A Palestinian Blogger on Life in the Blast Zone
A Palestinian Blogger on Life in the Blast Zone
What
follows are excerpts from the blog of Mona Elfarra. Mona
Elfarra
is a Palestinian physician and women's rights
activist living in the
Jabalia refuge camp in the Gaza
Strip. Please visit
http://www.fromgaza.blogspot.com to
view the complete blog.
--Friday, June 30, 2006
The
power is still off. It comes on and off irregularly.
The
electricity company is trying hard to supply power to
1.5 million
people who used to get electricity from the
power plant that was
completely destroyed two nights
ago.
Tonight another electrical generator was attacked
and destroyed
completely. I tried to explain to my
daughter the complicated
mechanisms of power distribution
and how the electrical company is
trying hard. But she
was so frustrated to learn that we will be
receiving
patchy power for another three months at least.
They are
attacking Gaza City right now, Jabalia and Beit Lahia.
The
emergency room at Al Awda Hospital received seven
casualties.
They launched at least 15 missiles, and the
noise of the jet fighters
and Apache helicopters
interrupted my already interrupted sleep. I am
fully
awake now. I have not gotten good sleep for four
days.
--Saturday, July 1, 2006
My friend Hoda lives
next to the Ministry of Interior building in Gaza,
which
was hit last night with two rockets. The attack occurred at
2
a.m. yesterday. (Please forgive me about the accuracy -
I am starting
to lose track of days and nights, and how
many times we were attacked).
Hoda told me that her whole
building was shaking. She went out in her
pajamas, and
all the residents were out in their nightwear;
children's
faces were too pale, some of them were crying
hysterically. The fumes
filled the place. I live 150
meters [about 164 yards] from Hoda's
place. Nobody is
safe, no one is immune.
The power is still off. We had it
for three hours yesterday, enough to
recharge my laptop
and mobile phone and to do some cooking. I am
highly
concerned about the hospitals; the fuel supply to
run the local
generators is running down. The medication
and medical supplies are
running down too. Water is
scarce too. We need to ration our water use.
We are going
through a big humanitarian disaster.
Sonic booming happens
when the jet fighters go quickly through the
sound
barrier. We experience this sort of terrifying raid at
least
seven times during the day and night. How can I let
you know my
personal feelings during these raids? If I am
sleeping, my bed shakes
tremendously; my daughter jumps
into my bed, shivering with fear and
then both of us end
up on the floor. My heart beats very fast. I have
to
pacify my daughter; now she knows we need to pacify each
other. She
feels my fear. If I am awake, I flinch and
scream loudly; I cannot help
myself. OK, I am a doctor
and a mature middle-aged woman with a lot of
experience,
and an activist too, but with this booming I
become
hysterical - after all we are all humans and each
have our own
threshold.
--Monday, July 3, 2006
We in
Gaza face great pressure. For those who need to be
reminded,
since the start of this intifada (in September
2000), Gaza's economy
has been severely affected by the
continuous Israeli atrocities:
roadblocks, border
closures, destruction of agricultural areas and
home
demolitions. The current rate of unemployment more
than 50%. The vast
majority of Palestinian families are
living on humanitarian aid, and an
increasing number of
families live under the poverty line. Gaza is just
360
square kilometers [about 139 square miles] with nearly 1.5
million
residents, so we have a very high population
density.
After four months of economic sanctions, we in
the health field face a
collapsing health system. We do
not have medications in our stores and
have had to
prioritize surgical operations due to lack of
medical
supplies. The last thing we needed is the power
cut off.
--Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - 1:45 a.m.
Big
explosion, very big and so loud; I'm fully awake, and so is
Sondos,
my daughter. We hardly can see anything. It is
very dark. The drone hit
the Ministry of Interior
building again with a missile. That completely
destroyed
the building, according to the news from the radio.
I
contacted Hoda, who lives next to the building, and found
her
hysterically screaming and shouting in pain, trapped
under her broken
windows, all the windows of her flat
broken, the fumes filling the
place. She is waiting for
the emergency team to evacuate her.
I can hear the
hysterical sounds of her neighbors over the phone. I
feel
helpless and don't know what to do. Five of her neighbors
were
injured, some of them the terrified kids I mentioned
in one of my
previous blogs.
When I visited Hoda four
hours ago, we both were tense. A third friend
asked us to
talk about anything but not politics or what is going on
in
the Palestinian scene. We tried to but couldn't. I
left her, walked
home.
I have no analysis. Maybe you
can try to help me to know why they would
hit an empty
building twice. I see it as desperation, eagerness
to
revenge themselves.
It is not because of the
soldier. They dropped thousands of shells on
Gaza,
killing women, children and old people, even before he
was
captured. Fatah and Hamas signed a national
agreement. There could have
been negotiations.
But
Israel would have to give up control of our land, our
resources.
They want to destroy our government. They want
to destroy our will to
get our rights, to live a normal
life in our land.
--Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - 3 a.m.
It
is dark. Sondos is asleep. I cannot go to bed. I have no
batteries
for my transistor. I do not know where Hoda is.
My mobile needs to be
recharged. I have no power; I am
restless, anxious and helpless.
My laptop is gasping
too.
--Thursday, July 6, 2006 - 8:13 p.m.
It seems that
the Israeli military operation is escalating. 1:30
p.m.
our local time, casualties started to reach the Al
Awda hospital
(Jabalia refugee camp). The hospital
medical team received 13 civilians
seriously injured and
2 dead militia men. The hospital's 3 operating
rooms
worked with its full capacity, for continuous 5 hours. I
was
told by Mr. Abusaada, one of our ambulance drivers,
that they evacuated
the injured under heavy fire. Mr.
Abusaada, told that they were
working under fire, I
always think of him and others and how they work
under
the most difficult circumstances, the worse, he faced when
he
evacuated the Galia family from the beach 3 weeks
ago.
Today he told me he was not allowed to reach one of
the injured who
bled on the ground for at least half an
hour (when one minute can make
a difference for bleeding
case ), before passing away. Other
hospitals received
15 injured civilians as well, different ages,
no
children, were hurt in this incident. I hope I will
not give news
about dead or injured children. 18
Palestinians were killed today in
Gaza strip tens were
injured, mainly in the north of Gaza.
My main concern now
is to find a way to get medications and medical
supplies
through the borders, into Gaza. The hospital
medical
resources are exhausted, the borders are
completely sealed, some very
crucial medications are
lacking.
The Rafah borders in the south, was opened today
for 3 hours. There
are at least 2,000 Palestinians on
the Egyptian side, waiting to enter
Gaza. They have been
waiting since last Sunday. When the "summer
rain"
operation started, internationals were asked to
leave Gaza, via Eretz
checkpoint, that was opened for 2
hours only (for us here in Gaza this
is alarming sign).
Karni checkpoint, the commercial checkpoint, was
opened
to let in some stuff for 4 hours, maybe to let in more
candles,
transistors and torches.
It seems that this
business is booming in Gaza those days. On my way
back
from the hospital, I could see people queuing to purchase
candles.
--Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 1:00 a.m.
The
Gaza hospitals medical resources is critically decreasing ,
the
number of causalities increases as the operation
continues, in 2 days
34 Palestinian were killed, of the
many injured 33 were children. The
city's 3 hospitals are
working round the hour they urged people to
donate blood.
I told you earlier on that the civilians are not
avoided,
it is a battle that lacks the balance of power;
with the resistance men
and their comparatively limited
weapons, and the most powerful army in
the region, with
the full support of the USA.
I was at Al Awda hospital
this morning. The staff enjoys good spirit,
but they are
exhausted. They complained of their worries regarding
the
shortage of the fuel that runs the electrical
generators. It has to be
used for the ambulances too. It
was quiet in the morning, casualties
started to arrive in
the late afternoon. I shall be there tomorrow.
I hate war, it is ugly so is the occupation.
--Saturday, July 8, 2006
- 12:40 a.m
I did not tell you before about my mother.
She lives in Khan Yunis, 22
km to the south of Gaza City.
I was born and brought up there, until I
was 16, when I
left to university in Egypt. My mother is 84, she
is
living alone after the death of my father, and she is
physically
disabled. She is well looked after. I visit
her whenever I have time,
and this happens twice weekly
at least, my elder sister lives next door
and since the
start of the "summer rain" operation, by the
occupying
Israeli forces, I couldn't reach her.
I was
overwhelmed with the situation, besides the 2 bridges
that
connect Gaza in the north and Khan Yunis in the
south, were destroyed
in the 1st few hours of the
military assault, as well as the power
plant. I was
afraid to use the unreliable side roads. I was not
ready
to risk by leaving Sondos alone, with all the
consequences, air raids,
sonic booming, no power,
complete road block, and staying away of my
daughter and
my
work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.)
Bil'in: Palestinian Villagers Move into Israeli
Settlement!
July 6,
2006
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/06/bilin-moves-in/
UPDATE,
6 pm: The three Palestinian families have been evicted by
the
Israeli police and were taken away in Border Police
vehicles to the
other side of the Apartheid Wall.
Mohammed Katib said that they had an
order to remove the
families. No Palestinians or Israelis were
arrested. This
evacuation is a stark contrast to the fact that
when
Israeli authorities claimed that "there was nothing
they could do"
when they were notified that settlers have
moved in illegally to the
Mtityahu Mizrah outpost.
See.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
This morning at 11am, three
families from the village of Bil'in moved
into empty
apartments built on land the village owns in the
Matityahu
East settlement, west of Israel's apartheid
barrier. As of 8am this
morning, the Israeli military has
declared the whole area a closed
military zone until the
8th of July. Amongst the first inhabitants of
this new
neighborhood of Bil'in are the families of
Abdullah
Abu-Rahme and Mohammed Katib from the Bil'in
Popular Committee
Against the Wall and Settlements. The
families intend to actually live
in the apartments, and
more are set to follow. This will make a
statement about
their rights to the land and act as a direct,
non-violent
challenge to the apartheid of the Israeli state.
Matityahu
East was built illegally on land belonging to
the Palestinian village
of Bil'in. According to Israeli
law, anything found on land that you
own also belongs to
you.
Despite an Israeli Supreme Court injunction
forbidding the occupation
of structures in the Matityahu
East settlement, Israeli settlers have
been moving in.
This morning's bold move by Bil'in villagers has
put the
state of Israel to a test. The Police and Military have
done
nothing to stop Jewish settlers creating facts on
the ground in
defiance of the Supreme Court. Yet when
Palestinian villagers, legally
taking up residence on
their own land try to move in, they use military
orders
in an attempt to prevent them.
On the 24th of May,
Ha'aretz newspaper reported that at least two
settler
families moved into apartments in the settlement. This
happened
despite Bil'in's attorney Michael Sfard calling
the Police. They
arrived after he threatened to file a
motion charging them with
contempt of court unless they
stopped the settlers, but they did
nothing to stop them
from moving in.
The apartheid barrier under construction
runs through Bil'in, and
separates the village from
substantial parts of its land, including the
portion on
which Matityahu East was built. Although in public
Israel
claims that the route of the wall there is purely
for security reasons,
the route accommodates planned
future expansion of the settlement,
exactly following the
settlement master-plan. As now acknowledged in
the
Israeli media, Matityahu East was stolen from Bil'in
residents
through fraudulent land purchases. The
affidavit affirming the transfer
of ownership was signed
by an attorney representing the settlers,
instead of by
the head of Bil'in, as is required.
On Sunday, July 9th,
at 10am, the Israeli High Court will hold a
hearing
concerning two petitions of Bil'in: one against the
illegal
building in the Matityahu East settlement; and
another in which the
Court is asked to annul the
declaration made in 1991 that the village
land earmarked
for the settlement and its expansion are
government
property. There is a criminal investigation of
the civil administration
official involved in this
transfer. There is also a decision pending in
the Israeli
court on the route of the wall.
For more information
contact:
Abdullah Abu-Rahme: 054 725 8210
Mohammed
Katib: 054 5573285
Iyad Burnat: 054 784 7942
Yonatan
Pollack: 054 623 7736
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824 or
0599 943 157
For pictures of Israeli settlers moving into
the settlement on the 24th
of May, while Police help them
see the Ha'aretz article, reposted on
the ISM
website:
www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/05/24/bilin-rouge-settlers/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.)
Beit Ummar and Halhul Pray for Justice - Israeli Army
Kidnap
Villager
July 7, 2006
by Ernesto in Beit
Ummar
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/07/pray-for-justice/
Today,
Friday July 7th, 2006, at noon, over 300 farmers and
residents
of the Palestinian villages of Beit Ummar and
Halhoul held Friday
prayers together on their land that
has been ravaged by Israeli
bulldozers in the past week.
International and Israeli supporters
accompanied them in
a non-violent march to the land in order to observe
the
activities of the military and the settlers, and support
their
struggle against the illegal expansion of the
settlement Karme Tzur.
They demonstrators marched around
the settlement on the land where
trees and grape vines
have been uprooted because of the construction of
a new
wall that will enclose the settlement, illegally
annexing
Palestinian land to it. The residents, mostly
men and children, carried
signs that said, "No to the
Policy of Damaging Land and Human
Beings" and other
things. The Israeli soldiers attempted to stop
the
demonstration but eventually they passed.
The march
and prayer were beautiful and non-violent, however
armed
settlers descended on the group and waved their
rifles in the air as
they called in reinforcements from
the military. More military arrived
and they lined the
hill above the demonstrators as prayer
services
ended.
While the majority turned back to the
village after prayers, the army
prevented those who
wanted to stay from being on their land. They were
told
that they were too close to the settlement.
Young kids
threw stones at a light pole and then the soldiers began
to
shoot rubber bullets at the young kids. Eventually the
soldiers shot
many rubber bullets and tear gas grenades.
One young man named Saqir
Sadiq Abu Mariya, 35, was shot
by a rubber bulet in the torso and taken
away by an
ambulance. Many people fled the scene because the gas
was
becoming unbearable.
At 7pm this evening, three
jeeps entered the village shooting tear gas,
rubber
bullets, and sound grenades at people in the streets for
about
an hour. Keefeh Kamael Bahar, 20, was taken from
his home and arrested
during the raid of the
village.
Non violent activist and organizer Musa Abu
Mariya, 28, is still
imprisoned by the Israeli military
after being arrested when he lay
down in front of an
Israeli bulldozer tearing up Beit Omar lands on
July 4th.
Palestinians can be held without, any charges or access to
a
lawyer for eight days before being brought in front of
a military judge
who can prolong the period. According to
a report by the Public
Committee Against Torture in
Israel (PCATI), "Each month, hundreds of
Palestinians
were subjected to one degree or another of torture
or
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
(ill-treatment), at the
hands of the GSS (General
Security Services) and bodies working on its
behalf.
"
Please donate to the ISM legal fund so that we can offer
legal support
to these Non-Violent
activists!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.)
Basque and Bil'in Demonstrators Keep the Beat
July 7,
2006
by Zadie and Jennie in
Bil'in
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/07/bilin/
On
July 7th, at 13:00 the people of Bil'in, joined by a
Basque
Nationalist musical group and International and
Israeli activists,
started their weekly rally to protest
the ongoing construction of the
illegal Apartheid wall on
their lands. One hundred people started the
march, which
was launched in front of the mosque and ended at the
gate
in the wall.
The Basque musical group, in
traditional ceremonial attire and
formation, kept the
beat for the demonstration by marching with large
bells
that they wore on their lower backs, led by an individual
in
front who blew on a traditional horn. They were chased
away by rubber
bullets and sound bombs from the soldiers
but returned to perform their
art and pass through the
line of soldiers that were holding people
back. They
stated their intent of solidarity with the
Palestinians:
"we too have been fighting an occupation of
our lands for
generations", and wished to express their
support for the Palestinian
resistance.
The Israeli
military became violent as soldiers tried to
arrest
non-violent protester, Iyad Buranat, a member of
the Bil'in committee
against the wall and settlements .
Other Palestinians and came to his
aid to try to prevent
his arrest and were caught between the Jeeps and
the
barbed wire as soldiers beat them. They grabbed the hands of
the
soldiers to stop the beating and were successful in
deescalating the
situation so they could talk with the
soldiers.
Iyad Buranat was again targeted for arrest and
pulled inside the gate,
separated by the group by rolls
of barbed wire. Several people ran to
his aid, despite
being blocked by soldiers, and a small group was able
to
successfully prevent his arrest.
The demonstration ended
with five people injured. Ahmed Mohammed Hamad,
55, of
Bil'in suffered damage to his right ear from a sound
bomb.
Mohammed Katib, 33,A member of the Bil'in committee
against the wall
and settlements, suffered bruises and
tears to the skin in his left
torso from soldiers
roughing him up. Michael, 23, from the US, suffered
tears
in the skin of his forearms from schrapnel from a sound
bomb. His
right forearm was damaged when he was thrown by
one soldier against
another's shield with extreme force.
Ashraf , 22, of Tulkarem,
suffered a rubber bullet to his
upper left thigh as he was walking by
the soldiers.
Khaled, 18, of Bil'in, was hit with a rubber bullet
in
the leg.
This evening the army revoked the order
declaring the area a closed
military zone. A team of
three internationals gained access through the
gate which
had been denied to them after the demonstration. They
have
now relieved the lone Palestinian who was manning
the outpost, and the
area has been declared open for the
time
being.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.)
Bulldozers Stopped, Palestinian Activist Still
Arrested
July 5, 2006
by Em and Zadie in Beit
Ummar
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/05/1332/
[to
view
video]
http://dc.indymedia.org/usermedia/video/2/biet_ummar.mpg
UPDATE,
6th July: As far as we have been able to acsertain,
Musa
Abu-Marya still remains a captive of the
Shabak.
Yesterday in Beit Ummar, a village of 15,000 in
the Israeli occupied
West Bank, non-violent direct action
continued in opposition to the
illegal Israeli annexation
and destruction of Palestinain farm land.
Surrounded by
cautious Palestinian youth who observed from a
safe
distance, a group of 2 Palestinians and 9
internationals approached a
backhoe and bulldozer
uprooting trees in Palestinian orchards. The
demolition,
begun on Sunday, is to make way for a new Israeli
wall
encircling the settlement of Kurmei Tsur and will
conveniently -and
illegaly- steal yet more land from the
bordering villages of Beit Ummar
and Halul for the
Israeli settlement - itself illegal under
international
law. The prospective wall will be built 300 meters
from
an existing one, grabbing land without the
permission or compensation
of Palestinian
land-owners.
Upon arriving within thirty meters of the
construction equipment the
activists were chased and
assaulted by approximately 15 members of the
Israeli
Offensive Force. Activists were strangled, punched, kicked,
and
struck with the barrels of guns by these soldiers,
causing bleeding,
numerous bruises, and difficulty
swallowing. One activist had hair
ripped from his head.
Another had a soldier's finger stuck in his eye
in an
effort to incapacitate him. Another was kicked in the groin.
At
one point, a Palestinain activist and journalist asked
a soldier "why
do you attack civilians? is this what you
are trained for?" In
response, a seething soldier
declared "You are my enemy", which the
Palestinian caught
on camera.
Four activists were restrained and put in
plasti-cuffs. But three, all
internationals, were allowed
to leave, while the other detainee, Musa
Abu-Mariya, a
Palestinian from Beit Ummar, was arrested and taken
for
indefinite interrogation, highlighting the apartheid
nature of the
Israeli legal systems. After prior arrests
by the Israelis, Musa has
reported physical abuse by his
captors.
Later in the morning another Palestinian, a 15
year old named Asim, was
arrested in a nearby orchard.
According to reports from villagers in
Beit Ummar he
sustained injuries from the IOF.
Advocate Nasser, a lawyer
representing the municipality of Beit Ummar
and Halhul
succeeded in getting a temporary stop work order from
an
Israeli court. The mayor of Beit Ummar presented the
soldiers with the
order, forcing a temporary halt in the
destruction and theft of about
5000 dunams of farmers'
land. The order says that they must stop all
work on
building the wall around Karme Tzur settlement until there
is a
decision in the Isreali Supreme Court on the lawsuit
filed by the
village of Beit Ummar against the
construction.
One of the Palestinians arrested yesterday
was released last night,
fifteen year-old Asam Abu
Mariya. Non-violent activist, Musa Abu
Mariya, 28, is
still being held at an unknown location and has had
no
contact with any lawyer.
For the past three days
Palestinians and internationals have had some
success at
stopping the destruction of the land by sitting down
in
front of the bulldozers and demonstrating on the land.
However,
hundreds of trees and grape vines have been
already been uprooted. The
Israeli army has used force to
stop the protestors and enforce the
confiscation of land
while bypassing all legal channels. There are
various
lawyers working on enforcing the rights of the landowners
and
protecting the land from
confiscation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.)
South Hebron Villages Persist to Resist
June 30,
2006
by
Zadie
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/06/30/persit-to-resist/
"We
call on the international community to intervene and stop
settler
violence against us."
Today, June 30th, the
people of Qawawis accompanied by people from
Tuwanwi and
other neighboring villages as well as Israeli
and
international activists demonstrated against the
settlements and the
wall. About 50 people gathered and
marched to the wall. The Israeli
group Rabbis for Human
Rights also donated ten bales of hay that will
be used to
feed the sheep to replace what was burned by the
settlers
earlier this week.
The settlers have a history
of aggression towards people in Qawawis and
neighboring
villages. They have damaged villagers' wells and
harassed
and attacked children and farmers.
One month
ago an inner barrier was built along the road that
passes
Qawawis. This barrier separates farmers from their
lands and makes it
hard for tractors and sheep to
pass.
There were very few army and Border Police present
and no journalists
representing any of the local or Arab
media because of the attention on
Gaza. Despite this
fact, the people of Qawawis continued to
demonstrate
their resolve to resist the illegal
settlements and the
wall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.)
Ynet: "Look who's been kidnapped"
July 5th,
2006
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/05/ynet-kidnapped/
Hundreds
of Palestinian 'suspects' have been kidnapped from
their
homes and will never stand trial
by Israeli reservist Arik Diamant, Yedioth Ahronoth
It's the wee
hours of the morning, still dark outside. A
guerilla
force comes out of nowhere to kidnap a soldier.
After hours of careful
movement, the force reaches its
target, and the ambush is on! In
seconds, the soldier
finds himself looking down the barrel of a rifle.
A smash
in the face with the butt of the gun and the soldier falls
to
the ground, bleeding. The kidnappers pick him up,
quickly tie his hands
and blindfold him, and disappear
into the night.
This might be the end of the kidnapping,
but the nightmare has just
begun. The soldier's mother
collapses, his father prays. His
commanding officers
promise to do everything they can to get him back,
his
comrades swear revenge. An entire nation is up-in-arms,
writing in
pain and worry.
Nobody knows how the soldier
is: Is he hurt? Do his captors give him
even a minimum of
human decency, or are they torturing him to death
by
trampling his honor? The worst sort of suffering is
not knowing. Will
he come home? And if so, when? And in
what condition? Can anyone remain
apathetic in the light
of such drama?
Israeli terror
This description, you'll
be surprised to know, has nothing to do with
the
kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. It is the story of an arrest I
carried
out as an IDF soldier, in the Nablus casbah,
about 10 years ago. The
"soldier" was a 17-year-old boy,
and we kidnapped him because he
knew "someone" who had
done "something."
We brought him tied up, with a burlap
sac over his head, to a Shin Bet
interrogation center
known as "Scream Hill" (at the time we thought
it was
funny). There, the prisoner was beaten, violently shaken
and
sleep deprived for weeks or months. Who knows.
No
one wrote about it in the paper. European diplomats were not
called
to help him. After all, there was nothing out of
the ordinary about the
kidnapping of this Palestinian
kid. Over the 40 years of occupation we
have kidnapped
thousands of people, exactly like Gilad Shalit
was
captured: Threatened by a gun, beaten mercilessly,
with no judge or
jury, or witnesses, and without
providing the family with any
information about the
captive.
When the Palestinians do this, we call it
"terror." When we do it,
we work overtime to whitewash
the atrocity.
Suspects?
Some people will say: The IDF
doesn't "just" kidnap. These people
are "suspects." There
is no more perverse lie than this. In all the
years I
served, I reached one simple conclusion: What makes
a
"suspect"? Who, exactly suspects him, and of
what?
Who has the right to sentence a 17-year-old to
kidnapping, torture and
possible death? A 26-year-old
Shin Bet interrogator? A 46-year-old one?
Do these people
have any higher education, apart from the ability
to
interrogate? What are his considerations? I all these
"suspects"
are so guilty, why not bring them to
trial?
Anyone who believes that despite the lack of
transparency, the IDF and
Shin Bet to their best to
minimize violations of human rights is
naïve, if not
brainwashed. One need only read the testimonies
of
soldiers who have carried out administrative
detentions to be convinced
of the depth of the immorality
of our actions in the territories.
To this very day, there
are hundreds of prisoners rotting in Shin Bet
prisons and
dungeons, people who have never been -and never will be
-
tried. And Israelis are silently resolved to this
phenomenon.
Israeli responsibility
The day Gilad Shalit
was kidnapped I rode in a taxi. The driver told me
we
must go into Gaza, start shooting people one-by-one, until
someone
breaks and returns the hostage. It isn't clear
that such an operation
would bring Gilad back
alive.
Instead of getting dragged into terrorist
responses... we should
release some of the soldiers and
civilians we have kidnapped. This is
appropriate, right,
and could bring about an air of reconciliation in
the
territories.
Hell, if this is what will bring Gilad home
safe-and-sound, we have a
responsibility to him to do
it.
Arik Diamant is an IDF reservist and the head of the
Courage to
Refuse
organization
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.)
Robert Novak: "Holy Land Christians blame Israel"
July
5th, 2006
by Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times columnist
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/05/christians-blame-israel/
On
June 19, two young members of Congress received an
extraordinary
letter from Jerusalem. On behalf of
Christian churches in the Holy
Land, they were told a
House resolution they were circulating blaming
the
Palestinian Authority for Christian decline there "is based
on
many false affirmations." The Very Rev. Michael H.
Sellers, an
Anglican priest who is coordinator of
Jerusalem's Christian churches,
said the real problem is
the Israeli occupation - especially its new
security
wall.
Prior to hearing this, freshman Republican Rep.
Michael McCaul of
Austin, Texas, and four-term Democratic
Rep. Joseph Crowley of New York
(Queens) had collected 21
co-sponsors (mainly conservative Republicans)
for their
resolution. Sellers' communication was followed two
days
later by a letter from Rep. Henry Hyde, House
International Relations
Committee chairman. He told the
two congressmen their claim of
systematic persecution by
the Palestinian Authority is "inaccurate
and
incomplete."
McCaul and Crowley put their resolution "on
hold" going into the
long Fourth of July recess. So
apparently ends an audacious effort by
Israeli public
relations to place full blame for the Christian
exodus
from the Israeli-controlled Holy Land on Muslims.
Instead, problems
caused by the security wall have been
highlighted once again.
The House was pulled into this
issue by Justus Reid Weiner, an Israeli
lawyer with the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Weiner, who long
has
blamed Christian misfortunes on the Palestinian
Authority,
contacted Ari Stein, a staffer in McCaul's
congressional office.
Stein in turn brought in Crowley, a
prominent Democrat, through his
staffer, Gregg
Shelowitz.
The result was a "Dear Colleague" letter from
McCaul and Crowley
blaming the Palestinian Authority for
"the systematic destruction of
the oldest Christian
community in the world." The staff-written
letter
asserted: "If we do not act now, Christians around the
world
risk losing control of and access to the most
ancient and holy sites in
Christendom."
Their
subsequent resolution spent three pages detailing
alleged
persecution of Christians by Arab Muslims, even
assailing the State
Department for failing to put
"treatment of Palestinian Christians by
the Palestinian
Authority" in its annual report on human
rights
violations. The resolution immediately picked up
16 Republican
co-sponsors and five Democrats.
This
process was slowed by Sellers' letter from Jerusalem. He
said
Christian churches in the Holy Land that he
represents can take care of
any problems with Muslims and
"are not seeking your interference in
their internal
problems." Where Congress could help, he added,
was
influencing Israeli government policy: "Your support
for the
Christian presence in the Holy Land will best be
served by helping to
remove the separation wall (which
has converted all the Palestinian
towns into big prisons
for Christians and Muslims alike) and by helping
to bring
occupation to an end with all its inherent types of
oppression
and humiliation."
After his letter to McCaul
and Crowley, Hyde made an unscheduled
appearance last
Friday at an International Relations subcommittee
hearing
on the plight of religious minorities. He argued the
problem
for the Holy Land's Christians is not Muslims but
Israel. Long a
steadfast supporter of Israel, Hyde
testified: "I have been unable to
understand how the
currently routed barrier in Jerusalem - which
rips
asunder the existential poles of Christian belief,
the Nativity and the
Resurrection, and encloses 200,000
Palestinians on the Jerusalem side
of the barrier - will
improve the security of Israel's citizens."
Hyde was
followed at the hearing by the Rev. Firas Arida,
the
31-year-old Roman Catholic priest in the West Bank
village of Aboud.
Asserting that the Israeli security
wall causes his parishioners to
lose water and olive
trees, he said "the Israeli occupation must
end," and
"there must be no more settlements on
Palestinian
land."
McCaul and Crowley did not attend
Friday's hearing and surely have
not been to Aboud. Both
Catholics, they might well visit the village
and talk
with Firas' flock while prudently keeping
their
ill-considered resolution on
hold.
Ends