Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 13)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 13)
- المحتوى
-
On January 9th, six Zionist fighter
planes raided three Palestinian posi-
tions east of Sidon. In seven minutes,
10 rockets, weighing 500-1000 pounds,
were fired on the area, resulting in great
material damage; three Palestinians
were martyred and five others injured.
Less than 72 hours after the first raid,
Israeli planes, on January 12th, again
raided the area east of Sidon, inflicting
heavy material damage; two persons
were killed and _ several injured.
Twenty-four hours later, Israeli planes
raided a Palestinian position in the
Yanta area of the western Bekaa
Valley. Two people were martyred and
eleven injured, while there was heavy
material damage.
AMAL OBSTRUCTS A
SOLUTION
On January 28th, Palestinian fighters
completed their withdrawal from posi-
tions in Maghdousheh, to be replaced
by the forces of the Popular Nasserite
Organization of Sidon. This was an ef-
fort to foil any attempt by Amal to ex-
tend the siege and war on the camps
under the pretext of fighting the
«Palestinian occupation» of
Maghdousheh. It was also intended to
counter attempts to incite inter-
Palestinian fighting. However, Amal
continued the war of attrition against
the Palestinian camps after the
withdrawal, only proving that this war
did not stem from November 24, 1986,
when Palestinian fighters entered
Maghdousheh in a move to defend the
besieged camps. Amal’s actions also
proved that this war will not end when
Palestinian defenders withdraw from
Maghdousheh. As in the past, Amal’s
plan is to eliminate the Palestinian na-
tionalist presence in Lebanon, as a step
towards creating a sectarian canton and
imposing its hegemony on the entire
Lebanese nationalist bloc.
After the Palestinian withdrawal,
Amal’s new pretext was that this
«withdrawal was a conspiracy»! Amal
also insisted that its own forces - and no
others - should replace the withdrawing
Palestinians. And during all these
who-should-replace-whom delibera-
tions, the primary victims were the
Palestinians still living under siege.
Once again, the goals lurking behind
Amal’s rhetoric were exposed.
On February 3rd, a ceasefire agree-
ment was reached between Palestinian
organizations and Amal, but Amal’s
definition of the word ceasefire has
always been that the other party holds
its fire, but not Amal. Thus, one day
after reaching the agreement, Amal
thugs escalated the heavy, destructive
shelling of Burj Al Barajneh and
Shatila camps.
INHUMAN CONDITIONS
The suffering of the Palestinian
residents of Rashidiya, Burj Al Baraj-
neh and Shatila camps reached a peak
in February. Aside from the devasta-
tion of the camps, besieged Palestinians
are facing the atrocity of death by
starvation. Food supplies have run out;
there is no electricity or clean water.
Palestinian mother and her children from Shatila
These daily sufferings threaten another
kind of death besides being shot. The
following covers only a few examples
of the suffering that the camp Palesti-
nians are now enduring daily, in addi-
tion to the fact that Palestinian children
.and youth are missing a whole school
year due to this dirty war.
On February 11th, a statement issued
by Rashidiya’s popular committee told
how some of the camp residents tried to
gather grass from the nearby Al
Shawakir area, to feed themselves.
Amal’s gangs fired at them, leaving
several people injured. ;
On February 14th, Dr. Pauline Cut-
ting, a British surgeon working at Burj
Al Barajneh’s Haifa clinic, said that
refugees were beginning to die «directly
or indirectly because of malnutrition.»
She told reporters by radio that «a
Dutch nurse has seen five children
cooking a rat and eating it hungrily.»
Dr. Cutting is one of four foreigners on
the medical staff of this clinic where the
top floors have been destroyed by
bombardment. The medical staff has
confirmed that people were starting to
eat dogs and cats. A few days later,
there were no more dogs and cats.
On February 14th, a Palestinian
woman burned herself and her four
children in Burj Al Barajneh, rather
than face death by starvation.
The most horrifying aspect of the
war of attrition against the Palestinians
was seen in the dispensation sought by
the residents of Burj Al Barajneh to eat
human flesh. Responding to these calls,
Nabih Berri, calmly sitting in his lux-
urious apartment, said in an interview
with the Voice of the South radio sta-
tion: «As long as Yasir Arafat does not
want to reconcile, let the Palestinians
eat their flesh; we will not allow them to
occupy Lebanon.»
Upon mounting international and
Arab protest over the human tragedy
occurring in the Palestinian camps,
Amal pretended to allow a food convoy
to enter Burj Al Barajneh. This was
later proven to be a trick. Dr. Cutting
said that «seven people lost both their
legs because of bombing during the
time when the trucks were due to come
into the camp... six people were killed
and 24 wounded.»
On February 15th, Amal announced
a partial lifting of the siege on
Rashidiya camp. Refugees were allow-
ed to leave the camp for five hours to
buy food. On February 17th, Nabih
Berri said that the siege around Burj Al
Barajneh would be totally lifted.
Ironically, this statement was made as
fierce battles erupted between Amal
militiamen on one side and the fighters
of the Lebanese Communist Party and
the Progressive Socialist Party on the
other. Berri attempted to cover up his
dirty tactics by saying that his decision
to lift the siege was «taken secretly two
days. ago,» i.e., before these battles.
Despite this promise, the siege con-
tinued, as did heavy shelling.
AMAL’S NEW WAR
The sectarian Amal movement has
evolved into a force complementary to
13 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 22
- تاريخ
- مارس ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed