------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
As Gulf war nears REPRESSION BREEDS PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE By Richard Becker Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, both in street actions and military operations, intensified in November. At the same time, Israeli military forces made new incursions into Gaza, and completely re-occupied Bethlehem and Hebron. With the exception of isolated Jericho, all West Bank cities are patrolled by Israeli tanks and heavily armed troops. A looming question is what the Israeli government plans in the event of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Many Palestinians believe that the Israeli authorities, under cover of a new U.S. war, may move to expel the Palestinian population from key areas and launch a major offensive in Gaza. Palestinian children and youths have responded to the presence of Israeli troops and tanks in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin and other West Bank cities and towns with a resurgence of street demonstrations. Although armor protects them from the stones thrown by Palestinian demonstrators, the Israeli troops have fired live ammunition. Between Nov. 15 and Nov. 24, Israeli bullets killed at least 21 Palestinians and wounded scores more. On Nov. 19, Israeli tanks and troops invaded Tulkarem, killing five Palestinians and wounding 11 others. Two of the dead and five of the wounded were under 18. It would be hard to know this from the U.S. corporate media. Their focus is almost exclusively on Israeli casualties. And Israeli casualties have also been heavy. Twelve Israeli soldiers and security, including a colonel, were killed in a Nov. 15 firefight in Hebron. On Nov. 21, a bus bomb in West Jerusalem killed 12 people and wounded more than 40. The latest developments highlight the failure of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy of seeking to crush the Palestinian resistance through extreme force, mass arrests and economic strangulation. Because of this failure, Sharon, who is infamous for his long career as a racist and war criminal, faces a serious challenge in the upcoming primary election of his Likud bloc. The challenge--not surprisingly in today's Israeli politics-- is coming from an even more right-wing candidate, former Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. The winner will be the Likud candidate in the general election, not yet scheduled but expected to take place some time between late January and March of next year. NEW PALESTINIAN MILITARY TACTICS The Bush administration and most U.S. media misrepresented and condemned the Palestinian attack in Hebron as a "massacre of Jewish worshippers." The Israeli casualties, however, belied this characterization: four Israeli soldiers, five border police, and three armed settler security forces. Hebron is well known as home to the most extreme of the fascist settlers, many of whom are from the United States. The settlers, who demand that all Palestinians be expelled from Palestine, are armed with automatic weapons provided by the Israeli army. About 400 Israeli settlers live in the center of Hebron, a Palestinian city of 160,000. Despite their tiny numbers (less than one-quarter of 1 percent), the settlers have 20 percent of Hebron. Outside Hebron there is the large Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, made up of like-minded racists. When Hebron is locked down under curfew--which it has been for most of the past year--the settlers are allowed to roam free to attack Palestinian civilians, homes and shops. On the evening of Nov. 15, a Palestinian militia unit lured Israeli military forces escorting a group of settlers into a trap, according to a report on the DEBKAfile website. DEBKAfile is a right-wing military and intelligence affairs website that focuses on the Middle East. When Israeli reinforcements rushed to the scene, they, too, were ambushed. The Israeli casualties included Col. Dror Weinberg, the highest-ranking Israeli officer killed during 26 months of the second Intifada (Uprising). Three Palestinians were killed in the fight. "It wasn't a massacre, it was battle," said Matan Vilnai, a retired Israeli general and a leading member of the opposition Labor Party. (Quoted in the National Post of Canada, Nov. 18, 2002) Responsibility for the operation was claimed by the Islamic Jihad operation, which said it was carried out to avenge the assassination of one of its leaders the previous week. The same organization also claimed a Nov. 22 attack on an Israeli gunship off the coast of Gaza. Two Palestinians aboard a small fishing boat were killed when it blew up close to the Israeli ship. Four Israeli soldiers were wounded and the gunboat damaged, in what was believed to be the first such attack. ISRAELIS KILL HEAD OF UN TEAM TO REBUILD JENIN On Nov. 22, an Israeli soldier shot and killed Ian Hook, 53, manager of the Jenin camp rehabilitation project for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Much of the Jenin refugee camp, home to 13,000 expelled Palestinians and their families, was destroyed by Israeli army tanks and bulldozers in April. That rampage left at least 92 dead and more than 5,000 people homeless. UNRWA is charged with providing health care, education and food to Jenin and the other 58 Palestinian refugee camps. After much of Jenin camp was destroyed, the U.S. government blocked the UN from carrying out an investigation of Israel's actions. Rebuilding efforts are just getting started. The Israeli army tried at first to cover up the killing of Hook, claiming that he was "caught in a cross-fire" between Palestinians and Israeli troops. The army went so far as to allege that Palestinian fighters were firing from inside the UN compound in the camp. But UN officials and other witnesses on the scene angrily denied the official Israeli story. UN spokesperson Paul McCann said, "From our inquiry so far, this report of firing from the compound is totally incredible." Hook was shot twice in the abdomen. He bled to death after the Israeli army prevented an ambulance from transporting him to a nearby hospital. Three days earlier, the Israeli Army had attacked and occupied the Medical Relief Center in Jenin. On Nov. 19, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees sent out an urgent appeal saying that "much of our equipment was intentionally destroyed. Our doctors and nurses were threatened at gun-point and prevented from accessing the center, which is currently used as an operational base for the Israeli occupying army." PALESTINIAN LEADER DEFIES ISRAELI COURT On Nov. 21 in Tel Aviv, Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of Fatah, the largest Palestinian political party, and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was brought once again before an Israeli court. Barghouti was abducted from Ramallah and taken illegally to Israel in May. He was charged with murder in the deaths of 26 Israelis who have died during the Intifada. Barghouti defiantly rejected the charges against him. "This court is a joke," shouted Barghouti. "This court represents Israel's occupation, which has committed crimes against the Palestinian people. "I am not the one who should be in the dock, but the Israeli occupation which settles on our lands, destroys our houses, assassinates our activists. "The war criminals are on the Israeli side," said Barghouti. "The Intifada will be victorious," he chanted until silenced by the court. Gisele Halimi, a French lawyer assisting Barghouti's defense, said the case is "a political trial which should never have taken place. ... From the point of view of international law, Israel's position in not defendable." n - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
