Gaza: it’s Hamas’s move now

Hamas must seize the initiative if there is ever to be an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine

So it has happened again. Nearly 18 months after the Israelis bombed Gaza to a wasteland, with barely a load of building materials allowed in since then, Turkey has taken the brunt of an operation of humanitarian assistance gone wrong.

The UN must establish the facts impartially and independently and, if laws have been broken, those responsible must be held to account. Political demonstrations posing as relief flotillas go wrong too easily and Israel understandably has to prevent weapons being smuggled into Gaza. But was this really the best way to bring the ships to shore for examination? A commando attack on civilian ships looks callous and disproportionate. No one should have been hurt, whatever the emotions behind all this.

Why is Gaza under siege in the first place? Under international law, the Israelis are responsible as the occupying force for the proper administration of the territory; and half the point of Israel is not to be above the law. Yet they are creating a traumatised territory of 1.5m neighbours, many of whose children seem to want to grow up to be suicide bombers. They are also pouring fertiliser on al-Qaida’s ground.

The director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, John Ging, gave a speech in London this week entitled “Illegal, inhuman and insane: a medieval siege on Gaza in 2010”. This objective humanitarian practitioner should be listened to. How has Israel, the only democracy in its region and a symbol of the need for racially inspired violence to end, come to risk any claim to international legitimacy in its handling of this situation?

Hamas are the enemy of Israel, but they do not have to be. They preach violent resistance too readily, yet over the past 17 months they have been trying to control the militant groups intent on threatening Israel with rockets – imperfectly perhaps, but not a single Israeli citizen has been killed (alas, one immigrant worker was) by a rocket since the Gaza bombing stopped in January 2009. They are also the implacable opponents of al-Qaida. They won a fair election in 2006 and claim to respect democracy. Let’s test them on that. At present, Hamas security people are being sniped at by the Israeli Defence Forces when they try to arrest other militant groups. This is genuinely getting insane.

The unwisdom of reliance on angry military responses is all the clearer when the mood in Palestine, in both the West Bank and Gaza, is steadily moving towards a negotiated end to the occupation. I am convinced from my own direct experience that Hamas is prepared to establish and respect a long-term ceasefire so that the talking can start without the threat of violence, and that they would enter in good faith, if that were reciprocated, into negotiations to establish two states in the disputed territories, Israel and Palestine, with their own rights and responsibilities under international law. The distortion of their position, a little of it the fault of their own PR, does no side any good.

If a comprehensive negotiation is too much to expect for now, what about a first step? I believe an arrangement to end the blockade is within reach if only Israel, Egypt and Gaza would test the possibilities of dialogue. Hamas have indicated that they could cease all attacks on Israeli soil, close the tunnels, release Gilead Shalit and stop the import of arms into Gaza if the blockade was ended, an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners were released and Gaza began to be rebuilt.

The Palestinians of course have work to do on their own internal reconciliation, while the relationship between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza remains so bad. But the UN, the US, Russia, the EU and the Arab world must make a much more serious attempt to test the possibilities, putting ordinary Israelis and Palestinians first, not their own political comfort.

We are coming close to losing the chance of a two-state solution. US policy, based on a West-Bank-only approach, is locked in a cul-de-sac if Gaza is left out of the equation, because majority Palestinian support will be lacking. Israel is confident in the knowledge that it cannot be militarily defeated.

But that ignores the huge danger of losing the political, diplomatic, legal and moral high ground. This matters in today’s world, as the US and the UK discovered in Iraq, because government authority and public opinion interact closely, and legitimacy breeds support.

Israel’s relationship with Turkey was the key to a broader understanding with the Islamic community and others beyond the west. That now lies in tatters. If Israel is left as the permanent occupier, or controlling a one-state structure with part of its population downgraded or imprisoned, it will truly be a disaster for its people and what they stand for.

I hope that Hamas will not sit back and enjoy Israel’s discomfiture. They have so far, for a political organisation, attracted much too narrow a range of international support. If they wish to be widely accepted as a negotiating partner, they must unequivocally accept the only fully justified condition set by the international Quartet – the cessation of violence – underline that their objective is a two-state settlement, and win international friends for the ending of the occupation. In whoever’s hands, bombs, bullets, rockets and iron bars will achieve nothing. But a push for justice will.

• This article was originally written for the Times but not published

Ref: Guardian

WELCOME TO ISRAHELL: Fully supported by whiteness building the apartheid state

Amnesty: Israel repeatedly violated rules of war in Gaza

A new Amnesty International report has accused Israel of repeatedly violating the laws of armed conflict during the three-week Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009.

The report claims that 1400 Palestinians died in the offensive – including 300 children – and that 5000 people were wounded.

The Amnesty report accuses IDF soldiers of violating the laws of armed conflict over and over again by directly attacking civilians and civilian structures and by causing an immeasurable number of civilian casualties when attacking Palestinian fighters.

It also mentions Israel’s justification for the offensive: that it attacked Gaza to prevent war and to stop armed Palestinians from shelling cities and towns in southern Israel with rockets. The report goes on to detail that three Israeli civilians were killed during the Gaza operation, adding to seven Israeli civilians killed by home-made rockets and other Palestinian attacks launched from Gaza in 2008.

According to the Amnesty International report, the sudden conflict came following a period of a year-and-a-half in which the IDF imposed an uncompromising blockade on the residents of Gaza, which almost completely prevented the movement of people and goods into the Gaza Strip and led to a humanitarian crisis.

The blockade almost completely strangled economic life, the report goes on to accuse, claiming that even those on their death bed were not permitted to leave the Strip for medical attention.

The report also accuses Israeli security forces of destroying many Palestinian homes in the West Bank on the pretext that they were built illegally.

erusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor responded to the report by accusing Amnesty International of focusing disproportionately on Israeli policy in Gaza and of not paying enough attention to the firing of rockets at Israel civilians.

The watchdog, headed by Bar Ilan University Professor Gerald Steinberg, added that Amnesty’s biased and disproportionate obsession with Israel reached its peak during the latest conflict in Gaza.

According to NGO Monitor, Amnesty International published more than 20 declarations during the Gaza offensive, most of them critical of Israel, even while violations of human rights included a massacre of more than 600 villagers by Ugandan rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo to which Amnesty devoted minimal attention.

Ref. Haaretz

Amnesty.org

Also read: “Israeli war crimes were daily and too numerous to count”

Israel ‘using tourist sites to assert control over East Jerusalem’

Peace groups say government’s secret plans with settler groups could prevent two-state solution

Israel is quietly extending its control over East Jerusalem in alliance with rightwing Jewish settler groups, by developing parks and tourist sites that would bring a “drastic change of the status quo in the city”, according to two Israeli groups.

Ir Amin, a group working for a shared Jerusalem, said the purpose of the “confidential” plan was to link up several areas of East Jerusalem surrounding the Old City with the goal of asserting Israeli control and strengthening its claim to Jerusalem as its capital city. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognised by the international community.

The accounts come ahead of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, who arrives in Jerusalem tomorrow for a week-long pilgrimage, during which he is likely to hear detailed concerns from Palestinians over their future in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Under an eight-year plan, worth 75m shekels a year (£12m), a series of nine national parks, trails and tourist sites based on apparent Jewish historical spots would be established, most under the control of settler groups working together with the Israeli government. The sites would also create a link to Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The parks would be a “biblical playground” built on public and private land and would be fenced in, the group said.

“This act will limit the possibility of territorial compromise in Jerusalem to its northern and southern parts only, outside of areas surrounding the Old City,” said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer and founder of Ir Amin.

He said the programme was supported by the Israeli prime minister’s office and was being conducted without any public debate or transparency. “This policy fans the flames of the conflict and threatens to change it from a national conflict that can be controlled and solved, into a pointless regional confrontation,” Seidemann said.

Both Israel and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital. Palestinians, who live in the east, make up a third of the city’s population.

Peace Now, another Israeli group, released similar information about the plan, based on a government budget document, saying it feared the proposal was “possibly preventing the ability to reach a two-state solution”.

An Israeli government official told AP the new development was to benefit all Jerusalem. “The government will continue to develop Jerusalem, development that will benefit all of Jerusalem’s diverse population and respect the different faiths and communities that together make Jerusalem such a special city,” the official said.

Ref: Guardian

Also read the report – Israeli Government’s Plans to Deepen hold over Jerusalem – May 2009

Inside USA – US interference in Bolivia + Bolivia: a Coup in the Making?

 

<p>

 

Yesterday, in Bolivia, Minister of Government, Alfredo Rada, accused the right-wing autonomist leader Branko Marinkovic, and Santa Cruz prefect, Rubén Costas, of orchestrating a wave of violence as part of a “civic governors’ coup d’état.” Rada accused Marinkovic of having just returned from the United States where he allegedly received instructions for fomenting the coup attempt.

“Bolivia on the Brink,” is a phrase too often uttered by passing journalists unaccustomed to the country’s regular politics of the streets. But events of the last two weeks cannot be passed off as the ordinary business of protest. Rather, a right-wing coup attempt is in the offing in the five departments (states) governed by the right-wing opposition to President Evo Morales, of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party. The critical “media luna” departments of the eastern lowlands – Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, and Pando – have been joined in part by far-right elements in the government of the department of Chuquisaca. Thus far, these right-wing autonomists have not achieved critical support within the military, but the passivity of the Morales government in the face of ferocious racism, violence, and the takeover of state institutions and airports on an unprecedented scale, does not bode well for the future of Bolivia.

One indication of the seriousness of the situation is that Morales just announced that US ambassador Philip Goldberg is no longer welcome in Bolivia and will be asked officially to leave the country in the coming hours. Morales accused Goldberg of meeting with the oppositional prefects (governors) of the five departments in rebellion, to help coordinate what has become a full-scale destabilization campaign.

The campaign is being led by the Consejo Nacional Democrático (National Democratic Council, CONALDE), which brings together the prefectures and civic committees of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija, and Sucre, under the banner of “departmental autonomy.” These prefectures and civic committees in turn represent the agro-industrial, petroleum, and financial elite of these departments. While they are led by the bourgeoisie, the autonomists have won over substantial sectors of the popular classes by manipulating real democratic desires for decentralized “autonomous” self-governance, as opposed to alienating central state control. If the civic committees and prefects are the pretty face of autonomism, a growing network of proto-fascist youth groups linked to them are the clenched fist in the streets.

The immediate objective of the autonomist right is to destabilize the Morales government and to weaken left-indigenous forces throughout the country. One longer term goal is to reaffirm and consolidate private elite control over the natural gas and agricultural wealth of the country that is currently under threat due to widespread popular sentiment in favour of expropriation, nationalization, redistribution, and the establishment of social control over Bolivia’s riches. A related long-term objective of the autonomist right is to re-conquer state power at the national level.

Read the whole artical here

Ref: Counterpunch

Is Colonialism in Israel Untouchable?

Since the pages have turned in commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, do new headlines and reports covering stories other than Palestine suggest that its business as usual in Israel?

Indeed it would be an injustice to confine solidarity activism to calendar events such as “birthdays” for this will overlook other dimensions underpinning the creation and support of Israel by Western colonial powers. One such intriguing chapter in the narrative of the Nakba is the forgotten role of Israeli involvement in opposing anti-colonial struggles in the region.

This hidden history possibly accounts for the reason why former theaters of liberation have by and large abandoned the unfinished anti-colonial battle against Israel and instead have embraced the faulty rationale of Zionism through diplomatic, military, economic and other channels.

Is it not strange that for many nations in the Third World gaining their independence in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Palestine which had become a symbolic issue for them – matched only by the issue of apartheid South Africa in the intensity and frequency with which it had been raised – has all but forgotten?

Is it really amnesia? Or are their other issues providing a different form of justification to explain why the Palestinian quest for liberation has been marginalized and tragically reduced to a series of commemorative events?

Perhaps it is fear of being labeled as anti-Semitic? Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley in “Seeking Mandela” point out that the majority of the Jewish diaspora rallies behind Israeli government policy, regardless of that policy’s consequences. This results in an “uncritical ethnic solidarity that falsely equates critiquing the government with denying Israel’s right to exist – or, with harboring anti-Semitic views”.

This tool has undeniably been used as an effective counter-measure to silence anti-Israeli critique. Many legitimate voices have been targeted, as indeed has been the experience of credible commentators such as John Pilger, Robert Fisk and Johann Hari. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also been smeared in the past and such vindictiveness has surfaced yet again to tarnish his personality and discredit his current probe of the 2006 Gaza massacre by the Israeli regime.

Even my colleagues and I in the Media Review Network (MRN) have not been spared. We have been accused of promoting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. These charges have emanated from mainstream Jewish and Zionist organizations in South Africa and documented as “fact” by the Stephen Roth Institute in Israel. These libelous lies and deliberate fabrications have been pedaled in order to deny us space in the public domain – especially the media.

The puzzle for them though which confounds them profusely is our intensely close relations with Jewish activists, academics and politicians who are as determined as we are to oppose Israeli apartheid and violations of Palestinian rights. For instance, they find it perplexing that “supporters of terrorism” – a euphemism used for MRN – would join hands with an Israeli human rights activist such as Uri Davis and publish works motivated by a common value orientation.

In his seminal book “Israeli Apartheid” jointly published by MRN and Zed Books, Davis outlines this vision: “The vision is the vision of justice: the desire to contribute to the removal of the institutions of colonization, dispossession and occupation imposed by Israel on the Palestinian Arab people, and the replacement of these institutions with a better and more just, social and political order.”

They are also confounded by our close relationship with Ronnie Kasrils, who apart from being Jewish, was actively involved with the banned African National Congress (ANC), its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe and the South African Communist Party (SACP). In keeping with his struggle credentials, Kasrils has consistently campaigned against the idea of a mono-ethnic exclusivist Jewish state that he correctly viewed as akin to apartheid and an injustice to Palestinians.

How could MRN as unashamed agitators for Palestinian rights who regularly question the legitimacy of Israeli statehood enjoy public endorsements and acknowledgements from a Jewish hero of the anti-apartheid struggle?

Indeed Kasrils’ understanding that Israel had come into existence as a settler state through the forceful dispossession of the land of a people who had lived there for centuries, and whose description of Israel as a “hijack state” which he shares with John Rose the author of “The myths of Zionism,” has had a profound impact on a group of 300 SA Jews leading to the formation of “Not in my Name”.

However as is evident in the wider global reluctance by nation-states to confront Israeli intransigence, Kasrils correctly argues that the legacy of the Holocaust has left far too many people in the world “woefully silent in the face of Israel’s crimes”. Being Jewish did not automatically equate with being Zionist or pro-Israel. Neither did criticism of Israel imply anti-Semitism.

Hence the following scathing observation by a UK-based rabbi Dr David Goldberg about Israel as the “last colonial power in the world” ought to galvanise a sustained campaign to restore Palestinian sovereignty without being handicapped by lies and smears.

– Iqbal Jassat is the chairman of the Media Review Network – http://www.mediareviewnet.com. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Ref: Palestine Chronicle by By Iqbal Jassat

Israel ‘has 150 nuclear weapons’

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter has said Israel has at least 150 atomic weapons in its arsenal. The Israelis have never confirmed they have nuclear weapons, but this has been widely assumed since a scientist leaked details in the 1980s.

Mr Carter made his comments on Israel’s weapons at a press conference at the annual literary Hay Festival in Wales.He also described Israeli treatment of Palestinians as “one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth”. Mr Carter gave the figure for the Israeli nuclear arsenal in response to a question on US policy on a possible nuclear-armed Iran, arguing that any country newly armed with atomic weapons faced overwhelming odds.
“The US has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons; the Soviet Union (sic) has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more,” he said.

Israel’s Dimona reactor is understood to provide plutonium for the country’s nuclear weapons
“We have a phalanx of enormous capabilities, not only of weaponry but also of rockets to deliver every one of those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target.”

Most experts estimate that Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, largely based on information leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in the 1980s by Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the country’s Dimona nuclear reactor.

The US, a key ally of Israel, has in general followed the country’s policy of “nuclear ambiguity”, neither confirming or denying the existence of its assumed arsenal. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert included Israel among a list of nuclear states in comments in December 2006, a week after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates used a similar form of words during a Senate hearing.

Former Israeli military intelligence chief Aharon Zeevi-Farkash told Reuters news agency he considered Mr Carter’s comments “irresponsible”.
“The problem is that there are those who can use these statements when it comes to discussing the international effort to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons,” he said.

‘Imprisonment’
During the press briefing, Mr Carter expressed his support for Israel as a country, but criticised its domestic and foreign policy. “One of the greatest human rights crimes on earth is the starvation and imprisonment of 1.6m Palestinians,” he said.

The former US president cited statistics which he said showed the nutritional intake of some Palestinian children was below that of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as saying the European position on Israel could be best described as “supine”. Mr Carter, awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, brokered the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, the first between Israel and an Arab state.
In April he controversially held talks in the Syrian capital Damascus with Khaled Meshaal, leader of the militant Palestinian movement Hamas. The former US president’s Carter Center was unavailable for further comment.

Ref: BBC

Insider: Iraq Attack Was Preemptive

The name Douglas Feith may not mean much to most Americans, but to students of the Iraq war and historians already studying it, he is one of the main architects.

From 2001 to 2005, Feith was under secretary of defense for policy and the No. 3 man at the Pentagon, intimately involved both pre-war strategy and post-war planning. His boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, called Feith one of the most brilliant individuals in government but he has also been a lightning rod for criticism and a magnet for blame.

In a new book, which has been called the first insider account of decision making in Iraq, Feith defends much and apologizes for very little. But he offers some unusual insights about the path to war.

Feith discussed his memoir with 60 Minutes

Ref: CBS

Vanishing Points: Law, Violence and Exception in the Global War Prison

As one of the preeminent scholars in the areas of human and cultural geography, Derek Gregory has been widely influential across numerous fields in the humanities. Since 9/11 much of his work has focused on the long history of British and American involvement in the Middle East. In particular he traces how centuries of imperial and colonial practice continue to shape global imbalances of power and perception in the region.

Gregory’s lecture will examine how these imbalances of power are currently playing out in the “war on terror” with a focus on the imprisonment and interrogation practices used in the global war prison. His talk will explore the strategic geographical sites of the global war prison including Bagram, Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and the so-called ‘Black Sites,’ showing how they are produced through constantly shifting folds between law and violence.

Derek Gregory is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is the author of The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq (2004) and Geographical Imaginations (1993).

Click to see the lecture!

Ref: Simpson Center

(one week of) Israeli Human Rights Violations

Thursday, March 22, 2001

At approximately 10:00 local time, after an exchange of fire between armed Palestinians and the Israeli occupation forces, that were razing areas of land to the west of Al-Nemsawi neighborhood in Khan Yunis, these forces started to fire artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses in the area. Such shelling and indiscriminate shooting by the Israeli forces, which lasted for approximately two hours, resulted in wounding four Palestinian civilians as follows:

1) the child Mohammed Salem El-Zeini, 14, wounded with a live bullet in the shoulder when he was passing approximately 800m away from military sites of the Israeli forces;
2) ‘Abdel-Mon’em Suleiman Abu Shoqeir, 28, wounded with shrapnel in the face and the shoulder;
3) ‘Essam Mohammed Fayyadh, 27, wounded with shrapnel in the face and the eye;
4) ‘Omar ‘Abdullah Abu Setteh, 30, wounded with shrapnel in the head and the right shoulder.
Such shelling also resulted in severe damage to a number of houses and buildings as follows:
1) An artillery shell hit the southern façade of housing unit 1 of the Austrian Housing Project, and dispersed, causing damage and breaking windows of an apartment owned by Riadh ‘Ali Abu Shammaleh.
2) An artillery shell hit the western façade of building 3 of the same housing project, causing damage and breaking windows of an apartment owned by Ahmed El-Ghemari.
3) A number of artillery shells and live bullets hit six housing units owned by Al-Farra Company from the west and the south, making holes 2-7cm in diameter and breaking a number of windows.

At approximately 20:30 local time, the Israeli occupation forces resumed shelling Al-Nemsawi neighborhood in Khan Yunis, and targeted the western area of Khan Yunis refugee camp and Al-Amal neighborhood. They fired artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses and civilian facilities. PCHR’s field officer in Khan Yunis reported that six military sited of the Israeli occupation forces in the vicinity of Gani Tal and Neve Dekalim settlements and Al-Tuffah roadblock, participated in such indiscriminate shelling which lasted up to 24:00 local time. Such shelling caused severe damage to a number of Palestinian houses. Furthermore, a number of Palestinian civilians were wounded as follows:

1) Sahar Mustafa Hneideq, 16, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the head;
2) Khaled Hussein Abu Khoreis, 28, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the head;
3) Khaled Ahmed Abu Mousa, 25, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the right hand;
4) Sami Hussein Boreis, 26, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the neck;
5) Wa’el Abu Hadrous, 31, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the neck and the left hand;
6) Noufal Ibrahim Abu ‘Awadh, 34, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the head;
7) Mahmoud Subhi ‘Amer, 24, wounded with a live bullet in the left hand.

Friday, March 23, 2001

In the morning, the Israeli occupation forces shelled Palestinian houses in Kherbet Karma in the southwest of Hebron, from their military site in Enta’eil settlement in Zhaereya village, to the southwest of Hebron. These forces fired heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses for 20 minutes, causing severe damage.

In the afternoon, the Israeli occupation forces fired artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Al-Nemsawi (the Austrian) neighborhood in the east of Khan Yunis. At approximately 21:30 local time, the same neighborhood was shelled again, and Palestinian houses in the western area of Khan Yunis refugee camp was also targeted by the Israeli occupation forces. Such shelling lasted sporadically up to 3:00 local time on the following day. It resulted in severe damage to a number of Palestinian houses. Furthermore, four Palestinian civilians were wounded as follows:

1) Nayfa Mohammed Abu ‘Aker, 35, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the head, when she was passing on a street in Khan Yunis refugee camp, approximately 150m away from military sites of the Israeli occupation forces;
2) Ahmed Walid El-Bashiti, 6, wounded with a live bullet in the right thigh when he was playing with other children near his family’s house in Al-Nemsawi neighborhood, approximately 200m away from military sites of the Israeli occupation forces;
3) Rami Kahlil ‘Oudeh, 22, wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell in the right hand; and
4) Ayman Sufian Al-Farra, 22, wounded with a medium caliber bullet in the left foot, when he was in the market of Khan Yunis, approximately 2km away from military sites of the Israeli occupation forces.

In his testimony to PCHR, Ayman Al-Farra said:

“On Friday, March 23, 2001, at approximately 10:30 (local time), I was in the market road, approximately 20m away from my home, watching some young men playing football. Then, I heard sounds of shooting, which we have gotten accustomed to hearing everyday. The source of shooting was military sites of the Israeli occupation forces at Al-Tuffah roadblock and in the vicinity of Neve Dekalim settlement, approximately 2km away from us. Suddenly, I heard the sound of an object that hit the ground. Then, I felt severe pain in my left foot and saw it bleeding. Young men took me to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis by a civilian car. X-rays showed that I was wounded with a medium caliber bullet, and I had to undergo a surgical operation to extract it.”

In her testimony to PCHR, Nayfa Mohammed Hussein Abu ‘Aker said:
“At approximately 22:30 (local time), on Friday, March 23, 2001, I went from my house, in the south of Khan Yunis refugee camp, to my uncle’s house near Al-Shafi’ mosque, 30m away from my house. When I was approximately 5m away from my uncle’s house, I heard sounds of shooting from An Israeli military site near Al-Tuffah roadblock, 250m away. Suddenly, an explosion boomed. I felt pains in my head. I fell down on the ground with my head bleeding. Neighbors took me to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.”

In the afternoon, the Israeli occupation forces fired artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses and farms in Gizan Al-Najjar area in the southeast of Khan Yunis, to the north of Morag settlement. In his testimony to PCHR, Shukri Sha’ban Al-Najjar said that at approximately 16:00 local time, he was with some laborers cultivating vegetables from his greenhouse in Gizan Al-Najjar area, approximately 200m to the north of Morag settlement. Then, Al-Najjar added, two tanks and a bulldozer of the Israeli occupation forces got out of Morag settlement, and started to uproot tamarisks surrounding his tract of land, approximately 100m away from Morag settlement. Approximately 15 minutes later, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire, hitting his greenhouse, so he and laborers were forced to flee. The Israeli occupation forces continued to fire artillery shells and live bullets at Palestinian houses and farms in the area up to 22:00 local time, causing the following damage:

1) Bullets penetrated the window of a balcony of a 150-square-meter, two-story house, in which 11 people live, owned by Shukri Sha’ban Al-Najjar.
2) Bullets damaged a water saving tank and parts of the asbestos roof of a 200-square-meter, asbestos-roofed house, in which ten people live, owned by Kamel Mohammed El-Dabbas.
3) Bullets broke windows and made holes in the southern façade of a 200-square-meter, one-story house, owned by Musbah Sha’ban Al-Najjar.
4) Bullets made holes in walls and damaged a water saving tank of a 400-square-meter, one-story house, owned by Nabil Mohammed Al-Najjar.
5) Bullets made holes in walls and broke windows of a 100-square-meter, one-story house, in which four people live, owned by Sa’id Suleiman Al-Najjar.
6) Bullets made holes and broke windows of a 120-square-meter, one-story house, in which three people live, owned by Yasser Mohammed Salameh Al-Najjar.
7) Bullets made holes in walls an damaged water saving tanks of a 200-square-meter, two-story house, in which 14 people live, owned by Ahmed ‘Abdel-‘Azziz Al-Najjar.

Saturday, March 24, 2001

At approximately 10:00 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned in the vicinity of Neve Dekalim settlement, to the west of Khan Yunis, fired heavy and medium caliber bullets at housing units owned by Al-Farra Company in Al-Nemsawi (the Austrian) neighborhood. As a result, these units received additional damage as they were frequently shelled in the past weeks. Bullets also hit the fence of Khan Yunis cemetery, to the south of Al-Nemsawi neighborhood.

At approximately 00:45 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned in the vicinity of Neve Dekalim settlement and at Al-Tuffah roadblock, to the west of Khan Yunis, fired artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses in the western area of Khan Yunis refugee camp. In his testimony to PCHR, Hassan Mohammed Abu Namous said that he, his wife, and his children were awoken by sounds of explosions. Shrapnel fell onto the asbestos and tin roof of his house, which is located approximately 70m away from Al-Tuffah roadblock. He added that he and his family were forced to flee their house to the house of a relative (located approximately 150m away from the roadblock) where he stayed up to 5:00 local time. PCHR’s field officer reported that more than ten artillery shells and several heavy and medium caliber bullets were fired at the area, causing the following damage:

1) An artillery shell fell on the roof of the children bedroom and the kitchen of a 140-square-meter, asbestos and tin-roofed house, in which 12 people live, owned by Hassan Mohammed Abu Namous, damaging the roof and a water saving tank.
2) An artillery shell fell on a 140-square-meter, asbestos-roofed house, in which 21 people live, owned by Hussein Mohammed Abu Khoreis, damaging the roof.
3) Four artillery shells hit a 250-square-meter, four-story house, in which 18 people used to live, owned by Abdullah Hassan Abu ‘Obeida, causing damage to its walls. The family left the house a few months ago due to frequent shelling by the Israeli occupation forces.
4) An artillery shell hit a 130-square-meter, two-story house, in which 11 people used to live, making holes in walls. The family left the house a few months ago due to frequent shelling.
5) Two artillery shells hit a 350-square-meter, asbestos-roofed house, in which 30 people used to live, owned by Mahmoud Hassan Abu Radwan. The family left the house a few months ago due to frequent shelling.

Monday, March 26, 2001

At approximately 17:00 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned in a settlement center, known as “Avraham Avino,” and in a military barracks in Ossam Ben Monqeth school, in the area of Hebron under the control of these forces, shelled Palestinian houses in Hebron. These forces fired artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian house in Qubbat Janeb, Al-Takrouri and Abu Sneineh neighborhoods. As a result, six Palestinian civilians were wounded with, and a number of houses were severely damaged after having been hit with artillery shells and live bullets. According to eyewitnesses, Palestinian ambulances were not able to reach the targeted areas due to intense shelling. Among the wounded was a 22-year-old Reuters cameraman from Hebron, Lu’ai ‘Abdel-Salam ‘Orabi Abu Haikal, who was wounded with shrapnel in the left side, the back and the right hand, while he was in duty. The other wounded were:

1) Ibrahim Salameh Abu Sneineh, 6, wounded with shrapnel in the right hand and suffered from a nervous breakdown;
2) Khalil ‘Eissa Sa’idi, 30, wounded with shrapnel in the chest and the abdomen;
3) ‘Emad ‘Eissa El-Barad’ei, 25, wounded with shrapnel in the left eye and the forehead;
4) Fadi Khalil Abu Hadid, 25, wounded with shrapnel in the right leg; and
5) Samer Ahmed Mattar, 18, wounded with shrapnel in the right shoulder.

At approximately 21:30 local time, Israeli occupation forces positioned at an observation tower and on a tank in the vicinity of Morag settlement, opened fire at Palestinian houses and farms in Gizan Al-Najjar area in the southeast of Khan Yunis. As a result, the 11-year-old child ‘Abdel-Rahman Mohammed Al-Najjar, was wounded with shrapnel in the right hand, when he was near his family’s house. He was evacuated to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis for treatment. The shelling also caused severe damage to a number of Palestinian houses.

At approximately 23:00 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned in the vicinity of Neve Dekalim settlement and Al-Tuffah roadblock, to the west of Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Yunis, shelled Palestinian houses in Khan Yunis refugee camp and in the vicinity of Al-Amal neighborhood, and housing units in Al-Newsawi (the Austrian) neighborhood. As a result, Fayez ‘Abdel-Mo’ti Abu Jaber, 22, was wounded with shrapnel of an artillery shell while he was passing near Al-Nemsawi neighborhood. He was evacuated to the hospital of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Khan Yunis for treatment. The shelling also caused severe damage to a number of houses.

Tuesday, March 27, 2001

At approximately 20:00 local time, the Israeli occupation forces indiscriminately opened fire on Palestinian civilians and houses in Kenar neighborhood in the southwest of Hebron. As a result, the 11-year-old child Mahmoud Ismail Darawish, was killed with a live bullet in the chest that was fired by Israeli soldiers positioned in a military site at Al-Fawar-Doura junction.

At approximately 21:40 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned in the vicinity of Kharsina settlement, to the east of Hebron, shelled Palestinian houses in Sh’aba and Nemer neighborhoods, under control by the Palestinian National Authority. These forces fired heavy and medium caliber bullets, causing severe damage to a number of houses, and electricity, telephone and water networks. Furthermore, the child Wassim Mohammed Fahmi Da’na, 10, was wounded with shrapnel in the left eye. He was evacuated to Al-Mizan hospital in Hebron for treatment.

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

In the evening, the Israeli occupation forces started to shell Palestinian cities from their military sites and using combat helicopters. This resulted in killing two Palestinians, including a 45-year-old civilian, and wounding dozens. It also caused severe damage to a number of civilian facilities and buildings of the Palestinian security services.

At approximately 19:30 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned on ‘Eibal and Jarzim mounts, to the north and south of Nablus respectively, fired heavy and medium caliber bullets at Khellet El-‘Amoud and Iraq El-Tayeh neighborhoods and Balatta refugee camp. As a result, Farid ‘Abdel-Hamid Badran, 57, from Balatta refugee camp, was wounded with shrapnel in the head and the chest, and some houses were severely damaged.

At approximately 19:35, the Israeli occupation forces shelled a site of the Palestinian President’s Guards (Force 17) in Ramallah, killing one of its members, Akram ‘Omar Ahmed El-Hindi, 25, from Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, whose body completely burnt after having been directly hit with a rocket. Such shelling coincided with shelling Palestinian residential neighborhoods in Bitounia by Israeli occupation forces positioned in ‘Ofar military site, to thee south of Ramallah. Such shelling resulted in the death of Su’ad El-Sheikh Khalil, 45, after she received a heavy caliber bullet in the head, while she was driving her car towards her house in Bitounia.

At approximately 19:45 local time, combat helicopters of the Israeli occupation forces started to fire rockets at a site of the Palestinian President’s Guards (Force 17) in Al-Twam area in Jabalya in the northern area of the Gaza Strip. As a result, three members of Force 17 were wounded as follows:

1) Anwar El-Faq’awi, 25, from Khan Yunis, wounded with shrapnel throughout the body;
2) Eshteiwi El-‘Azayza, 23, wounded with shrapnel throughout the body; and
3) ‘Abdullah Zeid, 22, wounded with shrapnel throughout the body.

The shelling also resulted in severe damage to a number of nearby houses and civilian facilities as follows:
1) Twenty-one windows of a 180-square-meter, three-story house (newly established and not inhibited), owned by ‘Alla’ As’ad El-Saftawi, were broken.
2) Seven windows of a 200-square-meter, two-story house, owned by Tahsin Saleh Khalil El-Halimi, were broken.
3) Eight windows of a 200-square-meter, three-story house, in which four people live, owned by Khamis Ramadan El-Hessi, were broken and walls cracked.
4) Four windows of the second floor of a 150-square-meter, three-story house, in which 11 people live, owned by Tahsin Saleh Khalil El-Halimi, were broken.
5) Three windows of the second floor of a 370-square-meter, three-story house, in which 30 people live, owned by Tawfiq Ahmed ‘Atteya ‘Oweida, were broken.
6) Seven windows of ‘A’esha mosque, established on a 350-square-meter area, were broken.
7) Nine windows of Hijazi Medical Center of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, established on a 450-square-meter area, were broken.
The shelling coincided with similar shelling by combat helicopters of the Israeli occupation forces that targeted the headquarters of the Palestinian President’s Guards (Force 17) in Ma’n village, to the east of Khan Yunis. The building was severely damaged. In addition, nearby UNRWA clinic and Ma’n elementary school were severely damaged.

At the same time, combat helicopters of the Israeli occupation forces shelled a site of the Palestinian National Security Forces near Al-Qarara crossroads, to the north of Khan Yunis. As a result, one of the site’s members, Nour ‘Abed Abu Hattab, 24, was wounded with shrapnel in the back, and the site was severely damaged. PCHR’s field officer in Khan Yunis reported that a number of the area’s residents arrived at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, after they suffered from nervous breakdowns and bruises in the body. He added that a number of houses and civilian facilities near the targeted site were severely damaged as follows:

1) Windows of a 120-square-meter, two-story house, in which 25 people live, owned by ‘Abdel-Rahman Mohammed Hassan El-‘Abadleh, were broken and walls cracked.
2) Windows of a 140-square-meter, two-story house, in which 10 people live, owned by Sharif Ibrahim El-‘Abadleh, were broken.
3) Windows of a 120-square-meter, three-story house, in which three people live, owned by Ahmed ‘Abdullah Ahmed El-‘Abadleh, were broken.
4) Windows of a 100-square-meter fuel station, owned by ‘Abdel-‘Azziz Hassan Temraz, were broken.
5) Windows of a medical clinic of the Palestinian Ministry of Health were destroyed.
6) Windows of Al-Salam mosque were broken and walls cracked.

At approximately 20:00 local time, combat helicopters of the Israeli occupation forces fired rockets at a site of the Palestinian President’s Guards (Force 17) at Deir El-Balah seashore, destroying six rooms used as administrative offices.
At approximately 23:00 local time, Israeli occupation forces, positioned at Al-Tuffah roadblock and in the vicinity of Neve Dekalim settlement, fired artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses in the west of Khan Yunis refugee camp and in Al-Nemsawi neighborhood. As a result three Palestinian civilians were wounded as follows:

1) Naji Abu ‘Awadh, 35, wounded with shrapnel in the right thigh;
2) Akmal Anu Khadra, 36, wounded with shrapnel in the right leg; and
3) Ahmed ‘Atteya Abu Sahloul, 25, wounded with shrapnel in the left foot.

3. Other Assaults and Arrests by the Israeli Occupation Forces against Palestinian Civilians

Early in the morning of Friday, March 23, 2001, an undercover unit of the Israeli occupation forces, known as Al-Mosta’reboun (Arabanizers) burst into Kherbet Al-Hejri Dora town in Hebron governate, and arrested Ibrahim Younis Mohammed Sahadid, 32, taking him to an unknown destination.

Also in the morning of the same day, the Israeli occupation forces burst into Al-Hareth secondary school in Ethna village in Hebron, and arrested the teacher, Mohammed ‘Eissa Farjallah.
Also on the same day, Israeli occupation forces, positioned at military roadblocks arrested four Palestinian civilians from Qalqilya. They are:

1) Ra’ed ‘Abdel-Fattah Daoud, 30;

2) Shadi ‘Abed El-‘Ajez, 25;

3) Hazza’ Bassam Hazza’, 21; and

4) Hussam El-Ghazzawi.

On Monday, March 26, 2001, Israeli occupation forces at Rafah Border Crossing arrested Riadh ‘Abdel-Rahim El-Maddah, 49, from Gaza City, when he was on his way to Egypt.
At approximately 13:00 local time, the Israeli occupation forces arrested two Palestinian fishermen from Al-Mawasi area in Rafah, and released them two hours later. They are: Ziad ‘Abed Meqdad, 25, and Khalil ‘Abed Meqdad, 20. They were sailing in their rubber boat at Rafah seashore, when Israeli occupation soldiers forced them to leave the sea and arrested them. The Israeli forces claimed that they exceeded the 200-meter-limit in which fishing is allowed. According the Palestinian-Israeli Interim Agreement, Palestinian fishermen are allowed to sail up to 20 miles across the sea, but Israeli does not commit to this.

4. Attacks and Shooting on Palestinian Civilians by Settlers

On Sunday, March 25, 2001, at approximately 13:00 local time, Murtada Salem Abu ‘Eisha, 76, from Hebron, received bruises and injuries throughout the body, after he was attacked by Jewish settlers. A number of Jewish settlers in settlement centers inside Hebron beat and threw stones at some Palestinian civilians in Al-Sahleh area and Al-Shallala Street in the city, and damaged goods of hawkers, under full protection by the Israeli occupation forces.
On Monday, March 26, 2001, at approximately 17:00 local time, a number of Jewish settlers from Ganim and Qadim settlements, to the east of Jenin, severely beat three Palestinian farmers from Faqou’a village with hands, feet and gun butts. As a result, the three farmers received bruises throughout the body. They were:

1) As’ad Fayez El-Khatib, 32;
2) Radwan Salah, 22; and
3) Zuhair Salah, 35.

In the evening of the same day and the morning of Tuesday, March 27, 2001, Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian houses and properties in Hebron, under full protection by the Israeli occupation forces. As a result, ‘Abdel-Salam El-Sarahneh, received bruises throughout the body while he was in the market of the city. Settlers also crashed a car of S’ada El-Sharbati, and broke windows of a number of cars and six houses.

Also on Tuesday, March 27, 2001, at approximately 13:20 local time, Jewish settlers Al-Zaytoun quarter in Hebron, and destroyed a Palestinian civilian car owned by Salah El-Zaro, a Director General at the Palestinian Ministry of Labor. On the same day, settlers attacked three Palestinian commercial stores in the market of vegetables in Hebron, destroying the doors of some and setting fire to them. They also burnt a carpentry workshop in Khan El-Kayala, owned by Qassem Abu Mayala.

On Wednesday, March 28, 2001, at approximately 2:30 local time, more than 100 Jewish settlers and units of the Israeli occupation forces burst into Al-Karantina area, and entered up to approximately 350m inside areas under the control of the Palestinian National Authority. Settlers, under full protection by the Israeli occupation forces, attacked Palestinian houses, throwing stones and incendiary materials at them, and breaking their windows with iron bars. They also attacked a number of Palestinian civilian cars in the area, and set fire to nine of them, two of which belong to Hebron Municipality. In the afternoon, Jewish settlers set fire to a part of the headquarters of the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments, located near a settlement center known as “Avraham Avino,” causing severe damage to its furniture.

5. Razing of Agricultural Land

Thursday, March 22, 2001

At approximately 7:00 local time, the Israeli occupation forces started to raze areas of wooded land in Al-Mawasi area in Rafah. PCHR’s field officer in Rafah reported that such action lasted up to the evening, and affected 25 donums of governmental wooded land, to the south of the Sea road between Rafah and its Al-Mawasi area. He added that more areas are likely to be razed to pave the way for establishing greenhouses for Jewish settlers, and that the Israeli occupation forces and settlers seized approximately 10 donums of land in the area around a year ago, o which they established greenhouses.

At approximately 9:00 local time, the Israeli occupation forces resumed razing areas of agricultural land in the north of Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip. PCHR’s field officer in the area reported that such action included:

1) Continuing to raze a 12-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, most of which (approximately 10 donums) was razed on Tuesday, March 20, 2001, owned by Ahmed Joudeh Mohammed ‘Okasha. In addition, a 16-square-meter storing room was demolished and an irrigation network was destroyed.
2) Razing a six-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Mohammed Younis ‘Okasha. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
3) Razing a six-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Mustafa ‘Abdel-Jawad ‘Okasha. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
4) Razing a six-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Khaled ‘Okasha. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed. The Israeli occupation forces also started to raze more areas planted with citrus, owned by the same citizen.
5) Razing a three-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Abdel-Karim ‘Abdel-Jawad ‘Okasha. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
6) Razing an eight-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Mohammed ‘Abdel-Jawad ‘Okasha. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
7) Razing a seven-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by the heirs of ‘Abdel-Karim Abu ‘Oudeh. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
8) Continuing to raze a 17-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, most of which (approximately 12 donums) was razed on Tuesday, March 20, 2001, owned by Amin Mohammed Hassan Zweidi.
9) Razing an eight-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Ali Hussein Zweidi. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
10) Razing a six-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Khalil Mohammed Hassan Zweidi. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
11) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Abdel-Hamid Hussein. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
12) Razing a 4.5-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Farid ‘Abdel-‘Azziz Mohammed Zweidi. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
13) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Ahmed Hussein Zweidi. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
14) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Yazan ‘Emad Amin Zweidi.
15) Razing a six-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Rafiq ‘Abdel-‘Azziz Mohammed Zweidi. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
16) Razing a 12-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Jamil Mohammed Hassan. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
17) Razing a six-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Attallah ‘Abdel-‘Azziz Zweidi. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
18) Razing a seven-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Ibrahim Hussein Hassan Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
19) Razing a 3.5-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by the heirs of Hussein Hassan Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
20) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by Mohammed Mohammed Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
21) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by the heirs of ‘Abdel-Ghani Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
22) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by the heirs of Ahmed Hassan Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
23) Razing a four-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Attallah, ‘Ali and Holayel Nasser Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
24) Razing a three-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Abdel-Karim Mohammed Nasser. In addition, an irrigation network was destroyed.
25) Razing a two-donum area of agricultural land planted with citrus, owned by ‘Abdel-Rahman Mohammed Nasser.

Ref: The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights