22 - 28 November 2001
Issue No.561
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 22 - 28 November 2001 Issue No.561 |
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Israel's Ramadan gift
As US Secretary of State Colin Powell talks of peace, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has incited Palestinians with his usual mix of violence and obstruction. Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem
As US Secretary of State Colin Powell tries to take the diplomatic highroad, the Israeli occupation army has gone the low route. On Monday, Powell outlined the US vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But both before and after the speech, the Israeli army tried to stoke Palestinian anger by increasing its violent incursions into Palestinian-controlled land.
After Powell's speech on Monday, both sides were fulsome on the bits they liked. But none of that stopped the Israeli army from shedding more Palestinian blood. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who insists that he, not his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, should have the final say on US ideas for reviving the peace process, has made no secret of his consternation at the latest US peace efforts. His first response has clearly been to try and destroy US confidence in Palestinians by inciting them to violence.
On 18 November, the day before the speech, Israel's tanks advanced up to three kilometres into the northern Gaza suburb of Beit Lahya, strafing residential neighborhoods with heavy machine gun fire and bulldozing a Palestinian police outpost.
The provocation continued. On 19 November, occupation troops killed two members of the small Palestinian marine guard. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli army snipers murdered Midhat Abu Dalal, 32, and Mohamed Hussein Ibrahim, from close range as the two stood guard outside an American school, located opposite the Jewish settlement of Dugit, in northern Gaza.
Israel's shame did not end there. Soon after, an Israeli tank rumbled over the bodies of the two men, squashing them to unrecognisable pulp.
A third Palestinian, 22-year-old Maher Daghlas, was assassinated outside the village of Burqa near Nablus, making it clear that Sharon intends to continue "targeted killings," irrespective of any peace efforts.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks continued their "routine" but indiscriminate barrages against civilian neighborhoods in Rafah and Khan Younis, injuring scores of civilians.
Among the injured in Rafah were a mother and her two children, reportedly about to break their Ramadan fast.
On 20 November, the Israeli army made a fresh incursion into Rafah, demolishing more homes and bulldozing Palestinian orchards. A Palestinian, who lost his home to the bulldozers, bitterly lamented "their Ramadan present to us."
As if the daily incursions and murders were not enough, the Israeli occupation authorities on Friday barred tens of thousands of Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for the first Friday congregational prayer of Ramadan.
According to officials who guard Islam's third holiest shrine, the number of worshippers allowed into Al- Aqsa mosque was less than 20,000. The usual number who converge on the Haram Al-Sharif esplanade during the holy month is over 100,000.
Those denied access included people of all ages, including the elderly, who are hardly a threat to Israel's "security" -- the lazy shibboleth the Jewish state uses to justify its draconian measures against Palestinians.
Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, a waqf (religious endowment) official excoriated Israel's bad faith. "This was a criminal act. Barring worshippers from reaching the house of God is a criminal act. It shows that Muslims can't practice their religion freely under the Israeli occupation. The occupation must end."
An old man from the village of Beit Ummar, in tears as an Israeli soldier turned him back at the Bethlehem roadblock, had this to say: "For centuries the Jews suffered religious discrimination at the hands of non-Jews. Now the Jews are practicing the ugliest form of discrimination against Muslims by denying them access to their holy places. This is racism. This is wrong."
He added, his voice tingling with bitterness, "The Jews say they bar worshippers from reaching the mosques for security reasons. But do you really think that an 80-year- old, like me, poses a threat to Israel's security?"
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