Democratic Palestine : 15 (ص 19)
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- Democratic Palestine : 15 (ص 19)
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turned the full force of collective punish-
ment on the southern population. The
village of Shaqra, just outside the ‘sec-
urity zone’, was a particularly grim
example of the methods employed.
From the first day of the invasion, this vil-
lage was besieged. Israeli troops and
SLA thugs entered and herded all the
men into the schoolyard for questioning.
Here they stayed until nightfall, while
homes were searched. The invaders
destroyed the food supplies which the
lrish UNIFIL troops tried to send in to the
villagers.
Then, on the fifth day of the inva-
sion, February 21st, Shaqra was again
surrounded by two rings of invading
troops - Israeli on the outside and SLA
inside. All the villagers, including women
and down to a day-old baby, were locked
in the schoolyard. People were interro-
gated, in fact tortured, in two class-
rooms. Many sustained serious injuries
and later had to be hospitalized from
beatings, having chairs broken on their
backs, being stomped on, burned with
cigarettes, and jabbed in the ear with
nails. One man’s penis was burned with
a cigarette lighter.
According to a story filed from the
area, youth were taken to the nearby
pond: «They said they were thrown into
it and then, dripping wet and their hands
tied behind their backs, were made to lie
until dawn on the floor of an unfinished
shop» (Guardian, Feb. 24). Fifty-five
men and six women, one of them preg-
nant, were taken away by the Zionist
troops; three houses were dynamited
and many others looted and wrecked;
dozens of cars were stolen by the invad-
ers.
Reuters and AFP reported how SLA
thugs held a noose on the neck of a Sha-
qra shopkeeper, tightening it while ques-
tioning him, and hitting him when he
tried to speak. A woman from Shaqra
reported that she and her 18 year old
daughter were subjected to electric
shock. Another citizen had a metal com-
pass, used for drawing circles on the
school blackboard, stabbed into his ear.
Mariam Majed, a 40 year old mother of
eight, described her experience with the
invaders: «They took my eldest son,
snatched my gold bracelets and shot at
my cows.» Many other southerners
reported large-scale looting and the theft
of their savings.
Interviewed in a hospital after-
wards, the torture victims said that the
interrogators had asked few questions
about the missing Israeli soldiers, but
demanded information on Amal and Hej-
bollah, showing that the main aim was to
terrorize the people from supporting the
anti-occupation resistance fighters. A 70
year old construction worker added to
this thought: «lf they cannot defend
themselves, why make us suffer? They
want us to be their policemen.»
Zionist miscalculations
Major general Ori Orr, Israeli army
commander on the northern front, was
initially quoted as saying that there were
no time or geographical limits on the
search operation. Yet the Zionists
decided to halt the search without hav-
ing found the two soldiers. Their claim
that this was to avoid friction with the
local population was only a face-saving
lie. Much more than friction had already
been provoked. The comment of an
elderly woman in Srifa, a village shelled
so heavily that the population and
UNIFIL troops fled, indicates the south-
emers’ mood: «I! want to kill them. | will
choke them with my hands, and | don’t
need a rifle.»
Meeting a people determined to
resist, the Zionists had once more
New Fascist Elite Troops
When Samir Geagea rose to promi-
nence last spring, he felt the need for
more highly trained militiamen, and got
the idea to establish an elite military
school. The school is for university
graduates only and is located in an
ancient monastery at Ghosta, north of
Beirut. Most of the instructors are former
Lebanese Army officers. Their chief,
Assad Abu Jaoude, says, «We want
quality, not quantity. One thousand well-
trained men can defeat thousands of
disorganized rabble. The Israeli army
Started as a militia, and now it is one of
the strongest in the world. We must do
the same.» The school’s location on the
coast also raises thoughts of its being
accessible to Israeli military experts who
usually make their contacts to the East
Beirut fascists on the northern coast
(Junieh).
The school seeks to combine strict
discipline with religious motivation: «At
every stage we teach the recruits Christ-
lan history,» says Abu Jaoude. As usual,
the Lebanese fascists are not above dis-
torting the message of Christianity for
their own purposes. One _ trainee’s
remark hints at how they are being
taught this history: «We are suffering a
Moslem invasion. So here we are taught
that Christ lives within us, that we must
fight for him.»
plunged themselves into the Lebanese
quagmire of their own making. Actually,
the situation that led to the new invasion
had been in the making for some time.
The turn of the year gave new evidence
that the 1982 invasion and 2.5 years of
occupation had not even fulfilled the slo-
gan «Peace for the Galilee» which was
the very minimum of what the Zionist
leadership aspired to in Lebanon. In the
week ending January 2nd, there were 14
Katyusha ?ockets that fell on northern
‘Israel’.
In response to what the Israeli gov-
emment would do about this situation
Israeli War Minister Rabin said in a tele-
vision interview: «| don’t intend to repeat
the mistake of entering Lebanon. Nor do
| intend to return large forces into south-
er Lebanon.» Yet as he spoke, the
Givati brigade (elite paratroopers) had
recently ended three months of winter
training with full-scale exercises in
northern ‘Israel’. There was «particular
stress on landing from the sea and cros-
sing water obstacles,» according to the
commander (Jerusalem Post, January
10th), i.e., a rehearsal for invasion.
Another proof of Zionism’s expan-
sionist intentions in Lebanon came on
February 1st; 35 square kilometers of
land in the ‘security zone’ were
annexed, surrounded by barbed wire
and equipped with an electric alarm sys-
tem and new fortifications. The same
day, leaflets were dropped over Sidon.
Signed by General Ori Orr, the message
read: «Any cooperation with subversive
Palestinian organizations will wreak
destruction on your homes».
The February 1986 invasion will not
be the last Zionist aggression against
the Lebanese people and land. This
aggression is an ongoing fact, especially
in the ‘security zone’. It does, however,
serve to reemphasize that the Zionists
cannot so easily resolve their Lebanese
dilemma despite superior weaponry and
willingness to resort to massive repres-
sion. As if to prove the point, the Zionist
occupation troops’ exit back to the ‘sec-
urity zone’ was accompanied by more
Katyushas falling in the Galilee. Within a
week, another Israeli soldier had been
killed in a resistance operation in the
South. The Israelis responded with a
new mini-invasion, searching villages
while helicopter gunships straffed Kafra
and Yater. The day before, Israeli army
chief of staff Moshe Levy had said in
reference to the February 17th invasion:
«...We will do it again whenever any-
thing of this sort happens.»
e
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