Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 06:14:48 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?eldorra=20mitchell?= <manynotone-AT-yahoo.co.in>
Subject: Re: yaya Viva --MANDELA




Letters from Palestine

E-mail from GUSH SHALOM, Israeli Peace Bloc

April 7, 2002

GUSH SHALOM - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

[The following article comes from Arafat's compound
and was written by Israeli human shield activist Neta
Golan, together with the journalist Ian Urbina. It is
a most powerfull appeal for international
intervention. We found it on
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/
it was published yesterday by Merip (Middle East
Research and Information Project).

 

An Israeli View from Arafat's Compound Saturday,
April 06 2002 -AT- 06:51 PM GMT
By Neta Golan and Ian Urbina

It is not Israeli actions which have surprised the
international peace observers currently holed up
within Arafat?s presidential compound. It is the
inaction of the international community that most
shocks us. Inside the pock-marked building surrounded
by Israeli tanks and snipers, there is one question on
everyone?s mind: how many international laws does
Israel need to break before the UN demands a full and
immediate withdrawal?

The list of violations is reaching unprecedented
levels, even for a conflict with a long history of
ugly behavior on both sides. International law
absolutely forbids the building of the settlements,
but 34 new settlements have been constructed in this
year alone.
Collective punishment is illegal. But Israel has now
escalated from interrupting food shipments to
completely shutting off water to the Palestinian city
of Ramallah, endangering the lives of 120,000 people.
The shelling of innocuous Palestinian civilian
structures such as power plants, schools, and sewage
facilities, is occuring at an alarming rate. Unarmed
civilians are being killed practically on a daily
basis.

There are also growing reports of Israeli troops
raiding hospitals and firing on ambulances and
journalists. These are grave breaches of international
convention. The recent experience of American
newspaper correspondent, Anthony Shadid, is hardly
uncommon.
First, he was shot while in a zone under full Israeli
control. The area was quiet and there was no crossfire
in which to be caught. Shadid was wearing the required
signs on his back and front indicating that he was
with the official press as he walked away from an
interview in our building. Soon after Shadid arrived
to the hospital, Israeli troops raided it with machine
guns drawn. He was subsequently transferred for
further medical treatment, and his ambulance came
under fire by Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint.

Israel is making a mockery of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, the founding legal document of
international human rights law, and by its tacit
acceptance, the UN is severely eroding its credibility
in the region and beyond.

Those of us inside the presidential compound need help
desperately. But not half as much as those on the
outside who are facing the full brunt of the mass
round-ups and house-to-house raids. The situation can
not deteriorate much further. Medical supplies have
run out. Food is scarce.

Pressure from abroad is essential, even when only on a
person-by-person basis. Boycotts and letter writing
work. The presence of international "human shields"
throughout the Occupied Territories has been very
important in limiting the indiscriminate nature of
Israeli
military actions. But nothing short of a UN demand for
a full withdrawal to the 1967 UN recognized borders
will succeed in restoring calm and opening the way for
peace negotiations. Only then can there be discussion
of the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian
refugees. Simply pulling the troops out of the
recently invaded regions will not suffice.

It is not just the Palestinians and foreigners within
the compound who have been calling for a full
withdrawal. Even sectors within the Israeli military
have put forward this option as the only chance for
peace and security for the Israeli people. In a formal
"Letter of Refusal" to Sharon, several hundred Israeli
soldiers, most with combat experience, advocated a
full withdrawal and have stated their unwillingness to
serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

But Sharon does not want to listen. And in the
meantime we in the compound are left, not without
fear, wondering whether the international community
will allow the permanent expansion of the already
illegal occupation and the exile if not assasination
of the Palestinian leader.

Neta Golan, an Israeli, is among the 40 international
peace observers occupying Arafat's besieged office.
Ian Urbina is Associate Editor of Middle East Report,
a foreign policy magazine in Washington DC. This
article was first published by the Middle East
Research and Information Project (MERIP)
  
 
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