Gaza kids don't play

Children in Gaza don't play hide 'n seek Photo: AFP

Roy Peled, ynetnews, 03/10/07. According to army, children killed by IDF are part of Palestinian war machine. When Palestinian children are killed in what the IDF refers to as "Qassam-launching sites," the explanation is that "the Palestinians are well aware that those are areas they must not enter." Yet "forbidden areas" have been arbitrarily defined by Israel and attributed to dozens of square kilometers in the Gaza Strip. Contrary to common perception, many Palestinians have no idea where these border lines are. Children who walk around the sand dunes in the afternoon certainly have no idea. And an update: As this article was being published, the IDF investigation showed that the three Palestinian kids who were killed were playing catch. Imagine that. Palestinians? Catch? Children? The surprises just never end.

"Palestinian children are not made up of the same fabric as Israeli children, who at times walk around for fun and at times look for dangerous adventures, mostly due to boredom. When a Palestinian child is killed by the IDF, he certainly did something very wrong.The Palestinians make cynical use of children" – according to the IDF, the children killed in Gaza this past week arrived at the scene for one of two reasons: Either they were part of a particularly young terror cell, or they were sent there by terror groups as human shields.

And an update: As this article was being published, the IDF investigation showed that the three Palestinian kids who were killed were playing catch. Imagine that. Palestinians? Catch? Children? The surprises just never end.

The writer is a member of the Meretz directorate

Parallel lives

Dalia Karpel, Haaretz Magazine excerpts, 06/10/07. Some junior commanders encouraged the brutality and even endorsed it. "After two months in Rafah a [new] commanding officer arrived ... So we do a first patrol with him. It's 6 A.M., Rafah is under curfew, there isn't so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from the combat engineers. We all run with him. He grabbed the boy. Nufar, I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist. Broke his hand at the wrist, broke his leg here. And started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock ... The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers are already starting to do the same thing."

There were some tough soldiers who developed an ideology holding that even minor events necessitated a brutal response. "A 3-year-old kid, he can't throw, he can't hurt you no matter what he does, but a kid of 19 can. With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke everything there. She can't have children. Next time she won't throw clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me I gave her the rifle butt in the face. She doesn't have what to spit with anymore."

An incident that fomented a crisis began when a squad commander from the hard-hearted group maltreated three bound teenagers. A soldier of conscience summoned another squad commander who was a paramedic. He told Yishai-Karin that by the time help arrived the three Palestinian boys were already "completely covered with blood, their clothes were saturated with blood and they were shaking with fear. Their hands were tied and they were afraid to move, they were on their knees."

"Ash'har Company, which was drafted before us, was a deviant, extreme unit at the human level. The absence of supervision from the commanding level left its mark on them, and things they did before we arrived were extreme. Take the story about the boy and the kick to the crotch, for example".

The reality of the situation and the fraternity of fighters prompted some of them to cover up for their friends, even if they stole from homes where they conducted searches or sexually harassed or provoked Arab women. Some of the soldiers were singled out in the study as "prone to being led" - that is, they were swept up in the wake of their officers and buddies - and there were some who had never lifted a hand against anyone before their army service. "The moment the red line is broken, it is not just broken, it is smashed to smithereens, and from that moment everything is permitted," one soldier testified.

His mother said last week: "He matured and changed in the army. I sent a nice kibbutznik and I got back an Arab-hater."

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'Our job was to hit them'

Mohammed al-Dura lives on

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 07/10/07. All of these are tasteless questions [of who killed al-Dura] designed to divert attention from the truly important issues: According to data collected by human rights group B'Tselem, Israel is responsible for killing more than 850 Palestinian children and teenagers since al-Dura was killed, including 92 in the past year alone. Last October, we killed 31 children in Gaza. If Israel were really interested in improving its "public relations," it would embrace the al-Dura family instead of all the foolish investigations. It would provide compensation to the family and show the world that it is truly and sincerely sorry about the death of one child. But even if there is some doubt, it is certain that the IDF has killed and is killing children. So this ridiculous focus on who killed al-Dura, a question that will never be resolved, is no more than a tempest in a putrid teapot. There should be a tempest, a great and mighty one, but one focused on an entirely different issue: Why is the IDF continuing to kill children at such a frightening pace, and why doesn't Israel take responsibility for this and compensate the families of those killed? But no one is conducting "investigations" about this. The concern Israel demonstrates for the fate of one Palestinian boy touches the heart: Again, note what a fuss is being made about the case of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura. Our heart is impervious to the fate of other children who have been killed. Just little Mohammed continues to haunt us. But the question of who killed al-Dura is not important. And maybe he is even alive, as some eccentrics claim. Perhaps he committed suicide, as the strange investigations are liable to suggest. All of these are tasteless questions designed to divert attention from the truly important issues: According to data collected by human rights group B'Tselem, Israel is responsible for killing more than 850 Palestinian children and teenagers since al-Dura was killed, including 92 in the past year alone. Last October, we killed 31 children in Gaza. This is what should have raised a storm and not the measurements by the former head of the Israel Defense Forces' Southern Command, Yom Tov Samiyeh, aimed at proving that his soldiers did not kill al-Dura, or the "investigations" by the physicist Nahum Shahaf. In an eccentric obsession, Shahaf has devoted the past years to this affair, after previously having also obtained "amazing material" on the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. Al-Dura refuses to step down from the stage because he has become an icon of the Palestinian struggle and a symbol of Israeli brutality. A thousand Nahum Shahafs will not succeed in blurring the unequivocal fact that a scandalous killing of children is taking place in the territories. Even if the director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman, is right in determining that the film made by the reliable and experienced French journalist Charles Enderlin was "staged," and even if he succeeds in clearing Israel from responsibility for this killing, what will we say about the other children who have been killed? That their killing was also "staged?" That the IDF did not kill them through carelessness and contempt for their lives; by being trigger-happy and even acting with premeditation? If Israel were really interested in improving its "public relations," it would embrace the al-Dura family instead of all the foolish investigations. It would provide compensation to the family and show the world that it is truly and sincerely sorry about the death of one child. The question of who killed al-Dura is like the question of what Joseph Trumpeldor mumbled before his death. The myth in both cases is already stronger than any investigation. Al-Dura became a symbol because his killing was documented on videotape. All the other hundreds of children were killed without cameras present, so no one is interested in their fate. If there had been a camera in Bushara Barjis' room in the Jenin refugee camp while she was studying for a pre-matriculation test, we would have a film showing an IDF sniper firing a bullet at her head. If there had been a photographer near Jamal Jabaji from the Askar camp, we would see soldiers emerging from an armored jeep and aiming their weapons at the head of a child who threw stones at them. But these children did not become symbols; there are no stamps bearing their portraits, no streets named after them and no songs composed for them as with al-Dura because they were not filmed at the time of their deaths. Al-Dura became a symbol because every struggle needs a symbol, a shrine for the masses of dead and the anonymous heroes. The assumption that the IDF soldiers firing at Palestinians at the Netzarim junction killed the boy cradled in his father's arms exactly seven years ago is the most reasonable one. As far as we can remember, there has been no other case in which Palestinians fired at the IDF and hit a Palestinian child. But even if there is some doubt, it is certain that the IDF has killed and is killing children. So this ridiculous focus on who killed al-Dura, a question that will never be resolved, is no more than a tempest in a putrid teapot. There should be a tempest, a great and mighty one, but one focused on an entirely different issue: Why is the IDF continuing to kill children at such a frightening pace, and why doesn't Israel take responsibility for this and compensate the families of those killed? But no one is conducting "investigations" about this.

Al Mezan Calls for an Impartial Investigation in the Murder Ad-Dura in 2000

Al Mezan, 04.10.07. The Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) claimed yesterday that the video of the murder of the Muhammad Jamal Al-Dura on 30 September 2000 was staged by a cameraman in Gaza. The scene of the killing of the then 11-year-old boy was one of the most moving scenes ever broadcast during the Al Aqsa Intifada; which had started three days before the incident.

The video shows Ad-Dura and his father trying to take cover behind a concrete block while the father trying to protect his son as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire directly at them. The child was killed and the father was moderately injured in this incident. The video shows the child and the father in a desperate situation while neither of them posed any danger on the IOF. The video was broadcast by France 2 TV, and provoked strong condemnation by official and popular levels worldwide at the time.

Based on the GPO's allegations, Israel stripped the credentials of the two journalists who took the footage. The decision was approved, and therefore accepted, by Israel's Prime Minister Office Legal Advisor. The GPO claims that IOF does not bear responsibility for killing the child.

Nevertheless, according to the information and evidences collected by Al Mezan from the field rebut the GPO's allegations. Al Mezan had availed its evidences to an international fact-finding-mission in 2000. The mission encompassed the UN independent expert Professor John Dugard and fifteen experts. Al Mezan invited eyewitnesses and other presented other evidences to the mission, which investigated the perpetration of multiple crimes by IOF in this incident. IOF also targeted an ambulance that tried to help Ad-Dura and his father and killed its driver; 48-year-old Fayiz Saleem Al-Bilbissy.

Twilight Zone / The children of 5767

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 28/09/07. It was a pretty quiet year, relatively speaking. Only 457 Palestinians and 10 Israelis were killed, according to the B'Tselem human rights organization, including the victims of Qassam rockets. Fewer casualties than in many previous years. However, it was still a terrible year: 92 Palestinian children were killed (fortunately, not a single Israeli child was killed by Palestinians, despite the Qassams). One-fifth of the Palestinians killed were children and teens - a disproportionate, almost unprecedented number. The Jewish year of 5767. Almost 100 children, who were alive and playing last New Year, didn't survive to see this one. One year. Close to 8,000 kilometers were covered in the newspaper's small, armored Rover - not including the hundreds of kilometers in the old yellow Mercedes taxi belonging to Munir and Sa'id, our dedicated drivers in Gaza. This is how we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the occupation. No one can argue anymore that it's only a temporary, passing phenomenon. Israel is the occupation. The occupation is Israel.

And this was the year of the children that were killed. We didn't get to all of their homes, only to some; homes of bereavement where parents weep bitterly over their children, who were climbing a fig tree in the yard, or sitting on a bench in the street, or preparing for an exam, or on their way home from school, or sleeping peacefully in the false security of their homes.

A few of them also threw a rock at an armored vehicle or touched a forbidden fence. All came under live fire, some of which was deliberately aimed at them, cutting them down in their youth. From Mohammed (al-Zakh) to Mahmoud (al-Qarinawi), from the boy who was buried twice in Gaza to the boy who was buried in Israel. These are the stories of the children of 5767.

The first of them was buried twice. Abdullah al-Zakh identified half of the body of his son Mahmoud, in the morgue refrigerator of Shifa Hospital in Gaza, by the boy's belt and the socks on his feet. This was shortly before last Rosh Hashanah. The next day, when the Israel Defense Forces "successfully" completed Operation Locked Kindergarten, as it was called, leaving behind 22 dead and a razed neighborhood, and left Sajiyeh in Gaza, the bereaved father found the remaining parts of the body and brought them for a belated burial.

Mahmoud was 14 when he died. He was killed three days before the start of the school year. Thus we ushered in Rosh Hashanah 5767. In Shifa we saw children whose legs were amputated, who were paralyzed or on respirators. Families were killed in their sleep, or while riding on donkeys, or working in the fields. Operation Locked Kindergarten and Operation Summer Rains. Remember? Five children were killed in the first operation, with the dreadful name. For a week, the people of Sajiyeh lived in fear the likes of which Sderot residents have never experienced - not to belittle their anxiety, that is.

The day after Rosh Hashanah we traveled to Rafah. Dam Hamad, 14, had been killed in her sleep, in her mother's arms, by an Israeli rocket strike that sent a concrete pillar crashing down on her head. She was the only daughter of her paralyzed mother, her whole world. In the family's impoverished home in the Brazil neighborhood, at the edge of Rafah, we met the mother who lay in a heap in bed; everything she had in the world was gone. Outside, I remarked to the reporter from French television who accompanied me that this was one of those moments when I felt ashamed to be an Israeli. The next day he called and said: "They didn't broadcast what you said, for fear of the Jewish viewers in France."

Soon afterward we went back to Jerusalem to visit Maria Aman, the amazing little girl from Gaza, who lost nearly everyone in her life to a missile strike gone awry that wiped out her innocent family, including her mother, while riding in their car. Her devoted father Hamdi remains by her side. For a year and a half, she has been cared for at the wonderful Alyn Hospital, where she has learned to feed a parrot with her mouth and to operate her wheelchair using her chin. All the rest of her limbs are paralyzed. She is connected day and night to a respirator. Still, she is a cheerful and neatly groomed child whose father fears the day they might be sent back to Gaza.

For now, they remain in Israel. Many Israelis have devoted themselves to Maria and come to visit her regularly. A few weeks ago, broadcast journalist Leah Lior took her in her car to see the sea in Tel Aviv. It was a Saturday night, and the area was crowded with people out for a good time, but the girl in the wheelchair attracted attention. Some people recognized her and stopped to say hello and wish her well. Who knows? Maybe the pilot who fired the missile at her car happened to be passing by, too.

Not everyone has been fortunate enough to receive the treatment that Maria has had. In mid-November, a few days after the bombardment of Beit Hanoun - remember that? - we arrived in the battered and bleeding town: 22 killed in a moment, 11 shells dropped on a densely packed town. Islam, 14, sat there dressed in black, grieving for her eight relatives that had been killed, including her mother and grandmother. Those disabled by this bombardment didn't get to go to Alyn.

Two days before the shelling of Beit Hanoun, our forces also fired a missile that hit the minibus transporting children to the Indira Gandhi kindergarten in Beit Lahia. Two kids, passersby, were killed on the spot. The teacher, Najwa Khalif, died a few days later. She was wounded in clear view of her 20 small pupils, who were sitting in the minibus. After her death, the children drew a picture: a row of children lying bleeding, their teacher in the front, and an Israeli plane bombing them. At the Indira Gandhi kindergarten, we had to bid good-bye to Gaza, too: Since then, we haven't been able to cross into the Strip.

But the children have come to us. In November, 31 children were killed in Gaza. One of them, Ayman al-Mahdi, died in Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where he had been rushed in grave condition. Only his uncle was permitted to stay with him during his final days. A fifth-grader, Ayman had been sitting with friends on a bench on a street in Jabalya, right by his school. A bullet fired from a tank struck him. He was just 10 years old.

IDF troops killed children in the West Bank, too. Jamil Jabaji, a boy who tended horses in the new Askar refugee camp, was shot in the head. He was 14 when he was killed, last December. He and his friends were throwing rocks at the armored vehicle that passed by the camp, located near Nablus. The driver provoked the children, slowing down and speeding up, slowing down and speeding up, until finally a soldier got out, aimed at the boy's head and fired. Jamil's horses were left in their stable, and his family was left to mourn.

And what did 16-year-old Taha al-Jawi do to get himself killed? The IDF claimed that he tried to sabotage the barbed-wire fence surrounding the abandoned Atarot airport; his friends said he was just playing soccer and had gone to chase after the ball. Whatever the circumstances, the response from the soldiers was quick and decisive: a bullet in the leg that caused him to bleed to death, lying in a muddy ditch by the side of the road. Not a word of regret, not a word of condemnation from the IDF spokesman, when we asked for a comment. Live fire directed at unarmed children who weren't endangering anyone, with no prior warning.

Abir Aramin was even younger; she was just 11. The daughter of an activist in the Combatants for Peace organization, in January she left her school in Anata and was on the way to buy candy in a little shop. She was fired upon from a Border Police vehicle. Bassam, her father, told us back then with bloodshot eyes and in a strangled voice: "I told myself that I don't want to take revenge. Revenge will be for this 'hero,' who was so 'threatened' by my daughter that he shot and killed her, to stand trial for it." But just a few days ago the authorities announced that the case was being closed: The Border Police apparently acted appropriately.

"I'm not going to exploit my daughter's blood for political purposes. This is a human outcry. I'm not going to lose my mind just because I lost my heart," the grieving father, who has many Israeli friends, also told us.

In Nablus, we documented the use of children as human shields - the use of the so-called "neighbor procedure" - involving an 11-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy. So what if the High Court of Justice has outlawed it? We also recorded the story of the death of baby Khaled, whose parents, Sana and Daoud Fakih, tried to rush him to the hospital in the middle of the night, a time when Palestinian babies apparently mustn't get sick: The baby died at the checkpoint.

In Kafr al-Shuhada (the "martyrs' village") south of Jenin, in March, 15-year-old Ahmed Asasa was fleeing from soldiers who had entered the village. A sniper's bullet caught him in the neck.

Bushra Bargis hadn't even left her home. In late April she was studying for a big test, notebooks in hand, pacing around her room in the Jenin refugee camp in the early evening, when a sniper shot her in the forehead from quite far away. Her bloodstained notebooks bore witness to her final moments.

And what about the unborn babies? They weren't safe either. A bullet in the back of Maha Qatuni, a woman who was seven months pregnant and got up during the night to protect her children in their home, struck her fetus in the womb, shattering its head. The wounded mother lay in the Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus, hooked up to numerous tubes. She was going to name the baby Daoud. Does killing a fetus count as murder? And how "old" was the deceased? He was certainly the youngest of the many children Israel killed in the past year.

Happy New Year.

We set out each week in the footsteps of the fighters, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, trying to document the deeds of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, Border Police officers, Shin Bet security service investigators and Civil Administration personnel - the mighty occupation army that leaves behind in its wake horrific killing and destruction, this year as every year, for four decades.

Il dossier sul caso dell’omicidio di Abir Aramin è stato chiuso

Nurit Peled Elhanan, Hawiyya, 10/08/07. I soldati di Israele sono chiamati a sacrificare bambini, genitori, volontari e qualche volta se stessi sull’altare di insolenti e corrotti Capi dello Stato, che sono riusciti a trasformare questo Paese intero in un altare su cui sacrificano i figli di altre persone al dio della morte. Bambini, feti, neonati vengono quotidianamente buttati a sangue freddo nel regno dei bambini morti che cresce ininterrottamente sotto i nostri piedi. E nessuno è colpevole delle loro morti; nessuno viene mai punito per l’assassinio di un bambino palestinese. lo Stato si prende cura di quelli che lo servono, qualche volta. Altre volte sacrifica persino loro, con lo stesso sangue freddo e per le stesse ragioni.

E gli assassini? Che ne è di loro? Sanno di aver commesso dei crimini? Si girano e si rigirano nei loro letti la notte? Sono tormentati dalle immagini dei piccoli corpi che si contorcono e cadono sotto i loro proiettili, bombe e granate? Probabilmente no. Non conosciamo nessun caso in cui qualche soldato si sia costituito ed abbia espresso rimorso per le sue azioni. Questo è il più grande successo del sistema educativo israeliano: la distinzione tra sangue e sangue, tra bambino morto e bambino morto, e inculcare la credenza certa che l’assassinio dei palestinesi e dei loro amici non è un crimine.

Chiunque si arruoli nell’esercito sa questo ed è preparato a questo. Metà della nazione! Quanti milioni ci sono in metà nazione? Quanti milioni di giovani uomini e giovani donne se ne stanno semplicemente impassibili di fronte al pianto di un bambino, all’agonia di una donna in travaglio, agli appelli di un vecchio e alla morte di migliaia di persone innocenti? Quanti milioni di persone non hanno mai imparato a rifiutare ordini così platealmente inumani anche se legali, secondo le leggi razziste del loro Paese, e a dire no ai capi corrotti e ai generali assetati di sangue?

Ben fatto, Forze di Difesa Israeliane! Ben fatto, educazione Ebraica Israeliana, che è riuscita quasi perfettamente ad inculcare i valori del razzismo quasi senza alcuna opposizione.

E se mio figlio Yigal volesse davvero partecipare ai programmi militari che vengono imposti agli studenti delle scuole superiori a partire dal terzo anno, o, Dio non voglia, arruolarsi nell’esercito di occupazione e sevizie, vedrei questo come un tremendo fallimento dell’educazione. Un terribile fallimento del compito materno. E se io non faccio tutto quello che posso per evitare che lui, a diciotto anni, diventi un assassino o un cadavere, so di avere tradito lui e la mia vocazione di madre.

Come è triste arrivare alla constatazione che il numero di quelli che si rifiutano di prestare il servizio militare nell’esercito di occupazione è così basso che di fatto non ha nessuna conseguenza sulla motivazione dei ragazzi israeliani ad indossare l’uniforme della brutalità.

Il professor Stewart Cohen dell’Università di Bar Ilan ci consola dicendo che la “responsabilità” sta nell’aumento del numero degli Ultra-Ortodossi che non prestano servizio e ci informa che l’esercito degli Stati Uniti sarebbe stato felice di un numero di renitenti così basso, durante la guerra del Vietnam. Può darsi che faremmo qualcosa di buono imparando dagli americani degli anni 60, o persino dagli Ebrei Ultra-Ortodossi che temono per la vita dei loro figli.

Quando l’ampiezza del fenomeno di renitenza alla leva divenne noto, sono stata invitata al programma di Oded Shahar, “Politika”, come madre che non permette che suo figlio (che ha ora 15 anni) entri nell’esercito. Esclusa io, venni informata nel corso di una reiterata campagna di persuasione, venivano invitati solo uomini, la maggior parte di loro generali propagandisti della guerra come Effie Eitam e Yossi Peled. Dopo che venni convinta che la mia partecipazione al programma sarebbe stata importante e decisiva, accettai. La ricercatrice mi chiese come mai io non avrei permesso a mio figlio di arruolarsi. Le spiegai che l’esercito, da quarant’anni implicato in sistematiche e crescenti violenze sulla popolazione civile, (violenze che persino il coraggioso giornalista Gideon Levy chiama con il nome stranamente addolcente di “operazioni di polizia”), un esercito che insegna ai suoi soldati che uccidere i bambini palestinesi e quelli che li proteggono come Rachel Corrie e James Miller, non è un crimine, un esercito i cui comandanti sono immuni da qualsiasi punizione nonostante commettano quotidianamente crimini contro l’umanità, non è un luogo adatto a mio figlio, che è stato cresciuto per amare le persone, che ha amici palestinesi, i cui fratelli e genitori hanno amici palestinesi che subiscono lo stesso regime di terrore e di sofferenza quotidiana. Dopo mezz’ora mi è stato detto che nonostante il mio contributo fosse decisivo non c’erano abbastanza posti sul palco.

Pochi giorni dopo in un notiziario ci venne data la notizia solitaria e isolata che il dossier sull’omicidio di Abir Aramin, la figlia di Salwa e Bassam Aramin, era stato chiuso. Bassam è uno dei fondatori del movimento Palestinese-Israeliano, Combattenti per la Pace, di cui sono membri i miei figli Elik e Guy. Bassam Aramin ha passato 9 anni in carcere a causa della sua appartenenza a Fatah nella zona di Hebron e per aver cercato di tirare una granata contro una jeep dell’esercito israeliano, che stava pattugliando nei Territori Occupati. Un martedì pomeriggio, il 16 gennaio 2007, un soldato israeliano ha ucciso sua figlia di 9 anni, Abir, sparandole in testa mentre usciva da scuola per tornare a casa. Il soldato non passerà neanche un’ora in prigione. In Israele i soldati non vanno in prigione per aver ucciso degli Arabi. Mai. Non importa che gli Arabi siano giovani o vecchi, terroristi reali o potenziali, dimostranti pacifici o lanciatori di pietre. L’esercito non ha condotto un’ inchiesta sulla morte di Abir Aramin. Né polizia né tribunale hanno interrogato nessun altro oltre la sorella di Abir, che la teneva per mano quando è caduta. Alla sorella è stato chiesto per molte volte e poi ancora a quanti metri di distanza si trovavano dal cancello della scuola, dal chiosco, dalla jeep? (?!?!) A quanti metri? (?!?!?) Non te lo ricordi? (?!?!?) Non c’è stata alcuna indagine eccetto quella fatta da Bassam e dai suoi amici, che sanno esattamente chi è l’assassino.
Ma poiché le forze di occupazione sono coinvolte, lo sparo non c’è stato. La versione ufficiale dell’esercito sulla sua morte è che potrebbe essere stata colpita da un sasso che una delle sue compagne di classe stava lanciando contro le “nostre forze”. Questo senza tenere in alcun conto i risultati ottenuti da un noto patologo, che ha lavorato per molti anni in un istituto di medicina legale.

Una delle accuse contro i renitenti è che hanno smesso di credere in “valori” come il sacrifico. Il sacrificio di chi, esattamente? Su quale altare? A quale dio? I soldati di Israele sono chiamati a sacrificare bambini, genitori, volontari e qualche volta se stessi sull’altare di insolenti e corrotti
Capi dello Stato, che sono riusciti a trasformare questo Paese intero in un altare su cui sacrificano i figli di altre persone al dio della morte. Bambini, feti, neonati vengono quotidianamente buttati a sangue freddo nel regno dei bambini morti che cresce ininterrottamente sotto i nostri piedi. E nessuno è colpevole delle loro morti; nessuno viene mai punito per l’assassinio di un bambino palestinese. lo Stato si prende cura di quelli che lo servono, qualche volta. Altre volte sacrifica persino loro, con lo stesso sangue freddo e per le stesse ragioni.

E gli assassini? Che ne è di loro? Sanno di aver commesso dei crimini? Si girano e si rigirano nei loro letti la notte? Sono tormentati dalle immagini dei piccoli corpi che si contorcono e cadono sotto i loro proiettili, bombe e granate? Probabilmente no. Non conosciamo nessun caso in cui qualche soldato si sia costituito ed abbia espresso rimorso per le sue azioni. Questo è il più grande successo del sistema educativo israeliano: la distinzione tra sangue e sangue, tra bambino morto e bambino morto, e inculcare la credenza certa che l’assassinio dei palestinesi e dei loro amici non è un crimine.

Chiunque si arruoli nell’esercito sa questo ed è preparato a questo. Metà della nazione! Quanti milioni ci sono in metà nazione? Quanti milioni di giovani uomini e giovani donne se ne stanno semplicemente impassibili di fronte al pianto di un bambino, all’agonia di una donna in travaglio, agli appelli di un vecchio e alla morte di migliaia di persone innocenti? Quanti milioni di persone non hanno mai imparato a rifiutare ordini così platealmente inumani anche se legali, secondo le leggi razziste del loro Paese, e a dire no ai capi corrotti e ai generali assetati di sangue?

Ben fatto, Forze di Difesa Israeliane! Ben fatto, educazione Ebraica Israeliana, che è riuscita quasi perfettamente ad inculcare i valori del razzismo quasi senza alcuna opposizione.

E se mio figlio Yigal volesse davvero partecipare ai programmi militari che vengono imposti agli studenti delle scuole superiori a partire dal terzo anno, o, Dio non voglia, arruolarsi nell’esercito di occupazione e sevizie, vedrei questo come un tremendo fallimento dell’educazione. Un terribile fallimento del compito materno. E se io non faccio tutto quello che posso per evitare che lui, a diciotto anni, diventi un assassino o un cadavere, so di avere tradito lui e la mia vocazione di madre.

Nurit Peled è insegnante, traduttrice, scrittrice e madre israeliana. Attivista per la pace tra Palestina e Israele, nonostante l'assassinio di una sua bambina in un attentato terroristico. Nel 2001 ha ricevuto dal Parlamento europeo il Premio Sakharov per i diritti umani.

(vi ricordiamo l’intervento che Nurit Peled tenne a Siena di cui potete ascoltare l’audio)

tradotto dall’ebraico da Mark Marshall
Originale ebraico: http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=21597
traduzione in inglese: http://www.kibush.co.il/index.asp
traduzione italiana di Cecilia Gabriella Gallia

Bambini di Gaza, l'oltraggio dopo la tragedia. Per loro non ci sarà mai nessun colpevole

Luisa Morgantini Vice Presidente del Parlamento Europeo, Liberazione, 02/09/07. "Troppo tardi per fermare il fuoco''. I tre bambini palestinesi uccisi martedì scorso sono morti dopo che un'unità di terra dell'esercito israeliano ha sparato sostenendo di mirare contro le postazioni di lancio di razzi nei pressi di Beit Hanoun. Avevano tra i 10 e i 12 anni e stavano solo giocando. Oggi Israele ammette l'errore, ma per due giorni ha accusato i miliziani palestinesi di utilizzare i minori come scudi umani a difesa dei lanciatori di Qassam. Invece non è così: sono vittime innocenti. Vittime dell'occupazione e dell'arbitrarietà di Israele, come tantissime altre: dal 2000 ad oggi oltre 800 bambini palestinesi sono stati uccisi dall'esercito israeliano. Per la maggior parte di queste morti non si troverà mai un responsabile: l'oltraggio dopo la tragedia. Le inchieste, spesso, quando ci sono, sono ostacolate con ogni mezzo o vengono insabbiate per garantire un'arrogante impunità all'esercito israeliano, ammazzando una seconda volta quei bambini e rinnovando il dolore di madri, di padri e di tutto il popolo palestinese che assistono impotenti alla distruzione di ogni senso di giustizia e della speranza di dare un volto a chi ha ucciso e continua ad uccidere. Purtroppo la Comunità Internazionale continua a tacere. Non un gesto né una parola sulle morti di civili, donne e bambini in primis, non un'azione efficace per intimare una volta per tutte al Governo israeliano di porre fine a 40 anni di occupazione militare, non una concreta volontà politica di far rispettare la legalità internazionale e far cessare 60 anni di nakba. L'Unione Europea si allinea un po' per ignavia e molto per pressioni su questa linea di silenzio e di conseguente complicità. Credo che gli incontri di Ehud Olmert e Mahmoud Abbas e il dialogo avviato sulle questioni fondamentali per la creazione di due Stati, autonomi e sovrani, siano certamente positivi e debbano continuare. Ma le politiche del Governo israeliano non dimostrano con i fatti la volontà di lavorare per la giustizia e per la pace, continuando invece a costruire il muro dell'Apartheid, a praticare uccisioni mirate, che tanto mirate non sono, la chiusura dei check point, gli arresti arbitrari, la confisca delle terre e la distruzione di tutto e tutti causata dall'occupazione militare, mentre la bandiera palestinese, simbolo della lotta di un popolo per l'indipendenza, è sempre più spesso sostituita da quelle di Hamas e Fatah, con il popolo palestinese che rischia di rimanere sempre più diviso.

Le inchieste, spesso, quando ci sono, sono ostacolate con ogni mezzo o vengono insabbiate per garantire un'arrogante impunità all'esercito israeliano, ammazzando una seconda volta quei bambini e rinnovando il dolore di madri, di padri e di tutto il popolo palestinese che assistono impotenti alla distruzione di ogni senso di giustizia e della speranza di dare un volto a chi ha ucciso e continua ad uccidere.
Come per Abir, 11 anni, figlia di Bassam Aramin, -ex prigioniero politico e ora membro dei Combattenti per la pace, organizzazione di ex attivisti palestinesi e di ex soldati israeliani- assassinata, lo scorso 8 febbraio, da un proiettile che l'ha colpita alla testa, mentre usciva dalla scuola di Anata, Gerusalemme Est. Per le autorità israeliane, smentite dalle evidenze e dagli esami medici, non è sicuro che la bimba sia stata uccisa da un proiettile o da una pietra.

Quelle famiglie in lutto si aggrappano allora disperatamente alla memoria del figlio perduto, ma la povertà di Gaza è tale che spesso non si possiedono videocamere o macchine fotografiche per documentare. Non ci sono filmini che riprendono i primi passi di Yahya Ramdan Abu Ghazala, 10 anni, né di Mahmoud Abu Ghazala, 12 anni, e neanche della cugina Sara, 10 anni. Non ci sono foto digitali scaricate sul computer o sui telefonini ad alleviare -se possibile- lo strazio delle madri. A loro rimangono spesso le immagini immortalate dai fotoreporter di Gaza a tragedia conclusa, quando i corpi dei figli sono già senza vita e i volti ricoperti di sangue. Gaza non è una prigione -come siamo soliti definirla- perché il milione e mezzo di persone che la abitano non sono dei criminali in attesa di scontare una pena, sebbene vengano punite collettivamente e ingiustamente, ma una gabbia senza ossigeno né risorse per la popolazione civile che solo di rado e discrezionalmente viene aperta per introdurre cibo e aiuti sufficienti appena a non farla morire di fame.
La Conferenza Internazionale Onu della Società civile in sostegno della pace israelo-palestinese, ospitata dal Parlamento europeo di Bruxelles il 30 e il 31 agosto, ha suscitato polemiche e una protesta formale da parte delle Autorità israeliane e di alcuni deputati. Ma la Conferenza alla fine si è tenuta ed è stato un importante esempio di democrazia dal basso e partecipazione, in cui associazioni, sindacati, deputati e molti rappresentanti della società civile hanno ribadito il bisogno di una lotta comune per il rispetto della legalità internazionale e ricordato all'Europa e alla Comunità Internazionale che il rispetto dei diritti umani non può e non deve rimanere solo lettera morta.

*Vice Presidente del Parlamento Europeo

Children of war. IDF own words show it doesn't care if it kills children

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 02/09/07. Again children. Five children killed in Gaza in eight days. The public indifference to their killing - the last three, for example, were accorded only a short item on the margins of page 11 in Yedioth Ahronoth, a sickening matter in itself - cannot blur the fact that the IDF is waging a war against children. A year ago, a fifth of those killed in the "Summer Rain" operation in Gaza were children; during the past two weeks, they comprised a quarter of the 21 killed. If, heaven forbid, children are hurt in Sderot, we will have to remember this before we begin raising hell.

The IDF explains that the Palestinians make a practice of sending children to collect the Qassam launchers. However, in this case, the children killed were not collecting launchers. The first two were killed while collecting carob fruit and the next three - according to the IDF's own investigation - were playing tag. But even if we accept the IDF's claim that there is a general trend of sending children to collect launchers (which has not been proven), that should have brought about an immediate halt to firing at launcher collectors.

But the IDF does not care whether its victims are liable to be children. The fact is that it shoots at figures it considers suspicious, with full knowledge - according to its own contention - that they are liable to be children. Therefore, an IDF that fires at launcher collectors is an army that kills children, without any intention of preventing this. This then is not a series of unfortunate mistakes, as it is being portrayed, but rather reflects the army's contempt for the lives of Palestinian children and its terrifying indifference to their fate.

A society that holds ethical considerations in high regard would at least ask itself: Is it permissible to shoot at anyone who is approaching the launchers, even if we know that some of these people may be small children, lacking in judgment, and thus not punishable? Or are we lifting all restraints on our war operations? Even if we accept the IDF's claims that its sophisticated vision devices do not enable them to distinguish between a 10-year-old boy and an adult, the IDF cannot evade its responsibility for this criminal action. Even if we assumed a completely distorted assumption that anyone who goes near the launchers is subject to death, the fact that children are involved should have changed the rules. Add to this the fact that the firing at launcher collectors has not halted the Qassams, or even reduce their number, and you arrive at another chilling conclusion: The IDF shoots at children to wreak vengeance and punish.

No child in Sderot is more secure as a result of this killing. On the contrary.

Anyone who takes an honest look at the progression of events during the past two months will discover that the Qassams have a context: They are almost always fired after an IDF assassination operation, and there have been many of these. The question of who started it is not a childish question in this context. The IDF has returned to liquidations, and in a big way. And in their wake there has been an increase in Qassam firings.

That is the truth, and they are hiding it from us. When Gabi Ashkenazi and Ehud Barak assumed their positions, the reins were loosened. If Barak were a representative of the political right, perhaps a public outcry would have already been sounded against the IDF's wild actions in Gaza. But everything is permitted to Barak, and even the fact that the victims are children does not matter - not to him and not to the Israeli public.

Yes, the children of Gaza gather around the Qassams. It is practically the only diversion they have in their lives. It is their amusement park. Those who arrogantly preach to their parents "to watch over them" have never visited Beit Hanoun. There is nothing there, except for the filthy alleys and meager homes. Even if it is true that those launching the Qassams are taking advantage of these miserable children (which has yet to be proven), this should not shape our moral portrait. Yes, it is permissible to exercise restraint and caution. Yes, it is not always necessary to respond, especially when the response ends up killing children.

The way to stop the firing of Qassams is not through indiscriminate killing. Every launcher can be replaced. The start of the school year bodes ill, for us and for them. Anyone who truly seeks to stop the firing of Qassams should reach a cease-fire agreement with the current government in Gaza. That is the only way and it is possible. The liquidations, the shelling and the killing of children will work in exactly the opposite direction of what is intended. In the meantime, look what is happening to us and to our army.

IDF: Three children killed in Gaza Tuesday were just playing tag

Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, 01/09/07. The three Palestinian children killed in Gaza on Tuesday were only playing near rocket launchers targeted by Israeli troops, and were not connected with the terrorists, an army probe determined Thursday. IDF troops near the Gaza Strip are under orders to fire at rocket launchers only when terrorists approach them. The launchers themselves are easily replaceable and are of little value to the terrorist organizations, so the IDF prefers to target the terrorists who are directing the firing.

Ten-year-old Mahmoud Ghazal and his 12-year-old cousin, Yehiya Ghazal, died immediately. Their 10-year-old cousin Sara Ghazal was critically injured and died later.

The Israel Defense Forces said the children were killed after an army ground unit fired on Qassam launchers in the area. The launchers, which were pointed at Israel, were deployed in fields just outside Beit Hanun, near the Ghazal family's home. According to the IDF, troops detected "unidentified movement and opened fire."

In the initial IDF statement after the incident on Tuesday, the army said it "wishes to express sorrow" for the "use of children in terror attacks," implying that the children had been sent by terrorists to collect the rocket launchers. The military has frequently accused terrorist organizations of using teenagers and children in this fashion.

But the probe, which was launched immediately after the incident, determined that the children were playing tag near the launchers, as revealed by army footage recording the incident. The video reportedly shows the children - who appear as figures whose age cannot be determined - approaching the launchers and then moving back, in a way that could be seen as suggesting that they were loading the launchers with rockets.

The terrain did not allow for direct observation of the area, so the army had to rely on aerial photography. The unit that launched the missile at the children used this visual feed to direct their fire, army sources told Haaretz.

The video does show one of the figures to be a child, army sources said, but this happened so close to the moment of impact that the troops were unable to abort in time.

IDF troops near the Gaza Strip are under orders to fire at rocket launchers only when terrorists approach them. The launchers themselves are easily replaceable and are of little value to the terrorist organizations, so the IDF prefers to target the terrorists who are directing the firing.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Escalate Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian
23-29 August 2008
Territory
Three children from the Abu Ghazala family, who were killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Beit Hanon on 29 August 2007

• 12 Palestinians including 6 Children killed by IOF and a 13^th Dies of previous Wounds.
  
• 33 Palestinians, including 11 children and a mentally ill person, were wounded by IOF gunfire in the OPT.
• Mother and brother of a killed child among the injured.
• IOF conducted 21 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• IOF arrested 30 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and 13 in the Gaza Strip.
• IOF raze 12 Dunums of agricultural land in the southern Gaza Strip.
• IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT, and continues to isolate the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
• Severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to the closure.
• IOF positioned at various checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians, including a woman and a child.
• 1 Gaza resident detained at Erez on his way to Gaza from Ramallah.
• Israeli settlement activity and attacks by Israeli settlers continue:

Summary

IOF escalated violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting period (23 – 29 August 2007):

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed 12 Palestinians including 6 children. Five children were killed in the Gaza Strip in 2 extra-judicial executions. A 13^th Palestinian died of wounds sustained two weeks ago during an incursion into the town of New Abasan in the southern Gaza Strip. 33 Palestinians, including 11 children were injured.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF killed 8 Palestinians, including 5 children, and a 9^th died of wounds sustained two weeks ago during an incursion into the town of New Abasan in the southern Gaza Strip. On 29 August, 3 children were killed in Beit Hanoun by an Israel surface-to-surface missile fired near launchers of locally produced rockets. There were no launching cells in the area at the time, and the children were at a considerable distance from the launching ladders. And on 23 August, IOF killed 2 members of Izzedeen El-Qassam Battalions (the armed wing of Hamas) by a surface-to-surface missile fired near the Palestine Car Market east of Gaza City. On 4 August, IOF used excessive force to kill 2 children east of Jabalia. The children were carrying hand grenades and were shot at a distance of 400 meters away from the border. On 27 August, IOF killed a sheep herder in the village of Wadi Gaza in the center of the Gaza Strip as he was herding his sheep near the border.

A Palestinian civilian was injured on 25 August by shelling of El-Shoka town in the southern Gaza Strip. And on 23 August, 6 Palestinians were injured during an incursion into the town of Khuza’a in the southern Gaza Strip. A mentally-ill civilian was injured by IOF gunfire north of Beit Lahia.

In the West Bank, IOF killed 4 Palestinians and injured 25 others. On 24 August, IOF killed an activist in Al-Quds Battalions (armed wing of Islamic Jihad) and a child in the town of Saida near Tulkarm. The child’s mother and brother were injured in the attack. And on 25 August, IOF conducted an extra-judicial execution of 2 Islamic Jihad activists, killing both and injuring 3 others, in Jenin. Four civilians were injured in Jerusalem when IOF fired sound charges at a dinner in a house in the city. And on 29 August, 14 Palestinians were injured during an incursion into Qalqilya. Finally, 2 demonstrators were injured in the weekly demonstration against the Annexation Wall in the village of Bal’in near Ramallah.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 21 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During those incursions, IOF arrested 46 Palestinian civilians. And in the Gaza Strip, IOF razed 12 dunums of agricultural land in the southern Gaza Strip.

Restrictions on Movement: IOF have continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Gaza Strip

IOF have imposed a strict siege on the Gaza Strip. They have closed its border crossings as a form of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians.

IOF have closed Rafah International Crossing Point, even though they do not directly control it. They have prevented European observers working at the crossing point form reaching it. IOF had already closed Rafah International Crossing Point following an armed attack against an IOF military post in Kerem Shalom area, southeast of Rafah, on 25 June 2006. The crossing point had been partially reopened for short, sporadic periods to allow few numbers of Palestinian to travel through it. The crossing point has been completely closed since Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Palestinian security forces from the crossing point. At least 6,000 Palestinians stuck in Egypt were allowed in the Gaza Strip through El-Ojah – Erez route. According to PCHR’s documentation, 19 Palestinians of those who are stuck in Egypt have died due to the deterioration in their health conditions. This week, IOF allowed 70 Palestinians residing in other countries or studying abroad to travel outside the Strip through Erez – El-Ojeh.

IOF have also closed commercial crossings, especially al-Mentar (Karni) crossing. During the reporting period, IOF reopened the crossing for some hours to allow the entry of some goods into the Gaza Strip. If this closure continues, a humanitarian crisis is likely to emerge in the Gaza Strip. IOF have also continued to close Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are prevented from traveling through this crossing. They prevented traders and patients from passing through. IOF allow very few patients to travel through the crossing, but following coordination through the ICRC. During the reporting period, IOF reopened Kerem Shalom crossing, southeast of Rafah, and Sofa crossing, northeast of the town. During the reporting period, Nahal Ouz crossing, east of Gaza City, which is deigned for the entry of fuels into the Gaza Strip, witnessed active movement.

West Bank

IOF have tightened the siege imposed on Palestinian communities in the West Bank. They have isolated Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Contrary to promises by the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ease restrictions on movement in the West Bank, IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians. IOF also erected more checkpoints on the main roads and intersections in the West Bank. During the reporting period, IOF soldiers positioned at various checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank arrested at least 2 Palestinian civilians. In addition, IOF closed checkpoints surrounding Nablus several times during the week, especially during rush hour traffic.

Settlement Activities: Israeli settlers living in the OPT in violation of international humanitarian law have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. During the reporting period, Israeli settlers from the settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron attacked Palestinian houses near the settlement, damaging the windows of 4 houses.

Israeli Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (23 – 29 August 2007)