15 - 21 March 2001
Issue No.525
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 15 - 21 March 2001 Issue No.525 |
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Trenches, arrows and Goldstein
As Israel's new prime minister, Ariel Sharon, began his term the Israeli army has turned Palestinian towns and villages into concentration camps. Khaled Amayreh reports from occupied Jerusalem
In a draconian measure reminiscent of medieval times, Ariel Sharon has ordered the occupation army in the West Bank to tighten the blockade on Palestinian towns, villages and hamlets, apparently in an effort to bully and starve the estimated 3 million inhabitants into surrender. The unprecedented siege of population centres has effectively cut up the Palestinian territories into as many as 45 closed military zones -- or "concentration camps," as many Palestinians are referring to their shut-off towns and villages.
The Israeli army dug deep trenches and placed huge piles of earth and concrete slabs outside Palestinian towns, rendering the movement of vehicles and individuals, as well as the flow of food and other essential goods and services, virtually impossible. More to the point, often trigger-happy Israeli soldiers have been stationed at strategic points overlooking pathways that circumvent the closed roads, ready to hunt down Palestinians who dare to penetrate the siege. The stepped-up blockade is aimed at achieving "maximum results," according to an Israeli army general.
Nowhere is the siege more hermetic than around the important Palestinian town of Ramallah and the multitude of smaller towns and villages surrounding it.
"All I can tell you is that the Israeli army is turning Ramallah into a huge concentration camp. True, we don't have the gas chambers, but the suffering, the narrow horizons, the claustrophobia and the depression are very real," said Mohamed Qaddumi, a resident of Ramallah and professor at nearby Bir Zeit University.
After Israeli army bulldozers destroyed the main road to the small university town last week, the university has been isolated from the rest of the world. This prompted university administration and faculty to send out a distress call in the hopes of pressuring the Israeli government into lifting the siege on Palestine's finest academic institution.
On 12 March, a coalition of nationalist and Islamist activists organised a march from Ramallah to Bir Zeit in a bid to protest the Israeli blockade and alert international public opinion to the gravity of the situation. Taking part in the march were many Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, including Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, legislative council member Hanan Ashrawi and a host of university professors, students and Ramallah citizens.
The protesters, using their bare hands, succeeded in removing a pile of earth that was blocking the road to Bir Zeit campus. Abed Rabbo, using another pile of earth as a speaking platform, described the Israeli siege as a "racist and hateful war started by Sharon against 3 million defenceless Palestinian civilians." He also berated "the so-called Israeli peace camp," saying: "You bear part of the responsibility by providing a cover for Sharon. Where are you? Don't you see what is happening?" He then urged Arab states to help Palestinians by severing all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel.
Although the march was non-violent, Israeli occupation troops callously attacked it, firing rubber-coated bullets and tear gas on the peaceful protesters, injuring and suffocating scores of them.
Shortly afterwards, as other Palestinians sought to reopen the road to the village of Surda, a few kilometres north of Ramallah, the Israeli army opened fire, killing 28-year-old Abdel-Qader Ibrahim and injuring 10 others. Ibrahim is the fourth Palestinian killed by Israeli occupation troops since Eid Al-Adha.
Disquieted by unfavourable international reaction, Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer declared on 13 March that he would "relax" the siege on a number of Palestinian towns and villages in the Nablus and Hebron regions, while keeping it intact around Ramallah and its environs. There has been no evidence, however, of the Israeli siege being weakened.
Observers have suggested that Ben Eliezer's comments were merely a public relations ruse aimed at creating a favourable atmosphere in preparation for Sharon's upcoming visit to the United States and for the Arab summit in Amman later this month. Indeed, Israeli occupation troops have stepped up their torment of Palestinian civilians, leaving little doubt as to Sharon's true intentions.
This week, the Israeli occupation army began using a new lethal anti-personnel weapon, known as "flechettes," against Palestinians. The dart-like projectiles, shot in clusters from a rifle, killed Palestinian farmer Ziyad Ayyad in Gaza on 10 March. Ayyad's relatives said he was approaching his farmland when he was hit by a volley of flechettes that pierced his body, killing him instantly.
An Israeli army spokesman refused to confirm or deny the use of flechettes, saying, "The IDF [Israeli Defence Force] uses the means best suited to the overall security conditions and specific threats in a given area."
Meanwhile, Sharon continued to recite his mantra, namely that he will not agree to resume talks with the Palestinian Authority until the violence has completely stopped.
The Palestinians interpreted Sharon's "condition" as a euphemism for "surrender." No Palestinian official is yet willing to suggest putting an end to the Intifada. Indeed, the PA will clearly be unable to terminate the Intifada while Israeli violence and repression of Palestinian civilians continue unabated.
"We are the ones under attack. The world should ask Israel to end its aggression against our people, not ask us to end our resistance to Israeli aggression," said Ahmed Qurei, speaker of the Palestinian legislative council.
Meanwhile, on 11 March, Jewish settlers celebrating a Jewish religious holiday dressed up like Baruch Goldstein, the settler who in 1994 massacred 29 Palestinians praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque, and rampaged through Hebron's Old Town, attacking Palestinians, vandalising their property and shouting "death to Arabs, long live Jews."
The settlers, some drunk and armed, also fired into the air, ostensibly in a gesture of defiance to the 180,000 Palestinians who constitute the population of Hebron. The settlers pelted pedestrians with stones and empty bottles in full view of Israeli soldiers. Palestinian leaders condemned the wanton behaviour of the settlers, describing them as "dangerous trouble-makers who must be removed from Hebron in order to ensure peace."
"Trouble-making is their profession, and committing crimes is what they are after," said one Hebron City Hall official.
Many celebrating settlers held portraits of Goldstein aloft, while others drank wine from bottles bearing a label with a portrait of Goldstein.
A few leftist Israeli politicians denounced the Israeli army for allowing settlers to act wantonly in Hebron and for re-imposing curfew on the Old Town's 30,000 Palestinians in order to allow a handful of settlers to "have a good time."
"Thousands of Palestinians are under curfew to allow a smattering of settlers to dress up as Baruch Goldstein. It is immoral and will not assist in restoring quiet to the city," commented Moshe Raz of the left-of-centre Meretz Party.
However, with Sharon, Rahba'am Zevi and Avigdor Liberman now leading Israel, Raz's statements are unlikely to find an echo among settlers or other Israelis.
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