topic by
Sandra
11/16/2001 (12:17)

Assassination history - Part 3
Minneapolis, MN
By Nigel Parry

“The eight policemen ran for their lives, trying to hide under the olive trees, with the helicopters hunting them down,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the remainder of the Israeli invading force, in the region of 900 soldiers, moved in on the town. In all, 32 vehicles were involved in the assualt, including 20 tanks,” Berghouti said.

Israeli forces ordered a curfew on the village and sealed off access to the town.

“We heard about the situation,” said Barghouti. “We sent ambulances, which arrived at the entrance of the village at 3:30 a.m.”

The ambulances were not allowed to pass.
“The soldiers would look at the injured people from time to time,” said Barghouti, “but would do nothing for them,” he said.

One injured man was handcuffed after being shot in the chest.

“They tied his legs,” said Barghouti. “No medical aid was given to him until 9:15 in the morning, eight hours later,” he said.

Only at 8 a.m. did the Israeli army allow one Israeli ambulance to pick up the four policemen from the olive grove.

“They could have died easily,” Barghouti said.
According to a Palestinian NGO, LAW, 10 were killed, dozens were arrested, some are missing and others are still detained.

Digging for rationale
The invasion took place under the pretense of ferreting out the assassins of Ze’evi.

Israel claims that three of the homes destroyed during the invasion were owned by wanted fugitives.

“None of these houses were owned by the people they were looking for,” laughs Barghouti. “They belonged to their grandfather, or other relatives.”

“Even when they found a house that belonged to a person they were looking for, soldiers demolished the homes of the relatives in some cases, which was much larger and recently built.”

“Such a punitive, destructive act “[is] a crime,” said Barghouti, “an unacceptable act of collective punishment.

In Beit Reema, the Israeli army acted as judge, jury, and executioner.”
As the invasion began and continued, journalists were also prevented from entering the village. One journalist attempted to bypass the closure, was discovered by the Israeli soldiers, and severely beaten.

In bondage
Faten Elwan is a 21-year-old Palestinian university journalism graduate with an all-star resume. This year she has worked for ABC, Nile TV and currently works as a producer at the Yemeni satellite channel.

In times of harsh closure, said Faten, it can take hours for journalists to pass through all the successive checkpoints, if they are allowed. By the time we arrive, the incident can be over and there are no opportunities to take photos, there is no documentation.

“The checkpoints, the closure, all the Israeli measures really affect our lives. Now it’s so much worse. With the winter, it is freezing and it is so painful to see all the people lined up, standing at the checkpoints, waiting to see if the soldier will let them pass in order that they can go to school or to work.”

“My mother has to cross to work, my brother to school. My family’s home has been shelled and shot up so many times—we live near the Israeli settlement—that we have moved downstairs from the upper floors in order to get away from the danger. And everyone is always so afraid at the checkpoints. ‘Maybe they will open fire suddenly, for no reason,’ people think.

You never know if you or your family will return home alive or not at the end of the day.

Reflecting on the current situation, Faten sighs and tells us, “It’s really painful to see a kid, a six-year-old, dreaming of becoming a martyr or skipping out of school to go throw rocks at tanks. This is meaningful, but it’s not going to make any difference. People are putting their life on the edge, just to try make people around the world understand what is going on.”

German-Palestinian Yasmin Khayal, who came to study in the international student program at Birzeit University last year, has had to abandon her studies in the wake of the Intifada and accompanying Israeli siege.

“People say the Intifada is an uprising when in fact it is a resistance to the oppression of the Palestinian people, which has gone on for over 53 years now. It is a struggle against an apartheid regime maintained by the Israeli governement.

“It is a struggle for basic human rights such as the freedom of movement, the freedom to go to school or to work.
“This last week has been hell. I am losing hope. The violence robs all your energy. The world isn’t paying attention. It’s all about anthrax! What is happening to human beings in Palestine is not considered to be an issue.

“It’s not because I am a Palestinian that I care. It’s because I am a human being,” Yasmin said.

For Palestinians living at their own Israeli-occupied ground zero, the kind of collective experience of national suffering that Americans were introduced to on September 11th is nothing new.

The difference is that those responsible for manmade Palestinian suffering are not allegedly hiding in caves in an unknown location in Afghanistan. Rather, they are sitting at their own table in the United Nations, shaking hands with U.S. government officials and receiving billions of dollars of aid.

This aid is not used to end hunger, or improve educational opportunities and thus sow hope in a hopeless situation. It is used to maintain a brutal military occupation and enable the further colonization of the land.

In fact, as the horrific events described in this article were taking place, the United States renewed its annual aid to Israel -- more than $3 billion -- even while Israel ignored U.S. requests to pull out of the invaded areas.

For years, Palestinian civilians have been picking up missile fragments from their backyards that say MADE IN AMERICA on them.
Being ignorant of this ongoing war that we are helping Israel to carry out is not merely a matter of our neglect.

With weapons we supply, Israel kills in our name.
Now that we are understanding to new levels the meaning of collective national suffering, it is finally time that we address those instances where we have not just permitted, but actually aided and abetted that same suffering around the world.

It is time that we paid attention.