ISRAELIS SHELL LEBANON
Since the Sharm el-sheik meeting under the auspices of Egypt and
U.S. imperialism, the state-organized terror campaign against
Palestinians and their supporters has greatly intensified. Not only
has the Israeli state blockaded the Palestinian territories, they
have escalated attacks within Lebanon. According to press reports,
Israeli troops arrested over 50 Lebanese on March 28, after a
lightning raid on the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil. The arrested
people were then transported to the Khiyam detention camp, which
many Lebanese have likened to the infamous Nazi concentration
camps. Already imprisoned within this prison are over 200 Lebanese,
including a dozen women, who have been held for years without
either charges being filed or being brought to trial.
On Saturday an Israeli tank opened fire at a rooftop where
workers were installing a water tank in the Lebanese village of
Yater killing two civilians and wounding a third. News reports say
that the Israelis continued the attack using artillery overnight,
"Low-flying Israeli warplanes screamed down... near the eastern
city of Baalbek, releasing heat-seeking balloons and staging mock
raids...Israeli shells pounded 13 villages... in the central and
western sectors of southern Lebanon." The reports only spoke of
heavy material damage but gave no word on human casualties.
Residents fled the villages of Yater, Hariss, Kafra and Mansouri to
seek refuge in safer areas near the port city of Tyre.
Apparently the policy of collective punishment now under way
against the Palestinians is to be used against the Lebanese as
well. The recent arrests and shelling are said to be in retaliation
for the attack on an Israeli military patrol inside Lebanon that
resulted in one death, and a rocket attack on Israel. During the
Second World War the German Nazis used to kill 10 villagers for the
death of one German soldier, or remove a large number of villagers
to prison camps to terrorize the population. The U.S. imperialists
employed the same barbaric policy in Vietnam, killing all
inhabitants and burning entire villages in reprisal for attacks on
their troops. Clinton has recently dusted off the old slogan of
"Might Is Right" in his intervention in Haiti and the Balkans, and
his threats against anyone else who does not toe the American line.
It appears the Israelis have wholeheartedly adopted this infamous
policy, all the while proclaiming to the world that they are
involved in a "peace process."
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
