File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0203, message 121


Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 11:14:21 +1300
From: Margaret Trawick <trawick-AT-clear.net.nz>
Subject: Sharon harvesting Palestinian casualties


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.



 
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press Release 8/3/2002

A few days ago, Prime Minister Sharon called upon the army to "increase the
number of Palestinian casualties", in order to "teach them a lesson". The army is doing its
best to oblige. After an already bloody week, today's figure of Palestinians killed
- as given by CNN - stands at forty seven. (The Israeli radio repeated from the morning to
the evening the number fourteen.)  Sixteen alone got killed during a single hour of military
rampage at a single Palestinian village in the southern Gaza Strip, a place named Hirbat
Ichtiza'a of which none of us heard until this morning, but which the army now instists is
"a major terrorist center". The raid on that village was conducted last night as an
immediate retaliation for the killing of five young settlers at the settlement enclave of
Atzmona in the Gaza Strip. Colonel Imad Fares of the Givati Brigade, who 
commanded that raid and who told Israeli Radio about it this morning, claimed
that all sixteen Palestinians killed had been armed militants killed in battle.
Since no journalists or other impartial observers were present, there is no
easy way to confirm or deny this claim - but in other locations where
Palestinians were killed and where the international media is present, there is
clear evidence that the Palestinian casualties included many civilians, part
of them children, that ambulances were targeted and doctors and medical crews
killed and wounded. Right now some of these facts were "explained" and thereby admitted
by a military spokesperson on the Israeli 1st Channel TV news.
And still no end in sight...

While we had to endure the army's self appraisal for their "great successes" it is becoming
clear that Sharon suffered a setback in the diplomatic scene. President Bush seems to have
at last realized that the conflagration set off by Sharon may put vital U.S. interests at risk
and decided to send the US envoy back to the region.. The question is now whether
mediator Zinni be given this time a mandate sufficient to stand up to Sharon.
Meanwhile in the same broadcast appeared several former activists of the  Four Mothers'
Movement which played such a crucial role in bringing back the soldiers from Lebanon
and who now work for withdrawal from the Palestinian territories - under the name "The
Seventh Day".

This morning members of the Women's Peace Coalition used the International Women's
Day to visit more than forty embassies in Tel-Aviv, delivering letters calling upon the
international community to immediately send an international observer force to
the Occupied Territories. This action had been prepared in advance and was in the present
circumstances extremely meaningful. From reports which we got, the women's delegations
were received most respectfully and they got ample chance to emphasize the urgency.

The coming days give peace activists many moments where they can join and express
similar demands - Yesh Gvul's demonstration outside Military Prison 4 (Athlit), in solidarity
with four soldiers imprisoned for refusing to take part in all this; the Arab Monitoring
Committee Protest Demo at Shaknin; and the Peace Now vigils in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem,
tomorrow night and during the coming week.

Further information:
Adam Keller phone: +972-3-5565804 / +972-56-709603 / +972-56-709604

----
NB: Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
    For Hebrew   http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
    For English  http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
    French available at request.
   
  
Also on the site:
    the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
    the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
    (and a lot more)
http://www.gush-shalom.org
  
If you got this forwarded, and would like to receive our emails directly you
can subscribe by sending a blank message (from the address where you
want to receive them) to:
Gush-Shalom-subscribe-AT-topica.com

HTML VERSION:

 
  
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press Release 8/3/2002

A few days ago, Prime Minister Sharon called upon the army to "increase the
number of Palestinian casualties", in order to "teach them a lesson". The army is doing its
best to oblige. After an already bloody week, today's figure of Palestinians killed
- as given by CNN - stands at forty seven. (The Israeli radio repeated from the morning to
the evening the number fourteen.)  Sixteen alone got killed during a single hour of military
rampage at a single Palestinian village in the southern Gaza Strip, a place named Hirbat
Ichtiza'a of which none of us heard until this morning, but which the army now instists is
"a major terrorist center". The raid on that village was conducted last night as an
immediate retaliation for the killing of five young settlers at the settlement enclave of
Atzmona in the Gaza Strip. Colonel Imad Fares of the Givati Brigade, who
commanded that raid and who told Israeli Radio about it this morning, claimed
that all sixteen Palestinians killed had been armed militants killed in battle.
Since no journalists or other impartial observers were present, there is no
easy way to confirm or deny this claim - but in other locations where
Palestinians were killed and where the international media is present, there is
clear evidence that the Palestinian casualties included many civilians, part
of them children, that ambulances were targeted and doctors and medical crews
killed and wounded. Right now some of these facts were "explained" and thereby admitted
by a military spokesperson on the Israeli 1st Channel TV news.
And still no end in sight...

While we had to endure the army's self appraisal for their "great successes" it is becoming
clear that Sharon suffered a setback in the diplomatic scene. President Bush seems to have
at last realized that the conflagration set off by Sharon may put vital U.S. interests at risk
and decided to send the US envoy back to the region.. The question is now whether
mediator Zinni be given this time a mandate sufficient to stand up to Sharon.
Meanwhile in the same broadcast appeared several former activists of the  Four Mothers'
Movement which played such a crucial role in bringing back the soldiers from Lebanon
and who now work for withdrawal from the Palestinian territories - under the name "The
Seventh Day".

This morning members of the Women's Peace Coalition used the International Women's
Day to visit more than forty embassies in Tel-Aviv, delivering letters calling upon the
international community to immediately send an international observer force to
the Occupied Territories. This action had been prepared in advance and was in the present
circumstances extremely meaningful. From reports which we got, the women's delegations
were received most respectfully and they got ample chance to emphasize the urgency.

The coming days give peace activists many moments where they can join and express
similar demands - Yesh Gvul's demonstration outside Military Prison 4 (Athlit), in solidarity
with four soldiers imprisoned for refusing to take part in all this; the Arab Monitoring
Committee Protest Demo at Shaknin; and the Peace Now vigils in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem,
tomorrow night and during the coming week.

Further information:
Adam Keller phone: +972-3-5565804 / +972-56-709603 / +972-56-709604

----
NB: Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
    For Hebrew   http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
    For English  http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
    French available at request.
   
  
Also on the site:
    the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
    the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
    (and a lot more)
http://www.gush-shalom.org
  
If you got this forwarded, and would like to receive our emails directly you
can subscribe by sending a blank message (from the address where you
want to receive them) to:
Gush-Shalom-subscribe-AT-topica.com
--- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005