>From: "mart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: Middle East List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: October 29, 2000 10:44 PM
>Subject: IAC Report from Palestine: 10/28/00
>
>
>>International Action Center Palestine Journal, Saturday, Oct 28, 2000
>>
>>DESPITE ISRAELI SHELLING YOUNG PEOPLE�S MOOD FOR
>>STRUGGLE �CANNOT BE QUELLED�
>>
>>[The following is a report from a four-person delegation from the
>>International Action Center from their humanitarian and fact-finding
>>mission to Palestine during what is being called the Al Aqsa Intifada,
>>or uprising. The delegation aims to bring back a first-hand report
>>documenting the repression inflicted by the Israeli army and to bring
>>medical supplies for Palestinian hospitals, which have been declared a
>>state of medical emergency. The Emergency is caused by the dual
>>problem of the heavy casualties inflicted by the Israeli repression and
>>the inability of sick and wounded people to pass through Israeli
>>checkpoints on their way to the hospital.]
>>
>>On Saturday, Oct 28, 2000, the International Action Center delegation
>>landed in Tel Aviv and after a delay by security forces at the airport,
>>finally arrived in East Jerusalem.
>>
>>Just today two more Palestinians died in hospitals, raising the official
>>total to at least 137, all but eight of them Palestinians. At four funerals
>>there were further clashes with Israeli police and troops, who fired on
>>and wounded hundreds of people. There are reports four more people
>>were killed.
>>
>>The night before, Israeli officials claim there was firing from a
>>Palestinian village of Beit Jala on the settlement of Gilo on the
>>outskirts of Jerusalem. The Israelis fired rockets from helicopters and
>>shells from tanks into the Arab village.
>>
>>There was more shelling tonight near East Jerusalem, apparently from
>>Gilo, and reports of more shelling in Bethlehem. It is no wonder that
>>these repeated attacks from the Israeli occupation forces have aroused
>>a struggle that seems unquenchable.
>>
>>Ali Jeddah, a long time activist and many years a political prisoner,
>>described to the IAC delegation the resistance mood of all levels of
>>Palestinian society. �The young people especially,� he said, �are in a
>>mood for struggle and defense of their people that cannot be quelled.
>>All day they seem to practice with slingshots. Then after the funerals
>>they head to the checkpoints, armed only with their rocks.�
>>
>>The delegation also interviewed Sergio Yahni, director of the Alternative
>>Information Center, which helped establish Ambulances for Human
>>Rights, a project organized by both Palestinians and anti-Zionist
>>Israelis to come to the defense of Palestinians under mob attack in
>>Jerusalem. They have sent mobile car units to try to go to the
>>assistance of the Palestinians wounded by Israeli gunfire. This is still a
>>small but significant effort.
>>
>>Yahni described the settler mobs that have been attacking, bashing,
>>and beating isolated Palestinians in Jerusalem along the edges of
>>Israeli neighborhoods. And this hasn�t been limited to these areas
>>within Jerusalem.
>>
>>�In the past month,� Yahni said, �Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians
>>in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have increased dramatically.�
>>
>>The larger problem is the growing violence of settler attacks on
>>Palestinians, which has reached new levels everywhere.
>>
>>ONE-MONTH ANNIVERSARY
>>
>>Today is the one-month anniversary of Israeli General Ariel Sharon�s
>>provocative visit to the Dome of the Rock -- Al Aqsa Mosque with more
>>than a thousand armed Israeli troops.
>>
>>Sharon�s visit was a clear provocation since he was the Israeli military
>>leader responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Palestinians at the
>>Sabra and Shatila camps outside Beirut during Israel�s 1982 invasion of
>>Lebanon.
>>
>>But just as clear is the fact that Sharon's "visit" was not an individual
>>act, since he was accompanied by thousands of Israeli troops and he
>>was granted official police permission to stage the provocation.
>>Sharon's invasion of the mosque area known as the Haram Al-Sharif
>>was the last straw for Palestinians outraged by seven years of
>>negotiations which have failed to produce a just peace.
>>
>>Since that visit there has been one month of unprecedented Israeli
>>violence against Palestinian civilians and Palestinian resistance to this
>>armed assault.
>>
>>>From the first steps of the IAC delegation at the airport, Israeli
>officials
>>made the racist character of their state apparent. In the United States,
>>we have a lot of experience with racial profiling. It is equally blatant
>>there.
>>
>>Of the four members of the IAC delegation only the young Palestinian
>>woman who was born in the United States and holds a U.S. passport
>>was stopped by security, interrogated, searched and insulted.
>>
>>ATTACKS ON THE OLIVE HARVESTERS
>>
>>It is now the season for harvesting olives. Many Palestinian families
>>and whole villages are totally dependent on the harvest. It is then
>>devastating that Israeli settler mobs have attacked Palestinian farmers
>>in the fields and Israeli military blockades have confiscated the picked
>>olives.
>>
>>These attacks are part of the continuing effort to drive the Palestinians
>>living in villages out of the area and clear it for Israeli settlement,
>which
>>is in violation of the so-called peace process and all the earlier
>>agreements.
>>
>>These settlers have generally acted with impunity, as the Israeli
>>military and court system historically have been reluctant to arrest, try,
>>and punish settlers for violence they commit against Palestinian
>>civilians. As a result, settlers are virtually free to carry out
>intimidation,
>>assault of body and property, and even murder against the Palestinian
>>population.
>>
>>Earlier in October settlers from Kfar Oreh, which is near the Palestinian
>>city of Ramallah, schemed with the settlement�s guards to stop
>>farmers of Um Safa village from picking their olive harvest. Villager
>>Mousa Mohammed stated in al-Quds daily newspaper on Oct. 20 that
>>"while dozens of other farmers from the village and I were in our fields,
>>the settlers came and put their weapons in our faces, calling us to
>>leave the area, telling us they would shoot us otherwise."
>>
>>Reports on many of these incidents can be found on the web sites of
>>the Alternative Information Center, www.aic.netgate.net or at the Al
>>Addameer site at www.addameer.org.
>>
>>That these attacks have taken place so frequently shows that they are
>>not isolated incidents or the actions of individuals, but rather a
>carefully
>>organized campaign carried out by the settlers to drive out the
>>Palestinian farmers.
>>
>>It is clear from all our discussions that the Israelis have used the past
>>seven years of peace talks to reinforce access roads and place Israeli
>>settlements on the West Bank in now heavily fortified hilltops, like the
>>Gilo settlement.
>>
>>Now Israeli troops are using the excuse of the uprising to level acres of
>>land in Gaza and in the West Bank and to reinforce all their military
>>checkpoints.
>>
>>With a demonstration planned Oct. 29 in Bethlehem, the IAC
>>delegation is uncertain if it will reach its destination with the medical
>>equipment, as the Israeli forces threaten to block the roads there.
>>There are new land confiscations in Bethlehem the excuse is to
>>reinforce Israeli checkpoints and military presence.
>>
>>The IAC delegation includes Richard Becker, Sara Flounders, Randa
>>Jamal and Preston Wood.
>>
>>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>>To send a donation in support of the delegation, go to
>>www.peoplesrightsfund.org or send checks to the International Action
>>Center (write to "Peoples Rights Fund/Medical Aid").
>>
>>If you would like to arrange for a speaker from the delegation at your
>>school or in your community, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>>International Action Center
>>39 West 14th Street, Room 206
>>New York, NY 10011
>>email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>web: www.iacenter.org
>>CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE www.mumia2000.org
>>phone: 212 633-6646
>>fax: 212 633-2889
>>
>
>
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