Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: The Other Israel - The Thirty-Five Years War briefing

The Other Israel - The Thirty-Five Years War briefing
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June 5, 2002, 7:18 AM - thirty-five years to the day
(almost to the hour) since the outbreak of the war in
which Israel's armed forces seized the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The ongoing occupation of these territories
keeps occupier and occupied strangled in a deathly
embrace.
Today's victims: thirteen Israeli soldiers and four
civilians travelling on a bus which  was blown up at
Meggido Junction (the place from whose name
"Armaggedon" is derived). Responsibility for the blast
was claimed by the radical Islamic Jihad faction. With
the bomber assumed by the security services to have
originated in Jenin,  Israeli tanks and troops
immediately proceeded to stage another full-scale
invasion of Jenin, the fourth reoccupation in a single
month - not including the time in April with the
horrendous pictures - when the Israeli  forces' entry
into Jenin encountered stiff resistance, in the
breaking of which at least 56 Palestinian residents and
23 Israeli soldiers perished, and whose precise
circumstances will now never be investigated by the UN.
As military and governmental speakers emphasized during
the day, the invasion of Jenin "is not yet the real
retribution" - the full extent of that is "still to
unfold" (it is difficult to see what they could think
of which the army has not  already done in the past
month - but Sharon and his generals have again and
again proven to have creative imaginations).
Altogether, this was a day serving as a fitting epitome
for an occupation which has lasted three and a half
decades - nearly two-thirds of Israel's history; which
is the only reality many Israelis and many Palestinians
had ever known; and which is the root cause of the
present conflict and bloodshed.
Also today, the "Administrative Court for Foreign
Workers" at Ma'asiyahu Prison upheld the deportation
orders against four of the peace activists, citizens
respectively of Denmark, Iceland, Australia and Japan,
who were detained by the army last Saturday during the
invasion of Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus. This
followed upon three other deportation orders being
confirmed by the court yesterday. Three  of the
activists intend to appeal the decision to a higher
court, though that would mean a prolongation of their
detention. As mentioned in our earlier releases, the
activists had arrived at invaded Nablus on Friday, May
30, in order to help inhabitants of the city and its
refugee camps to maintain basic medical services and
ambulace mobility under curfew conditions, and in order
to prevent the army from harming civilians and civilian
property. The activists were represented by Adv. Gabi
Lasky of PCATI (Public Commttee against Torture
<pcati@n...>) who argued that there was no case to
deport peace activists who had entered legally and
performed a useful public service by reminding soldiers
of the need to preserve basic human rights. "The
decision to deport human rights activists runs counter
to basic international principles, according to which
human rights activists have the right to provide
humanitarian help, and raises the question whether the
state of Israel is trying to conceal the actions of its
soldiers in the territories" said Adv. Lasky.
Meanwhile, a number of other internationals have
escaped arrest and stayed several days more in Balata.
Now that military pressure is for the moment lessened,
they have gone over to Jenin, a few hours after it was
invaded. This evening we heard from Annie Higgins of
Chicago that they had succeeded once again to bypass
the miltary checkpoints and establish themselves in the
homes of Palestinian residents. They noticed some tanks
in the streets, but so far there had been no large-
scale arrests. (You can call Annie Higgins at 972-(0)
51-589761).
The following was reported yesterday on the phone by
Neta Golan, still from Balata. "The soldiers came to
the house again and again, insisting that there was a
'bomb laboratory' hidden somewhere. Every time our
hostess finished making some order the soldiers came
again. The first two times, they didn't break anything,
but the third time they started overturning furniture.
They roughly pushed the computer over and smashed the
monitor, plainly frustrated, hitting the wall to try
for a place with a hollow sound. The four-year old
child started to cry loudly. One of the soldiers spoke
to Jessica and tried to apologize for what they were
doing ("You have to understand, we don't like
destroying things but this is a terrorist household in
a terrorist camp, we have no other choice"). In the
end, the soldiers herded all of us - the woman, the
children and us internationals - into a single room and
continued smashing up the rest of the house. The
children talked about their father who was taken by the
soldiers three days before. We started singing, to try
to encourage them. After several hours the soldiers
went away. They had  left very little intact in the
house, but did not find what they were looking for. A
few hours later there was a loud explosion. The army
had blown up another house where they said the bomb
laboratory was found. They had not warned inhabitants
of the neighboring houses. A friend of our hostess had
two children wounded by splinters of broken
glass.(...)"
It has been pointed out repeatedly - by Israeli peace
activists, by Western and Arab diplomats, also by quite
a few prominent Palestinians - that suicide bombings
aimed at random Israelis are morally reprehensible and
abominable, that they tend to unify the Israeli public
around Sharon, legitimize further acts of oppression
and alienate international public opinion from
Palestinian plight. But when the only alternative
visible to Palestinians seems to be a meek acceptance
of an ever more harsh occupation, it is inevitable that
many among the occupied population will go on regarding
the suicide bombers as heroes, the only ones capable of
hurting the occupier and asserting an ongoing
Palestinian defiance.
The more the army harms and humiliates the Palestinians
in their towns, in their very homes, the deeper the
hate which will bring new youngsters to the point of
blowing themselves up in the midst of Israeli cities -
for the sake of a moment of revenge, even knowing that
those acts will provide justification for the army's
next round.
Meretz leader Yossi Sarid said it today on the Israeli
media: part of the blame falls on the Israeli
government which frustrates all efforts to bring about
a solution and fails to come up with a political plan.
It was also understood by US envoy Burns  when visiting
Ramallah a week ago, where he correctly remarked that
terrorism cannot be stopped without providing the
Palestinians with some real hope for the future -
though it is far from sure that the US administration
is willing to do more than paying lip-service to this
truth.
The Other Israel - bi-monthly peace movement
magazine pob 2542, Holon 58125, Israel; ph/fx:
+972-3-5565804
; for free sample hardcopy
mailto: otherisr@a...
http://other_Israel.tripod.com/

 next round.
Piu' l'esercito ferisce e umilia i Palestinesi nelle loro citta', piu'
profondamente l'odio portera' nuovi giovani al punto di farsi esplodere nel
centro di citta' israeliane.
http://other_Israel.tripod.com/