From: "Jim Yarker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Action Center" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 5:52 PM Subject: [IAC] ISRAELI REPRESSION INTENSIFIES > International Action Center > 39 West 14th St, #206 > NY, NY 10011 > 212-633-6646 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.iacenter.org > > > ISRAELI REPRESSION INTENSIFIES AS > AL-NAKBA ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES > By Richard Becker > > May 14 was a day of unprecedented Israeli violence against > the Palestinian people in the illegally occupied West Bank > and Gaza. > > Elements of the U.S.-armed Israeli Army, Navy and Air Force > launched heavy assaults on residential areas and Palestinian > Authority facilities in several areas. At least seven > Palestinians were killed. Many more were seriously wounded. > > Densely populated Gaza was rocketed from Navy gunboats, Air > Force helicopters and by surface-to-surface Army missiles. > > The heaviest death toll was in the West Bank town of > Beitunia. There the Israeli Army, in a surprise attack, > massacred five Palestinian security officers inside and > outside their small checkpoint post. > > Two of the Palestinian officers were reportedly sleeping and > two others preparing food when the daytime attack took > place. A sixth officer was seriously wounded. > > PA President Yasir Arafat denounced the Israeli attack as > "assassinations." He said, "Israel must know that it will be > harshly judged over this crime." > > U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to comment on > the massacre of the Palestinians. Instead, Powell brazenly > attacked Arafat, saying, "That kind of language I don't > think is very helpful, especially during the time Israel is > celebrating its anniversary." > > May 15 was the 53rd anniversary of Israel's declaration of > "independence." But the Palestinians commemorate the date as > Al-Nakba, or "the Catastrophe," for when they were > dispossessed and driven from their homeland. > > Massive actions took place in the West Bank, Gaza, in > Palestinian areas within the 1948 borders of the Israeli > state and elsewhere. > > Israeli soldiers firing live ammunition killed at least four > Palestinians, and wounded more than 130 people, several of > them critically. More than 30,000 marched in both Gaza and > the West Bank, and tens of thousands more in Ramallah, > Hebron (al-Khalil), Bethlehem and other cities. Many of the > participants were refugees or their descendants, who have > lived in impoverished camps for the past half-century. Many > older participants in the Gaza protest waved the keys of > their stolen homes. > > In Lebanon, 10,000 people marched through the Ain al-Hilweh > refugee camp near Sidon in a demonstration organized by the > three main parties of the Palestine Liberation Organization: > Fatah-Palestine National Liberation Movement, the Popular > Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic > Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Demonstrators > chanted: "Let us throw away the olive branch and carry our > rifles to return to our land." The Ain al-Hilweh marchers > submitted a petition to a UN official calling for Israeli > prime minister Ariel Sharon to be tried as a war criminal. > In 1982, Sharon oversaw the massacre of more than 2,000 > Palestinian refugees in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila camps. > > Mass demonstrations in Jordan were repressed by the pro-U.S. > government on May 11, with more than 50 people arrested. > > Israel escalates war against Palestinians > > Israeli attacks on Palestinian areas have been escalating > for weeks, especially in the days leading up to May 15. > > On May 7, Israeli tank fire killed a 4-month-old Palestinian > girl and severely wounded several members of her family in > their home in Khan Younis, Gaza. > > On May 11, Israeli forces bulldozed at least five homes in > the Deir El-Balah refugee camp in southern Gaza, leaving one > dead, two wounded and more than 30 people homeless. > > Altogether, Israel destroyed 60 houses and hundreds of acres > of orchards, groves and farmland in Palestinian areas in the > previous week. > > The death toll since the beginning of the second Intifada, > or Uprising, now stands at more than 440 Palestinians and 77 > Israelis. > > More than 13,000 Palestiniansover 95 percent of the > injuredhave been wounded. At least 1,000 of the wounded > Palestinians will suffer lifelong disability, many of them > paralyzed or missing eyes. > > A May 1 article in the Guardian of London reported: "The > Nobel prize-winning U.S. group Physicians for Human Rights > blames the widespread use of the M-16 automatic rifle for > the high rate of crippling Palestinian injuries." The > U.S.-designed weapon is standard issue for Israeli troops. > > Yet most U.S. media attention--and condemnation--was > reserved for the killing of two Israeli settler teenagers > near Tekoa settlement in the West Bank. > > Seth Mandel, the father of one of the boys, brought his > family to Tekoa from College Park, Md. less than five years > ago. According to Menachem Froman, the Tekoa rabbi, Mandel > aspired to be a "spearhead" among the settlers. "They are > pioneers of pioneers," Froman said of the Mandel family. > > In other words, Mandel was among the most aggressive and > extreme of the 200,000 settlers, many recently arrived from > the United States. These "spearheads" of the settler > movement, armed with automatic weapons and backed by the > Israeli military, are determined to drive the Palestinians > out of the West Bank and all of Palestine. > > Resistance intensifies > > The Israeli government headed by notorious war criminal > Ariel Sharon has vowed to keep building new settlements and > expanding the existing ones. The settlements' purpose is to > establish "facts on the ground"Israeli possession of wide > swaths of the West Bank and Gaza. > > These "facts" are intended to create a situation where, the > Israeli leaders hope, it will be practicably impossible for > a real Palestinian state to come into existence. > > It is not just the right-wing Likud governments that have > pursued this end, but the Labor party regimes as well. Since > 1993, when the Oslo "peace process" began, the population of > the settlements has increased by 72 percent. The biggest > percentage increase came under the Labor government of Ehud > Barak. > > Sharon has rejected any limit to Israeli settlements in the > West Bank and Gaza. This is despite the undeniable fact that > they blatantly violate international law that prohibits > annexing and settling militarily occupied lands. > > Sharon has begun denying that the West Bank and Gaza are > occupied at all. He referred to them in recent > pronouncements as "disputed areas." Two weeks ago, the > government allocated an additional $375 million to > settlement expansion. > > Contrary to the image deliberately created by U.S. officials > and their official media, nearly all the fighting and dying > goes on inside the tiny fraction of Palestine that is under > tenuous Palestinian control. The relentless Israeli > aggression is relentlessly termed "retaliation" by the > corporate media. > > Although it faces overwhelming fire-power and what appear to > be insurmountable odds, the Palestinian resistance is > intensifying and deepening. After all, the Palestinians have > long confronted what appear to be impossible obstacles. > > While they lack helicopters, gunboats, tanks, missiles and > machine guns, the Palestinians are fighting back heroically > with everything at their disposal. Tens of thousands > reportedly marched militantly through Ramallah at the > funeral of the five Palestinian security officers. > > What the Palestinian people need in this critical hour is > intensified international solidarity. > > > _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
