>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 13:53:50 -0500 > >International Action Center Palestine Journal IV >Tuesday, October 31, 2000 >FIVE QUESTIONS ON THE INTIFADA > >[The following is the fourth 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. The IAC delegation includes >Richard Becker, Sara Flounders, Randa Jamal and Preston Wood.] > >Question: The media in the United States, at least the corporate media, >has made it appear that with the fighting going on in Palestine there are >two sides more or less battling it out evenly. What does it look like to >you there? > >IAC delegation: That�s ridiculous. By today, Oct. 31, the official death >toll in a month of fighting rose to 154 Palestinians killed and 12 >Israelis�that�s almost 13 to one. And the bullets and shells of the >so-called Israeli Defense Force have wounded another 6,600 >Palestinians. > >The Israeli troops are armed to the hilt with machine guns. They are >backed up by tanks and helicopter gunships that for the past three >days have been shelling and firing rockets at Palestinian towns and >cities, and firing heavy machine guns at unarmed demonstrators. We >watched Palestinian youths today fighting tanks and troops with >stones and slingshots. > >The Israeli troops are basically waging a one-sided aggressive war >against an unarmed population. The gunships, by the way, are the >helicopters the Pentagon supplies Israel and calls �Apache,� which is >an insult to Native people in North America. Most of the weapons come >from the U.S. > >Question: Besides making it look like an even battle, the U.S. media >portrays the IDF as acting with constraint, with only using force to stop >the attacks on them. What did you observe on this? > >IAC: We witnessed last night a rocketing in Ramallah, and there was >another one that we didn�t see with widespread damage to residential >areas, so there's tremendous anger in the population. The hardest hit >city was Nablus, where there were four different areas that were hit by >rockets. > >Around noon local time today there was a demonstration, which took >place at the north entrance to Ramallah, coming just 12 hours after the >rocket attacks in residential neighborhoods in several cities. There >were marches that took place all over Palestine, including one that we >participated in at midnight in Ramallah. > >Young people marched, converging on the north entrance to Ramallah, >which is very close in, really in the city itself. Palestinian youth were >confronting the Israeli soldiers. And the Israeli soldiers were pulled up >right, almost into the city and it shows how very limited the area under >Palestinian control is. > >The Palestinian youth began throwing stones and using slingshots >against the soldiers who were confronting them. There were soldiers >right behind the troops on the front line that were hard to see but we >could make them out, in both the City Inn hotel and in an adjoining >office building. > >These were snipers. These snipers have been firing from long >distances at people who are demonstrating, picking them off. So we >could see them. But after the demonstration went on for a little while-- >we were no more than a hundred yards from this--the Israelis first used >tear gas, or really CS gas, then they began firing automatic weapons. > >Then the Israeli troops began firing from tanks at the youth, firing 500 >mm and 800 mm bullets, big bullets that just destroy somebody if they >hit them. These were really criminal tactics. Between the shells and the >snipers, it was obvious the Israelis were shooting to kill. > >Question: What has been the impact of the Israeli military tactics on >the demonstrations? Have they discouraged the people from coming >out in the streets? > >IAC: So far the brutal tactics have been counter-productive. Look at >what happened today in Ramallah. > >The courage of the youth in confronting this was really incredible to see. >There were hundreds and hundreds of youth along the sides and some >who got up very close to where the soldiers were and even with all the >firing going on they would continue to resist, they would continue to >throw stones. > >The youths were making the statement that they're not going to be >intimidated, that they're not going to be defeated by the use of these >tactics, which really have to be considered to be criminal tactics. They >are determined to continue this struggle. > >Of course when the army began opening up with the tank weapons >against people, the crowds began to scatter, to move back and to >move forward again. Bullets were whistling over our heads, bouncing off >buildings near where we were. And finally the crowd was driven back. > >But this was I think one of many instances like this, and it shows the >tremendous level of morale and the tremendous determination by the >youth and by the people as a whole. And it really is the people as a >whole, as we can testify to from the many encounters that we've had >with people from all walks of life here. > >This morning, before the demonstration, we had visited with two different >Palestinian medical committees, the Union of Health Work Committee >and the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Association. We had met >with them and we had gone to hospitals and visited some of the >wounded. > >In two different hospitals, in Ramallah hospital and in another >rehabilitation hospital where more seriously injured people are being >treated. One of the things explained to us in the meeting that we had >with the doctors was that the medical committees here, and this is a >new development, have been training hundreds of medics, volunteer >medics, and they go out with the ambulances to demonstration sites. > >They've been trained how to get people who have been shot, how to >carry them out in ways that they're safer, into the ambulances. But of >course it's not safe for the people who are doing this at all, because >many of them have been wounded. At least 15 of these medical rescue >workers have been seriously wounded with gunshot wounds to the >chest, to the back and the head. > >But after we heard this explained early in the morning in the meetings, >we then got to witness it first hand where the ambulances were racing >in the areas where the fighting was taking place amid the tank fire and >automatic weapons and bring out wounded Palestinians. > >It's very dramatic to see this. It was a scene where bullets were flying, >ricocheting around, tear gas. The Israeli tactics had brought the entire >Palestinian population into the Intifada, the uprising. > >Question: What evidence have you seen of the U.S. role in the conflict >in Palestine? > >IAC: At the demonstration today, we picked up one of the tear gas >canisters, CS gas canisters that had been fired, and verified by looking >at it, we have it our possession that it was made by Federal Labs in the >United States. > >In 1988, at the time of the first Intifada, one of our delegation >participated in a sit-in demonstration at Federal Labs out in Western >Pennsylvania. The Israelis were using CS gas in such quantities in the >first Intifada, firing it into people's homes, that many people were dying >from it. But Federal Labs is still producing CS gas and they're still >supplying it to the Israeli military, along with all the other weaponry >like the helicopters that comes from the United States. > >And the people here know the U.S. role is not that of an honest broker >but a supplier for Israel. Last night at an apartment house damaged by >rockets, one man picked up a piece of a wall that was blown into his >apartment, through his window from the house that was blown up >across the street. He held it up and said, �I want to send a message to >President Clinton, I want to send this back to him.� > >As soon as we got to Nablus today we visited the Fatah office here, >which had been hit by two missiles last night and it was totally >destroyed. It was a large building, unlike the building we saw last night >in Ramallah, which was a very tiny office of Fatah, where much greater >damage was done to surrounding residential buildings. > >The Israelis are using U.S.-produced heavy weaponry against civilians >and the civilians are continuing to carry on the struggle and continuing >to resist despite this, but it's truly criminal, what's going on. It's truly >a violation of international law to use this type of weaponry. > >Question: What do you think the Israelis want to accomplish with their >tactics? > >IAC delegation: In the seven years since the Oslo Accords were >signed, the Israelis have doubled the number of settlements on the >West Bank. They�ve built a series of roads connecting them that only >Israeli vehicles can travel on. They�ve armed the settlers and put them >on hilltops where they can command the territory and terrorize the >nearby Palestinian villages. > >Now the Israeli regime wants to stuff what is a rotten agreement down >the throats of the Palestinians. They are using murder, intimidation and >terror with tanks, helicopters and snipers to try to get their way. > >They have been interfering with the vital olive harvest, with heavily >armed settlers shooting at farmers gathering the olives while army >troops stop farmers at checkpoints and confiscate their crop. > >The reaction has been that the entire Palestinian population has said >�No� to this agreement and has reopened a struggle. > >International Action Center >39 West 14th Street, Room 206 >New York, NY 10011 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >web: http://www.iacenter.org >CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org >phone: 212 633-6646 >fax: 212 633-2889 >*To make a tax-deductible donation, >go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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