From: tmesbah-AT-earthlink.net Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 22:57:10 -0700 Subject: Re: crippled Thank you for the post. At 12:21 PM 7/8/01 -0400, you wrote: >Guardian Tuesday May 1, 2001 > >http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4178420,00.html > >Mutilated children of a crippled Palestine >Suzanne Goldenberg > >The Guardian's award-winning Middle East correspondent, Suzanne Goldenberg >reports on what >the fragmenting bullet has done to the children of the uprising > >The beds of the four teenagers take up an entire wall at Wafa hospital in >Gaza. Tharif Ghora, 16, >was shot in the shoulder when he peeked over a barricade at the Karni border >crossing on >November 19. Hussein Na'ezi, also 16 and with Tharif a regular at the >confrontations with Israeli >soldiers at Karni, took a bullet in the neck the day before. > >Ahmed Abu Taha, a stick-thin boy with almond eyes, the baby of the ward at >14, was running >from a tank in Rafah refugee camp on February 18 when a bullet penetrated >his back. Mahmoud >Sarhan, 16, was shot in the neck. > >None of them will walk again. Hussein and Mahmoud will not even be able to >lower themselves >into wheelchairs because their injuries are higher up the spinal cord. > >They - and 1,000 others - are the maimed of the intifada, with permanent >injuries which range >from a limp or the loss of an eye to paralysis and mental disability: a >harvest of mutilation which >far outstrips the death toll in the Palestinian uprising. > >All four of the boys threw stones at Israeli soldiers and tanks - Tharif >used to detour past Karni on >his way home from school - and all four were unarmed. > >They, like many of the other injured and dead, are the victims of what the >UN security council >and international and Israeli human rights groups condemn as excessive use >of force by Israel >against the uprising, now in its seventh month. > >A great deal of the criticism has focused on Israel's use of high-velocity >bullets fired from M-16 >assault rifles. When these penetrate flesh they cartwheel through the body >with explosive force. > >None of the four boys is aware that he will spend the rest of his life as >prisoner of his body. In his >hospital bed, a beaming Tharif is being fattened up with shwarma, the meat >sandwiches his >father sells at a roadside stall in Gaza City. > >There is an involuntary twitch in his swollen left foot. "You see?" says his >father, Abid Ghora. >"One day, God willing, he will make a full recovery. Maybe if we can send >him to Germany, they >can do something for him." > >The number of Palestinians left with some form of permanent disability by >this uprising is not >entirely clear. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the >injured up to two days ago >numbered 13,296, 20% of the hit by bullets. > >The Institute of Community and Public Health at Bir Zeit University, the >premier Palestinian >academic establishment, sifted through mounds of hospital records to arrive >at an estimate of at >least 1,000 people who will be permanently afflicted after being hit by >Israeli live fire, shrapnel, or >rubber-tipped steel bullets. > >More than 400 of the injured have been treated for lasting disability at >three rehabilitation 12 >centres in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - the only places of their kind for >a combined >population of 3m people - and at an eye hospital in occupied Arab East >Jerusalem. Five hundred >of the seriously injured have been treated abroad, including Tharif and >Hussein, who were sent to >Jordan. > >In the West Bank town of Beit Jala, Elias Saba, a therapist at the Bethlehem >Arab Society for >Rehabilitation, is trying to coax a response from Amjed Saadi, 18. > >"Marhaba," Dr Saba, says to him: hello in Arabic. Sitting in his wheelchair >with his right hand >clenched in a fist, Mr. Saadi grunts twice in reply. > >The doctor asks him to put a hand on his nose; Mr. Saadi shades his eyes. > >Mr. Saadi was shot in the head with a high velocity bullet fired by an >Israeli soldier on October 2, >in the first few days of the intifada. He woke from his coma five weeks ago >with permanent brain >damage. His eyes are alert but spinal fluid is collecting in a bulge on the >side of his head, and he >will need more surgery. > >Human rights groups have condemned Israel for relying heavily on live >ammunition, rather than >non-lethal force, and for shooting when its soldiers' lives are not in >danger. > >The Nobel prize-winning US group Physicians for Human Rights blames the >widespread use of >the M-16 automatic rifle for the high rate of crippling Palestinian >injuries. The American-designed >weapon is standard issue for Israeli troops. > >Daniel Reisner, a colonel in the advocate general's office of the Israeli >army, admits that some >soldiers have broken the undisclosed rules on opening fire. > >"Did all cases in which Israeli army soldiers shoot Palestinians involve >live fire incidents? I don't >think so," he said. "Could it be that some soldiers reacted with more fire >than I would have used >in hindsight? Maybe. Some of the reports seem to indicate that." > >The chief of staff, General Shauf Mofaz, told commanders last month to >investigate every fatal >shooting of a Palestinian by Israeli soldiers in circumstances where there >was no previous >exchange of fire. The army is making criminal investigations in six such >cases. > >Col Reisner argues that many of the soldiers - like a third of the 370 >Palestinians killed to date - >are practically children themselves. "These are kids out of high school. We >train them, but we >can not make them adults in a day. > >"In a lot of the incidents with the Palestinians there has been talk about >children doing the >fighting, and that they were sending 16-year-olds to throw stones or >firebombs. We were sending >18-year-olds, only ours are lawful. > >"The general staff can give orders, but at the end of the day the person >that has to carry out >those orders is a 20-year-old kid, and that is in a good situation, with a >22-year-old commanding >office, and a 25-year-old company commander." > >The results - particularly when M-16s are used - are devastating. Other >high-speed ammunition >passes cleanly through the body, but a lightweight 5.56mm bullet from an >M-16 tends to tumble >and spin after it penetrates the flesh at a speed of more than 800 metres a >second. Then it >breaks up into tiny metal fragments. > >"They move like an insect, buzzing around your body, said Dr Jumaa Saqqa, >spokesman for the >Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where the territory's worst injuries are >treated. > >"On the outside of the body you just see a small inlet - one centimetre big >- but if there is no exit >we find hundreds of small metallic pieces inside." > >Most of the new disabled were hurt during the first three months of the >uprising. Hailed as heroes >in the early days, and handed cheques for up to $1,000 (700) afterwards, >they are now in danger >of being abandoned on the outer margins of a society on the verge of >economic collapse, and >itself crippled by a corrupt and undemocratic leadership. > >"Most of these injured are relatively young," said Mohammed Abu Tair, an >orthopaedics >specialist at Mukassad hospital in Jerusalem, "the potential labour force - >the power of society >itself." > >_________________________________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. >
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