Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 1. Juli 2006 / Time Line July 1, 2006
Version 3.505/01/2006
Det er nu 38 måneder siden, at USAs præsident Bush erklærede krigen
i Irak for vundet.
07/01/2006
NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of
Defense
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier
who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Christopher D.
Rose, 21, of San Francisco, Calif., died on June 29 of injuries
sustained from an improvised explosive device during combat
operations in Baghdad, Iraq. Rose was assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th
Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
07/01/2006
Forhandling - ikke krig
Vi tænder lys for palæstinensiske kvinder og
børn i israelske fængsler og for den israelske
krigsfange Gilad Shilat.
Human Rights March - Kvinder i Dialog og Kvinder i Sort afholder en
manifestation lørdag, den 1. juli kl. 11-23 på
Rådhuspladsen.
Vi anmoder
- løslad palæstinensiske kvinder og børn fra
israelske fængsler
- indled forhandlinger mellem den israelske og den
palæstinensiske regering om løsladelse af krigsfangen
Gilad Shilat
- støt Gilad Shilats forældre om at undgå
blodsudgydelser
Yderligere oplysninger ved henvendelse til Human Rights March -
Kvinder i Sort
Kvinder i Dialog
Palæstina-Israel-Danmark
Kirsten Grosen Mathilda Feldthaus
tlf. 4638 3271 tlf. 4870 8384
kirsten.grosen@mail.dk mathilda@feldthaus.dk
Vores samarbejdspartner i Israel, Women's Organisation for
Political Prisoners (WOfPP) oplyser, at der på
nuværende tidspunkt er 125 kvindelige politiske fanger i
israelske fængsler, og ifgl. Defence for Children
International - Palestine Section (DCI-Pal) er der 388
palæstinensiske børn i israelske fængsler.
Litteratur: Fafner, Hans Henrik: Gazas børn lider
mest. I: Information, 06/30/2006.
07/01/2006
Palestinian parliamentarian warns of severe public health and
humanitarian disaster facing Gaza
Palestinian National Initiative
www.almubadara.org
Gaza City, 30-06-06: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, medical doctor, member
of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and head of the Palestinian
National Initiative, today warned of the public health and
humanitarian disaster facing the Gaza Strip following an Israeli
military bombardment that began on Wednesday night.
He was speaking from Gaza City, where he has been stranded for 12
days since Israel sealed off Gaza's borders.
Dr. Barghouthi reported that Israel's destruction of Gaza's only
electrical power station has left 80 percent of Strip without
electricity. A water plant was also bombed by Israel today in the
southern city of Rafah.
As a result, water supplies and the sewage system have been
critically affected in that they depend entirely on electricity to
power water and sewage pumps.
The electricity, water and sewage systems in the Gaza Strip are now
currently depending on insufficient local generators to remain
partially functional, yet Israel's closure of Gaza's borders has
meant that there is only enough fuel to last a further 4 days.
Once this fuel runs out, the population of Gaza faces a severe
humanitarian disaster, exacerbated by high summer temperatures and
overcrowded living conditions. Gaza will find itself without
potable water and literally sinking in sewage, which would lead to
a severe public health disaster.
In addition, 300,000 of Gaza's 1.4 million inhabitants live in
high-rise apartment buildings which do not have the necessary
generators to pump water up, and are therefore completely without
water supplies.
The dependence on generators also has negative environmental
implications as they produce high levels of pollution.
Dr. Barghouthi appealed to the international community to urgently
call on Israel to end its bombardment, to stop the targeting of
civilian infrastructure, and to allow for immediate repairs to
begin on Gaza's electricity plant.
He also urged the international community to intervene in order to
ensure the immediate supply of fuel, food, and other essential
items to the Gaza Strip in order to avert an imminent humanitarian
and public health catastrophe.
Contact:
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi
Tel: 0599-201528 or 0599-527514
Kirsten Sutherland (Miss)
Media & Advocacy Officer
Al Mubadara (The Palestinian National Initiative)
Ramallah
Palestine
(972) 2 2985372 ext. 217 (Tel)
(972) 2 2985917 (Fax)
(972) 546-513128 (Mob)
www.almubadara.org
07/01/2006
Israel's Appalling Bombing in Gaza: Starving in the Dark
By Virginia Tilley
On the excuse of rescuing one kidnapped soldier, Israeli is now
bombing the Gaza Strip and is poised to re-invade. It has also
arrested a third of the Palestinian parliament, wrecking even its
fragile illusion of capacity and reducing the already-empty vessel
of the Palestinian Authority into broken shards.
In the shambles, Palestinians may be observing one bitter pill of
compensation: vicious angling by Fatah to reclaim control of
Palestinian national politics and its rivalry with Hamas are now
rendered obsolete. Even the dogged international community cannot
maintain its dogged pretense that the PA is actually capable of any
governance at all. The demise of the disastrous Oslo model,
Israel's device to ensure its final dismemberment of Palestinian
land and its fatal cooptation of the Palestinian national movement,
may finally be at hand. Perhaps Palestinian unity again has a
chance.
But no one knows what will replace the PA. It is therefore not
surprising that this transformed diplomatic landscape is absorbing
the principal attention of an anxious international community.
Nevertheless, politics should not be the greatest international
concern. For over in Gaza, one appalling act must now eclipse all
thoughts of "road maps" or "mutual gestures": on Wednesday, Israeli
war planes repeatedly bombed and utterly demolished Gaza's only
power plant. About 700,000 of Gaza's 1.3 million people now have no
electricity, and word is that power cannot be restored for six
months.
It is not the immediate human conditions created by this strike
that are monumental. Those conditions are, of course, bad enough.
No lights, no refrigerators, no fans through the suffocating Gaza
summer heat. No going outside for air, due to ongoing bombing and
Israel's impending military assault. In the hot darkness, massive
explosions shake the cities, close and far, while repeated sonic
booms are doubtless wreaking the havoc they have wrought before:
smashing windows, sending children screaming into the arms of
terrified adults, old people collapsing with heart failure,
pregnant women collapsing with spontaneous abortions. Mass terror,
despair, desperate hoarding of food and water. And no radios,
television, cell phones, or laptops (for the few who have them),
and so no way to get news of how long this nightmare might go
on.
But this time, the situation is worse than that. As food in the
refrigerators spoils, the only remaining food is grains. Most
people cook with gas, but with the borders sealed, soon there will
be no gas. When family-kitchen propane tanks run out, there will be
no cooking. No cooked lentils or beans, no humus, no bread
the staples Palestinian foods, the only food for the poor. (And
there is no firewood or coal in dry, overcrowded Gaza.)
And yet, even all this misery is overshadowed by a grimmer fact: no
water. Gaza's public water supply is pumped by electricity. The
taps, too, are dry. No sewage system. And again, word is that the
electricity is out for at least six months.
The Gaza aquifer is already contaminated with sea water and sewage,
due to over-pumping (partly by those now-abandoned Israeli
settlements) and the grossly inadequate sewage system. To be
drinkable, well water is purified through machinery run by
electricity. Otherwise, the brackish water must at least be boiled
before it can be consumed, but this requires electricity or gas.
And people will soon have neither.
Drinking unpurified water means sickness, even cholera. If cholera
breaks out, it will spread like wildfire in a population so densely
packed and lacking fuel or water for sanitation. And the hospitals
and clinics aren't functioning, either, because there is no
electricity.
Finally, people can't leave. None of the neighboring countries have
resources to absorb a million desperate and impoverished refugees:
logistically and politically, the flood would entirely destabilize
Egypt, for example. But Palestinians in Gaza can't seek sanctuary
with their relatives in the West Bank, either, because they can't
get out of Gaza to get there. They can't even go over the border
into Egypt and around through Jordan, because Israel will no longer
allow people with Gaza identification cards to enter the West Bank.
In any case, a cordon of Palestinian police are blocking people
from trying to scramble over the Egyptian border--and war refugees
have tried, through a hole blown open by militants, clutching
packages and children.
In short, over a million civilians are now trapped, hunkered in
their homes listening to Israeli shells, while facing the awful
prospect, within days or weeks, of having to give toxic water to
their children that may consign them to quick but agonizing
deaths.
One woman near the Rafah border, taking care of her nephews, spoke
to BBC: "If I am frightened in front of them I think they will die
of fear." If the international community does nothing, her children
may soon die anyway.
The astonishing scale of this humanitarian situation is indeed
matched only by the deafening drizzle of international reaction.
"Of course it is understandable that [the Israelis] would want to
go after those who kidnapped their soldier," says Kofi Anan (while
the Palestinian population cowers in the dark listening to
thundering explosions demolish their society), "but it has to be
done in such a way that civilian populations are not made to
suffer." Even as Israel bombs smash Gaza's roadways, the G-8 stands
up on its hind-legs to intone, "We call on Israel to exercise
utmost restraint in the current crisis." How about the Russians,
now angling for position in the new "Great Game" of the Middle
East? "The right and duty of the government of Israel to defend the
lives and security of its citizens are beyond doubt," says Russia's
foreign ministry, as though poor Corporal Shalit warrants any of
this mayhem, "But this should not be done at the cost of many lives
and the lives of many Palestinian civilians, by massive military
strikes with heavy consequences for the civilian population."
And what says noble Europe, proud font of human rights conventions,
architects of the misión civilizatrice? "The EU remains
deeply concerned," mumbles the mighty defenders of humanitarian
law, "about the worsening security and humanitarian developments."
Seemingly soggy phrases like "deeply concerned" are diplomatic code
for "We are seriously unhappy." But under these circumstances,
"remains deeply concerned" suggests that this staggering crime is
just one more sobering moment in the failed "road map."
Diplomatic bubbles of unreality in the Middle East are the norm
rather than the exception, but at some point the international
community must face the very unwelcome fact that it needs to change
gear. A country that claims kinship among the western democracies
of Europe is behaving like a murderous rogue regime, using any
excuse to reduce over a million people to utter human misery and
even mass death. Plastering Corporal Shalit's face over this policy
is no more convincing than South African newspapers emblazoning the
picture of one poor murdered white doctor over their coverage of
the 1976 Soweto uprising.
Israel has done many things argued to be war crimes: mass house
demolitions, closing whole cities for weeks, indefinite
"preventative" detentions, massive land confiscation, the razing of
thousands of square miles of Palestinian olive groves and
agriculture, systematic physical and mental torture of prisoners,
extrajudicial killings, aerial bombardment of civilian areas,
collective punishment of every description in defiance of the
Geneva Conventions--not to mention the general humiliation and ruin
of the indigenous people under its military control. But destroying
the only power source for a trapped and defenseless civilian
population is an unprecedented step toward barbarity. It reeks,
ironically, of the Warsaw Ghetto. As we flutter our hands about
tectonic political change, we must take pause: in the eyes of
history, what is happening in Gaza may come to eclipse them all.
Dr. Virginia Tilley is a professor of political science, currently
working in South Africa. She can be reached at tilley@hws.edu.
See also:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0472115138/counterpunchmaga
07/01/2006
Protest Israeli Assault on Gaza
Besides the action items recommended in the alert below,
demonstrations and vigils are planned for a number of cities, check
your local progressive media for full information. - War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras United for Peace and Justice Condemns
Israeli Attacks on Gaza, Calls for an End to U.S. Support of the
Israeli Occupation
Ten months ago Israeli military forces withdrew from the Gaza
Strip, part of the Palestinian lands long occupied by Israel. On
Tuesday, June 27th, the Israeli military launched an all-out
assault on the people of Gaza, and there seems to be no end in
sight.
The destruction of vital bridges and power stations, which led to
the cut off of electricity and water for well over 1 million
people, is nothing short of collective punishment imposed on a
civilian population. Israel has also taken nearly 100 elected
officials and leaders of the Hamas party as prisoners in the last
few days.
Israel's massive military assault on Gaza is clear evidence that
Israel remains the occupying power of the Gaza Strip, despite its
unilateral withdrawal of settlements last year. Israel has been
seeking to bring down the Palestinian government by bringing
pressure to bear on the civilian Palestinian population, and is
using the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier as a pretext to do that.
(More background information below.)
United for Peace and Justice condemns this brutal attack and calls
for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip.
UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE CALLS FOR:
1) An immediate end to the assault on Gaza by the Israeli military
forces.
2) Cut off of U.S. financial and military aid to Israel that makes
it possible for such assaults to be carried out, as well as U.S.
support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
3) Immediate shipments by the U.S. government of humanitarian aid
(especially food and medicines) for the people of Gaza.
YOU CAN TAKE ACTION TODAY:
1) Call the White House (202-456-1111) and the U.S. State
Department (202-647-4000) to demand that the U.S. take immediate
action.
2) Send a letter to your local paper and speak out against the
latest assaults by the Israeli government on the people of
Gaza.
3) You can help get much-needed medical supplies to Gaza -- click
here for more information and to make a donation
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=146838129&url_num=5&url=http://www.mecaforpeace.org/GazaMeds.html
.
BACKGROUND
During the month of June the Israeli military forces carried out
several deadly attacks in Gaza. On June 9th, 8 Palestinians were
killed and 32 injured when a beach was shelled (see report from
Human Rights Watch for more information on this incident
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=146838129&url_num=6&url=http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/20/israb13595.htm
on June 13th a missile attack on a highway in Gaza killed 11
people and wounded another 30; and on June 20th another missile
attack from Israeli forces killed 3 children and wounded 15 more
people.
In retaliation, Palestinian militants raided Israeli military
positions near Gaza on June 25th, during which 2 soldiers were
killed and Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured. Israel then
threatened an attack if he was not freed and began deploying tanks
along the border. Their attack began after Israel rejected Shalit's
captors' demand for the release of all Palestinian women and
Palestinians younger than eighteen in Israeli prisons. (There are
some 9,800 Palestinians being held: 335 of them are children and
several dozen are women.)
Just before midnight on June 27th a large scale military assault on
Gaza was launched by Israel. Fighter planes hit three bridges along
the main north-south highway in Gaza. Another strike hit Gaza's
main power plant and knocked out the electricity in densely
populated Gaza City. This power plant provided 42% of the power to
Gaza's 1.3 million residents, and now Gaza is completely dependent
on Israel for power. It could take as long as a year to get the
plant operational again. Israel's deliberate targeting of civilian
infrastructure is a violation of its obligations under the Geneva
Conventions and a war crime. Israel's use of U.S. taxpayer-supplied
weapons to target civilian infrastructure is also a violation of
the U.S. Arms Export Control Act; UFPJ calls upon the White House
and Congress to investigate these violations of U.S. law and take
appropriate action to shut off future weapons transfers to Israel
as a result.
At about 2:30 in the morning the Israeli military forces started to
move into Gaza and take control of areas east of the city of Rafah.
A little after 5am fighter plans flew low over Gaza, causing
intentional sonic booms which reportedly shattered windows. Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said their goal was "not to mete out
punishment but rather to apply pressure so that the abducted
soldier will be freed. We want to create a new equation -- freeing
the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the
Palestinians." Such deliberate collective punishment of a civilian
population is also a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war
crime.
According to the June 29th edition of the NY Times, the Israeli
forces have expanded their assault: "In the West Bank city of
Ramallah this morning, Israeli forces detained 20 lawmakers and 8
ministers in the 24-member cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister
Nasser Shaer and Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, security
officials said. Today, an Israeli warplane fired a missile in Gaza
City that an Israeli spokeswoman said hit a soccer field near the
pro-Hamas Islamic University. Reuters reported that the missile hit
inside the university .... The Israelis also detained about 20
Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament as they made arrests in
Ramallah, Jenin, East Jerusalem and elsewhere." And the shelling
and sonic booming has continued over these past few days.
The Times went on to say, "On Wednesday, the crisis seemed to be
tipping toward escalation as Israeli tanks hunkered down inside
southern Gaza at the airport after warplanes had knocked out half
of Gaza's electricity and pounded sonic booms over houses. Also on
Wednesday, Israel battered northern Gazan towns with artillery and
sent warplanes over the house of the Syrian president [in northwest
Syria], who is influential with the Palestinian leader believed to
have ordered the kidnapping."
According to reports in the Syrian press, the 4 Israeli fighter
planes were forced out of the airspace by Syria's military. As bad
as the situation is, things could get even worse if Israel does not
stop its assaults. But the Israeli government is taking an
extremely hard line: Prime Minister Olmert, as quoted in the NY
Times, said, "We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to
bring Gilad back to his family."
All of this comes in the midst of a severe economic, humanitarian
crisis throughout Gaza and the West Bank. In January of this year
international aid to the Palestinians was cut off after the Hamas
party won the elections, leading to extreme shortages of food and
medicine, as well as other supplies and necessities. Last week, the
Senate passed its version of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act,
which proposes additional economic and diplomatic sanctions against
the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote. The
Senate bill, which was approved by unanimous consent, comes on the
heels of the House passing its version of the bill last month. UFPJ
has signed a statement to Congress, organized by the U.S. Campaign
to End the Israeli Occupation, calling on it not to impose
sanctions on the Palestinian people for voting.
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
07/01/2006
UN aid chief warns Gaza is on the verge of humanitarian
crisis
http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/
Gaza is three days away from a deadly humanitarian crisis unless
Israel promptly restores fuel and electricity to the densely
populated area after its offensive to free an abducted soldier, the
United Nations aid chief warned on Thursday.
"They are heading for the abyss unless they get electricity and
fuel restored," said Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who
also urged the Palestinians to free the soldier and clamp down on
militants firing rockets into Israel.
Without clean water in the hot summer weather, "we would in days
see a major humanitarian crisis," he said. Military action
targeting innocent civilians violates international humanitarian
law, he added.
"I am confident that neither of the two want to see a massive
increase in mortality in the Gaza," where children make up about
half of the area's 1.4 million people, Egeland told a small group
of reporters.
At the heart of the crisis, he said, was Israel's bombing of Gaza's
sole power plant, which supplies about 40 percent of the area's
electricity. The remaining power comes from Israel.
An estimated 130 Gaza wells require electricity to pump water, and
while some have backup pumps that run on diesel fuel, Israel has
allowed no fuel to flow into Gaza for four days, leaving it
dependent on emergency supplies expected to last another three
days.
Egeland, who as Norway's deputy foreign minister helped orchestrate
secret 1992 talks between Israel and the Palestinians that led to
the Oslo accords, lamented that both sides in the conflict appeared
intent on perpetuating an endless cycle of violence.
"They are locked in a situation where they do their utmost to cut
the bridges between them and create hatred that bodes ill for the
future," he said. "Why do they do things that are so counter to
their own interests?"
Red Cross looks to send medical supplies to Gaza
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), concerned
about escalating Middle East violence, called on Friday for Israel
to allow urgent medical supplies into Gaza.
Dorothea Krimitsas, ICRC spokeswoman, said Israel was obliged under
international law - including the Geneva Conventions - to ensure
that humanitarian supplies reach Palestinian civilians.
Israel Air Force fighter jets pounded Gaza on Friday, setting
ablaze the Interior Ministry office of the Hamas-led Palestinian
government in a widening military effort to secure the release of a
soldier captured last Sunday.
"We are negotiating with Israel to allow in humanitarian aid. These
are essential medicines and medical supplies for the Palestinian
Red Crescent," Krimitsas told Reuters.
"We are concerned at the humanitarian consequences of the
escalation of violence and closure of crossing points to Gaza,
especially the Karni crossing," she added.
The ICRC is also anxious to deliver food packages and household
items for Palestinian families, some of whom have had their homes
destroyed, according to Krimitsas.
"Under international law, Israel has the obligation to allow
humanitarian supplies into Gaza. It also has the duty to ensure
that the vital supplies for the population, including food and
medicine, are adequate," she said.
Israeli strikes have knocked out bridges, water systems and a major
power transformer in the densely populated Gaza Strip, home to 1.4
million Palestinians.
Hospitals, hard-hit by the loss of electricity, have to use
generators for power, consuming precious fuel, Krimitsas said.
"We are worried about the fuel stocks. Palestinian authorities have
estimated that they have enough for about 7 to 10 days," she
added.
07/01/2006
The clamp down overview + report of protests / Avnery's "deja
vu" /a few press links
By Gush Shalom
overview + report of protests
The clamp down on the Gazan civil society continues - so does the
ongoing hellish noise of the Sonic booms interspiced with real
bombardments, targeted and collateral killings. Meanwhile the
majority of people in this overcrowded, impoverished part of the
world is without electricity - meaning not only sitting in the dark
but also that water pumps can't work; suers might collapse... This
is not anymore collective punishment, but rather torture,
collective torture.
After it was initially near to impossible to get protests into the
Israeli news, there are gradually expressed on the oped pages some
different opinions re the tactics of bringing about the release of
a captive soldier and even some more fundamental criticism. In the
end of this message appear some press links.
The Israeli public - again wiser than its leadership - expresses
itself in different opinion polls for a diplomatic solution. Yediot
front page news of Friday: 58% of Israelis are for a prisoner swap
"in order to get Gil'ad released." The family members of the
captive soldier all expressed as their explicit wish that nobody on
either side will be killed in resolving this crisis, and showed
relief that President Mubarak is mediating.
--The Gush Shalom vigil on Wednesday, immediately the first day of
the Gaza invasion, was reported on the radio and got some attention
on the Yediot website (not in the printed version). You got our
report already. Here follows how Ynet saw it:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3268789,00.html
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3268714,00.html
photos http://gush-shalom.org/pics/kirya-28-6-06/ ???????
--The Gush Shalom ad of Thursday, calling for the replacement of
Chief-of-Staff Halutz, was prominently printed (at our expense!)
and got an answer from rightists the day after - with an ad turning
our text around, by means such as adding the word "not" but also
columnists were referring to it. (Text attached
Replace_Halutz_H&E.rtf - Hebrew and English).
--The weekly Gush Shalom statement of Friday was devoted to the
need of a negotiated solution -exchange of prisoners. (Text
attached Remember_WachsmanH&E.rtf - Hebrew and English)
--On Friday evening Uri Avnery in a direct broadcast on Aljazeera
Television proposed that the abductors release the soldier Gil'ad
Shalit on Israel's promise to President Mubarak to release within a
specific period the Palestinian women and the minors which it
holds. (press release attached avnery_aljazeera_H&E).
--We called upon activists to join the Friday protest called by the
Ometz leSarev reservist refusers at the Gaza border. (Report by
Adam Keller Shouting_at_the_canons.rtf attached).
--We called upon activists to join the Saturday protest organized
by the veteran radical refuser organization Yesh Gvul in Jerusalem,
under the slogan: No More War Crimes!
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3269764,00.html
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3269725,00.html
Avnery's "deja vu": Agatha In The Rain
By Uri Avnery, 1.7.06
"ISRAEL HAS declared war on the Palestinian people! The Palestinian
people will answer in kind! The Palestinian rebellion will go on!
The Palestinian fighters are steadfast in the service of the
nation! Down with the Nazi-Zionist occupation! Out with the unclean
infidels from the Holy Land! Destroyed Rafah - we shall build you
anew! Long live the Palestinian revolution! Long live the State of
Palestine!"
A Hamas leaflet of last week? Not exactly. With appropriate
changes, this leaflet was published on July 2, 1946 - sixty years
ago almost to the day - by the Haganah, after "Black Saturday".
Then, in the wake of a daring commando action by the Palmakh
("shock troops" of the Haganah), which blew up a number of bridges,
the British government of Palestine decided to carry out a plan
prepared well in advance. It was code-named "Agatha". On June 29,
1946, 17 thousand British soldiers fanned out all over the Jewish
towns and kibbutzim to confiscate arms and documents and arrest the
leaders of the Jewish community. The British government affirmed
its determination to stamp out terrorism. In Jerusalem, the
soldiers occupied the headquarters of the Jewish Agency, the de
facto government of the Jewish "state within the state", and
confiscated many documents that clearly established its close
connections with the "terrorist headquarters" - the joint command
of the Haganah, the Irgun and the Stern Group, which worked closely
together at the time.
The soldiers broke into the homes of the political leaders of the
Jewish community and arrested most of the Jewish Agency
"ministers". The leaders were detained in Latrun. But the
commanders of the underground organizations decided to continue
fighting, in order to prove to the British that the arrest of the
leaders had not silenced them.
"Black Saturday" was a milestone in the fight against the British.
Within a year, they decided to leave the country.
The similarity between the British "Agatha" and the Israeli "Summer
Rains" is striking. This shows that every occupation regime is
condemned to repeat the actions of its predecessors, even when they
have been proved hopeless. This does not mean that all occupiers
are fools - only that the logic of occupation itself condemns them
to do foolish things.
THE AIM of the present operation is, ostensibly, to free the
soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by the Palestinian
underground (consisting of several organizations), in an attack
that even an Israeli military expert called "a daring commando
action".
If our army had kept its high military standard, it would
immediately have replaced all the commanders responsible for the
debacle. 50 years ago this would have been done . But we have a
different army now. Nobody was removed. The failed commanders just
called the attack "a terrorist act", the fighters "terrorists" and
the captured soldier "kidnapped".
The action proves, of course, an old military maxim: for every
means of defense a means of attack can be found, and vice versa.
The "security" fence that surrounds the Gaza Strip on all sides
(except the sea), the like of which is now being built inside the
West Bank, can stop thieves and people looking for work in Israel,
but not determined fighters who will always find ways to cross it,
whether from below or above.
The "kidnapped" soldier served as a pretext for an operation which
must have been prepared a long time ago. The Israeli and
international public has been told that the aim is to set him free,
but in practice it has put his life in greater jeopardy. If the
soldiers come near to where he is hidden, he could be killed in the
cross-fire - as happened some years ago to the soldier Nakhshon
Waksman, who was captured by Hamas. He was killed in the exchange
of fire between the soldiers and the Palestinians. Waksman would
probably be alive today, if there had been an exchange of prisoners
instead.
The connection between the "kidnapped soldier" and the operation
exists only in the realm of propaganda. The same goes for the
second pretext: that the aim is to put an end to the launching of
Qassam rockets at the town of Sderot.
True, this is indeed an intolerable situation. The Qassam, a simple
and inexpensive weapon, causes more panic than real damage, like
the German V-rockets fired on London in World War II. It terrorizes
the population, and that is its aim. Its purpose is to break the
devastating blockade that the Israeli government has been
maintaining against the Gaza strip since the "disengagement". Until
now, the army has not come up with a means to put a stop to the
rockets.
But the Qassams, too, are not the real cause of the "Summer Rains"
operation. Its character shows that it has a much wider aim: to
destroy the elected Palestinian government (Israeli propaganda's
"Hamas Government") and bring the Palestinian population to its
knees. This is supposed to make it possible for the Israeli
government to carry out the "Convergence" plan, annexing major
parts of the West Bank to Israel and preventing the establishment
of a viable Palestinian state.
A clear aim, which the operation is designed to attain by simple
means: breaking the Palestinian population by the liquidation of
its leadership, destruction of its infrastructure and cutting off
of food supplies, medicines, electricity, water and sanitary
services - not to mention employment. The message to the
Palestinians: if you want to put an end to your suffering, remove
the government you have elected.
CAN THIS succeed? Exactly like the the success of the British
operation. "Agatha" achieved the very opposite.
Like all the failures of our army over the years, from the battle
of Karameh in 1968, through the Egyptian crossing of the canal at
the beginning of the Yom Kippur war, to the two intifadas, the
reason lies with the abysmal contempt that the army commanders hold
for the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular. The
Shin Bet meets the Palestinians in the form of interrogated
prisoners, who are ready to say anything at all under torture, and
the despicable collaborators, who are ready to sell their cousins
for drugs or money. The occupation commanders cannot imagine that
the Palestinians could react like any other people, even - God
forbid! - as we did in a similar situation. What, these pitiful
Arabs are like us?
True, the British never behaved towards us as we do now towards the
Palestinians. But on the other hand, the Palestinians' ability to
suffer oppression is much greater than ours. It is based on the
family structure that makes for much more effective mutual help,
and on the experience of living for years in dire straits.
On "Black Saturday"' the Jewish community stood together behind its
besieged leadership. The opposition from right and left rallied
behind Ben-Gurion (who was abroad) and Sharett (imprisoned in
Latrun). Experience shows that every people behaves like this when
a foreign enemy attacks its leadership. Hamas is almost certain to
emerge much strengthened from this test. The arrests prove to the
Palestinian public that its is a fighting, loyal leadership, not
corrupted by the amenities of power - contrary to their
predecessors, some of whom were tainted by corruption.
The pretext for the operation - the release of the captured soldier
- will only harden the attitude of the Palestinians. No issue is
more important for them than the release of Palestinian prisoners -
a matter that directly concerns 10 thousand Palestinian extended
families, in every town, quarter and village. These families are
prepared to suffer anything to secure their release.
THE SECOND victim of the operation is the "Convergence Plan", which
has become ridiculous. In the eyes of the ordinary Israeli, it
looks like this: We have left Gaza, and now we are returning. We
dismantled the settlements there, and got the Qassams on Sderot in
return. Sharon has failed, so Olmert will fail doubly.
That is true, but not for the obvious reasons. The withdrawal from
Gaza has not brought security, because it was carried out without
any dialogue or agreement with the Palestinians. It has not brought
peace nearer, because it was coupled with an open intention to
annex large parts of the West Bank. And, no less importantly, we
did indeed leave the Gaza Strip entirely, but have blockaded it and
cut it off from the world. All this is even more true for the
"convergence" of Olmert.
The "Summer Rains" may have washed it off the map.
a fewpress links
The government is losing its reason
Ha'aretz Editorial June 30
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733036.html
Esther Wachsman: It's the same record playing again
Ruth Eglash interview, Jerusalem Post Jun. 30, 2006
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885884815&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Composure is also strength
By Yoel Marcus
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733034.html
Deadlock in Gaza
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff - June 30, 2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733069.html
Suffering from a paralysis of thought
By Ze'ev Sternhell
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733029.html
07/01/2006
ADC-SF Statement on the Siege of Gaza
[Under international law, military assaults on and destruction of
public utilities and civilian facilities, collective punishment and
the detention of elected civilian public officials are war crimes.
They were war crimes when committed by the U.S. and it Coalition of
the Toadies in Iraq. They remain war crimes when committed by
Israel in Gaza.]
Stop the Siege of Gaza and Support the Palestinian People
We call upon all people of conscious to condemn and protest the
escalating military attacks and economic terror being inflicted by
Israel on the Palestinian people.
Thousands of armed Israeli troops, supported by U.S. tax dollars,
are amassed on the northern and southern borders of Gaza waiting to
carry out another massacre of Palestinian men, women and
children.
Israeli missiles have destroyed Gaza's main power plant and blocked
shipments of fuel to operate four smaller facilities. The people of
Gaza, who have been surviving and resisting sustained Israeli
military attacks, are now without clean drinking water, medicines,
electricity and international relief groups warn that within three
days there will be a severe humanitarian crisis. On top of all
this, sixty-four officials of the democratically elected
Palestinian government have been illegally arrested by Israel.
These efforts are aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestine of
Palestinians. Such collective punishment not only violates
international and humanitarian law but clearly expose Israel's
inherently racist nature.
In the past month, Israel has killed 28 Palestinians, 7 of which
were children. There has been no outrage over these state-sponsored
murders. While the names of the Palestinians killed will never be
remembered or even known by most people in this country, the entire
world is being made aware of one captured Israeli soldier.
Mainstream media has been responsible for perpetuating a distorted,
skewed version of the situation and it is our duty to raise our
voices against this racism and injustice.
There is never symmetry between acts of an occupier and acts of
people defending themselves. Yet any act by Palestinians to resist
occupation is condemned and attacks by Israel are portrayed as
legitimate, especially by mainstream media in the US. Israeli lives
are sacred while the lives of Palestinians worthless and not worth
mentioning. The racism that underlies mainstream media coverage of
the situation is shocking and outrageous.
Organizations concerned about social justice in the US cannot keep
quiet about the ethnic cleansing being carried out in Palestine. We
call on every organization and individual to take a stand against
not just the latest Israeli atrocities but against all the crimes
that Israel has committed against Palestinians with US arms and US
acquiescence for over half a century.
We believe that through international pressure in the form of
boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), among other things, will
Israel’s apartheid state be challenged so that the legitimate
rights of Palestinian can be realized. Many organizations, churches
and unions have started to embark on this strategy which brought
down the apartheid state in South Africa. In the near future, we
hope to let people know how to more directly be engaged in these
strategies at your schools, work and communities.
Lastly, we would like to register our strong disagreement with the
June 28, 2006 press release sent out from the ADC National Office
which implies some sort of symmetry and balance between Israeli
belligerent actions and the Palestinians right to resist
occupation. As we prepare to mobilize against the siege with
friends and supporters of Palestine and community members including
ADCSF members, we find the statement to be destructive to our
mobilization efforts and inaccurate in its assumptions. We hope our
community and supporters will engage in campaigns and actions in
the coming weeks to stop Israeli atrocities and support the
Palestinian people.
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
522 Valencia St San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 861-7444 adcsf@adcsf.org
www.adcsf.org
07/01/2006
The government is losing its reason
Haaretz Editorial
Bombing bridges that can be circumvented both by car and on foot;
seizing an airport that has been in ruins for years; destroying a
power station, plunging large parts of the Gaza Strip into
darkness; distributing flyers suggesting that people be concerned
about their fate; a menacing flight over Bashar Assad's palace; and
arresting elected Hamas officials: The government wishes to
convince us that all these actions are intended only to release the
soldier Gilad Shalit.
But the greater the government's creativity in inventing tactics,
the more it seems to reflect a loss of direction rather than an
overall conception based on reason and common sense. On the face of
it, Israel wishes to exert increasing pressure both on Hamas'
political leadership and on the Palestinian public, in order to
induce it to pressure its leadership to release the soldier. At the
same time, the government claims that Syria - or at least Khaled
Meshal, who is living in Syria - holds the key. If so, what is the
point of pressuring the local Palestinian leadership, which did not
know of the planned attack and which, when it found out, demanded
that the kidnappers take good care of their victim and return
him?
The tactic of pressuring civilians has been tried before, and more
than once. The Lebanese, for example, are very familiar with the
Israeli tactic of destroying power stations and infrastructure.
Entire villages in south Lebanon have been terrorized, with the
inhabitants fleeing in their thousands for Beirut. But what also
happens under such extreme stress is that local divisions evaporate
and a strong, united leadership is forged.
In the end, Israel was forced both to negotiate with Hezbollah and
to withdraw from Lebanon. Now, the government appears to be airing
out its Lebanon catalogue of tactics and implementing it, as though
nothing has been learned since then. One may assume that the
results will be similar this time around as well.
Israel also kidnapped people from Lebanon to serve as bargaining
chips in dealings with the kidnappers of Israeli soldiers. Now, it
is trying out this tactic on Hamas politicians. As the prime
minister said in a closed meeting: "They want prisoners released?
We'll release these detainees in exchange for Shalit." By "these
detainees," he was referring to elected Hamas officials.
The prime minister is a graduate of a movement whose leaders were
once exiled, only to return with their heads held high and in a
stronger position than when they were deported. But he believes
that with the Palestinians, things work differently.
As one who knows that all the Hamas activists deported by Yitzhak
Rabin returned to leadership and command positions in the
organization, Olmert should know that arresting leaders only
strengthens them and their supporters. But this is not merely
faulty reasoning; arresting people to use as bargaining chips is
the act of a gang, not of a state.
The government was caught up too quickly in a whirlwind of prestige
mixed with fatigue. It must return to its senses at once, be
satisfied with the threats it has made, free the detained Hamas
politicians and open negotiations. The issue is a soldier who must
be brought home, not changing the face of the Middle East.
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