUGHTER
 
 
  Hardly a day goes by when innocent blood is not spilled in Palestine. Israeli soldiers are systematically destroying the Palestinian people. Villages are bombed, homes are demolished, and fields are burned. While this cruelty appears in the world press from time to time, it has, sadly, not been enough to move world leaders to action. An article in Crescent International clearly presents this situation when it states: "Palestinian deaths mount as Israelis given freedom to commit atrocities." The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, in its article "In Gaza, Israeli Rockets Replace Human Rights," signals that the violence in Palestine will only get worse. Other items in the Turkish press also reflect the gravity of the situation. |
It should be emphasized that, as Sneh reported, Israel's struggle is not limited to terrorist elements; rather, it targets an entire people.
The details provided here are only a small part of the cruelty perpetrated by the Israeli government. But this is a practice that the Palestinian Muslims know all too well, for there are close similarities between the Qur'an's depiction of Pharaoh and what the Zionist Israeli leadership has done to innocent Palestinians. In his time, Pharaoh targeted the weakened, defenseless Jews and brutally murdered them. Also, the leaders of Pharaoh's tribe had strong feelings for their own land, and so told Pharaoh that Musa "desires to expel you from your land" (Qur'an, 7:110) The Israeli journalist Uri Avnery has drawn attention to this similarity. In the article "The Murder of Arafat," he reminds us that one of Judaism's fundamental tenets is that the period of Jewish enslavement in Egypt will never be forgotten. According to him, what Israel is doing to the Palestinians today is merely a variation of the cruelty meted out to their Jewish ancestors by Pharaoh:
In the new myth that is being born before our eyes, Sharon is the Pharaoh and we are the ancient Egyptians. In the story about the Exodus, the Bible lets God say: "I have hardened (Pharaoh's) heart and the heart of his servants." After every calamity that befell him, Pharaoh broke his promise to free the Israelites... He (God) wanted the Israelites to become hardened by the hardship, before they started on their long march. This is what is happening to the Palestinians now.34
The following verses describe how Pharaoh murdered the defenseless people:
Remember when Musa said to his people: "Remember God's blessing to you when He rescued you from the people of Pharaoh. They were inflicting an evil punishment on you, slaughtering your sons and letting your women live. In that there was a terrible trial from your Lord. And when your Lord announced: 'If you are grateful, I will certainly give you increase, but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is severe."' (Qur'an, 14:6-7)
With God's help, the Children of Israel finally escaped Pharaoh's brutality and cruelty. In our time, the radicals of Israel are in Pharaoh's position and advocate violence. The Palestinians must follow the advice that God gave the Children of Israel at that time: Be patient, trust in God, and stay true to His Path.
AN ISRAELI SOLDIER DESCRIBES THE SAVAGERY
My first Lebanon raid was in 1986. I was a 19-year-old Israeli conscript, and my paratroop platoon was sent to a village whose name I can't recall.� We broke down the door of a home, shoved the family aside, and pulled a middle-aged man outside. After blindfolding him and tying his hands behind his back, we took him to a secluded alley, forced him to his knees, and put a gun to his head, threatening to shoot if he didn't talk. A U.N. peacekeeper appeared and put an end to that incident, but there was more to come.
The next day we performed a mock execution on a 10-year-old Lebanese boy. We forced his family into the kitchen and dragged him to a nearby orchard. My lieutenant pressed the child's face into the dirt while I jammed my rifle against his skull.
Although the officer threatened to shoot his head off, the boy did not respond, keeping silent...
I was a recent transfer from another unit, and my colleagues were more familiar with the drill... The elderly, female, and young villagers were trapped in their homes, ordered to observe a 24-hour curfew. Their men were gathered in a central square, blindfolded, and hauled off for questioning.
Casual brutality was not limited to lower-income recruits. Omri, child of an intelligence officer, liked to fire bursts toward villagers peeking through doorways� During the invasion's first months, Israel killed 12,000-15,000 persons and lost 360. Although the Israeli casualties were combatants, most of their victims were civilians.
James Ron, the writer of this article, assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, is a field investigator for human rights groups. (Boston Globe, 25 May 2000)
Israeli Massacres
Some of the massacres perpetrated by the Israeli army and terrorist organizations (e.g., Haganah, Irgun, and Stern) between 1948 and 1982 are described on the following pages. None of these massacres were directed against armed groups. The history of Israel is full of violent actions against and massacres of civilians. Just a few examples will suffice: the blowing up of the King David Hotel in 1946; the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948, in which innocent villagers were tortured and killed; the inhuman massacre at Qibya village in 1958; the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, conducted by the pro-Israeli Christian Lebanese militias under the auspices of Ariel Sharon and resulting in almost 3,000 deaths; the attack on the Masjid al-Aqsa in 1990, which resulted in 11 deaths and almost 800 injuries; the massacre at Ibrahim's Mosque in 1994 during morning prayers; the massacre at Qana refugee camp in 1996; and the 1999 seige of a tunnel by 4,000 soldiers are just a few examples of this violence.
Those who died in these attacks were innocent people who had no means of protecting themselves. The massacres listed on the following pages are merely examples of the violence and terror that have continued from 1947 until today. While the figures are important to showing the extent of Zionist violence, they cannot even begin to describe the resulting harm, especially since the violence is still ongoing. Indeed, virtually every day since 1947 has generated news reports of attack, death, torture, and violence from the territories occupied by Israel. For example, when all of those who have died since October 2000 are accounted for, the number comes to almost 2,000. (This figure does not include those killed in Operation Defensive Shield.) In other words, Israel continues these daily killings in a systematic way.
Some Examples of Israel's Half-Century Reign of Terror
The King David Massacre, 1946: 92 dead
This attack was carried out by the Irgun terrorist organization and with the knowledge of David Ben Gurion, the highest-ranking Zionist official of the period. A total of 92 people, consisting of Britons, Palestinians, and Jews, were killed, and 45 were seriously injured.
Baldat Al-Shaikh Massacre, 1947: 60 dead
Sixty Palestinians sleeping in their beds, among them women, children, and the elderly, lost their lives as a result of this attack, which was carried out by 150-200 Zionist terrorists. The attack began at 2:00 a.m. and lasted for 4 hours.
Yehida Massacre, 1947: 13 dead
At Yehida, one of the first Zionist settlements, Zionist assailants dressed as British soldiers opened fire on Muslims.
Khisas Massacre, 1947: 10 dead
Two cars full of Haganah members entered the village of Khisas on the Lebanese border and opened fire on everyone who crossed their paths.
Qazaza Massacre, 1947: 5 children dead
Five children lost their lives in this episode, in which Zionist terrorists attacked a random house.
The Semiramis Hotel Massacre, 1948: 19 dead
In an operation aimed at making the Palestinians uneasy and forcing them out of Jerusalem, a group of Zionist terrorists directed by Israel's first president, David Ben Gurion, blew up the Semiramis Hotel. Nineteen people were killed.
Naser al-Din Massacre, 1948
A group of Zionist terrorists dressed as Arab soldiers opened fire on those townspeople who left their homes to greet them. Only 40 people escaped the carnage, and the village was wiped off the map.
The Tantura Massacre, 1948: 200 dead
Tantura, now home to about 1,500 Jewish settlers, was the site of a large massacre of Muslims in 1948. Israeli historian Teddy Katz described the attack as follows: "From the numbers, this is definitely one of the biggest massacres."
The Dahmash Mosque Massacre, 1948: 100 dead
Israeli 89th Commando Battalion lead by the future Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, announced to the villagers that they would be safe only if they assembled at the mosque. However, the 100 Muslims who sought refuge there were slaughtered. The terrified residents of Lydda and Ramle abandoned their lands. Approximately 60,000 Palestinians emigrated, and 350 more died en route due to poor medical conditions.
Dawayma Massacre, 1948: 100 dead
This attack was one of the largest Israeli massacres. A majority of those killed were assembled at the mosque for Friday prayers. Palestinian women were raped during the attack, and homes were dynamited with people inside them.
Houla Massacre, 1948: 85 dead
Israeli soldiers forced 85 people into a house and then set it on fire. Afterwards, most of the terrified residents fled to Beirut. Of the 12,000 original residents of Houla, only 1,200 remained.
Salha Massacre, 1948: 105 dead
After residents of the village were forced into the mosque, the people were fired upon until not a single person remained alive.
THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE ARE BEING EXTERMINATED
The cruelty endured by the Palestinians has continued for more than 50 years. In Palestine today, it is almost impossible to find a family that has not lost sons to Israeli bullets. Still other people have been crippled or disfigured, as seen in these photographs.
Deir Yassin Massacre, 1948: 254 dead
The fact that the world agenda is controlled by the Western media, most of which is pro-Israeli, sometimes prevents events occurring within Israel from coming to light. But some incidents of such violence and cruelty have been documented in detail by international organizations. This is one of those incidents, and was carried out by the Irgun and Stern terrorist organizations.
On the night of April 9, 1948, the people of Deir Yassin awoke to the order "evacuate the village" coming from loudspeakers. Before they understood what was happening, they had been slaughtered. Subsequent Red Cross and United Nations investigations conducted at the scene showed that houses were first set on fire and that all people trying to escape the flames were shot dead. During the attack, pregnant women were bayoneted in their abdomens while still alive. The victims' organs were mutilated, and even children were beaten and raped. Throughout the Deir Yassin massacre, 52 children were maimed under the eyes of their own mothers, and then they were slain and their heads cut off. More than 60 women were killed and their bodies mutilated.35 One woman who escaped alive related the following atrocity that she had witnessed:
I saw a soldier grabbing my sister, Saliha al-Halabi, who was nine months pregnant. He pointed a machine gun at her neck, then emptied its contents into her body. Then he turned into a butcher, and grabbed a knife and ripped open her stomach to take out the slaughtered childe with his iniquitious Nazi knife.36
Not satisfied with just the massacre, the terrorists then rounded up all the women and girls who remained alive, removed all their clothes, put them in open cars, driving them naked through the streets of the Jewish section of Jerusalem. Jacques Reynier, the Red Cross representative of Palestine at the time, who saw the mutilated bodies during his visit to Deir Yassin the day after the attack, could only say: "The situation was horrible."37
During the course of the attack, 280 Muslims, among them women and children, were first paraded through the streets and then shot execution-style. Most of the girls had been raped before their execution, and the boys' genitals had been cut off.38
It should be pointed out that the terrorists who carried out this atrocity were not members of radical organizations acting outside the law or beyond the government's control; rather, they were controlled directly by the Israeli government. The Deir Yassin massacre was carried by the Irgun and Stern gangs, under the direct leadership of Menachem Begin, the future prime minister of Israel.
Begin described this inhuman operation, merely one example of the official policy of Israeli brutality, in these words: "The massacre was not only justified, but there would not have been a state of Israel without the 'victory' at Deir Yassin."39 Zionists used such attacks to terrorize the Palestinians and drive them from their land so that the immigrating Jews would have a place to settle. Israel Eldad, a famous Zionist leader, expressed this truth openly when he said: "Had it not been for Deir Yassin - half a million Arabs would be living in the state of Israel [in 1948]. The State of Israel would not have existed."40
The Zionists considered this type of ethnic cleansing as vital to establishing the state of Israel. Indeed these operations, which continued after the Deir Yassin attack, caused many Palestinians either to abandon their land and flee, or to suffer the same fate as the residents of Deir Yassin.
The Massacre at Qibya, 1953: 96 dead
Another Zionist attack designed to "encourage" the Palestinians to flee occurred in Qibya, a village of 2,000 on the Jordanian border. Later investigations at the scene conducted by quite a few observers clearly revealed the nature of this atrocity. The Qibya massacre, which occurred on October 13, 1953, consisted of demolishing 40 houses and murdering 96 civilians, a majority of them women and children. The "101" unit was led by Ariel Sharon, another future prime minister of Israel. Its approximately 600 soldiers first cordoned off the village and severed its contact with all other Arab villages. Entering it at 4:00 a.m., the Zionist terrorists began to systematically demolish houses and kill the residents. An unperturbed Sharon, who personally led the attack, made the following announcement after the massacre: "The orders were utterly clear: Qibya was to be an example to everyone."41
Dr. Yousif Haikal, Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations at that time, explained the massacre in his report to the Security Council:
The Israelis entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of houses, using automatic weapons, grenades, and incendiaries; and dynamited houses over victims' heads... Forty houses, the village school, and a reservoir were destroyed. Twenty-two cattle were killed and six shops looted.42
The famous Catholic journal The Sign, published in the United States, also reported on the atrocities perpetrated during this attack. Editor Ralph Gorman explained his thoughts as follows: "Terror was a political weapon of the Nazis. But the Nazis never used terror in a more cold-blooded and wanton manner than the Israelis in the massacre at Kibya."43
Those who later came to the massacre site encountered horrifying images. Most of the dead bore bullet wounds to the back of the head, and many had been decapitated. Along with people who died beneath the wreckage of their houses, many innocent women and children also were brutally murdered.
Kafr Qasem Massacre, 1956:49 dead
The attack on Kafr Qasem, during which 49 innocent people, without regard to women or children, young or old, were brutally murdered, occurred on October 29, 1956. On this very day, Israel also launched its assault on Egypt. Israeli frontier guards went on security rounds at about 4:00 p.m., claiming that they were securing the borders. They told local officials in the border towns that curfew from that day onwards was to start from 5:00 p.m. instead of the usual 6:00 p.m. One of these towns was Kafr Qasem, near the Jewish settlement of Betah Tekfa.
The townspeople were informed of the new curfew only at 4:45 p.m. The local official told the Israeli soldiers that most of the townspeople worked outside the town and, as they would just be returning from work, they could not possibly be informed of this change. At the same time, Israeli soldiers started to erect a barricade at the town's entrance. Meanwhile, those working outside the town started returning home. The first group soon reached the border of the town. What follows is eyewitness Abdullah Samir Bedir's account of what happened next:
We reached the village entrance at about 4:55 p.m. We were suddenly confronted by a frontier unit consisting of 12 men and an officer, all occupying an army truck. We greeted the officer in Hebrew saying 'Shalom Katsin' which means 'Peace be unto you officer,' to which he gave no reply. He then asked us in Arabic: 'Are you happy?' and we said 'Yes.' The soldiers started stepping down from the truck and the officer ordered us to line up. Then he shouted to his soldier this order: 'Laktasour Otem,' which means 'Reap them!' The soldiers opened fire�44
Bedir, who escaped this terrifying ordeal only by playing dead, was certainly not the only witness of this brutality. From this moment on, Israeli soldiers stopped every vehicle attempting to enter the town and executed those inside. Among them were 15- and 16-year-old boys, young girls, and pregnant women. Those who heard the noise and went outside to see what was going on were shot for violating the curfew the moment they stepped outside. The Israeli soldiers were ordered not to arrest, but to execute, all who violated the curfew.
This incident, reported in full detail in official Israeli Parliament records, is one of the most striking examples of official Israeli policy.
When they are told: "Do not cause corruption on Earth," they say: "We are
only putting things right." No indeed! They are the corrupters, but they
are not aware of it.
(Qur'an, 2:11-12)
Khan Yunis Massacre, 1956:275 dead
The Israeli soldiers who attacked the refugee camp in Khan Yunis murdered 275 people. UN officials who conducted an on-site investigation discovered victims who had been shot in the back of the head after their hands had been tied.45
The Massacre in Gaza City, 1956: 60 dead
In this attack, Zionists killed 60 people, including women and children.
Fakhani Massacre, 1981: 150 dead
As a result of Israeli air attacks on this Lebanese region, 150 people died and 600 were wounded.46
The Khan Yunis refugee camp has been the target of Israeli bombs since the day it was founded. Almost 130,000 Palestinians live in or near its dilapidated buildings.
| TIME, 7.3.94 |
The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, 1994: 50 dead
On Friday, February 25, 1994 a terrible massacre occurred in Palestine. In an attack carried out by a Zionist Jew on Muslims gathered for Friday prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque, more than 50 Muslims died and almost 300 were wounded. Some of the wounded later died from their injuries.
The massacre was perpetrated by a Jew living in the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement in Hebron. This terrorist also turned out to be a reserve officer in the Israeli army and a member of a Zionist terrorist organization. Israeli sources reported that he wore military clothing during the attack.
The attacker sneaked into the mosque and hid behind a column as the Muslims were performing their dawn prayers. As they bowed their heads in unison, he opened fire on them with a machine gun. According to eyewitness accounts, he did not act alone - he was simply busy pulling the trigger. As his clips emptied out, his accomplices replaced them.
Following this incident, Israeli soldiers surrounded the mosque and prevented reporters from reaching it. Many more people died when these soldiers opened fire on Palestinian Muslims who had gathered around the mosque to protest the attack.47
Qana Massacre, 1996: 109 dead
More than 100 people, mostly women and children, lost their lives in the Qana refugee camp when it was bombed by the Israeli air force. The terrible scenes of carnage, including those of decapitated children, have never been forgotten. A UN inspection team determined that the massacre was deliberate.
Massacre of Sabra and Shatilla
"I had to take the babies and put them in buckets of water to put out the flames. When I took them out half an hour later, they were still burning. Even in the mortuary, they smouldered for hours." Dr. Amal Shamaa of the Barbir hospital, after Israeli phosphorus shells had been fired into West Beirut, 29 July, 1982.48
The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, 1994: 50 dead
On Friday, February 25, 1994 a terrible massacre occurred in Palestine. In an attack carried out by a Zionist Jew on Muslims gathered for Friday prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque, more than 50 Muslims died and almost 300 were wounded. Some of the wounded later died from their injuries.
The massacre was perpetrated by a Jew living in the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement in Hebron. This terrorist also turned out to be a reserve officer in the Israeli army and a member of a Zionist terrorist organization. Israeli sources reported that he wore military clothing during the attack.
The attacker sneaked into the mosque and hid behind a column as the Muslims were performing their dawn prayers. As they bowed their heads in unison, he opened fire on them with a machine gun. According to eyewitness accounts, he did not act alone - he was simply busy pulling the trigger. As his clips emptied out, his accomplices replaced them.
Following this incident, Israeli soldiers surrounded the mosque and prevented reporters from reaching it. Many more people died when these soldiers opened fire on Palestinian Muslims who had gathered around the mosque to protest the attack.47
Qana Massacre, 1996: 109 dead
More than 100 people, mostly women and children, lost their lives in the Qana refugee camp when it was bombed by the Israeli air force. The terrible scenes of carnage, including those of decapitated children, have never been forgotten. A UN inspection team determined that the massacre was deliberate.
Massacre of Sabra and Shatilla
"I had to take the babies and put them in buckets of water to put out the flames. When I took them out half an hour later, they were still burning. Even in the mortuary, they smouldered for hours." Dr. Amal Shamaa of the Barbir hospital, after Israeli phosphorus shells had been fired into West Beirut, 29 July, 1982.48
During the slaughter at Qana, the occupying Israeli forces considered even sleeping babies enemies and killed them unhesitatingly.
| UNFORGETTABLE PHOTOGRAPHS
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For everyone who stood in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut on 18 September 1982, his (Ariel Sharon's) name is synonymous with butchery; with bloated corpses and disembowelled women and dead babies, with rape and pillage and murder... Even when I walk these fetid streets today, more than 18 years after� the ghosts haunt me still. Over there, on the side of the road leading to the Sabra mosque, lay Mr Nouri, 90 years old, grey-bearded, in pyjamas with a small woollen hat still on his head and a stick by his side. I found him on a pile of garbage, on his back� Just up the lane, I came across two women sitting upright with their brains blown out, next to a cooking pot... One of the women appeared to have had her stomach slit open. A few metres away, I discovered the first babies, already black with decomposition, scattered across the road like rubbish� The flies racing between the reeking bodies and our faces, between dried blood and reporter's notebook, the hands of watches still ticking on dead wrists. I clambered up a rampart of earth - an abandoned bulldozer stood guiltily nearby - only to find, once I was atop the mound, that it swayed beneath me. And I looked down to find faces, elbows, mouths, a woman's legs protruding through the soil. I had to hold on to these body parts to climb down the other side. Then there was the pretty girl, her head surrounded by a halo of clothes pegs, her blood still running from a hole in her back.49
In another article, Fisk describes what he saw while touring the hospitals where the injured were being treated: "What we saw here we would not easily forget. Visiting the Barbir hospital was to see what gunfire does to flesh."50
SABRA AND SHATILLA MASSACRE
A news report about the massacres appeared in the French Le Monde newspaper on February 13, 2001. Nihad Hamad, a now-42-year-old survivor, describes what happened:
The Israeli Armed Forces spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning surrounding the camp. They wanted to seal off the east side. Our mujaheddin had left. Around here there was no one left but some boys of 15 or 16� On Thursday night, the bombing got twice as intense. We realized our light weaponry wouldn't be of any use. Everyone in the shelters was a refugee. Everyone was afraid. The elders of the group, those that people listened to, decided to go to the Israelis and tell them that the camp would surrender. With white flags in their hands they got in the car and headed out. They never came back. Some young men left with weapons and went in the same direction. They never came back either, nor the ones who went looking for them. Then we realized much better that we had to get out of here right away� Hundreds of people were fleeing to the same common salon in the northern part of the camp. There were so many of us that we almost suffocated. At daybreak there was the silence of death everywhere; this place was a ghost town now. The bombing had stopped. Every once in a while we could hear single shots being fired. Then, from the direction of the mosque, a woman's screams pierced the silence. Her hair was a tangled mess, her tattered clothes covered in blood. She had the manner of someone who had lost her mind. At her feet were children whose throats had been slit... They behaved brutally, and they used their knives and other incisive tools to carry out the murders in silence. After the militias finished their work at the camps, they finished their dirty work at the Gaza Hospital. They dragged the doctors, nurses, and wounded out of the hospitals and killed them. Along with those who were missing, we learned that between 3,000 and 3,500 people had been killed.51
Sharon is known by Arabs and throughout the world as "The Butcher of Lebanon," and displays his ruthlessness at every opportunity.
This frightful scene was the work of Ariel Sharon, known for such remarks as "The Arabs know me, and I know them" and for describing the Arabs in such disparaging terms as "bugs."52 Following the 1967 War, Sharon caused 160,000 Palestinians to leave East Jerusalem and become refugees. His punishment techniques include bombing houses, bulldozing refugee camps, and arresting hundreds of youths for no reason and subjecting them to torture. When Sharon was responsible for security in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians were assassinated, thousands were arrested and deported, and in Gaza alone 2,000 homes were destroyed and 16,000 people were exiled for the second time. Aside from the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, 14,000 people (including 13,000 unarmed civilians) died within the space of a few weeks, and about half a million people were made homeless.
The cruelty and brutality described here has occurred continuously on Palestinian soil for the past 50 years. Moreover, the examples cited above are merely those massacres during which many Palestinians lost their lives on a single day. Similar events, among many others, are as follows: 8 people in al-Sammou, 1966; 9 people in Aitharoun and 16 people in Kawnin, 1975; 20 people in Hanin and 23 in Bint Jbeil, 1976; 7 people in Adloun, 1978; 80 people in Abbasieh, 1979; and 20 people in Saida, 1980. Beyond these, several people have been killed or maimed every day for years. And every day houses are still destroyed and people are still driven from their homeland. Clearly, Israel's ultimate goal is to intimidate the Palestinians, drive them off their land, and bend them to their will through a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing.
The entire world looks on as this community is murdered, as it is subjected to blatant genocide. For some reason, most governments have - and continue to - ignored these brutal and inhumane practices and apply no sanctions other than the occasional "condemnation."
In his classic work World Orders: Old and New, Middle East commentator Noam Chomsky describes the Israeli government's view of the Palestinian people and how American strategists evaluate this view:
As for the Palestinians, U.S. planners had no reason to doubt the assessment of Israeli government specialists in 1948 that the refugees would either assimilate elsewhere or "would be crushed": "some of them would die and most of them would turn into human dust and the waste of society, and join the most impoverished classes in the Arab countries." Accordingly, there was no need to trouble oneself about them. These basic interpretations have remained stable until today, taking concrete form as events unfolded.53
The prophecy of American and Israeli authorities has been fulfilled today. Moreover, the policy of violence and intimidating Palestinians practiced during Israel's founding period and early years continues unabated.
The Palestinian Muslims are facing trials and tribulations similar to those faced by Muslims throughout history. In the Qur'an, God reminds the believers of that time (the Children of Israel) about Pharaoh's violence:
Remember when We rescued you from the people of Pharaoh. They were inflicting an evil punishment on you - slaughtering your sons and letting your women live. In that there was a terrible trial for you from your Lord. (Qur'an, 2:49)
Indeed, God helps those who are patient, and, according to His law, salvation is always for genuine believers, even if they are few in number, weak, or downtrodden. But, we also should realize that this trial is not only for the Muslims of Palestine; rather, it is for all who witness or know of this cruelty. For wherever they are and no matter what their condition, Muslims are obligated to help the wronged and the oppressed. And the greatest help they can give is to deal with this evil from its roots. In other words, the greatest help people can offer the Palestinians who continue to fight for their lives amid the ongoing chaos and strife is to wage an intellectual struggle against the Zionism's fundamental Social Darwinistic attitude, which engenders strife, chaos, and anarchy.  |  |
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