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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Genocide in slow motion
By Khaled AmayrehThis week, the toll of Palestinian casualties continued its steady rise as the Israeli army continued its shoot-to-kill policy in dealing with the Al-Aqsa Intifada. According to Palestinian hospital sources, 17 Palestinians, four of whom were children, were shot dead by trigger-happy Israeli soldiers between 2-8 November.
These latest deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed since the outbreak of the uprising on 28 September to a total of 184. Among those killed were 13 Palestinians who hold the Israeli nationality, killed by Israeli police inside Israel's 1948 borders last month. Predictably, virtually all the victims died of gunshot wounds to the upper half of the body inflicted by Israeli army sharpshooters, a testimony to the brutal ugliness of Israeli army's repression of the unarmed Palestinian protesters.
The number of injured has skyrocketed to 7,500, many of these people sustained serious wounds, meaning they will be left with a host of disabilities for the rest of their lives. "If we are to call things by their real names, this is genocide in slow motion, there is no other word that can fully describe what has been happening here since 28 September," said Riyad Al-Za'anoun, Palestinian Authority (PA) health minister, whose ministry proved ill-prepared to deal with the seemingly interminable influx of injured.
The situation was exacerbated by the closure of the Gaza airport by the Israeli army last week. This made the transfer of the seriously-wounded to hospitals in the Arab world and some European countries more difficult, leading to more fatalities. The airport was reopened on 7 November, but it is uncertain whether it will remain open or be closed again; it all depends on the Israeli mood.
Among the victims of this week's repression was a Palestinian newborn, a baby-girl aged only 23 days, who died of gas inhalation at Jabal Jouhar in Hebron on 6 November. According to her family, Hind Abu Qweider was lying in her cradle when an Israeli tear gas shell, which Palestinians say contains highly concentrated gas to cause irreparable harm to humans, penetrated the verandah of her home. The baby died instantly, becoming the youngest Palestinian martyr killed at the hands of the Israeli army.
On the same day, not far away from the Abu Qweider's home, an Israeli army marksman shot 14-year-old Ghazaleh Jaradat, in the head, while walking out of school on her way home. The deadly bullet, used by Israeli snipers, pierced Jaradat's forehead and passed through her brain. Doctors at the Ahli hospital in Hebron said she was clinically dead upon arrival at the medical facility.
Faced with the gruesome facts, the Israeli army sought to disseminate several pieces of disinformation about the two incidents. It claimed that the Abu Qweider baby had been hospitalized earlier and that she died of natural causes. Concerning Jaradat's death, they alleged that she died in a traffic accident.
However, when a group of journalists and foreign correspondents visited Hebron hospitals to investigate these allegations, it was clear that the Israeli claims were pure lies, ostensibly aimed at blurring the brutal ugliness of Israeli atrocities.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers has reached 184, while the number of injured has skyrocketed to 7,500
(photo: AP)
"It happened before our eyes, nobody told us about it, we saw it; whoever says Ghazaleh died in a traffic accident must be a professional liar," said Ahlam Musa, a classmate of Gazaleh Jaradat. "Those people must be the lying people of God, not the chosen people of God," she said with bitterness and frustration clear in the tone of her voice.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued to pound Palestinian population centres on a nightly basis, inflicting heavy damage to residential homes and buildings, and forcing thousands of Palestinian families to flee for safety. "It is a war, except there is only one side shooting here while the other side is seeking cover and often getting killed and maimed," said Hassan Salaymeh, whose home was shattered by recurrent Israeli bombardment.
The bombardment, in which artillery shells, short-range rockets and heavy machine gun bullets are used, was particularly heavy in Hebron, Tulkarm and Beit Shaur, where local residents were beginning to draw comparisons with the Serbs' bloody rampage against Bosnians and Kosovo Albanians in the past decade.
In Bit Sahur and surrounding areas, as many as 130 houses were partially or completely destroyed. On 5 October, local charity organisations erected five tents for several families made homeless by the Israeli bombing.
Local officials said more tents would be added to the "shepherds' camp" to accommodate the ever increasing number of Christian and Muslim families whose homes sustained serious damage, rendering their residences unsafe to stay in. Alongside these homes are dwellings that were completely destroyed, making their inhabitants homeless.
"My God, this is Nazism reincarnated. Why is the world doing nothing about it? Why is the world leaving us alone?," said a furious Christian lady, who returned to her home in the morning to find it destroyed by the previous night's bombing.
Jewish settlers, who have a considerable amount of Palestinian blood on their own hands, are meanwhile contriving new tricks to kill even more. According to Palestinian sources in Ramallah, the settlers began amplifying recorded distress calls in Arabic for the purpose of luring Palestinian men into an ambush.
The sources said the false distress calls would feature a female voice crying hysterically in Arabic "help, help, the Jews are killing me." With this device, the settlers have tried to draw Arab men out of their villages adjacent to Jewish settlements to locations where the settlers are able to lie in ambush. The settlers have already murdered five Palestinians, mostly farmers harvesting their olive crops in fields contiguous to Jewish settlements.
In contrast, Arab villagers from Dura, 13 kilometres south-west of Hebron, on 5 November escorted a terrified Jewish settler to safety after he lost his way and found himself in the middle of the village. "I am sure if an Arab had strayed into a Jewish settlement, he wouldn't have walked out alive," said the settler, thanking the villagers for their act of magnanimity.
Commenting on the settler's remarks, one of the Palestinian youths who had escorted him to the Israeli roadblock said, "we don't kill innocent people, we are not bloodthirsty."
Related stories:
Whither Yasser Arafat?
Clinton's unlikely bid
The Intifada this time 2 - 8 November 2000
See Intifada in focus 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
Intifada special 19 - 25 October 2000
Palestine pages 12 - 18 October 2000
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