Topic: Suffer Palestine's Children - Conclusion

topic by
Someone
11/27/2001 (15:12)

In another article, Hass reported that a group of Western diplomats traveling from Jerusalem to Ramallah witnessed Israeli troops fire live ammunition at a group of stone-throwing Palestinian children, 'even though the children were too far to pose a risk to the soldiers.' 'The diplomats say that shots were fired even though a long line of civilian cars were traveling past the children at the time.' '[One of the diplomats] says that he saw a second soldier in the observation tower clapping and raising his hands as if in victory after his colleague fired at the children.' ['Envoys say they saw IDF fire at children.' Ha'aretz, July 26, 2001]

In a damning indictment of Israeli military criminality and pathology, New York Times Middle East Bureau chief Chris Hedges writes: 'Yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon they kill an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wound four more, three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered-death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo-but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.' ['Gaza Diary: Scenes from the Palestinian Uprising,' =1'Harper's Magazine, October 2001]

In a report released last week, B'Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, blasted what it called a 'shallow and superficial' Israeli army investigation into the shooting death of an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy, Khalil al-Mughrabi.

On July 7, Khalil and twenty to thirty other children played soccer in the Yubneh Refugee Camp, in Rafah, near the Egyptian border. After they finished playing, the children sat on some mounds of sand near the border fence. Suddenly, Khalil's head burst into parts from a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier in a nearby observation post. The soldiers proceeded to unleash 'intense fire' on the other children. Ibrahim Abu Susin, 10, and Suleiman Abu Rijal, 12, were badly wounded.

B'Tselem concludes: 'An eleven-year-old child was killed and two children were injured for no reason. However, the army failed to open any investigation against the soldiers responsible, even though all the army officials involved in the review of the incident clearly knew that the soldiers had used lethal weapons when their lives were not in jeopardy and had violated army regulations.'

B'Tselem notes that despite the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians since the Intifada broke out, 'the Military Police only opened some twenty investigation files relating to the illegal use of weapons. In none of the cases were indictments filed.' The report goes on to say that, 'Over the years, B'Tselem has received hundreds of letters from the Judge Advocate General's office regarding events in which Palestinians were killed, injured, or beaten by soldiers. In some of the cases, Military Police investigations were opened, and in some, the Judge Advocate General's office only conducted an internal investigation. Most of the replies that B'Tselem received state that the soldiers acted properly and that no action was taken against the soldiers involved.' ['Whitewash: The Office of the Judge Advocate General's Examination of the Death of Khalil al-Mughrabi, 11, on 7 July 2001,' B,Tselem, 11/13/01]

Given the well known history of the Israeli military's farcical self 'investigations,' don't hold your breath for an honest accounting of the killing of the five children in Khan Younis.

The message Israeli troops receive from the lack of serious investigation into and punishment for military criminality is clear: you can murder civilians -- even little children -- for no reason at all, and you can do it with impunity.

True to form, the US has also refused to condemn its client's murderous actions.

US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker expressed 'regret' over the latest killing of Palestinian children, saying the incident served as a 'strong reminder' of the consequences of the ongoing violence. 'The United States deeply regrets the tragic accidental deaths of five Palestinian children . . . when they came in contact with unexploded ordnance. It was a terrible tragedy. We understand that the Israeli army has begun an investigation into the circumstances of these deaths and we expect that investigation will thoroughly determine what happened. This incident... is a strong reminder of why both sides should do all they can to end the violence, reduce tensions and resume negotiations,' he added.

And so it goes, the children of Palestine suffer, the occupation continues, Israeli state terrorism accelerates and the best that the Palestinians can expect from the US by way of Colin Powell is a PR performance that does nothing in substance to pressure our Israeli client from desisting. Instead, the US puts the burden of responsibility for 'ending the violence' squarely on the Palestinians, while calling for an end to the Intifada, an uprising (however flawed) that is both a reaction to Israel's brutal occupation and the Palestinian Authority's corruption, incompetence and selling out of the cause.

To steal a quip from Palestinian writer Sam Bahour, US statements are 'equivalent to that of a policeman walking past a rape victim, still pinned under her assailant, and verbally scolding both parties by advising them to work out their differences.'
Israel has little to fear that its continuing rampages through the occupied Palestinian territories and the latest incident of child killings will jeopardize the staggering $3-5 billion of military and economic 'aid' it receives from the US annually. Nor should Israel fear that America's vaunted 'War on Terror' will extend to them. It's simply a matter of whose side you are on.

Our tax dollars at work as they say. And still we wonder why the US is the object of anger and resentment to many around the world.

Given the overwhelming US military, economic and diplomatic support for Israel, the moral imperative is on us to end our government's decisive role in Israel's ongoing colonial conquest and occupation of Palestinian lands and its people. (Published in Counter Punch
http://www.counterpunch.org/)
__________________
Sunil Sharma is a musician, writer and activist based in Northern California. He is the editor of Dissident Voice, a semi-regular newsletter 'dedicated to challenging the lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves.' He can be contacted at dissidentvoice@earthlink.net

reply by
Barb
11/27/2001 (23:49)

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Funny isn't it? That the U.S. is the 'target of anger and resentment' yet Visa applications to the U.S. just continue to go up and up and up ... hmmm... can't figure that one out...

reply by
Sandra
11/29/2001 (17:12)

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It's quite easy to figure out. People come here wanting to make money. That doesn't mean they like the culture. There are a lot of immigrants working here just to make money. They don't care for the society or the culture or the people or the food, etc. They just want to make money and go back home. Or get an education and go back home.