Torching the roadmap
Khaled Amayreh reports from Palestine on how Israel tried to kill Al-Rantissi, and the roadmap
In an ostensible effort to kill the "roadmap" and consequently absolve Israel from carrying out its obligations under the American-backed peace plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his army on Tuesday to murder Hamas political leader Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi.
The failed attempt took place around 8am GMT when two Israeli attack helicopter gunships fired at least five Hell-Fire missiles at a car believed to be that of Al-Rantisi, as it was travelling on a crowded street in downtown Gaza.
The first two missiles landed nearly 10 metres from his car, allowing Al-Rantisi to escape unharmed, along with his son, driver and bodyguards. Nearly 20 seconds later, another three missiles hit the car, turning it into an inferno of fire and reducing it to charred, twisted metals. Flying debris and shrapnel hit Al-Rantisi in the lower part of his body, causing moderate injuries to his left leg and left forearm. Medical sources said the wounds were not life threatening.
The missile attack, which took place near Shifa Hospital in downtown Gaza killed a 43-year-old mother and her 3-year-old daughter and injured as many as 27 civilians, mostly women, children and pedestrians, some seriously.
Following the failed assassination attempt, thousands of angry Gazans took to the city streets, calling for revenge and more suicide bombings inside Israel. The protesters castigated the Palestinian government for failing to protect the Palestinian people from unceasing Israeli aggression.
"I say to (PA Prime Minister) Mahmoud Abbas, if you can't protect our people, let the people protect themselves," said one protester, alluding to Abbas's pledge to the Americans to disarm the resistance groups. "If you can't protect your people and serve their interests, resign in dignity now," shouted another protestor.
Four hours after the attack, Al-Rantisi emerged from the hospital and spoke defiantly, vowing to continue the struggle against "the criminal Jews who want to kill us and colonise our homeland".
"I assure Sharon and other Jewish killers that my death will not consolidate their occupation of our country. And I call on our Arab and Muslim nation to wake up and realise the Nazi and criminal nature of this Zionist entity, which only seeks to kill us and humiliate us. For our part, we will continue the struggle and we will defend this country of ours with all our strength."
Hamas strongly condemned the assassination attempt, describing it as "a criminal act". "This is Sharon's response to (Palestinian Prime Minister) Mahmoud Abbas's conciliatory speech in Aqaba. It shows that this criminal regime understands only one language, it is the language of assassination and murder," said senior Hamas Spokesman Ismael Haniyyeh.
The PA also condemned the assassination attempt, calling on the international community to rein in Israel's rampage. "This is a criminal act which we condemn in the strongest terms, it is also a bullet fired at the heart international efforts to revive the peace process," said PA Information Minister Nabil Amr.
"It is clear he [Sharon] wants to force us to leave the peace process so that he could tell the world that it is the Palestinians who don't want peace, not Israel," added Amr. He further argued that the real aim of the assassination attempt was to abort the Palestinian government's efforts to get Palestinian resistance groups, primarily Hamas, to agree to a cease-fire with Israel, which could increase international pressure on Israel to carry out its obligations, including stopping attacks on Palestinian population centres and dismantling more Jewish settlement outposts.
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the attempted assassination was an Israeli message of defiance to the United States and other Quartet members. "This is a deliberate act of provocation aimed at aborting the roadmap and all international and American efforts aimed at restarting the peace process. It is time the American administration intervenes to rein in Israel to stop her brazen aggression."
The assassination attempt on Al-Rantisi came only a few hours after representatives of the main Palestinian political and resistance factions agreed to resume talks with the Abbas government with the aim of reaching a possible truce with Israel. The factions issued a statement stressing that the real contradiction wasn't between the PA and the resistance groups but rather between the entire Palestinian people and the Zionist occupation.
Hamas also issued a separate statement, responding to the accusations made by Abbas during his 9 June press conference in Ramallah that Hamas was manipulating Palestinian suffering to make political gains. The statement stressed that Palestinian suffering was the result of "Zionist repression and occupation of our homeland".
It went on, reminding Abbas that were it not for the enduring struggle and resistance, "no people would have gained its freedom and independence from colonialist powers".
The statement however did leave the door open for "a frank, transparent, and honest dialogue with our brothers in the Palestinian Authority".
Earlier, Hamas and other resistance groups had castigated Abbas' speech in Aqaba, describing it as "bordering treason". Indeed, what angered Hamas, and the Palestinian public in general, was the fact that Abbas completely ignored in his speech such central issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict as Jerusalem, the refugees, the settlements, and the consistent Palestinian demand for full Israeli withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from all the territories seized by Israel in 1967.
Abbas sought unsuccessfully to "clarify" his stance, but few Palestinians seemed convinced.
Finding himself between the Israeli-American hammer and his own people's anvil, Abbas sought to defend his hapless speech in Aqaba, arguing that it didn't deviate from the overall Palestinian position and that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat had been aware of it.
Abbas' remarks only underscored the virtually impossible dilemma of having to appease the United States, which expects him to fight "terror", and meeting the very minimal expectations of the Palestinian people, including putting an end to daily Israeli killings, incursions, and home demolitions throughout the occupied territories.
Undoubtedly, the failed assassination attempt on Al-Rantisi will further embarrass Abbas and make his already acute dilemma even more delicate.
C a p t i o n : The burning car of Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Al-Rantisi
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 12 - 18 June 2003 (Issue No. 642)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/642/re1.htm