Driving nails into the coffin (part II)

This time, we will focus on the present-day situation. I will be talking about the period between the "war of independence" and the first intifada later on.

>>>Myth #1: Israelis ("IDF" and settlers alike) do not deliberately target civilians.

This, of course, is encouraged by casualty stats from the second intifada via ICT.org. This is also endorsed by the fact that suicide bombers target civilians. Of course, such tactics are unacceptable, and should stop right away. While the media is filled with condemnations towards these attacks, much of it is deprived from the condemnations for even more reprehensible offenses, and these offenses are carried out almost daily by the "IDF" and the settlers living in the West Bank.

First, let's start by picking apart ICT.org. Looking at the casualty stats for the Arab-Israeli conflict, one can see that more Palestinian non-combatants have been killed by the Zionists than vice-versa. Before we delve into the real stats, I'd like to turn your attention to the Board of Directors of ICT.

Shabtai Shavit, Chairman, Board of Directors, former director of the Israeli Intelligence Agency (Mossad)

Uriel Reichman, President of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya

Aharon Scherf, Former director of Israel’s Foreign Affairs Division and senior official in Prime Minister’s Office

ICT is thus subsidized within the Israeli Knesset, considering that its Chairman is a former Mossad agent and that the third subjeft is a senior official in the PM's office. But that's not what really damns the site. What really does make it murky are the following definitions of combatants and whatnot.

A “probable combatant” is someone killed at a location and at a time during which an armed confrontation was going on, who appears most likely – but not certain – to have been an active participant in the fighting. For example, in many cases where an incident has resulted in a large number of Palestinian casualties, the only information available is that an individual was killed when Israeli soldiers returned fire in response to shots fired from a particular location. While it is possible that the person killed had not been active in the fighting and just happened to be in the vicinity of people who were, it is reasonable to assume that the number of such coincidental deaths is not particularly high. Where the accounts of an incident appear to support such a coincidence, the individual casualty has been given the benefit of the doubt, and assigned a non-combatant status.

A “uniformed non-combatant” is a non-civilian, but is not actively involved in the conflict. This category can include civil police as well as soldiers in uniform but not at their post.

A “violent protester” may be a civilian, but has chosen to take an active and violent part in the conflict – such as rioting or vigilante activity.

A “protestor unknown” is anyone who was killed during a protest, for whom information as to violent behavior is unavailable.

A “full combatant” is a soldier on active duty, an active member of a terrorist group, or a civilian independently choosing to perpetrate an armed attack on the opposing side. In general, rock-throwers are not considered to be combatants; an exception to this generalization would be, for example, someone dropping large rocks from a bridge onto fast-moving traffic. A rioter throwing "Molotov cocktails", grenades, or the like can be considered a full combatant.
Mere possession of a weapon does not imply combatant status. A civilian driving with a weapon in his/her car, or a pedestrian with a holstered pistol, is normally considered a noncombatant. However, a civilian who encounters a terror attack in progress and draws his/her weapon in an attempt to stop or prevent the attack is a combatant once the weapon is out of its holster.

The bold parts overshadow and obscure the exact definitions of what really is going on. In that case, a girl in a battlefield defined by the "IDF" may be considered a combatant, but a soldier not at his post may be considered a non-combatant. ICT also fails to register deaths resulting from tear gas inhalation and even night raids on Palestinians. However, such statistics are even more flawed when they run face flat into the findings of human rights groups.

The Physicians for Human Rights Group, USA, made forensic and autopsy studies on the bodies of Palestinians killed during the intifada. The November 2002 report states,

Our conclusions regarding the IDF's inappropriate and excessive use of force remain valid and are not based on any single finding, but rather the totality of the evidence we collected: the high number of gunshots to the head; the volume of serious, disabling thigh injuries; the inappropriate firing of rubber bullets and rubber-coated steel bullets at close range; and the high proportion of Palestinian injuries and deaths. In our analysis, we found that the pattern of injuries seen in many victims did not reflect IDF use of firearms in life-threatening situations but rather indicated targeting solely for the purpose of wounding or killing.

Furthermore, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both confirmed these results.

The Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, has documented many cases of human rights abuses in the occupied territories. The intifada stats it provides show horrible findings, including the fact that more Palestinian children are being killed by Israelis than vice-versa. More stats on extra-judicial killings and other abuses can be found here. Also, refer to my posts on extra-judicial killings and the "dehumanization" of the Palestinians by the Israelis.

But for now, let's take a personal account of the deaths being incurred by Palestinians. Chris Hedges of Harper's magazine writes of a horrifying experience.

"I sit in the shade of a palm-roofed hut on the edge of the dunes, momentarily defeated by the heat, the grit, the jostling crowds, the stench of the open sewers and rotting garbage. A friend of Azmi's brings me, on a tray, a cold glass of tart, red carcade juice."

"Barefoot boys, clutching kites made out of scraps of paper and ragged soccer balls, squat a few feet away under scrub trees. Men in flowing white or gray galabias -- homespun robes -- smoke cigarettes in the shade of slim eaves. Two emaciated donkeys, their ribs protruding, are tethered to wooden carts with rubber wheels."

"It is still. The camp waits, as if holding its breath. And then, out of the dry furnace air, a disembodied voice crackles over a loudspeaker."

""Come on, dogs," the voice booms in Arabic. "Where are all the dogs of Khan Younis? Come! Come!""

"I stand up. I walk outside the hut. The invective continues to spew: "Son of a bitch!" "Son of a whore!" "Your mother's cunt!""

"The boys dart in small packs up the sloping dunes to the electric fence that separates the camp from the Jewish settlement. They lob rocks toward two armored jeeps parked on top of the dune and mounted with loudspeakers. Three ambulances line the road below the dunes in anticipation of what is to come."

"A percussion grenade explodes. The boys, most no more than ten or eleven years old, scatter, running clumsily across the heavy sand. They descend out of sight behind a sandbank in front of me. There are no sounds of gunfire. The soldiers shoot with silencers. The bullets from the M-16 rifles tumble end over end through the children's slight bodies. Later, in the hospital, I will see the destruction: the stomachs ripped out, the gaping holes in limbs and torsos."

"Yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon they kill an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wound four more, three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered -- death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo -- but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport."

Such things are not new, but go quite often untold in all media outlets.

John Pilger also makes an interesting case for himself, and destroys the notion that Israeli "counter-terrorism" is in fact an excuse to step up state terrorism. He also argues that foreign sponsorship of their terrorism is in fact deliberate, as does the U.S. of A. He writes,

Israel's occupation of Palestine would not be possible without the backing of America. In the oil-rich Middle East, Israel is America's deputy sheriff, receiving billions of dollars along with the latest weapons: F-16 aircraft, bombs, missiles, Apache helicopters. Today Israel is the fourth largest military power in the world, and it has nuclear weapons.

Although America is Israel's main arms supplier, it's not widely recognised that Britain also fuels the conflict here, even though it condemns Israel for its illegal occupation. During the first 14 months of the Palestinian uprising, the Blair government approved 230 export licences for weapons and military equipment to Israel.

The categories these covered included large calibre weapons; ammunition; bombs; and vital parts for military aircraft that almost certainly included American-supplied combat helicopters. You may have seen these Apache gunships on the news, firing missiles at densely populated areas. Tony Blair has said, 'we are doing everything we can to bring peace and stability to the Middle East'.

Now, it's my turn for a while. Since the first suicide bombing, Israelis have been arguing that they have been suffering from acts of aggression. However, when the "IDF" actively uses missiles, gunships, and other explosive weapons to kill Palestinians in the occupied territories, they nary make a peep about it.

There can be no doubt that Israeli troops have been targeting innocent Palestinian civilians for death from the beginning of the intifada (uprising). This understanding was also reflected in UN Security Council Resolution 1322, passed on October 7, 2000, which

"Condemns acts of violence, especially the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life."

In other words, the "IDF" argues that some forms of murder are superior to other forms. Like it or not, murder is murder, whether with a knife, a bomb, a gun, or even with your bare hands. Period.

>>>Myth #2: Arafat refused to denounce violence. He spoke peace in English and violence in Arabic.

While I despise Arafat because of his corruption and sucking up to the Knesset and the U.S. government, he has not really condoned violence. Even before Yasir Arafat's statement on 13 April 2002 condemning terrorism Arafat had repeatedly condemned suicide bombings both in Arabic and in English. Here are just two examples obtained from BBC monitoring.

- On Palestinian TV, on 28 March 2002, at 20:08 GMT, Arafat stated in Arabic:

"On this occasion, I would like once again to reiterate our condemnation of yesterday's operation in Netanya, in which a number of innocent Israeli civilians were killed and wounded. This operation constitutes a deviation from our policy and a violation of our national and human values. I affirm our commitment to working toward an immediate cease-fire, as we informed General Zinni. We highly value his efforts. We informed him that we are ready for the immediate implementation of the Tenet's work plan without conditions, and without prejudicing any of its articles. Also, we have informed him of our readiness to implement the Mitchell Report recommendations in cooperation with the four-way US-Russian-European-UN committee headed by Gen. Zinni."

The underlined bit shows that the Palestinians are committed to peaceful resolutions, but can only respond with force if the Israelis were to strike.

On December 16, 2001, in a speech on the occasion of Id al-Fitr in Ramallah (Gaza Palestine Satellite Channel Television, in Arabic, on 16 December 2001 at 16:00 GMT) Arafat stated in Arabic:

"Today, I emphasize once again the complete and immediate halt to all armed operations. Once again, I call for a complete halt to all operations, especially suicidal operations, which we have always condemned. We will punish all those who carry out and mastermind such operations. This also applies to the firing of mortar shells, which have no objective but to provide an excuse for the Israeli attacks on us, our people, our children, and our women. Any violation of this decision will be considered an attempt to harm the higher national interests of our people and of our Arab nation."

On the other hand, one can see that the so-called "generous" offer at Camp David was rebuked by Arafat, despite his willingness to sign it and the Oslo Peace accords, which went down the drain.

Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada goes on to write about the ridiculous claims by the Knesset that the PA should work to stop the suicide bombings.

The basic assumption behind the Israeli claim that Arafat "must do more" to stop attacks on Israel is that the primary role of the Palestinian Authority is not to work for the security and well-being of the Palestinian people, but rather to guarantee the security and safety of Israeli occupation forces, settlers and civilians, even while Israel rules millions of disenfranchised Palestinians, and continues to seize their land by force.

Even if such an arrangement were politically tenable, the realities of the past ten years made it impossible. The Palestinian Authority is not a sovereign state, but a quasi-authority which at the height of its power was only given control over 17.2% of the Israeli occupied West Bank (so called "Area A" under the Oslo and subsequent accords). Even Israel with all its military and economic might could not guarantee its own safety when it controlled every inch of the West Bank.

Over the past 18 months, Israel has systematically attacked all the facilities of the Palestinian Authority, including police stations, prisons and intelligence headquarters, and killed and assassinated many Palestinian security officers. Hence while crippling and killing the Palestinian security forces, Israel makes the ludicrous demand that these same forces go out and work on Israel's behalf.

Israel has further undermined its own claim that Arafat is "in control" of all the violence, by continuing to demand that he act while he is a prisoner of the Israelis in two rooms of his Ramallah headquarters, with no outside contact, no electricity and barely enough food and water.

The suicide bombings which have followed the brutal Israeli re-invasions of almost every major West Bank town since late March 2002 prove conclusively that there is no level of violence or ruthlessness that either Israel or the Palestinian Authority can employ that will eliminate those determined to answer the suffering of millions of Palestinian civilians under decades of Israeli military occupation by inflicting suffering on Israeli civilians.

The only way to end suicide bombings and other kinds of Palestinian violence is to end the extreme violence of the Israeli military occupation which produces and fuels both Palestinian resistance against the occupation forces and violent attacks against Israeli civilians. Absent a political process explicitly designed to end the occupation, there is little reason to believe that such attacks can or will end.

Quite right, Mr. Abunimah. Quite right.

Believe it or not, there's pretty much not to add to all this, other than the so-called "generous" offers at Camp David and Oslo, which I will address later on in a topic of their own.

Salaam, from
Saracen