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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:
According to Israeli authorities, children must be indoctrinated with Zionist ideology from a very young age. As a result, children are raised to believe that they belong to a superior race. The Israeli soldiers' brutal treatment of Palestinians is a direct result of this indoctrination.
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
Israeli sharp-shooters fire on unarmed Palestinian civilians, women and children included.
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.
Ninety-two people, including some Britons, were killed in an attack arranged by Zionist terrorists on the King David Hotel in 1946.
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
Those who arrived at the site of the Deir Yassin massacre the following day discovered gruesome scenes: decapitated bodies, mutilated children, and women whose bellies had been slit open.
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
In the Kafr Qasem attack, Israeli soldiers once again murdered innocent babies.
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 |
In 1994, fanatical Jews attacked the Ibrahimi Mosque during ritual prayers, killing more than 40 people and wounding hundreds of others. The incident made the cover of Time magazine.
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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The horrible massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps was carried out under the orders and instructions of then-Defense Minister and current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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
The brutality that these pitiful and innocent people were subjected to should serve as a warning of the Israeli leadership's ideology. Most of the murdered women had been raped. Pregnant women had been sliced open so that their babies could be ripped out. Children barely 3 or 4 years old had been murdered in front of their parents. Many of the men had had their ears and noses cut off before being shot execution-style.
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.  |  |
27- Mark Mazower, "Sharon Should Surrender to History," The Financial Times, 25 May 2001.
28- Roger Garaudy, The Case of Israel: A Study of Political Zionism, Shorouk International, p. 75
29- Garaudy, The Case of Israel, p. 76.
30- Garaudy, The Case of Israel, pp. 69-70, emphasis added.
31- Davar, June 9, 1979.
32- Dr. Hamdan Badr, The Role of The Hagana Organization in the Establishment of Israel (Amman: Dar al-Jalil lil-Nashr wal-Dirasat, 1985), p. 303, emphasis added.
33- Flora Lewis, "Israel Defiles Itself with These Assassinations of Palestinians," International Herald Tribune, January 12, 2001, emphasis added.
34-Uri Avnery, "The Murder of Arafat," http://www.mediamonitors.net/uri64.html
35- Massacres Committed by the Jews in Palestine, www.hatedbooks.com/book/2.htm.
36- Arafat Hijazi, Deir Yassin: The Roots and Dimensions of the Crime in Zionist Thought, p. 63
37- Massacres Committed by the Jews in Palestine, www.hatedbooks.com/book/2.htm.
38- Lemi Brenner, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir (London: Zed Books, 1984), p. 141-143).
39- Palestinian History, http://www.nilemedia.com/Topics/History/
40- Israel Eldad, "On the Spirit That Was Revealed in the People," De'ot, Winter 1968, as quoted in Davis and Mezvinsky (eds.), Documents from Israel (1967-1973), pp. 186-7, emphasis added
41- The Memoirs of Ariel Sharon, trans. Antoine Abir (Beirut: Maktabat Bisan, 1991), p. 110..
42- Massacres Committed by the Jews in Palestine, www.hatedbooks.com/book/2.htm, emphasis added
43- Massacres Committed by the Jews in Palestine, www.hatedbooks.com/book/2.htm, emphasis added
44- Massacres Committed by the Jews in Palestine, www.hatedbooks.com/book/2.htm, emphasis added
45- Michael Palumbo, Imperial Israel, (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1990), pp. 30-32; citing UN General Assembly: Official Record, 11th session supplement.
46- "Israeli Massacres:Details and Numbers," www.ummah.net/unity/palestine/massacres.htm.
47- Ahmet Varol, (http://www.vahdet.com.tr/filistin/dosya2/0358.html).
48- Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation, (London: Andre Deutsch, 1990), p. 9.
49- Robert Fisk, "The Legacy of Ariel Sharon," The Independent, February 6, 2001, emphasis added.
50- Fisk, Pity the Nation, p. 9.
51- Le Monde, February, 13, 2001, emphasis added.
52- Haithem El-Zabri, "Rivers of Blood: A New Sharon Episode," The Palestine Monitor, no. 2, February 2001, emphasis added.
53- Noam Chomsky, World Orders: Old and New, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), p.204, emphasis added
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