Wow. A worrisome quote from an Israeli general that an escalation of
attacks on Palestinian civilians may accompany the withdrawal from
Gaza.
"If pinpoint response proves insufficient, we may have to use weaponry that
causes major collateral damage, including helicopters and planes, with mounting
danger to surrounding people." Ha'aretz (22 June 2005) quoting statements by
General (Reserves) Eival Giladi, the head of the Coordination and Strategy team
of the Prime Minister's Office.
Jimmy
----- Forwarded Message -----
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:38:01 -0400
Subject: URGENT: Threat to Gaza
URGENT: ALL EYES ON GAZA
DISENGAGEMENT
July 15, 2005
What May Come After the Evacuation
of Jewish Settlers from the Gaza Strip
A Warning from Israel
By URI
DAVIS, ILAN PAPPE, and TAMAR YARON
We feel that it is urgent and
necessary to raise the alarm regarding what may come during and after evacuation
of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip occupied by Israel in 1967, in the event
that the evacuation is implemented.
We held back on getting this
statement published and circulated, seeking additional feedback from our peers.
The publication in Ha'aretz (22 June 2005) quoting statements by General
(Reserves) Eival Giladi, the head of the Coordination and Strategy team of the
Prime Minister's Office, motivated us not to delay publication and circulation
any further. Confirming our worst fears, General (! Res.) Eival Giladi went on
record in print and on television to the effect that "Israel will act in a very
resolute manner in order to prevent terror attacks and [militant] fire while the
disengagement is being implemented" and that "If pinpoint response proves
insufficient, we may have to use weaponry that causes major collateral damage,
including helicopters and planes, with mounting danger to surrounding
people."
We believe that one primary,
unstated motive for the determination of the government of the State of Israel
to get the Jewish settlers of the Qatif (Katif) settlement block out of the Gaza
Strip may be to keep them out of harm's way when the Israeli government and
military possibly trigger an intensified mass attack on the approximately one
and a half million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, of whom about half are 1948
Palestine refugees.
The scenario could be similar to
what has already happened in the past - a tactic that Ariel Sharon has used many
times in his military career - i.e., utilizing provocation in order to launch
massive attacks.
Following this pattern, we believe
that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz are
considering to utilize provocation for vicious attacks in the near future on the
approximately one and a half million Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip:
a possible combination of intensified state terror and mass killing. The Israeli
army is not likely to risk the kind of casualties to its soldiers that would be
involved in employing ground troops on a large scale in the Gaza Strip. With
General Dan Halutz as Chief of Staff they don't need to. It was General Dan
Halutz, in his capacity as Commander of the Israeli Air Force, who authorized
the bombing of a civilian Gaza City quarter with a bomb weighing one ton, and
then went on record as saying that he sleeps well and that the only thing he
feels when dropping a bomb is a slight bump of the aircraft.
The initiators of this alarm have
been active for many decades in the defense of human rights inside the State of
Israel and beyond. We do not have the academic evidence to support our feeling,
but given past behavior, ideological leanings and current media spin initiated
by the Israeli government and military, we believe that the designs of the State
of Israel are clear, and we submit that our educated intuition with matters
pertaining to the defense of human rights has been more often correct than
otherwise.
✁
We urge all those
who share the concern above to add their names to ours and urgently give this
alarm as wide a circulation as possible.
Circulating and
publishing this text may constitute a significant factor in deterring the
Israeli government, thus protecting the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip
from this very possible catastrophe and contributing to prevent yet more war
crimes from occurring.
Please sign, circulate, and
publish this alarm without delay!
Please send
notification of your signature to Tamar Yaron [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WE WOULD ALSO
APPRECIATE RECEIVING NOTIFICATION IF THE ALARM WAS PUBLISHED IN ANY MEDIA AND/OR
IF IT WAS SENT TO A GROUP DISTRIBUTION LIST.
Uri Davis, Sakhnin,
[EMAIL PROTECTED], Ilan Pappe,
Tiv'on, [EMAIL PROTECTED], and
Tamar Yaron, Kibbutz Hazorea, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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