Democratic Palestine : 30 (ص 15)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 30 (ص 15)
- المحتوى
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After the fatal shooting of two Ansar
III detainees, the International Com-
mittee of the Red Cross, on August
18th, protested to ‘Israel’ that deten-
tion of West Bank and Gaza Strip
residents at Ketziot violated interna-
tional humanitarian law. The next day,
the ICRC again called on ‘Israel’ to end
«grave and repeated breaches of the 4th
Geneva Convention,» referring in par-
ticular to the 29 new expulsion orders
issued, and noting its past protest of
Israeli violations, including the
destruction or walling-up of houses,
bans on travel and growing crops, and
restrictions of economic activity (AP,
August 22nd).
EXPULSIONS
Without underestimating the horror
of other Israeli repressive measures,
one can term expulsion the most cruel
next to outright death, because it means
driving Palestinians permanently from
their homeland. Expulsion, particularly
when practiced so extensively as during
the uprising, is closely tied to the idea
of «population transfer» - an option
which has come under renewed discus-
sion in the Zionist state over the last
- Letter from Ansar III
The following letter was smug-
gled out of the Ansar Three
paper.
| To-all people of conscience:
| To all defenders of human rights:
| We call upon you to rescue us from the
Camp of Slow Death, Ansar Three, the
| Negev
We, the thousands of Palestinian
| prisoners in Ansar Three, have been
detained without any judicial for-
malities whatsoever. We have not even
been told the charges which have been
levelled against us. We are kept in in-
human desert conditions where the
daytime temperature reaches 45 C
| degrees and drops below zero at night,
| in an area teeming with lizards, insects
and rats. |
But this hardship is nothing com-
/pared with the cruelty and arbitrary
brutality of the soldiers. A physical and
/ mental war is being conducted against
| us through starvation, thirst, humilia-
‘tion and physical and psychological
| torture. Their behaviour breaks all in-
ternational conventions governing the
treatment of prisoners, and reflects a
lack of even the most basic moral and
| human values.
| Weare forced to keep our tents open
from 5 am to midnight, exposed to the
| searing heat of the sun and the sand-
storms of the desert. Two or three times
the scorching sun, for periods of up to
half an hour, under the muzzles of our
| captors’ guns.
receive clothes or other necessities from
our families. Neither are we provided |
with items for washing clothes.
are suffering physical deterioration and |
disease; health care is virtually nonex- |
istent.
we are not allowed to send or receive
paper and pencils.
Water is scarce, and is cut off for
many hours each day. There is barely
enough for drinking, washing, and
twice-monthly baths in this suffocating
heat. We have only one change of |
clothing, and we are forbidden to.
Our health is deteriorating and we
In addition we are totally isolated; |
our families are not allowed to visit us,
letters, and we are forbidden radios,
newspapers, magazines, books, writing —
We are being subjected to punitive
measures which aim to crush our
human spirit and deny our social being.
We are not even given those rights con- |
tained in the law of administrative |
detention.
We call upon you to stand by us, and |
to call for an end to the organized |
violence and humiliation which is
leading us to a slow death. The peace
and justice which the people of the Ho-
ly Land long for is being strangled in |
this evil place.
We urge you to organize
humanitarian groups to visit this |
murderous detention center, and to
work for its closure.
We call upon you to stand on the side
of humanity
May the world hear our voice.
few years. In this light, one can see each
expulsion as a test balloon for the
«final solution,» whereby Palestinians
would be driven across the borders en
masse, as happened in earlier wars, in
what could only be termed attempted
genocide. |
Faced with a whole people in upris-
ing, the Zionist authorities mistakenly
thought they could quell «the distur-
bances» by expelling persons they
singled out as instigators. As a result,
four Palestinians were expelled on
January 13th, eight on April 11th, eight
on April 19th, one on June 13th, eight
on August Ist, and four on August
18th, making a total of 33 recent ex-
pulsions, added to the thousands over
the years of occupation. Among those
expelled are ex-political prisoners,
lawyers, journalists, trade unionists
and student council members - showing
that the Zionist authorities want to rid
Palestine of activists. While some were
accused of membership in _ revolu-
tionary organizations, others are like
the six citizens of Beita, expelled April
19th, because they happened to live ina
village which was encroached upon by
Zionist settlers.
The Zionist state has persisted in this
policy despite international condemna-
tion as was expressed in the January
UN Security Council resolution, when
even the US administration did not see
fit to protect its «strategic asset» with
the veto. A new element was introduced
after the issuing of 25 new expulsion
orders on August 18th, in what could
be the large single case since the mass
expulsions from the Gaza Strip in the
early seventies. It was reported that on
August 22nd, John Whitehead, US
deputy secretary of state, warned Israeli
leaders from carrying out these orders
«or damage to our bilateral relations
will occur.» Having grown accustomed
to US administrations issuing critical
statements, all the while funding Israeli
aggression, as happened during the
1982 invasion of Lebanon, one retains
some scepticism that these threats will
be followed up. However, it may be
that the US administration sees the
need for protecting ‘Israel’ in a new
way, because with the media coverage
of Israeli atrocities, there is a beginning
awareness in the American public of
what their tax dollars are going for. It is
in US imperialism’s interests to clean
up the Israeli image, in order not to
have problems with the funding of its
prime base in the strategic Middle East. @
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