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Reuters. 30 April 2002. Iraqi flags sprout from ruins of embittered Jenin. JENIN -- The wasteland of Jenin refugee camp has turned into fertile ground for bitterness as Iraqi flags and images of Saddam Hussein sprout atop the rubble of homes on which people are camped out in misery. In the first hours after the Israeli army flattened the centre of the camp and pulled back, the bulldozed remains were stark and still, locals said. Then, residents of the camp which Israel called a "hornets' nest of terrorists" began trickling back to comb the wreckage for any salvageable scrap, their faces masks of stupefaction. And as the days wear on, shock has given way to gloom mixed with defiance budding from the ashes -- defiance Israel had hoped its offensive would break when it took on and eventually crushed Palestinian militants there. First came the green, black, white and red striped Palestinian national flags, waving from peaks of wreckage. Next appeared the flags of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al- Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Palestinian militant factions whose relentless suicide bombings in an uprising against occupation provoked Israel to storm West Bank towns that had self-rule. Banners showing "martyred" militants sprang up too. This week Iraqi flags, long a staple in the camp, resurfaced over the highest rubble hills, along with Saddam posters taped to protruding girders. A portrait of the Iraqi leader glowered down on the devastation from the crumpled upper story of a house. Even a poster of Osama bin Laden has cropped up on the guy line of one tent, though its elderly occupant claims not to know how it got there. But locals were not coy about saying why Iraq and Saddam had pride of place in the encrusted inner-city camp, first populated by refugees from Israel's creation in 1948. "(Palestinian President) Yasser Arafat is of course in our hearts and minds, but Saddam is the only Arab government leader to have backed our fight for freedom from Israel with more than stale rhetoric," said Hind Oweis, 50, a mother of seven. "He has also suffered from U.S. bombardment just as we have suffered from the bombardment of U.S. weapons given to the Israelis," said Oweis, from whose house the Saddam portrait hung from a dangling steel girder. Arab states have condemned Israel and trimmed their few ties over its destructive incursions into Palestinian towns in a bid to quell an uprising against occupation of lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Saddam has gone a big step further by offering financial benefits to families of bombers who have blown themselves up in suicide attacks that have killed scores of people in Israel. Iraq has also claimed to be raising thousands of volunteers to bolster the Palestinian uprising. Many Palestinians also feel solidarity with Iraq in its long standoff with Washington, Israel's main ally. "Iraq is just as oppressed as we are by the international community," said Tawfiq Salam Abdallah, a 70-year-old refugee. "And Saddam is the only Arab who dared to bomb Israel in recent memory," he said. Some of the 5,000 homeless Jenin camp residents have pitched tents on top of or inside the ruins of their homes to mourn yet one more displacement in the past half century. "We're not worrying about the building collapsing on us because we have nothing left to lose," said Yusuf Abu Deib, 18. "Our parents were refugees in 1948, and now we're homeless too. Until when -- forever?" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Last train to Nuremberg --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
