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News :: Israel / Palestine |
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ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES AGGRESSIVELY DESTROYING THE HOMES OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS |
Current rating: 0 |
by susan
(No verified email address) |
24 Nov 2002
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5 homes have been completely destroyed during the last 18 hours in Bethlehem. 150 Palestinian civilians lost their homes this week alone. Over 15 houses demolished in the past 7 days |
ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES AGGRESSIVELY DESTROYING THE HOMES OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
November 24, 2002 - The International Solidarity Movement
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has begun actively and rapidly demolishing the homes of families of martyr bombers throughout the Occupied Territories and the Gaza Strip. 5 homes have been completely destroyed during the last 18 hours in Bethlehem, where the IOF officially announced its intention to stay until all the homes of suicide bombers are destroyed. The situation is not much better in other cities: eight homes were demolished this week in Nablus, Gaza, and Jenin.
The IOF can not justify this barbaric destruction of civilian's homes by saying that it is about "security", as the bomber, the "threat" is already dead, or non-existent. No, this policy is without doubt about an eye for an eye, `teaching them a lesson' as one Israeli commander said, and collective punishment. It is a question of directly targeting a family who probably had little to no idea about the attack until afterwards, and brutally destroying the very little that they may have left, frequently when they are still in mourning.
Why does the world so easily accept the propaganda and media `spin' of suicide bombers without asking the more important, relevant, and revealing questions? For most people it is unquestionably not tolerable to target and kill innocent civilians, and this is why they object or react so negatively to suicide bombers. This same logic
should lead to an uproar about the over 15 houses demolished in the past 7 days, as it also a case of targeting, psychologically destroying civilians, and physically demolishing all that they own.
And that is without even mentioning all the other civilians in each of this cities who have been subjected to outrageous human rights violations daily under the Israeli Occupation; violations that Internationals have documented and can attest to, along with many highly reputable human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.
Why does the world fail to ask more probing questions, work harder to uphold its values, and tolerate less hypocrisy? Why does no one ask what could have possibly happened to a young person to make him or her decide to throw his/her life away? Why does no one ask or come to see what is really going on in this land that could push such a great number of young people to end their lives?
Occupation is about daily humiliation, power, control, and crushing oppression. It is about the destruction of a people, their lands, their traditions, and their hopes. It is about creating a life that is so truly unbearable that a 15 year-old boy, with his whole life ahead of him, could venture off to end everything in an attack because death actually seems like a better alternative. As the IOF continues to commit grave human rights violations daily and systematically oppresses the civilian population, the world remains silent, piping up only for the occasional condemnation of a suicide bomber on the premise that innocent civilians are not legitimate targets in war.
150 Palestinian civilians lost their homes this week alone. These great dichotomies and overall inconsistency lead one to conclude that even the highest ideals, the most essential international laws, and the most inherent, basic human rights, have exceptions, and that the world is anything but just, moral, or decent
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Susan |
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Israeli Army Attacks Christian Worshipers Outside Church Of The Nativity
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New Racist Policies Against Impoverished Gazan Workers |
by It
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
24 Nov 2002
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The Israeli Occupation Authorities has issued new work policies in the 'Eretz industrial zone' in the northern Gaza Strip, which forbid Gazans from wearing shoes, coats or bringing food from home. New racist policies against impoverished Gazan workers
20 November 2002
The Israeli Occupation Authorities has issued new work policies in the 'Eretz industrial zone' in the northern Gaza Strip, which forbid Gazans from wearing shoes, coats or bringing food from home.
The Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot on Wednesday quoted Israeli military sources in Gaza who noted that for laborers in the 'Eretz industrial zone' it was now forbidden to wear shoes or bring in food. For other industrial zones, wearing coats is now forbidden.
These new policies come in the wake of recent comments made by Israeli PM Ariel Sharon to 'ease the suffering' of Palestinians not 'involved in terrorism.' Israeli sources defended these new policies as claiming that it would prevent smuggling of weapons.
Prior to the first Intifada, Gazans used to seek work in Israel. Since the Oslo peace process, Gaza has been completely sealed off - essentially a large prison - with devastating effects on employment and poverty levels there. During this Intifada small workshops, green houses and farm lands have all come under Israeli bombardment. Many Gazans are forced to seek laboring work to survive, essentially becoming a pool of extremely cheap labor for Israeli industrial zones (illegally built in the Occupied Territories) and settlement building.
According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, 84.6% of Gazans live in poverty (measured by income). The World Bank, defining poverty as living under 2USD a day, ntoes that 70% of Gazans live in poverty.
86.1% of Gazans receive humanitarian aid, while 42.1% of all Gazans are totally dependant on food aid. 31.2% of all Gazans suffer from malnutrition. Gaza: 13.2% suffer acute, and 18% suffer chronic, malnutrition.
This new move is a new form of robbing Gazans of their dignity, and carries strong racist overtones.
Israel, as the Occupying power in the Gaza Strip, is obliged to ensure the inviolability of the rights of protected persons in the Occupied Territories. The deliberate denial of access to food and water, impoverishment, starvation and de-development policies contravene Israel's obligations specifically under the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949, including under articles 23 (obligation to allow free passage of consignments of medical and supplies, food and clothing during situations of war/armed conflict), 27 (general obligations); 33 (prohibition against collective punishment); 47 (inviolability of rights of protected persons in occupied territories).
See also:
http://www.lawsociety.org/Press/Preleases/2002/nov/nov20.html |
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Israeli Army Attacks Christian Worshipers Outside Church Of The Nativity |
by iap
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
24 Nov 2002
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Israeli occupation soldiers on Sunday pushed, beat and dragged to the ground Christian worshipers who were on their way to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Israeli army attacks Christian worshipers outside Church of the Nativity
Occupied Jerusalem: 24 November, 2002 (IAP News) - with additional reporting from Hear Palestine)
Israeli occupation soldiers on Sunday pushed, beat and dragged to the ground Christian worshipers who were on their way to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
The Occupation army, which re-occupied the town two days ago, declared the Church and its vicinity, including the Manger Square, a closed military zone.
Some worshipers, however, sought to defy the ban, prompting soldiers to attack and beat them.
Earlier, Israeli troops carried out house-to-house searches throughout the Azza and Ayda refugee camps north west of the town.
A number of homes were occupied and transferred into military observation points. The Israeli army confiscated a 4-story residential building and forced dozens of people into one room. A mosque and school in the refugee camp were also raided.
Witnesses in the refugee camp reported that Israeli soldiers forced everyone out in the cold and rain for several hours.
Eyewitnesses said soldiers beat and terrorized residents including children and vandalized their furniture.
In some instances, Israeli soldiers reportedly pointed their M-16 rifles toward kids as young as five- years- old.
The occupation army also reportedly detained dozens of young Palestinians at the two camps on suspicion of supporting the resistance.
So far, Zionist forces dynamited at least six homes in the Bethlehem area alone in the past 72 hours, rendering six large families homeless.
The Israeli occupation army continues to impose a curfew on Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, al-Doha, al-Khader, Irtas and the three refugee camps, Deheishe, al-Azza and Ayda.
The occupation army occupied a Palestinian police station in Tqou's Village, southeast Bethlehem, at dawn today. The workers in the building were forced out after they were held for a long period of time. Witnesses reported an intense Israeli military presence and a campaign of brutal home raids and searches in the village.
On another front, the occupation army confiscated today around 17 dunums (1dunum=1000m2) of agricultural land in al-Jaba'a Village, west of Bethlehem. According to the Land Defense Committee, the piece of land was confiscated for the benefit of the Israeli electricity company.
One of the landowners said they were shocked when they were prevented from reaching their land today by one of the company's officials who informed them that their land was confiscated.
Since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada against Jewish domination and apartheid, the Israeli army demolished more than 3000 Palestinian homes, forcing more than 25,000 men, women and children into homelessness.
The harsh measure is considered a war crime under international law. However, the United States, Israel's guardian ally, has always sought to shield Israel from international condemnation by vetoing Security Council resolutions condemning the Zionist regime. |
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