Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 19)
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- Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 19)
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Already the settlers have been delegated greater powers,
such as the permission granted to them to detain stonethrow-
ers beginning in December. (This gave a ‘legal’ cover for
settlers’ pursuing stonethrowers on December 8th, to fire into
a Nablus bakery, killing an eleven year old girl and wounding
her sister. For this, one settler received three months in jail,
another a suspended sentence.) In late January, Arens and
Interior Minister Burg proposed harsher penalties for Palesti-
nian stonethrowers who can now be sentenced to 20 years
imprisonment. It was decided to move two more regiments of
border guards into the 1967 territories. Blowing up the homes
of Palestinians suspected of anything from throwing stones to
fullblown military operations has again become commonplace.
One can imagine many new ‘law and order’ measures, pre-
sented as combatting the so-called Jewish underground, but
actually used against Palestinians.
There is a clue to this in a recent statement of Rabbi
Kahane, who has been periodically detained for his connec-
tions with the underground. For once he qualified his usual
support to TNT operations: «We are in favor of these acts. Defi-
nitely. However, not in the way they are being done. They have
no backing. They will be arrested and will serve ten years. The
Arabs should be hit everywhere under the auspices of the
authorities. It’s a pity that first Begin and now Shamir do not
understand this...» But perhaps Shamir and Arens understand
very well; this is why they are willing to sacrifice a few of their
own in order to consolidate the terrorist state.
It is also obvious that the sacrifice entailed in bringing a
few Zionists to ‘justice’ is quite relative especially when com-
pared to how Zionist ‘justice’ is meted out to Palestinians.
Though 27 Zionists are indicated for murder, membership in a
terrorist organization, etc., we have not heard of confessions
extracted under torture. Nor will we. Their houses, i.e. settle-
ments, will obviously not be destroyed, nor will their families be
harassed. There are many loopholes making ‘justice’ as com-
fortable as possible for Zionists. They are charged under civil
law, whereas Palestinians are almost always tried in military
courts where sentences are much stiffer. Moreover, the cry
has already been raised that publicity of their cases will rule out
a fair trial. Will this be the excuse for acquittals and suspended
sentences? The main purpose of Zionist ‘justice’, shining up
Likud’s tarnished image, would still be accomplished as was
the case with the inquiry into the Sabra-Shatila massacres.
In conclusion, we want to emphasize that the end of this
process will be no less beneficial for the Labor Alignment if it
wins the elections. Equally, the whitewash will be used to cover
state repression. Only reactionary propaganda can claim that
the Jordanian option will relieve the Palestinians from terror.
On the contrary, harsh repression will be needed in any
attempt to implement this option against the demands of our
people for self-determination and an independent state.
Democracy in Palestine will never come through Zionist ‘jus-
tice’, but only through determined anti-Zionist struggle.
picture of the uninjured commando is
Whitewashing Murder
immediately preceded by a picture of
Arens at the scene.
In any case, responsibility for the
crime cannot be isolated to a few indi-
viduals, for it is the result of the deep
Yet another whitewash is being
enacted , this time over the cold-blooded
murder of the two PFLP freedom fighters
captured in the Gaza Strip on April 13th.
Persistent press reports, and the exis-
tence of photos showing an uninjured
commando being led away in handcuffs,
forced the Zionist Minister of War to
allow an inquiry into the aftermath of the
Askelon-Rafah bus operation. The
inquiry process was then used to gloss
over the fact that for six weeks the
photos and all reporting on the operation
and its aftermath were censured from
the Israeli press.The full contents of the
inquiry commission’s report is also being
kept secret, but it did establish the main
unavoidable fact: Our two comrades
died from blows to the head from a dull
instrument, administered while they
were being interrogated some fifty met-
ers from the bus after it had been
stormed by the Zionist forces. It is being
said that three Israelis, members of Shin
Bet, the border police and the army, are
likely to be charged with manslaughter,
I.e., unintentional murder (sic).
So again the big terrorists got away.
Arens and Chief of Staff Moshe Levy
were on the scene from the time the bus
was brought to a halt. They, personally
conducted the negotiations with the
commandos and ordered the storming
of the bus. Now they are using the
inquiry report to disclaim all responsibil-
ity. Touring the US, Arens audaciously
claimed that he and Levy were not on the
scene when the fatal beatings occurred.
His contention was immediately chal-
lenged by the Israeli newspaper
Hadashot, whose photographer Alex
Liebeck took a film sequence where the
racism inherent in the Zionist society.
Hadashot published a poll wherein 84%
of the Israelis questioned agreed to the
killing of the two captives. It is also
noteworthy that the Labor Party did not
deem fit to criticize the Defense Minister
for this matter at a time when it is other-
wise busy gathering ammunition for its
election campaign against the Likud.
The liberal pro-Zionist establish-
ment in the US quickly fell into line with
the whitewash. A New York Times edito-
rial stated: «lsrael has done what
decency requires... Both actions (refer-
ring also to the arrest of Zionist ter-
rorists) help Israel demonstrate that it
can still hear the claims of Arabs for
equal justice.» This is far from the mes-
sage received by the Palestinians. Many
of our people living under occupation
19
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