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REPORTS FROM THE "GENOCIDAL" ISRAEL WAR ON THE PALESTINIANS
MID-EAST REALITIES - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington, DC - 4/06/2002:
It was the Turkish Prime Minister, a major ally of Israel these days, who
actually used the "Genocide" word today. They keep denying it when it comes to the
Armenians of yesteryear; but even the Turks it seems can see what the Israelis are
doing to the captive Palestinian population of more than 3 million in the "occupied
territories".
Per capita, more Palestinians are dying on many days now -- that's right each and
every day! -- then were killed at the World Trade Tower on the infamous day of 9/11.
Nor should it be forgotten for a moment, and certainly not overlooked as some
tend to do, that what is being done simply could not be done if it were not for the
American arms, the American money, and the duplicitous American policies which gives
Israel the means and the cover to do what it does.
There will be days of reckoning ahead and considerably more bloodshed and
violence now. But even so, all the while the historic clock of reparations is now
running on fast forward while that of reconciliation is on fast reverse.
BRITISH WOMAN TELLS OF BETHLEHEM SHOOTINGS
By Robert Mendick
[The Independent, London, 7 April 2002]: A Jewish woman from Manchester spoke last
night of her terror after fleeing Israeli soldiers firing live ammunition into a crowd
of peace protesters.
Jo Bird, 31, a manager with the Co-operative Bank, watched as three of her friends
were shot during the peace demonstration in Bethlehem on Easter Monday.
Her friend Kate Edwards, an Australian living in Manchester, is still in hospital in
the West Bank after being hit in the stomach. She underwent surgery to remove four
bullet fragments, which ruptured her stomach and caused severe internal injuries. Ms
Bird was holed up in a hotel in Bethlehem for three days until the British consulate
stepped in to evacuate her and six fellow peace activists, including the comedian
Jeremy Hardy. She finally flew home on Thursday evening.
Ms Bird, whose Jewish parents support her activities, told The Independent on Sunday:
"We were peacefully
marching in Bethlehem and then, without warning, two Israeli soldiers began firing
live ammunition out of
an armoured personnel carrier.
"Some of the shots were aimed at the floor, some at the walls but others were aimed at
people. I was about
five metres from the soldiers when they started firing at us.
"I was terrified. It was completely outrageous. My main concern was for my friends who
were injured. I was close by when they were hit.
"I feared for my life, for sure. The soldiers carried on firing at us for 10 minutes."
The demonstrators, under the umbrella of the International Solidarity Movement, then
began, Ms Bird said, an orderly retreat.
She added."I am angry that our lives and our human rights were treated with such
disrespect by the Israeli Defence Force. It opened my eyes to the brutality of the
Israeli occupation."
LETTER FROM UNDER SIEGE
Sat, 06 Apr 2002
Hello All,
Its the ninth day since the Israeli has begun its terror campaign against the
Palestinian people in all of the cities in the West Bank. As you may have noticed I
haven't written for a couple of days, so just wanted to assure you that I am doing
alright, and I am trying to keep my spirits high. I am forcing myself to write this
e-mail to you all, although 9 days of being imprisoned inside because of a curfew have
brought me to the point where I can barely concentrate long enough to sit down and
type.
I am not sure what to say, or how much of a difference anything I write here will make
in the larger scope of things, but I guess its up to each of us to do what we can. My
frustration and anger has reached its highest point for me. We try to laugh it off.
The other day we joked about writing an official letter to the UN to request that we
be allowed to 1. throw out our garbage in the bin outside and 2. to be allowed to take
a shower in peace. So we still laugh at our situation, but there are lots of downs
too.
For the past three days we have seen the situation here go from horrible to beyond
description. In these past three days there has been constant bombardment on the
people of Nablus and Jenin from Apache Helicopters and Tanks. Today alone, In the one
neighborhood of JEnin's REFUGEE camp, more than 30 people have been killed. And the
bombardment is continuing...
There are now reports coming out from frantic residents of the camps that Homes are
being demolished inthe camp over their heads. No one is allowed to leave and no one
is allowed to enter. The wounded are dying in the streets and in their homes. The
Israeli army refuses to allow Ambulances and doctors to leave the hospital, let alone
to reach the camps and to help the wounded.
I know some of this is hard to believe so Here is a quote I took out of Haaretz daily,
the English version of the Israeli Newspaper this morning: " ...said the commander of
the IDF forces in the West Bank town of Jenin, Brigadier General Eyal Shlein...in an
interview to Israel Radio... When asked about the casualties on the Palestinian side,
and the fact that there were women, children and the elderly in the refugee camp of
Jenin, Shlein said, 'Yes, it is a tightly packed refugee camp.I am sure they [the
Palestinians] do not like it, and I imagine that there are injuries. But people who
raise children willing to commit suicide.who choose this path, they are expected to
pay the price.'"
So now Palestinians are paying the "price" which apparently is the lives of civilians,
the complete destruction of homes and property, and the attempt at making Palestinians
submit to Occupation . When will it stop? who will stop it? maybe when Bush wakes up
and realizes that Sharon's war on terrorism is really a terror war on all Palestinians
with American support, then maybe he'll so something, or maybe when the Arab leaders
realize that in order to hold on to their seats in their countries they need to take
steps, then maybe the world will move. But for now Palestinian blood doesn't mean much
to the world. AndI am not holding my breath for Bush or Arab leaders to become
"enlightened".
What more can I say? I wish I could say that people here are excited to see that
Powell is coming and that we see the end of the road from where we stand. But the
truth is that people are tired and they are highly skeptical of anything the world may
bring. Like I have said before, there is no more fear in people's hearts because they
have seen things at their worst, and so now they want to see things at their best and
will not accept anything less than that.
okay, I am not sure how much sense this e-mail makes, or even what exactly i mean to
tell you guys, but I am too worn out to reread this before I send it to you, so please
accept my apologies this brings you down, or if you can't understand what I wrote.
Please don't worry too much about me, but save your prayers for those in Nablus and
Jenin where the people need it most.
LINA
(American Citizen from Washington, DC area)
JENIN UNDER HEAVY ATTACK - MASSACRES UNDERWAY
NABLUS, West Bank, April 6 (AFP) - Israeli troops, tanks and helicopters fought
furiously Saturday with Palestinians in the northern West Bank, leaving dozens
reported dead and Palestinians crying "massacre" in a refugee camp.
At least 44 Palestinians and five Israelis were reported killed Saturday which, if
confirmed, would make it the bloodiest day in the 18-month-old Palestinian uprising
that has claimed more than 1,700 lives.
Residents of Jenin refugee camp said dozens of tanks encircled the area and
helicopters fired missiles as several bulldozers destroyed houses at its eastern and
western entrances.
Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said at least 30 Palestinians
were killed in fierce fighting and the toll could top 100. Four Israelis were also
reported killed in the camp and Jenin town.
"Today is a day of massacres in Jenin. I have just learned from the director of
Jenin hospital of at least 30 martyrs in a small area of one of Jenin's districts,"
Abed Rabbo told Qatar-based
Al-Jazeera television.
"Other information received from inhabitants of Jenin indicates that, to their
knowledge, there are more than 100 martyrs until now in the camp," Abed Rabbo added.
"We are currently witnessing a massacre, similar to that of Sabra and Shatila and
the same thing is happening in Nablus," Abed Rabbo added, referring to the 1982
slaughter in two Lebanese camps that cost at least 800.
Twelve other Palestinians were confirmed dead across the West Bank on the ninth day
of Israel's military push aimed at crushing a Palestinian uprising and isolating
Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters.
An Israeli and two Palestinians were killed in a shootout on the southern Gaza
Strip after gunmen tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement, Palestinian and Israeli
sources said.
The Israeli army moved into the village of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank,
situated between Jenin and Nablus, where they have also run into increasingly heavy
resistance trying to
consolidate their control.
They also rolled into the town of Yatta, near the southern city of Hebron which is
one of the two major West Bank municipalities left in Palestinan hands.
The moves came despite a call by US Secretary of State Colin Powell for an end to
the military push "without delay" before he arrives in the region next week in a new
US bid to broker a
ceasefire.
The Jenin camp is known as a stronghold of the radical Islamic group Hamas and the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement. Many suicide bombers
originated from the area.
Houses were blown up with dynamite, tank and machinegun fire as Palestinian gunmen
fought back in the camp that houses 11,000 people in the town of Jenin, north of
Nablus.
"We are being subjected to a ground and air assault. Bulldozers are paving the way
for tanks and infantry troops to move inside the camp," said Jamal Abu-Heija, the
local leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas.
"Scores of houses have been demolished. We cannot specify the number of victims, as
we cannot reach them at this time. But for sure we have been subjected to a massacre."
"We call on all international and human rights organizations to intervene and stop
this massacre," he said.
The Palestinian leadership earlier issued a statement calling on world bodies "to
move immediately to save Jenin's refugee camp from the massacre committed there by the
Israeli occupation forces."
Heavy fighting overnight rocked Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank.
Israeli helicopter gunships rained down missiles, cutting a wide swathe of destruction.
"We have 10 seriously wounded people in three different parts of the city,
particularly in the historic center," said Annan Attira, spokesman for the local
government and coordinator of medical assistance.
"The number of dead is uncertain," he told AFP. "The problem is that the telephone
network was cut and we are really out of touch with the families of the victims," he
said.
Among the seven confirmed dead were four Palestinians, including an eight-year-old
boy, who were killed by Israeli fire in a refugee camp, Palestinian hospital sources
said. A Palestinian man was later killed by Israeli forces.
In other developments on the ground:
-- In Bethlehem, an armed standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen
hunkered inside the Church of the Nativity went into a fifth day. Sporadic gunfire was
heard around the site but no other activity reported.
-- The armed wing of radical Islamic militant group Hamas vowed to exact
unprecedented reprisals against Israel after six of its fighters, including a top
commander, were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Friday.
-- The Israeli army ransacked the home and arrested the son of Hassan Yussef, a top
leader of Hamas in Ramallah, another official from the militant group said.
TURK PM ACCUSES ISRAEL OF PALESTINIAN "GENOCIDE"
[Reuters - ANKARA, April 4} � Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit accused close
military ally Israel on Thursday of carrying out ''genocide'' against Palestinians.
''It is not just Arafat, the whole of the Palestinian state is being destroyed step by
step. A genocide against the Palestinian people is being carried out before the eyes
of the world,'' he told party members in parliament.
Ecevit's remarks reflect growing Turkish discomfort with the military assault its ally
is pushing through against Palestinian areas in response to a wave of lethal suicide
bombings.
He blamed both Israel and Palestinian radicals for the violence and urged both sides
to resume peace talks.
Turkey and Israel cooperate in a range of security areas and Turkey only last month
signed a $668 million deal for an Israeli state defence firm to upgrade 170 ageing
Turkish M-60 tanks.
But public protests against the Israeli military action in towns and cities in the
West Bank has grown in Turkey.
Thousands of Turks took to the streets for the third day running on Thursday to
protest against actions by Israel against Palestinians.
About 2,500 people led by unions and civic groups gathered amid a heavy police
presence in central Ankara, shouting ''Damn Israel'' and ''Murderer Israel,''
witnesses said. They called on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end military
action against the Palestinians.
About 100 people met in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey
to send the Israeli embassy in Ankara faxes condemning Israel and declaring solidarity
with the Palestinians.
Muslim Turkey has traditionally supported Palestinian aspirations to statehood, but
has close military, commercial and diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
The Turkish General Staff said on Thursday Israel would not participate in trilateral
military manoeuvres with the United States scheduled for later this month in Turkey.
Ecevit on Thursday again offered Turkey as a possible venue for direct talks between
Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. ''We are calling upon Sharon and
Arafat to meet outside of the spotlight in Turkey or another place,'' he said.
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