Democratic Palestine : 34 (ص 5)
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- Democratic Palestine : 34 (ص 5)
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Two Sides of the Same Coin
On April 10 an Israeli carrying an
Uzi machine gun approached four
Palestinians on a Jerusalem street in the
old city, and opened fire at close range
without provocation. Mohamad
Shawish, 25 years old, was killed in-
stantly when he was hit with seven
bullets in the head and chest, and his
three companions were seriously
wounded.
A newly-formed Israeli Jewish ter-
rorist group calling itself Sicarii claim-
ed responsibility for the attack.
A few days later Nadir Dana,
15 years old, was shot to death by an
Israeli settler in Hebron (Al Khalil).
The killer, Ben Lulu from the nearby
Kiryat Araba settlement, was detained
for two days and then released.
A few days after that incident a
seven-year-old Palestinian boy was
kidnapped by a settler from Neve
Yaacov (located in the West Bank town
of Beit Hanina) and sexually assaulted.
The boy identified the assailant as a
man with a beard wearing a Yamaka (a
cap worn by religious Jews).
On April 13, a new massacre was
carried out by Israel adding to the long
list of massacres which began with the
formation of the terrorist Jewish
groups even before the establishment of
the state of Israel.
This time the massacre was commit-
ted against the population of Nahalin, a
village 13 kilometers west of
Bethlehem, which -incidently was the
site of a previous massacre at the hands
of the same perpetrators.
One of the victims was a 17-year-old
paraplegic boy in a wheelchair. Three
days after the Nahalin massacre, the
formation of the «rapid intervention
force» was announced by settlers in the
occupied territories.Uri Ariel,chairman
of the council of settlers in the West
Bank and Gaza, said that many units of
the force are already in existence and
more are being formed. He added that
the Israeli army «had no problem with
them.»!
According to Knesset member Yossi
Sarid, other terrorist vigilante groups
Democratic Palestine, August 1989
such as «Kulanu» (all of us) are being
formed.
The Israeli army which is itself a
conglomeration of similar terrorist
organizations which converged in 1948
to form what has become known as the
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), cannot
but sanction the activities of these
vigilante groups, otherwise they would
deny their own heritage.
Palestinian children have not escaped
from the new wave of Israeli repres-
sion. An eight-year-old boy was shot to
death in Jabalya Camp in Gaza. During
the funeral procession, Israeli soldiers
opened fire on the mourners killing a
five-year-old boy and wounding scores
of others.
The escalation of Israeli brutality
during the month of May resulted in the
deaths of 35 Palestinians, the highest
toll in 1989.
On May 6,the first day of a three-day
Moslem holiday signifying the end of
the holy month of Ramadan, a total of
266 people were injured in Gaza alone,
most of them upon their return from
the cemetary where it is customary to
give respect to the martyrs and dead on
this holiday.
According to United Nations Relief
and Works Agency (UNWRA) figures,
the number of Palestinians injured for
the month of May in Gaza alone is
2,743.
On the backdrop of this Israeli
hysteria, Yitzhak Rabin was given. yet
more powers within the «legal system»
whereby he can now detain any
Palestinian for whatever reason and
without trial for one year instead of six
months. The process of deportation has
also been shortened and expedited.
As if this is not enough, the
notorious Yitzhak Mordachai who was
formerly the military commander of the
Southern region was appointed as the
new military commander of the West
Bank.
PALESTINIAN RESPONSE
The Palestinians have held their
ground in the face of this frenzy with
even more determination to continue
the confrontation of the occupiers in
defense of their land and their own ex-
istence.
The United National Leadership
(UNL) of the intifada has finally united
with HAMAS (Islamic resistance
movement) on a program coordinating
the confrontation of the occupation,
this move led to the consolidation of
the intifada.
On May 5 Milad Antoine Shahin, a
12-year-old boy, was ordered by the
Israeli. troops to get off the streets or
else they will shoot him. Milad opened
his shirt and challenged the soldiers
refusing to obey their command. He
was shot three times in the chest and
died on the way to the hospital.
These acts of daily resistance and
sacrifice are not extraordinary. They
constitue a normal reaction by any
people under the yoke of colonization
or occupation and with the escalation
of Israeli repression and terrorism, the
Palestinian people are left with no
choice but to confront these measures.
In this context, Palestinians have
heeded the calls of the United National
Leadership of the intifada by escalating
their resistance throughout the oc-
cupied territories, which included the
destruction of Israeli military vehicles,
attacking soldiers and executing col-
laborators.
The new phase of increased Israeli
brutality began simultaneously with the
declaration of the Shamir plan, and is
part and parcel of the new «Israeli
peace initiative.»
In the words of Shamir, «We must
prove to the people of the intifada that
it is not an alternative, that we can
suppress it. we can break it.»2
The Shamir plan is in fact no more
than a camouflage of the stepped-up
brutality, it’s designed to absorb the
international criticism and condemna-
tion of its:practices, and to deflect at-
tention from the ruthlessness of the
army.
The intifada has stripped Israel of its
propaganda weapons of accusing the
Palestinians of being terrorists and >
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