19 - 25 July 2001
Issue No.543
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 19 - 25 July 2001 Issue No.543 |
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Guilt by extermination
On Tuesday, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a house in Bethlehem, killing four members of a single family. The bodies of the four men were torn apart by the Israeli missiles, and even their relatives found it difficult to identify them or to put together their remains. Israel justified its most recent crime by the usual allegation that one of the victims was a leading member of the militant Hamas group, and that he had been "planning" to carry out a "terrorist attack."The United States, the only sponsor of the Middle East peace process, will certainly describe the crime as a "deplorable act" and reiterate the usual call for "both sides" to practice self-restraint. It will say nothing about basic human rights or international conventions. Israel will continue to apply the law of the jungle in dealing with the Palestinians, whom it does not see as equal human beings with any rights at all. In Israel's book, it is kosher to kill people on a whim, without trial or investigation or even consideration of Israel's own laws, which prohibit capital punishment. But that law is for Israelis only, not for Palestinians.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, in Cairo this week, openly admitted that Israel's policy has been to assassinate Palestinian civilians since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada late last September. He claimed, however, that "Israel does not kill innocent people." This statement neatly sums up the racism enshrined in Israeli policy, and ingrained even in the man who represents himself as the mildest dove in a government led by war criminal Ariel Sharon.
Arab foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo yesterday to discuss ways of combating Israel's escalation of violence, must not simply condemn Israel's latest murder. Besides intensifying contacts with concerned international parties that can pressure Israel to respect understandings reached through American mediation, the Arab leadership must make it clear that it cannot watch forever as Israeli army troops massacre the Palestinians brutally. The Arab peoples are extremely angry, and their leaders must heed this sentiment before expressing mere condemnation and regret.
Israel is engaged at present in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. It increases the scale and intensity of its atrocities in the apparent belief that one day, it will find an effective level of monstrosity, and make the Palestinians disappear. What will it take for it to realise that the Palestinians will continue to defend themselves?
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