Israel/Palestine Conflict

On May 8, 2002, Ali Abunimah, a prominent activist for the Palestinian cause, appeared in a live chat held by the Washington Post online (www.washingtonpost.com).  During this live chat, Mr. Abunimah answered many good questions about the conflict:

"Yesterday, CNN White House correspondent John King reported that the pool hall bombing was a "resumption of violence." Why do you think that US reporters continue to discount Palestinian deaths, since only the day before a woman and her two children were killed by a supposed mistake as Israeli soldiers wildly fired a heavy caliber machine gun at them as they worked in a garden.

"Ali Abunimah: You make an excellent point. For many in the US media it seems that only violence against Israelis counts. For Palestinians the violence never stops, and I don't think there is a single day in which Palestinian civilians have not suffered random violence by Israel, torture, destruction of their homes, beating and woundings."

Click here to read the full story, in Microsoft Word format.

Click here to read the story at the washingtonpost.com (but be warned that it has lots of annoying advertisements).

Special Report on the Israeli Incursion, Updated April 15

The British newspaper Independent published on April 14 what it calls the first evidence of the horrific massacre which took place at the Jenin refugee camp over the past two weeks:

"Palestinians escaping from the West Bank camp, which has been sealed off by the Israeli army for the past 11 days, have spoken of hundreds of deaths, including many who slowly bled to death because ambulances were prevented from entering. But no photographic evidence of the ferocity of Israel's attack had emerged until yesterday, when a Reuters photographer managed to enter the camp briefly before being chased out again by an Israeli armoured vehicle."  Click here for the full report.

Click here for another report, from the BBC, with eyewitness accounts of the carnage in Jenin.  Is this state sponsored terrorism?

This week has brought some of the worst violence in the history of the Middle East.  This scale of horror has not been seen since the all-out 1967 war.  Although US President Bush has begun (weakly) to call for an Israeli withdrawal, sadly more than 250 Palestinians (including many unarmed civilian noncombatants) have already been killed, hundreds more injured, and there are reports of wanton destruction of Palestinian homes, roads, and indeed the elements of basic life in the West Bank.  The military operations are hard to imagine for those of us lucky enough to live in a peaceful country.  Here's a little bit of imagery:

The Israelis are blocking ambulances from going to the injured (a war crime), meaning that the dead and dying lay where they are for hours or even days.  There are reports of massacres, execution-style killing, and of dehumanizing behavior including urinating in people's living rooms (this last report came from ABCNews Nightline on April 2).  Hundreds of thousands of people in Bethlehem, Ramallah, and other West Bank cities have been unable to leave their homes for a week.  Food is running out, as movement of people as well as goods has been ground to a halt in the West Bank.  What's worse: the Israelis blocked all media from the Palestinian cities, and several journalists have been shot at and/or had their videotapes confiscated by the Israeli army.  Clearly, the Israelis feel that they have something to hide.

And the worst part of this horrific military offensive is that it will not stop the deplorable suicide attacks targeted against Israel, as we saw with the two recent attacks.  Of course, military operations such as this one might temporarily slow or stop the Palestinian militants from doing their disgusting attacks, but in the long run, this operation will only serve to increase hatred and animosity for Israel.  There can be no military solution to this conflict.  The Israeli government apparently still has yet to learn that lesson.  As have the Palestinian suicide bombers.

For more on the horror being wrought by the Israeli army, see this article from the British newspaper Independent's Robert Fisk.

The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on April 9 that Israel's own foreign minister, Shimon Peres, has referred to recent Israeli military operations as a "massacre."

March 1, 2002

While few people dispute the need for checkpoints between Israeli territory and the West Bank, the problem comes because Israel has set up hundreds of checkpoints within Palestinian territory, stopping Palestinians from traveling in their own country.  Particularly troublesome and deadly are the Israeli army's newest idea: "surprise" checkpoints.

An army officer using the pseudonym "Ilan" told Israeli radio that he and his men felt like sitting ducks at roadblocks. So one day he abandoned his position at a barricade just north of Jerusalem....

"We use these bullets as a kind of shield, a wall, because we don't have a wall or concrete to protect us. . . . In the end, the guys become trigger-happy and very jumpy." [he said.]

Click here for the full article from the LA Times.

February 22, 2002

Unbelievably this week, a columnist in USA Today said the following in his article "No to Palestinian State":

"A PLO state will only guarantee unending war, drawing in all like-minded nations. The simple answer, instead, would be to create a vast separation from Israel, resettling the Palestinians in Jordan..."

In other words, this columnist (Emanuel A. Winston) advocates the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and Gaza.  Not only is this idea racist and akin to what the Nazis did to the Jewish people during World War II, what's worse is that it wouldn't solve the problem at all.  Even if you seriously consider "resettling" or forcibly removing Arab people from the Palestinian territories, such an action would clearly increase hatred for Israel and only exacerbate the terrorist problem.  Besides, how would you "resettle" the Palestinians?  Would Palestinian citizens of Israel (a sizable minority of Israel's population) be forced to move as well?  Would Christians as well as Muslims have to move?  Where would you put these millions of people?

Amazingly, Mr. Winston and USA Today ignore the racism of this plan and they shamelessly advocate it.  This plan has also been suggested, incidentally, by an ultra right-wing member of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's cabinet (Uzi Landau).  How many atrocities will it take before we realize that ethnic cleansing is NOT a solution?

Click here for the full article from USA Today

Click here for an open letter to the editor of USA Today about this article

February 11, 2002

This week, the internationally renowned newspaper The Independent ran a story on the return of left-wing liberalism in  Israel.  As the Israeli government, headed by a very conservative Ariel Sharon, continues to use bombs and tanks to try to quell the Palestinian uprising, many Israelis are beginning to question their government's policies, wondering if peace talks might be a better idea.

Many Israelis now openly wonder if Sharon's militaristic policies actually worsen the situation by enflaming Palestinian anger.  Moreover, the phrase "war crimes" is starting to be applied to Israeli army actions.  As the Independent's Phil Reeves puts it:

"The tone of Mr Sharon's critics has also hardened significantly.  When the Israeli army demolished 60 homes in Rafah, southern Gaza, last month and then attempted to lie about it, the word 'war crime' began to appear in the Israeli press."

Very interestingly, a growing group of some 200 Israeli soldiers have signed a petition and have refused to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, in protest over what they call immoral, illegal actions on the part of the Israeli army.  This is an interesting dilemma for Sharon's administration, because Israel has always tried to be sympathetic to those soldiers who conscientiously refuse to follow an order.   Saying "I was only following orders" -- which was uttered by just about every Nazi defending himself against Holocaust involvement -- is not an acceptable excuse in Israel.... So a certain level of objection has been tolerated.  But, when hundreds of soldiers start to openly refuse to obey orders, what can the army do?  End the occupation and start peace talks?  Not while Sharon is in power.

Click here for the full article from the Independent

December 30, 2001

A major headline came when the Israelis banned Arafat from traveling to Bethlehem for the traditional midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity.

What the American media failed to highlight, however, is the fact that Arafat is not the only Palestinian unable to travel to Bethlehem -- or to anywhere else for that matter.  Life in the West Bank and Gaza is a "Life of Blockades," as illustrated in this article from the BBC.

Imagine trying to go to work in the next town.  Or trying to visit family.  Or trying to go to pray.  Or trying to go to the hospital.  Sadly, in the West Bank and Gaza, traveling to do any of these necessary activities is difficult or impossible.  Israeli soldiers have checkpoints on every road in the West Bank, and often they seal off entire villages for days, weeks, or even months at a time.  This causes the price of food to go up, even as people can't go to work for money.  The misery eventually boils over into rage at the Israeli soldiers, and at Israel in general.

'A young boy is carried out screaming, on his way to Ramallah for emergency treatment.

His journey, which would normally take 35 minutes, will last three hours.

How was he injured?

"He fell down running from Israeli soldiers," the nurse said.'

Click Here for the entire article from the BBC.

December 13, 2001

This week, the article comes from the Washington Post's website.  They had a "town hall" interview on December 6 with a prolific commentator on the Middle East, Ali Abuminah.  In this interview, Mr. Abuminah discusses the latest news in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, including the recent suicide bombings in Jerusalem and the Israeli reprisals.  Click here for the transcript.

The first question posed to Mr. Abuminah asked him to "draw a distinction" between Palestinian suicide bombers -- who kill civilians intentionally -- and Israeli soldiers, whom the Israeli government explains may accidentally and regretfully kill civilians.  But, the argument goes, the Israeli soldiers are different from suicide bombers because they do not target civilians; they only target people actively involved in terrorism.  Mr. Abuminah responded:

"Every human rights group that has looked into Israel's practices, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli group B'Tselem, and many others, have found that Israel deliberately shoots to kill unarmed Palestinian civilians, and indeed the vast majority of the nearly nine hundred Palestinian civilians killed were unarmed. Over two hundred of them are children..."

Click for the full article from washingtonpost.com