arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Resisting the Occupation is not Terror

It seems that the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ariel
Sharon, hasn't learned yet that his plan of killing
the Palestinians, destroying their homes and
infrastructure, terrorizing the children is not
stopping the Palestinian Intifada and will not bring
security to the Israelis. In fact, the current
military operations he is carrying out against the
Palestinians are giving them more reasons to continue
their struggle.

Last night the 9th of March 2002, four suicide attacks
were carried out in Israel. Two Palestinians, Said
El-Bata, and Shadi Nejmeh from Askar and El-Ein
refugee camps in Nablus, and despite all the Israeli
military operations and the vindictive siege forced on
the Palestinian cities and villages, managed to reach
the center of Natanya. With their machine guns
(US-made M-16's) and some homemade bombs, opened fire
on the Israelis there, killing two and injuring 25.

Jerusalem witnessed the same scenario: Fou'ad Ismaile
El-Horani from El-Aroub Refugee camp near Hebron
managed to reach the heart of Jerusalem with
explosives around his body. He blew himself up in a
café in the center of the city, killing 10 people and
injuring 40 others.

Before accusing the Palestinians of being terrorists
and being responsible for the escalation of violence
in the Middle East, everyone should think and search
for reasons why Palestinians do such things. Why do
young men and women blow themselves up? What benefit
do they get? If you have been following what is
really happening on the ground and search for the
roots of this, you'll find the answers. Why wait for
the media to give you a colorful and twisted picture
of what is happening in the Palestinian Occupied Land?

Yes, the main reason for everything that has been
happening is the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
lands.

Occupation Is the Problem. People living under
occupation have the right to resist under
international law and actually it's their duty to
resist. People around the world should be able to
differentiate between terror and resistance. The
Palestinians don't have power like the Israelis do,
they are not the ones bombing homes, killing women,
children, disabled and aged people, using F-16 jet
fighters, Apaches, and tanks, most of which are made
in the US and given to Israeli as per an annual
federal military grant of $2 billion.

The suicide attacks come from a very desperate people
crying for freedom and peace, hoping that the world
will turn to them and say: "Yes, they are humans, not
animals. They have the right to live free and enjoy
some of the rights that will make them feel they are
humans." If you do a case study for each suicide
bomber, you will definitely find a tragic story about
each one.

Many of these have lost family members, loved one, and
friends. Their houses were destroyed; they were kicked
out from their homes. These suicide attacks don't come
because the Palestinians like to kill the Israelis.
The suffering, sorrows and agonies they have been
living in for the last 18 months and since 1967 and
1948 have overweighed every Palestinian heart, until
they finally exploded.

In the last 10 days, over a hundred Palestinians were
killed, and hundreds injured. The people who were
killed are innocent civilians. Many of them are
doctors doing their duties of reaching the injured
people: children, women, disabled and elderly people.
Yesterday, another four people were killed in
Bethlehem area, due to the Israeli invasion:

Nida Suliman El-Azah, 15 years old, lives in El-Azeh
refugee camp. She was shot in the chest while she was
in her home. Israeli soldiers put and end to her life,
hopes of the future and added more pains and suffering
to her family.
Issa Zakari: 20 years old, from Deheisheh refugee
camp. An Israeli bullet in the chest is what he got
when he was sitting in his home with his family trying
to keep safe from the continuous and brutal Israeli
attack on the camp.
Jad Mahmoud Attalah: 25 years old. He's not a
militant; he's not a terrorist. He was killed while
trying to prepare a home made bomb to throw at the
Israeli tanks in case they go into the streets of the
camp, knowing what they will do to innocent people
living there.
Imad El-Sofi: He was injured in the first night of the
Israeli attack on Aida refugee camp. He's a police
officer, the ones who were stopping the Palestinian
armed men from shooting at the Israeli settlement of
Gilo.
In addition to these people who were killed yesterday,
the 9th of March 2002, the Israeli occupation forces
continue their house-to-house search for wanted
people. They are occupying some houses, taking the
families as hostages and human shields, forbidding
them from moving around in their homes to get their
basic needs of food, water, and rest. They turned
these homes into military bases. One of the houses
belongs to Mr. Hussein Elian from the Aida refugee
camp. Mr. Hussein Elian is a blind and elderly man,
and also a Sheikh. After searching his house, they
bombed it with no mercy or respect for this disabled,
aged man.

Not only handicapped are not respected, but also dead
people. Mr. Abu Laban from Deheisheh refugee camp in
Bethlehem, an older man, died in his home from old
age. The family asked the Israelis to allow them to
have a decent funeral for him and bury his body in the
cemetery. The Israeli occupation army, surrounding the
camp with their tanks, refused the family's request.
So they had to bury him in a small yard in front of
his house. Maybe later, when all this is finished, his
family can dig his body out of the ground and have a
decent funeral for him in a cemetery. All this and
more have been going on in the last few days in
Bethlehem area, all due to the Israeli occupation and
attacks on the refugee camps, including the towns of
Beit Jala, El-Doha, and El-Khader.

The only hope for the Palestinians right now is
intervention from the international community, the US,
and the EU, to stop the Israeli attack and terror
against the Palestinians. They should put more
pressure on Ariel Sharon personally and the Israeli
government in general. Otherwise, both people,
Palestinians and Israelis, will suffer more and the
gap between them will grow much bigger, which will
make it more difficult to bring a just peace and
security in the area.