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Tess Lee Ack shows how state terrorism is just fin
You wouldn’t know
it from mainstream media reports, but Israel’s war on the Palestinians
has become even more vicious in recent months, in what amounts to a series
of war crimes. Collective punishments and assassinations – outlawed by
the Geneva Convention and condemned by every human rights organisation,
even in Israel itself – have become the norm.
In June Israeli tanks reoccupied most Palestinian towns in the West Bank,
imposing curfews, demolishing houses and infrastructure and terrorising
the population.
More than 750,000 Palestinians are under collective "house
arrest." Children can’t go to school, and their parents can’t go
to work. Israeli troops have killed dozens of unarmed civilians, including
many children, for the "crime" of being on the street. A
columnist in Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper wrote: "There are
not many other cities in the world… in which tanks have the run of the
streets and fire shells into population centres."
The siege has made already desperate conditions in the Occupied
Territories even worse. Poverty and unemployment have climbed to 75
percent and 65 percent respectively. Aid organisations report that people
are eating weeds to survive, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told
the Security Council that two million Palestinians are in dire need of
food and medical assistance and more than half of Palestinian children
show signs of "chronic or acute malnutrition."
In July, 21 male relatives of suicide bombers were arrested and threatened
with deportation to Gaza. Lior Yavne, from the Israeli human rights
organisation B’Tselem, claimed that "This is basically a collective
punishment, prohibited by the Geneva Convention, Israel law and Jewish
morals," and even the US and the Israeli courts felt compelled to
oppose it.
But Israel’s Justice Minister was defiant, saying that if "those
families have been supportive to the suicide bomber from their own family,
if they knew about it and it is proved they knew about and did not prevent
it, that would give the legitimacy to do such a deporting." Since
Israel routinely uses torture, it will probably not be difficult to get
the "evidence" they need.
In late July, Israel assassinated Hamas leader Salah Shehada – along
with his wife, daughter and neighbours, including nine children – in an
operation described by Prime Minister and war criminal Ariel Sharon as
"one of Israel’s greatest successes."
Following a barrage of criticism, Sharon feigned regret for the deaths of
civilians, blaming military and intelligence failures. But as the chairman
of his own parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee, Haim
Ramon, remarked, "[the military] does not send an F16 to a populated
area without political authorisation."
Quite. The Gaza strip is the most densely populated piece of land on the
planet. A missile fired into a neighbourhood of apartment buildings could
not fail to kill and injure many people.
With all these outrages, Sharon and the Israeli government are cashing the
blank cheque that George Bush has given them. His much-vaunted speech
proposing a "solution" to the conflict amounted to a demand that
Palestinians surrender unconditionally.
Sharon’s demand that Palestinians dump Arafat was enthusiastically
adopted by Bush, who essentially said that he won’t accept the
legitimacy of Palestinian elections unless they produce the result that
Washington wants. This outrageous condition barely raised an eyebrow among
the pro-Israel media and commentators.
Of course, US presidents have ordered – and arranged – the overthrow
of governments before. But Bush has become more confident to call openly
for a "regime change" – in Palestine, in Iraq and anywhere
else he wants to.
Bush’s plan is basically a US seal of approval for Israel’s continued
occupation. For Palestinians, that means a never-ending nightmare of
occupation, curfews, closures and desperate poverty – punctuated by
savage military offensives.
If the US wanted to, it could restrain Israel by withholding the massive
economic and military aid without which Israel could not survive. But no
US president has ever been interested in justice for Palestinians. Every
"peace plan" of recent years, from Reagan to Clinton, has aimed
to force Palestinians to abandon their fight for a genuine state.
But as the continued Palestinian resistance shows, there can be no
"peace" without justice.
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