Mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other. The noblest among you in God's sight is the one who best performs his duty; God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Qur'an, 49:13)
PREFACE:
A CALL TO THE ISRAELIS
During the time while this book was being written, the Middle East was once again the scene of conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israeli army have been ruthlessly bombing civilian settlements, shooting children, and trying to make the already tormented Occupied Territories more uninhabitable. Some Palestinian radicals, on the other hand, are attacking Israeli civilian targets and spreading violence with their terrible suicide bombings aimed at innocent women and children.
As Muslims, our heartfelt wish is for the anger and hatred on both sides to die down, for the bloodshed to stop, and for peace to come to both lands. We oppose both the Israeli killing of innocent Palestinians and the radical Palestinians bombing of innocent Israelis.
In our view, the most important condition for this ongoing conflict to end and for real peace to be established is for both sides to acquire and then implement a genuine and honest understanding of their respective beliefs. The conflict between these two peoples has assumed the form of a "religious war" between Jews and Muslims, though, in fact there is absolutely no reason for there to be such a war. Both Jews and Muslims believe in God, love and respect many of the same prophets, and possess the same moral principles. They are not enemies; rather, they are allies in a world in which atheism and the hatred of religion are widespread.
Based on this fundamental principle, we call on the Israelis (and all Jews) to realize the following facts:
1) Muslims and Jews believe in one God, the Creator of the universe and all things therein. We are all God's servants, and to Him shall we all return. So why hate each other? The holy books we believe in are superficially different but in essence the same, for they come from the same God. Therefore we all abide by them. So why should we fight one another?
2) Instead of living along with Muslims, would the observant Jews prefer to live along with atheists or pagans? The Torah is full of passages describing the terrible cruelties inflicted upon the Jews by pagans. The terrible genocide and cruelty inflicted upon them by atheists and unbelievers (e.g., the Nazis, anti-Semitic racists, or such communist regimes as Stalin's Russia) are clear for all to see. These atheist or pagan forces hated the Jews, and thus oppressed them, because they believed in God. Are not Jews and Muslims on the same side against these atheist, communist, or racist forces that hate them both?
3) Muslims and Jews love and respect many of the same prophets. The Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham), Ishaq (Isaac), Yusuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), or Dawud (David), peace be upon them all, are at least as important for Muslims as they are for Jews. The lands where these holy figures lived and served God are at least as holy for Muslims as they are for Jews. So why drown these lands in blood and tears?
4) The fundamental values of Jews are also sacred to us Muslims. The word "Israel" is the name of Prophet Ya'qub (Jacob), peace be upon him, who is praised in the Qur'an and remembered with great respect by Muslims. The Magen David (Star of David), a symbol associated with King David is a holy symbol for us too. According to Qur'an 22:40, Muslims must protect synagogues because they are places of worship. So why should members of the two religions not live together in peace?
Jews and Muslims believe in the same God. Israeli soldiers who are true believers must not forget that God has forbidden the killing of innocent people and the use of violence and cruelty, and has ordered us to be tolerant, understanding, and peaceful.
Palestine is home to many Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy places. All true believers must see that love, mercy, and peace take the place of blood, tears, and animosity in this region.
5) The Torah commands Jews to establish peace and security, not to occupy the lands of others and spill blood. The people of Israel are described as "a light unto the nations" in the Torah. As the "Rabbis for Human Rights" declare:
We are told: "Justice, justice, you shall pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20). Why is the word justice said twice? Because, according to our tradition, one is to pursue a just cause by just means. In defending ourselves, we must always hold on to the prophetic vision of decency and humanity. The survival of the Jewish people will be determined not only by its physical acumen, but also, by its moral steadfastness.1
If the Israelis continue to treat the Palestinians as they do now, they may be unable to account for that to God. Similarly, those Palestinians who kill innocent Israelis may also be unable to account for those murders. Is it not a duty in the eyes of God to put an end to the fighting, which is dragging both sides deeper into unending violence?
We invite all Jews to consider these facts. God commands us Muslims to invite Jews and Christians to a "common formula":
Say: "O People of the Book! Let us rally to a common formula to be binding upon both us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; and that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than God." (Qu'ran, 3:64)
This is our call to the Jews, a People of the Book: As people who believe in God and obey His commands, let us come together in a common formula of "faith." Let us love God, the Lord and Creator of all of us. Let us abide by His commands. Let us pray to God to lead us further on the path of righteousness. Let us bring love, compassion, and peace to each other and the world, not hostility, bloodshed, and anguish.
That is where the solution to the Palestinian tragedy and other conflicts in the world lies. The deaths and suffering of so many innocent people remind us every day what an urgent task this is.
Palestinian Muslims, sincere Jews, and Christians all want peace and security to replace this seemingly unending conflict. All of them are praying together for this.
How Can the Palestinian Issue Be Resolved?
Jerusalem, a place holy to the three monotheistic religions, should be a city in which people can worship together in peace.
By using the principles of tolerance and moderation outlined above, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has caused so much bloodshed over the last 50 years, can be solved. In our view, establishing peace depends upon two conditions:
1) Israel must immediately withdraw from all the territories it occupied during the 1967 war and end the resulting occupation. That is an obligation under international law, various U.N. Security Council resolutions, and mere justice itself. All of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must be recognized as belonging to an independent State of Palestine.
2) East Jerusalem, the site of significant places of worship belonging to three divinely revealed religions, must be administered by the Palestine authority. However, it must have a special status and be turned into a city of peace that all Jews, Christians, and Muslims can visit comfortably, in peace and well-being, and where they can worship in their own sanctuaries.
When these conditions are fulfilled, both Israelis and Palestines will have recognized each other's right to live, shared the land of Palestine, and solved the contentious question of Jerusalem's status in a way that satisfies the adherents of these three religions.
In the upcoming pages of the book, we will deal with and analyze the history of the Palestinian issue based upon our view outlined above. Our hope is that the constant hostility of the last 50 years or so, as well as the resulting prejudice, killing, and slaughter, will come to an end; that the Palestinian people can secure a homeland that can provide them with the peace, security, and well-being they deserve; and that Israel will abandon its policy of aggression and occupation, which wrongs its own people as well as the Palestinians, so that it will be able to live in peace with its neighbours within its legal pre-1967 borders.
INTRODUCTION
Palestine broke free from Ottoman rule after the First World War with the help of the invading British army, but could never achieve the state of peace and security that it had enjoyed under the Ottomans. Over the course of nearly a century, thousands of innocent people have been killed by Israeli terror, massacres, and torture. Millions of innocent Palestinians have been forced from their homes and their homeland and sentenced to live in poverty, at the brink of starvation, in refugee camps. All efforts to solve this oppression and cruelty, played out before the world's eyes, and to build a sustainable regional peace have failed. The phony peace initiatives carried out under the auspices of Western governments have proven to be of no use, other than to buy time for Israel to carry out new tactics for depopulating the territories it occupied.
First of all, we must realize that the events in Palestine are much more than merely a ware between Arabs and Israelis. A struggle for existence is being waged by the Palestinians, whose lands and rights were removed forcibly by occupying Israeli forces. What is more, the lands in question contain sites that are sacred to Muslims. Palestine is very important to Muslims because of Jerusalem, the Muslims' first qibla, and the site of the Prophet Mohammed's miraculous mi'raj (night journey). Furthermore, Palestine is sacred not only to Jews and Muslims, but to Christians as well. For these reasons, it is folly to try and keep Palestinian lands, Jerusalem in particular, under the authority of an exclusively nationalist political entity or to recognize the rights of only one religious or national group. Palestine must be a land where Jews, Christians, and Muslims can live together in peace and fulfill their religious duties as they wish.
A merciless struggle continues today between the two peoples living in the land of Palestine. On the one hand, the well-equipped Israeli army is carrying out a policy of all-out destruction; on the other, radical Palestinian groups are carrying out suicide bombings against helpless Israeli citizens. This book will discuss the grave error of trying to solve existing problems through violence, and how a real solution might be devised.
Here one important fact must not be ignored - the Palestinians are being subjected to cruelty and humiliation while the entire world watches. While Palestinian civilians daily find themselves the targets of Israeli soldiers' bullets, while millions of people spend many years in hunger and poverty in refugee camps, while many Muslims (including women) are tortured in Israeli prisons, there are grave responsibilities incumbent upon all Muslims who believe in God and fear the Day of Judgment. The first responsibility is to fight the racist, intolerant, Social Darwinistic ideologies that form the basis of all unfairness and injustice in the world.
As you read these lines, know that the struggle of thousands of beleaguered Palestinians to remain on their lands continues in all of its violence. The occupying Israeli forces may be bombing Palestinian cities or refugee camps. Possibly, children will be going to school under helicopter fire, and families who were forced to flee over 50 years ago will still be trying to scratch out an existence in the refugee camps. In any part of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or Jerusalem, Palestinians today will endure oppression and cruelty mostly because they are "Muslim."
For these reasons, every person of conscience must reflect upon this situation. The responsibility of following media stories about this cruelty and barbarism, and then continuing to live as if nothing has happened, no doubt will be a heavy burden to bear. In fact, the Qur'an tells us that each person who has faith and who adheres to his or her conscience is responsible to struggle on behalf of those who have been oppressed:
What reason could you have for not fighting in the Way of God - for those men, women, and children who are oppressed and say: "Our Lord, take us out of this city whose inhabitants are wrongdoers! Give us a protector from You! Give us a helper from You!" (Qur'an, 4:75)
The responsibility borne by those who hear this command and wish to rush to the aid of those experiencing cruelty is that explained by: "Let there be a community among you who call to the good, enjoin the right, and forbid the wrong. They are the ones who have success" (Qur'an, 3:104). This responsibility is to invite all people to believe in God and experience the beauty of religious morality, and to wage an intellectual struggle against all ideologies that are hostile to God's religion and the Qur'an's ethics.
JEWS AGAINST ISRAELI TERRORISM
This book does not oppose and criticize Judaism or Jews, but rather the racist Zionist ideology and its defenders. All the tragedy that has happened - and continues to happen - in Palestine is traceable to the application of the Zionist ideology by its leaders. It is Zionism that causes the Israeli army to fire rockets on children playing in schoolyards; sprays bullets on women harvesting their gardens' crops; and makes torture, violence, and skirmishes daily parts of Palestinian life.
Author Israel Shahak approaches Jewish history from a different point of view in his classic work Jewish History, Jewish Religion, and the Weight of Three Thousand Years.
Throughout the world today, quite a few intellectuals, politicians, and historians oppose Zionism. Various Christian and Jewish thinkers and authors condemn it and the Israeli governments' Zionist policies, as do various academics in Israeli universities such as the late Israel Shahak or Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, who criticize Israeli violence directed against Palestinians and who maintain that peace can be acheived only when Israel forsakes its Zionist ideology. Noam Chomsky, himself a Jew, has written many books and articles that are highly critical of Zionism and the policies of those countries that support it.
A group of Jewish academics, the self-proclaimed "new historians," has been exposing the "sacred lies" embedded in official Israeli policy, and the truths associated with them, since the early 1980s. Its members, namely, Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Tom Segev, Baruch Kimmerling, Simha Flappan, and Joel Miqdal, are provoking strong reactions from Jews with Zionist leanings. They deal with the following "sacred lies": Arabs are racially inferior to Jews, Israel is a small country trying to survive in a region surrounded by enemies, all Palestinians are terrorists who want to destroy Israel, and these crazy terrorists deserve every kind of retaliation. Tom Segev, for example, one of the most prominent of these "new historians," has this to say of Israel's "official" history: "Until very recently, we did not have real history in this country; we had mythology."2 This just criticism, once offered only by Muslim academics and scholars, is now being expressed more loudly by many Jewish and Christian academics who are attempting to evaluate history in an unbiased manner.
These people, having witnessed the horrors of the Zionist ideology, see it as yet another of the colonialist ideologies founded in nineteenth-century racism. They give no credence to the myth that Israel is "a small and lonely country, surrounded by enemies who want to destroy it." To the contrary: Israel, through its actions, has proven to be a violent country that follows a policy of oppression and aggression.
Gideon Levy, a writer for Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper, defends the decipherement of the "sacred lies" in his review of Professor Benny Morris' book Correcting a Mistake: Jews and Arabs in Palestine/Israel, 1936-1956. After reading the details of the Zionist terror described in the book, and substantiated through eyewitness testimony and secret recordings, Levy wrote:
A majority of Israeli children begin learning Zionist ideology at a very young age. The ideology's racist interpretations have a very negative effect upon them.
Oh, we were so good (and did so many bad things). We were so right (and caused so many injustices). We were so beautiful (and our actions resulted in so much ugliness). And oh, we were so innocent and spread so many lies - lies and half-truths that we told ourselves and the rest of the world. We, who were born afterward, weren't told the whole truth; they only taught us the good parts, of which there were many. But, after all, there were also dark chapters which we heard nothing about.3
Israel Shahak, a Polish-born Jewish chemistry professor who spent 40 years in Israel and passed away in 2001, criticizes Israel's Zionist anti-human rights policies. In his book Jewish History, Jewish Religion, and the Weight of Three Thousand Years, Shahak describes the extent to which Zionism constitutes a threat to humanity:
In my view, Israel as a Jewish state constitutes a danger not only to itself and its inhabitants, but to all Jews and to all other peoples and states in the Middle East and beyond.4
Ilan Pappe, who says of himself "I am the most hated Israeli in Israel," is a famous Jewish academic who shares the views of the new historians. When asked in an interview why Israelis fail to notice the cruelty done to Palestinians, the answer he gives is quite thought-provoking:
It is the fruits of a very long process of indoctrination starting in the kindergarten, accompanying all Jewish boys and girls throughout their life. You don't uproot easily such an attitude which was planted there by a very powerful indoctrination machine, giving a racist perception of the other, who is described as primitive, almost non-existing, hostile -- he is hostile, but the explanation given is that he was born primitive, Islamic, anti-Semite, not that someone has taken his land.5
But these thinkers, strategists, and writers have more in common than just their opposition to Zionism. The most important common denominator between them is that each has been accused of anti-Semitism. Anyone who has used historical facts and documents about events occuring in Palestine and then written an article or book criticizing Zionism has been accused of being anti-Semitic. The latest example is the British television channel BBC. The crew members who were preparing a documentary about the 1982 massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, as well as the station directors who broadcast it, were accused of anti-Semitism by the Israeli government.
This, actually, is a technique used by Zionists and pro-Zionists for slandering and neutralizing those who criticize Zionism. Zionists have even devised a term to slander such Jews: "self-hating Jew." This term also is used to describe Jews who criticize Israel, aiming to present them as traitors suffering from some psychological dilemma. Zionists who make such claims, no doubt, seek to sabotage the work of their opponents.
In fact, such race-based accusations, especially when leveled at Muslims, are groundless and illogical, for no Muslim, due to his or her beliefs, can defend any racist thought or viewpoint. Indeed, this is borne out by history. The Islamic world has never seen anything like the medieval European practices of the Inquisition, which grew out of religious fanaticism, and the more recent outbreaks of anti-Semitism (born of racist beliefs) in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Nazi Germany. The clash between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, which continues until this day, is the result of some Jews' adherence to Zionism's racist and anti-religious ideology, not of the actions of Muslims.
Israeli Soldiers Refusing To Serve in Occupied Territory
Following the 1967 war, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, one of Israel's leading intellectuals, warned that Israel must withdraw from the Occupied Territories in order to stop the bloodshed. He wrote that the only way to avert destruction from the Israelis might be for 500 soldiers stationed in the Occupied Territories to have the courage to say "we don't want to serve here" and to withdraw.6
In the days when the al-Aqsa Intifada (starting from September 2000) and the Israeli retaliation were growing more and more violent, a group of Israeli soldiers acted upon his proposal. In mid-January 2002, approximately 25 soldiers signed an open letter to the Israeli press reporting that they were refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. This refusal was not without precedent, for during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, a smaller group of soldiers had refused to serve in the Israeli army, saying that they did not want to be part of the genocide being perpetrated against Lebanese civilians. The actions of these soldiers, later called Yesh Gvul (There is a Limit), culminated with their imprisonment. Those soldiers who made their public statement in January 2002 did not face any punitive sanctions yet, and as of February 2002, their numbers had reached 250. Moreover, this time they received a great deal of support from peace groups, non-governmental organizations, religious leaders, and ordinary Israelis and Palestinians.
In their statement, the soldiers contend that the Israeli army has acted brutally and mercilessly toward the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, that what is happening there violates human dignity, and that, furthermore, it has nothing to do with defending Israel. They continue: "We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve, and humiliate an entire people." In his statement to an Israeli newspaper, a signatory named Shuki Sadeh explains how he witnessed Israeli soldiers open fire on Palestinian children. He explains how he felt at the time: "What angered me at the time was that our soldiers said: 'Well, that's another Arab who has disappeared.' "
Ariel Shatil, an artillery master sergeant recalled that while it is claimed that the Palestinians shoot first and Israelis just respond, in reality, "We would start shooting and they would fire back." In a brochure that they prepared to warn their colleagues who continued to serve in the region, the soldiers stated:
When you take part in extrajudicial killings ("liquidation," in the army's terms), when you take part in demolishing residential homes, when you open fire at unarmed civilian population or residential homes, when you uproot orchards, when you interdict food supplies or medical treatment, you are taking part in actions defined in international conventions (such as the 4th Geneva Convention) and in Israeli law as war crimes.7
A soldier named Asaf Oron, who took a long time to decide not to serve, reports that he witnessed extremely brutal practices while serving in the region. He explains what he experienced and what he sees as the solution:
Already on the bus ride to the Gaza strip, the soldiers were competing with each other: whose "heroic" tales of murderous beatings during the Intifada were better (in case you missed this point: the beatings were literally murderous: beating to death)...
As time went by, as the level of insanity, hatred, and incitement kept rising, as the generals were turning the Israeli Defense Forces into a terror organization... And then I discovered that I was not alone … we all believe in God... We believe that there is no room for the tribal code, that the tribal code simply camouflages idolatry, an idolatry of a type we should not cooperate with. Those who let such a form of idol worship take over will end up as burnt offerings themselves.8
An Excerpt from the Soldiers' Open Letter
We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.
We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF's human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.
We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense.
The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose - and we shall take no part in them.
Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Views on Israel
One very strong criticism from within the Jewish community against Israeli policies has come from Prof. Jonathan Sacks, Britain's Chief Rabbi. In aninterview, published in The Guardian on August 27, 2002, Sacks sternly criticized Israel, arguing that the country was adopting a stance "incompatible" with the deepest ideals of Judaism, and that the current conflict with the Palestinians was "corrupting" Israeli society.
Sacks, who became the chief rabbi of Britain's Orthodox Jews in 1991, and who has been the leader of a Jewish community of 280,000 in the country, is known as a loyal supporter of Israel and a veteran who has worked for the establishment of peace in the region. "I regard the current situation as nothing less than tragic. It is forcing Israel into postures that are incompatible in the long run with our deepest ideals" said Sacks. He added that "there are things that happen on a daily basis which make me feel very uncomfortable as a Jew." He went on to say that he was "profoundly shocked" at the reports of Israeli soldiers smiling while posing for photographs with the corpses of slain Palestinians.a
The chief Rabbi's denouncement of Israeli savagery in the name of Judaism reminds us an important fact: It is not permitted for either a true Muslim or a true Jew to shed innocent blood. All divine religions forbid violence, war, and unjust murder, and command peace and the helping to those in need.
Jonathan Sacks also noted that Israelis, who have lived centuries in dispersion, should very well understand the plight of Palestinians:
You cannot ignore a command that is repeated 36 times in the Mosaic books: 'You were exiled in order to know what it feels like to be an exile.' I regard that as one of the core projects of a state that is true to Judaic principle. b
In the same interview, Sacks also answered the questions about a secret meeting he held in 2000 with Abdullah Javadi-Amoli, one of the highest-ranking clerics of Iran, during a conference of religious leaders, and noted, interestingly:
We established within minutes a common language, because we take certain things very seriously: we take faith seriously, we take texts seriously. It's a particular language that believers share. c
The chief rabbi Sacks' words are an example of the peaceful dialogue that must be established between Muslims and Jews (and, of course, Christians). All three faiths have enjoined justice, honesty, the rescue of the oppressed, and peace and love. The adherents of all the three faiths believe in God, love the same prophets; there should be no hostility between them.
a Jonathan Freedland, "Israel Set On Tragic Path, Says Chief Rabbi", The Guardian, August27, 2002 b Jonathan Freedland, "Israel Set On Tragic Path, Says Chief Rabbi", The Guardian, August27, 2002c Jonathan Freedland, "Israel Set On Tragic Path, Says Chief Rabbi", The Guardian, August27, 2002
(Top) RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 18.2.02PEACE REVOLT IN THE ARMYThe revolt among Israeli soldiers refusing to go to the Occupied Territories is growing. The country's best-known military family has joined the ranks of those saying, "The occupation is debasing us."The refusal of some Israeli soldiers to serve in the Occupied Territories resonated in the Western media. Many newspapers and magazines reported upon their protest. While The Nation approached this issue under the headline "An Antiwar Movement Grows in Israel," the Houston Chronicle used one of the soldiers' own words to lead its piece: "Israeli soldier: My moral objection to occupation." On the web site that the soldiers have started to bring their voices to the world, they encourage sincere Jews to avoid violence and animosity, because these have been forbidden by God. (http://www.seruv.org.il/YahadutEng.asp)
(Left) AKIT - Turkish Daily, 23.5.01EVEN JEWS OPPOSE THE OCCUPATIONThe campaign in Israel against Jewish settlements has slowly begun growing in influence. The latest polls have revealed that 61% of the public support the halting of settlement construction. The figure was 55% in the previous poll.The illegal settlements established on Palestinian land have been protested not only by Muslims, but by Christians and Jews as well. The demonstrations shown above, as well as others, were dispersed violently by Israeli forces. The Israeli government's practices are being criticized not only by Palestinian Muslims, but also by peace-loving Jews all over the world, who arrange frequent protests.
Ghada Karmi: "I am a Palestinian Arab. I was born in Jerusalem. Palestine is my homeland. But I cannot return there." Location: Israeli Embassy, London 1973
Ellen Siegel: "I am an American Jew. I was born in the U.S.A. Israel is not my homeland. But I can 'return' there." Location: Israeli Embassy, London 1992
The Islamic View of the Jews
Every Muslim feels a natural and legitimate response to the Zionist practice of terror upon Palestinians. However, it is necessary here, as in all matters, to stand for justice and act without prejudice. Every Muslim is obligated to prevent the cruel or unjust treatment of innocent Jews, even as he or she opposes Zionist Jews.
Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, is contrary to the morals of Islam. Muslims should oppose every type of genocide, torture, and cruelty, and do not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, or ethnicity. Muslims should not approve of the slightest unjust attack against Jews, nor against any other race, but rather condemn it. The Qur'an condemns those who sow discord, treat others cruelly, and murder innocent people. Thus, legitimate opposition to Zionism must never take the form of blanket enmity toward Jews.
As we read in the Qur'an, God considers it a thing of beauty that humanity is composed of many peoples. However, such racist ideologies as Zionism prevent people of different races, languages, and religions from living together in peace.
At the same time, other examples of racism (i.e., toward black Africans) are also deviations resulting from superstition and various ideologies outside the divinely revealed religions. Such deviations defend varieties of thought and social models that contrast starkly with the morals of the Qur'an. At the root of anti-Semitism are feelings of hatred, violence, and mercilessness. The Qur'an, on the other hand, teaches humility, love of others, compassion, and mercy. It commands Muslims to be just, and, if necessary, forgiving, even to their enemies: "O you who believe! Show integrity for the sake of God, bearing witness with justice. Do not let hatred for a people incite you into not being just. Be just. That is closer to faith. Heed God (alone). God is aware of what you do." (Qur'an, 5: 8) Moreover, "if someone kills another person - unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing corruption in the earth - it is as if he had murdered all mankind" (Qur'an, 5:32).
For this reason, the murder of even one innocent person is a crime that cannot be understated.
The reason for different races and peoples on Earth is not to cause strife or war, but rather to display variety, which is the beauty of God's creation and a cultural bounty. People's physical differences are of no importance to God, and all Muslims know very well that the only superiority is that of godliness. God states this truth in the following verse:
Mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other. The noblest among you in God's sight is the one of you who best performs his duty. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Qur'an, 49:13)
Just as the Qur'an does not distinguish among races and ethnicities, people of different faiths are encouraged to live in peace and harmony within the same community. Another basic Qur'anic teaching is that people should not be sentenced as a group because they belong to a certain race, people, or religion. There are good and bad people within each community;this is a fact which the Qur'an points out. For example, after explaining that part of the People of the Book is rebellious toward God and religion, God mentions the following exception in the Qur'an:
They are not all the same. There is a community among the People of the Book who are upright. They recite God's Signs throughout the night, and they prostrate. They believe in God and the Last Day, enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and compete in doing good. They are among the righteous. You will not be denied the reward for any good thing you do. God is aware of the heedful. (Qur'an, 3:113-115)
As a result, given that Muslims fear God and consider the criteria of the Qur'an, they cannot harbor hostility toward the Jews on religious grounds. For this reason, our examination of the clash between the Israelis and the Palestinians is undertaken with this point in mind. It is not directed against Jews and Judaism, but against the Zionist ideology that has steered some of their leaders to form and maintain a racist, violent government.
HISTORY OF THE JEWS
As indicated earlier, all Palestinian land - particularly Jerusalem - are sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The reason for this is that most of the prophets God sent to warn people spent part or all of their lives on this land.
According to historical studies based on archeological excavations and sacred texts, Prophet Ibrahim, his sons, and a small number of people who followed him first migrated to Palestine - known then as Canaan - in the nineteenth century bce. The Qur'anic commentaries (tafsir) indicate that Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him, thought to have lived in the Palestinian area known today as Al-Khalil (Hebron), settled there with Prophet Lut (Lot). The Qur'an reports of his migration as follows:
We said: "Fire, be coolness and peace for Ibrahim!" They desired to trap him, but We made them the losers. We delivered both him and Lut to the land which We had blessed for all beings. (Qur'an, 21:69-71)
This region, described as "the land which We had blessed," is mentioned in various Qur'anic commentaries as referring to the land of Palestine.
Before Ibrahim, peace be upon him, the Canaanite (Palestinian) people were idolaters. He convinced them to abandon their idolatry and recognize the one and only God. According to historical sources, he settled his wife Hajar and his son Isma'il (Ishmael) in Mecca and its surroundings, while another wife, Sara, and his second son Ishaq (Isaac) stayed in Canaan. Likewise, the Qur'an mentions that Prophet Ibrahim settled some of his sons in the vicinity of al-Bayt al-Haram, which, according to the Qur'anic commentaries, is located in the valley of Mecca.
Our Lord, I have settled some of my offspring by Your Sacred House in an uncultivated valley. Our Lord, let them perform prayer. Make the hearts of mankind incline towards them and provide them with fruits, so that hopefully they will be thankful. (Qur'an, 14:37)
However, Ishaq's son Ya'qub (Jacob) emigrated to Egypt during his son Yusuf (Joseph)'s royal appointment. (Ya'qub's sons also are remembered as the "Children of Israel.") After Yusuf's release from prison and appointment as the head of the Egyptian treasury, the Children of Israel lived in peace and security in Egypt.
Somehow, their condition changed over time, and Pharoah treated them with great cruelty. God made Musa (Moses) His prophet during this period, and ordered him to lead them out from Egypt. He went to Pharaoh, asked him to give up his pagan beliefs and to surrender to God, and to free the Children of Israel also called Israelites. But Pharaoh was a cruel and savage tyrant. He had enslaved the Children of Israel, working them almost to death, and then ordered the execution of male children. Continuing his cruelty, he responded hostilely towards Musa. To prevent his own followers - actually his sorcerers - from believing in Musa, he threatened to cut their alternate hands and feet.
Following the death of Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), the Children of Israel endured great cruelty at the hands of Pharaoh.
Although Pharaoh refused permission, Musa, peace be upon him, and his people fled Egypt, with the help of God's miracles, in approximately 1250 bce. They settled in the Sinai Peninsula and in eastern Canaan. In the Qur'an, Musa commands the Children of Israel to enter Canaan:
My people, enter the Holy Land, which God has ordained for you. Do not turn back in your tracks and so become transformed into losers. (Qur'an, 5:21)
After Musa, peace be upon him, the Israelites continued to live in Canaan (Palestine). Again according to historians, Dawud (David) became the Israelis' king and created a powerful kingdom. During the reign of his son Sulayman (Solomon), Israel's borders extended from the Nile River in the south to the Euphrates River in today's Syria to the north. This was a magnificent period for the Israelite kingdom in many fields, particularly architecture. In Jerusalem, Sulayman had a magnificent palace and temple built. After his death, God sent many more prophets to the Children of Israel, though in most cases they did not listen to them and rebelled against God.
Those who disbelieve filled their hearts with fanatical rage - the fanatical rage of the Time of Ignorance - and God sent down serenity to His Messenger and to the believers, and bound them to the expression of guarding against evil which they had most right to and were most entitled to. God has knowledge of all things. (Qur'an, 48:26)
As a result of their degeneracy, the Israelite kingdom dissolved and was occupied by various idolatrous peoples, and the Israelites, also known as Jews at the time, were enslaved once again. When Palestine was occupied by the Roman Empire, Prophet 'Isa (Jesus), peace be upon him, came and once again invited the Children of Israel to forsake their pride, superstitions, and rebelliousness and to live according to God's religion. Very few Jews believed in him; most of the Children of Israel denied him. And, as the Qur'an reports, they were: "Those among the tribe of Israel who disbelieved were cursed on the tongue Dawud and that of 'Isa, son of Maryam." (Qur'an, 5:78) After some time, God plagued the Jews with the Romans, who drove all of them out of Palestine.
Our reason for this lengthy explanation is to show that the Zionists' fundamental contention that "Palestine is the land God promised to the Jews" is not true. This topic will be examined in more detail in the chapter on Zionism.
Zionism interprets the concepts of "chosen people" and "promised land" through a racist lense. According to this claim, everyone descended from the Jews is "chosen" and owns "the promised land." However, race has no value in the sight of God, for what is important is godliness and righteousness. In God's eyes, the chosen ones are those who continue to follow the religion of Ibrahim, no matter what their race may be.
The Qur'an also emphasizes this fact. God announces that Ibrahim's heirs are not the Jews who boast of being "children of Ibrahim," but the Muslims who live according to his religion:
The people with the strongest claim to Ibrahim are those who followed him and this Prophet [Muhammad], and those who believe. God is the Protector of believers. (Qur'an, 3:68)
THE MUSLIM OBSERVER, 9.2001 W.REPORT, JULY 96 While Jews opposed to Zionism openly defy the Israeli government, fanatical Jews take the view: "The Promised Land is for the Chosen People. For good. For keeps. Forever." On a cover of Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, fanatical Jews are pictured carrying signs with this slogan. Due to such mistaken ideas, they behave cruelly toward their captive population of Palestinian Christians and Muslims.
MUSLIM PALESTINE
Since the beginning of Islamic history, Palestine, and the city of Jerusalem in particular, has been sacred to Muslims. In contrast to Jews and Christians, Muslims have made their regard for the sacredness of Palestine an opportunity to bring peace to the region. In this chapter, we will address some historical examples of this fact.
'Isa (Jesus), one of the prophets sent to the Jews, marks another important turning point in Jewish history. The Jews rejected him, and then were driven from Palestine and subjected to great misfortunes. His followers became to be known as Christians. However, the religion that is called Christianity today would be founded by another man, called Paul (Saul of Tarsus). He added his own personal vision of Jesus into the original teaching and formulated a new doctrine in which Jesus was not defined as a prophet and messiah - as he was - but as a divine figure. After two and a half centuries of dispute among the Christians, Paul's teaching turned into the doctrine of Trinity. It was a distortion of the teaching of Jesus and his early followers. After this, God revealed the Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, so that he could teach Islam - the religion of Abraham, Moses and Jesus - to all of humanity.
Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims for two reasons: it is the first qibla that Muslims faced during their ritual prayers, and it is the site of what is considered to be one of the greatest miracles performed by the Prophet Muhammad: the mi'raj, the night journey from al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, his ascent through the heavens, and his return to al-Masjid al-Haram. The Qur'an recounts this event as follows:
Glory be to Him who took His servant on a journey by night from the Masjid al-Haram to the Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. (Qur'an, 17:1)
In the Qur'anic accounts of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, most of the relevant verses refer to Palestine as being "blessed, holy lands." Verse 17:1 describes the site upon which the Masjid al-Aqsa is located as the land "whose surroundings We have blessed." In verse 21:71, which describes the exodus of Prophets Ibrahim and Lut, the same lands are referred to as "the land which We had blessed for all beings." At the same time, Palestine as a whole is important to Muslims because so many Jewish prophets lived and fought for God, sacrificed their lives, or died and were buried there.
Thus, it is no wonder that, in the past 2,000 years, Muslims have been the only power to bring peace to Jerusalem and Palestine.
Caliph Umar Brings Peace and Justice to Palestine
Qubbat as-Sakhrah
After Rome expelled the Jews out of Palestine, Jerusalem and its environs became abandoned.
However, Jerusalem once again became a center of interest after the Roman Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity (312). Roman Christians built churches in Jerusalem, and transformed it into a Christian city. Palestine remained Roman (Byzantine) territory until the seventh century, when it became part of the Persian Empire for a short time. Eventually, the Byzantines reclaimed it.
The year 637 represents an important turning point in Palestine's history, for after this it came under Muslim control. This event brought peace and harmony to Palestine, which for centuries had been the scene of wars, exile, looting and massacre. Moreover, every time it changed hands, which was rather frequent, it witnessed new brutalities. Under Muslim rule, however, its inhabitants, regardless of their beliefs, would live together in peace and harmony.
Palestine was conquered by Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph. When he entered Jerusalem, the tolerance, maturity, and kindness he showed to the area's inhabitants, regardless of their religion, marked the beginning of a beautiful new age. A leading British commentator on religion Karen Armstrong describes the capture of Jerusalem by Umar in these terms in her book Holy War:
The Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem mounted on a white camel, escorted by the magistrate of the city, the Greek Patriarch Sophronius. The Caliph asked to be taken immediately to the Temple Mount and there he knelt in prayer on the spot where his friend Mohammed had made his Night Journey. The Patriarch watched in horror: this, he thought, must be the Abomination of Desolation that the Prophet Daniel had foretold would enter the Temple; this must be Antichrist who would herald the Last Days. Next Omar asked to see the Christian shrines and, while he was in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for Muslim prayer came round. Courteously the Patriarch invited him to pray where he was, but Omar as courteously refused. If he knelt to pray in the church, he explained, the Muslims would want to commemorate the event by erecting a mosque there, and that would mean that they would have to demolish the Holy Sepulchre. Instead Omar went to pray at a little distance from the church, and, sure enough, directly opposite the Holy Sepulchre there is still a small mosque dedicated to the Caliph Omar.
The other great mosque of Omar was erected on the Temple Mount to mark the Muslim conquest, together with the mosque al-Aqsa which commemorates Mohammed's Night Journey. For years, the Christians had used to the site of the ruined Jewish Temple as the city rubbish dump. The Caliph helped his Muslims to clear the garbage with his own hands and there Muslims raised their two shrines to establish Islam in the third most holy city in the Islamic world.9
In short, Muslims brought civilization to Jerusalem and all of Palestine. Instead of holding beliefs that showed no respect for other peoples' sacred values and killing people simply because they followed a different faith, Islam's just, tolerant, and moderate culture brought peace and harmony to the region's Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities. Muslims never resorted to campaigns of forced conversions, although some non-Muslims who saw that Islam was the true religion did convert of their own free will.
This peace and harmony lasted as long as Muslims ruled in the region. However, at the end of the eleventh century, an external conquering force from Europe entered the region and plundered the civilized land of Jerusalem with a barbarity and savagery that had never been seen there before. These invaders were the Crusaders.
The Crusaders' Savagery and Saladin's Justice
The Crusaders captured Jerusalem after a five-week siege, and proceeded to loot the city's treasures and slaughter its Jews and Muslims.
While Palestine's Jews, Christians, and Muslims were living together in peace, the Pope decided to organize a crusade. Following Pope Urban II's call on 27 November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, more than 100,000 Europeans set out for Palestine to "free" the Holy Land from the Muslims and find the fabled wealth of the East. After a long and wearying journey, and much plundering and slaughter along the way, they reached Jerusalem in 1099. The city fell after a siege of nearly 5 weeks. When the Crusaders moved in, they carried out a savage slaughter. All of Jerusalem's Muslims and Jews were put to the sword.
In the words of one historian: "They killed all the Saracens and the Turks they found ... whether male of female."10 One of the Crusaders, Raymond of Aguiles, boasted of this violence:
Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted ... in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.11
Saladin (Salah ud-Din al-Ayyubi), who defeated the Crusaders in the battle of Hattin, was noted in historical sources for his justice, courage, and honorable character.
In 2 days, the Crusader army killed some 40,000 Muslims in the barbaric manner just described.12 The peace and harmony in Palestine, which had lasted since Umar, ended in a terrible slaughter.
The Crusaders made Jerusalem their capital and established a Latin Kingdom stretching from Palestine to Antioch. But their rule was short-lived, for Saladin gathered all of the Muslim kingdoms under his banner in a holy war and defeated the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin in 1187. After this battle, the two leaders of the Crusader army, Reynald of Chatillon and King Guy, were brought into Saladin's presence. He executed Reynald of Chatillon, who had become infamous for the terrible savagery he had committed against Muslims, but let King Guy go, as he had not committed similar crimes. Palestine once again saw the true meaning of justice.
Three months after Hattin, and on the very same day that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had been taken from Mecca to Jerusalem for his night journey through the heavens, Saladin entered Jerusalem and freed it from 88 years of Crusader occupation. In contrast to the Crusaders' "liberation" of Jerusalem, Saladin did not touch one Christian in the city, thereby turning aside their fear that they would all be massacred. He merely ordered all Latin (Catholic) Christians to leave Jerusalem. The Orthodox Christians, who were not Crusaders, were allowed to stay and worship as they chose.
Karen Armstrong describes the second capture of Jerusalem in these words:
On 2 October 1187 Saladin and his army entered Jerusalem as conquerors and for the next 800 years Jerusalem would remain a Muslim city. Saladin kept his word, and conquered the city according to the highest Islamic ideals. He did not take revenge for the 1099 massacre, as the Qur'an advised (16:127), and now that hostilities had ceased he ended the killing (2:193-194). Not a single Christian was killed and there was no plunder. The ransoms were deliberately very low ... Saladin was moved to tears by the plight of families who were rent asunder and he released many of them freely, as the Qur'an urged, though to the despair of his long-suffering treasurers. His brother al-Adil was so distressed by the plight of the prisoners that he asked Saladin for a thousand of them for his own use and then released them on the spot... All the Muslim leaders were scandalised to see the rich Christians escaping with their wealth, which could have been used to ransom all the prisoners… [The Patriarch] Heraclius paid his ten-dinar ransom like everybody else and was even provided with a special escort to keep his treasure safe during the journey to Tyre.13
In short, Saladin and his army treated the Christians with great mercy and justice, and showed them more compassion than their own leaders had.
When King Richard I of England captured the Castle of Acre, he massacred the Muslims. The painting below depicts the executions of hundreds of Muslim captives. Their corpses and severed heads piled up beneath the platform.
After Jerusalem, the Crusaders continued their barbarity and the Muslims their justice in other Palestinian cities. In 1194, Richard the Lionheart, who is portrayed as a great hero in British history, had 3,000 Muslims, among them many women and children, treacherously executed in the Castle of Acre. Although the Muslims witnessed this savagery, they never resorted to similar methods. Rather, they abided by God's command: "Let not the hatred of a people (who once) obstructed you from the Sacred Mosque lead you to transgress..." (Qur'an, 5:2) and never used violence against innocent civilians. In addition, they never used violence unnecessarily, not even against the defeated Crusader armies.
Crusader savagery and Muslim justice once more revealed a historic truth: An administration built upon the principles of Islam allowed people of different faiths to live together. This fact continued to be demonstrated for 800 years after Saladin, particularly during the Ottoman period.
The Ottoman Empire's Just and Tolerant Rule
After Sultan Selim's conquest of Jerusalem and its environs in 1514, a 400-year period of peace and security began on Palestinian lands.
In 1514, Sultan Selim captured Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and some 400 years of Ottoman rule in Palestine began. As in other Ottoman states, this period would enable Palestine to enjoy peace and stability despite the fact that adherents of three different faiths were living alongside each other.
The Ottoman Empire was administered by the "nation (millet) system," the fundamental feature of which was that people of different faiths were allowed to live according to their own beliefs and legal systems. Christians and Jews, which the Qur'an calls the People of the Book, found tolerance, security, and freedom in Ottoman lands.
The most important reason for this was that, although the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state administered by Muslims, it had no desire to force its citizens to adopt Islam. On the contrary, it sought to provide peace and security for non-Muslims and to govern them in such a way that they would be pleased with Islamic rule and justice.
Other major states at the same time had far more cruder, oppressive, and intolerant systems of government. Spain could not tolerate the existence of Muslims and Jews on Spanish soil, two communities on which it inflicted great violence. In many other European countries, Jews were oppressed just for being Jews (e.g., they were forced to live in ghettoes), and were sometimes the victims of mass slaughter (pogroms). Christians could not even get along with each another: the fighting between Protestants and Catholics during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries turned Europe into a bloody battlefield. The Thirty Years War (1618-48) was one result of this conflict. As a result of that war, central Europe became a battleground, and in Germany alone, 5 million people (one-third of the population), perished.
In contrast to these brutalities, the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim states established their rule upon the Qur'anic commands of tolerant, just and humane administration. The reason for the justice and civilization displayed by Umar, Saladin, the Ottoman sultans, and many Muslim rulers, which is accepted by the West today, was due to their faithfulness to the Qur'anic commands, some of which are as follows:
God commands you to return to their owners the things you hold on trust and, when you judge between people, to judge with justice. How excellent is what God exhorts you to do. God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Qur'an, 4:58)
O you who believe, be upholders of justice, bearing witness for God alone, even against yourselves or your parents and relatives. Whether they are rich or poor, God is well able to look after them. Do not follow your own desires and deviate from the truth. If you twist or turn away, God is aware of what you do. (Qur'an, 4:135)
Studies of Palestine during the late Ottoman period reveal an advanced level of welfare, trade, and industry throughout the region.
God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just. (Qur'an, 60:8)
If two parties of the believers fight, make peace between them. But if one of them attacks the other unjustly, fight the attackers until they revert to God's command. If they revert, make peace between them with justice and be even-handed. God loves those who are even-handed. (Qur'an, 49:9)
There is a phrase used in politics such that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This means that everyone who acquires political power becomes somehow morally corrupted by the ensuing opportunities. This really applies to most people, because they shape their morality according to social pressure. In other words, they avoid immorality because they are afraid of society's disapproval or punishment. Authority grants them power, however, and decreases the importance of these social pressures upon them. As a result, they become corrupt or find it ever more easy to compromise their own morality. If they possess absolute power (and thereby become dictators), they may try to satisfy their own desires in any way.
The Ottomans brought peace, stability, and civilization to all the lands they conquered. One can still find fountains, bridges, inns, and mosques from the Ottoman period throughout Palestine. (Left) Herogate, 16th century(Right) Khan al-Umdan
The only human examples to which the law of corruption does not apply is people who sincerely believe in God, embrace religion out of fear and love of Him, and live according to that religion. Given that their morals are not defined by society, not even the most absolute form of power can affect them. God states in a verse:
Those who, if We establish them firmly in the land, will perform prayer and pay charity tax, and command what is right and forbid what is wrong. The end result of all affairs is with God. (Qur'an, 22:41)
In the Qur'an, God presents Dawud, peace be upon him, as an example of the ideal ruler, explains how he judged with justice between those who came to ask for his judgment and how he prayed with complete submission to God. (Qur'an, 38:24)
The Ottomans brought peace, order, and tolerance everywhere they went.
The history of Islam, which reflects the morality that God teaches Muslims in the Qur'an, is full of just, merciful, humble, and mature rulers. Since Muslim rulers fear God, they cannot behave in a corrupt, proud, or cruel manner. Of course there were Muslim rulers who became corrupt and departed from Islamic morality, but they were exceptions to and deviations from the norm. Thus Islam proved to be the only belief system that has produced a just, tolerant, and compassionate form of government for the last 1,400 years.
The land of Palestine is a testament to Islam's fair and tolerant governance, and bears the influence of many different faiths and ideas. As reported earlier, the governments of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, Umar, Saladin, and the Ottoman sultans were such that even non-Muslims consented to them. This period of fair administration lasted until the twentieth century when, with the end of Muslim rule in 1917, the region was plunged into chaos, terror, bloodshed, and war.
Jerusalem, the center of three religions, experienced the longest period of stability in its history under the Ottomans, when peace, abundance, and prosperity reigned there and throughout the empire. Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and their various denominations, worshipped as they pleased, honored their own beliefs, and followed their own customs and traditions. This was possible because the Ottomans ruled with the belief that bringing order, justice, peace, prosperity, and tolerance to their lands was a sacred obligation.
Many historians and political scientists have drawn attention to this fact. One of them is Columbia University's world-famous Middle East expert Professor Edward Said. Originally from a Christian family of Jerusalem, he continues his research at American universities, far from his homeland. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, he recommended resurrecting the "Ottoman nation system" if a permanent peace is to be built in the Middle East. In his own words,
A Jewish minority can survive the way other minorities in the Arab world survived… it worked rather well under the Ottoman Empire, with its millet system. What they had then seems a lot more humane than what we have now.14
Indeed, Palestine never witnessed another "humane" administration once Ottoman rule ended. Between the two world wars, the British crushed the Arabs with their divide-and-conquer strategy and simultaneously empowered the Zionists, who would later prove antagonistic even to them. Zionism incurred the Arabs' wrath, and, from the 1930s on, Palestine became the scene of clashes between the two groups. Zionists formed terrorist groups to fight the Palestinians, and, shortly thereafter, began attacking the British as well. Once Britain threw up its hands and abandoned its mandate over the region in 1947, the clashes turned into war and the Israeli occupation and massacres (which continue to this day) began in earnest.
In order for the region to enjoy "humane" rule once again, Jews must abandon Zionism and its goal of a "Palestine exclusively for the Jews," and accept the idea of sharing the land with Arabs on equal terms. Arabs, for that matter, must abandon such un-Islamic goals as "driving Israel into the sea" or "putting all Jews to the sword," and accept the idea of living together with them. According to Said, this means reviving the Ottoman system, which is the only solution that will allow the region's people to live in peace and harmony. This system may create an environment of regional peace and security, just as it did in the past.
In the last chapter, we will examine the details of this solution. But before we do so, let's revisit the past to examine the chaos and cruelty that engulfed Palestine after Muslim rule ended.
TURKIYE - Turkish Daily, 15.4.95WE MISS THE OTTOMANSThe Arab world longs for the days when civilization, tolerance and justice prevailed.
TURKIYE - Turkish Daily, 7.01.96LEWIS: THE MIDDLE EAST IS LOOKING FOR A LEADER
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 30.8.01THE OTTOMAN SOLUTION FOR JERUSALEMThe plan for a solution to the Jerusalem problem, drawn up by Turkey on the basis of the policies implemented in the region by the Ottomans regarding the status of Jerusalem at a time when the Middle East peace process is going through its most difficult times, has been welcomed by the Palestinians, while Israel is uneasy at the suggestion.
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 8.10.01
TAKING THE OTTOMANS AS A MODELHP Chairman Fiorina says, "The 600-year empire was the cement of peace."Many of today's politicians and historians contend that the Ottoman model is an extremely important example of how the Middle East problem might be solved.
AKSAM-Turkish Daily, 8.11.01NOSTALGIA FOR THE OTTOMANS IN THE WESTAs the West seeks a solution to the conflicts in various parts of the world, it longs for the might of the Ottoman Empire.
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 10.11.01THE WESTERN WORLD LOOKS TO THE OTTOMANSAs the West seeks a solution to the conflicts in various parts of the world, it longs for the might of the Ottoman Empire.
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 10.11.01THE WESTERN WORLD LOOKS TO THE OTTOMANSThe West, unable to find a solution to the conflicts in different parts of the world, longs for the might of the Ottoman Empire. This view was expressed in a report aired by the American news agency Associated Press. VIOLENCE ROSE AFTER THE OTTOMANS LEFTThe violent events in the last century which began when the British forced the Ottomans out of the region led to the Palestinians suffering colonization, exile and occupation. The Israeli people, on the other hand, have never been able to live in security.
Since the beginning of Islamic history, Palestine, and the city of Jerusalem in particular, has been sacred to Muslims. In contrast to Jews and Christians, Muslims have made their regard for the sacredness of Palestine an opportunity to bring peace to the region. In this chapter, we will address some historical examples of this fact.
'Isa (Jesus), one of the prophets sent to the Jews, marks another important turning point in Jewish history. The Jews rejected him, and then were driven from Palestine and subjected to great misfortunes. His followers became to be known as Christians. However, the religion that is called Christianity today would be founded by another man, called Paul (Saul of Tarsus). He added his own personal vision of Jesus into the original teaching and formulated a new doctrine in which Jesus was not defined as a prophet and messiah - as he was - but as a divine figure. After two and a half centuries of dispute among the Christians, Paul's teaching turned into the doctrine of Trinity. It was a distortion of the teaching of Jesus and his early followers. After this, God revealed the Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, so that he could teach Islam - the religion of Abraham, Moses and Jesus - to all of humanity.
Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims for two reasons: it is the first qibla that Muslims faced during their ritual prayers, and it is the site of what is considered to be one of the greatest miracles performed by the Prophet Muhammad: the mi'raj, the night journey from al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, his ascent through the heavens, and his return to al-Masjid al-Haram. The Qur'an recounts this event as follows:
Glory be to Him who took His servant on a journey by night from the Masjid al-Haram to the Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. (Qur'an, 17:1)
In the Qur'anic accounts of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, most of the relevant verses refer to Palestine as being "blessed, holy lands." Verse 17:1 describes the site upon which the Masjid al-Aqsa is located as the land "whose surroundings We have blessed." In verse 21:71, which describes the exodus of Prophets Ibrahim and Lut, the same lands are referred to as "the land which We had blessed for all beings." At the same time, Palestine as a whole is important to Muslims because so many Jewish prophets lived and fought for God, sacrificed their lives, or died and were buried there.
Thus, it is no wonder that, in the past 2,000 years, Muslims have been the only power to bring peace to Jerusalem and Palestine.
Caliph Umar Brings Peace and Justice to Palestine
Qubbat as-Sakhrah
After Rome expelled the Jews out of Palestine, Jerusalem and its environs became abandoned.
However, Jerusalem once again became a center of interest after the Roman Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity (312). Roman Christians built churches in Jerusalem, and transformed it into a Christian city. Palestine remained Roman (Byzantine) territory until the seventh century, when it became part of the Persian Empire for a short time. Eventually, the Byzantines reclaimed it.
The year 637 represents an important turning point in Palestine's history, for after this it came under Muslim control. This event brought peace and harmony to Palestine, which for centuries had been the scene of wars, exile, looting and massacre. Moreover, every time it changed hands, which was rather frequent, it witnessed new brutalities. Under Muslim rule, however, its inhabitants, regardless of their beliefs, would live together in peace and harmony.
Palestine was conquered by Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph. When he entered Jerusalem, the tolerance, maturity, and kindness he showed to the area's inhabitants, regardless of their religion, marked the beginning of a beautiful new age. A leading British commentator on religion Karen Armstrong describes the capture of Jerusalem by Umar in these terms in her book Holy War:
The Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem mounted on a white camel, escorted by the magistrate of the city, the Greek Patriarch Sophronius. The Caliph asked to be taken immediately to the Temple Mount and there he knelt in prayer on the spot where his friend Mohammed had made his Night Journey. The Patriarch watched in horror: this, he thought, must be the Abomination of Desolation that the Prophet Daniel had foretold would enter the Temple; this must be Antichrist who would herald the Last Days. Next Omar asked to see the Christian shrines and, while he was in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for Muslim prayer came round. Courteously the Patriarch invited him to pray where he was, but Omar as courteously refused. If he knelt to pray in the church, he explained, the Muslims would want to commemorate the event by erecting a mosque there, and that would mean that they would have to demolish the Holy Sepulchre. Instead Omar went to pray at a little distance from the church, and, sure enough, directly opposite the Holy Sepulchre there is still a small mosque dedicated to the Caliph Omar.
The other great mosque of Omar was erected on the Temple Mount to mark the Muslim conquest, together with the mosque al-Aqsa which commemorates Mohammed's Night Journey. For years, the Christians had used to the site of the ruined Jewish Temple as the city rubbish dump. The Caliph helped his Muslims to clear the garbage with his own hands and there Muslims raised their two shrines to establish Islam in the third most holy city in the Islamic world.9
In short, Muslims brought civilization to Jerusalem and all of Palestine. Instead of holding beliefs that showed no respect for other peoples' sacred values and killing people simply because they followed a different faith, Islam's just, tolerant, and moderate culture brought peace and harmony to the region's Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities. Muslims never resorted to campaigns of forced conversions, although some non-Muslims who saw that Islam was the true religion did convert of their own free will.
This peace and harmony lasted as long as Muslims ruled in the region. However, at the end of the eleventh century, an external conquering force from Europe entered the region and plundered the civilized land of Jerusalem with a barbarity and savagery that had never been seen there before. These invaders were the Crusaders.
The Crusaders' Savagery and Saladin's Justice
The Crusaders captured Jerusalem after a five-week siege, and proceeded to loot the city's treasures and slaughter its Jews and Muslims.
While Palestine's Jews, Christians, and Muslims were living together in peace, the Pope decided to organize a crusade. Following Pope Urban II's call on 27 November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, more than 100,000 Europeans set out for Palestine to "free" the Holy Land from the Muslims and find the fabled wealth of the East. After a long and wearying journey, and much plundering and slaughter along the way, they reached Jerusalem in 1099. The city fell after a siege of nearly 5 weeks. When the Crusaders moved in, they carried out a savage slaughter. All of Jerusalem's Muslims and Jews were put to the sword.
In the words of one historian: "They killed all the Saracens and the Turks they found ... whether male of female."10 One of the Crusaders, Raymond of Aguiles, boasted of this violence:
Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted ... in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.11
Saladin (Salah ud-Din al-Ayyubi), who defeated the Crusaders in the battle of Hattin, was noted in historical sources for his justice, courage, and honorable character.
In 2 days, the Crusader army killed some 40,000 Muslims in the barbaric manner just described.12 The peace and harmony in Palestine, which had lasted since Umar, ended in a terrible slaughter.
The Crusaders made Jerusalem their capital and established a Latin Kingdom stretching from Palestine to Antioch. But their rule was short-lived, for Saladin gathered all of the Muslim kingdoms under his banner in a holy war and defeated the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin in 1187. After this battle, the two leaders of the Crusader army, Reynald of Chatillon and King Guy, were brought into Saladin's presence. He executed Reynald of Chatillon, who had become infamous for the terrible savagery he had committed against Muslims, but let King Guy go, as he had not committed similar crimes. Palestine once again saw the true meaning of justice.
Three months after Hattin, and on the very same day that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had been taken from Mecca to Jerusalem for his night journey through the heavens, Saladin entered Jerusalem and freed it from 88 years of Crusader occupation. In contrast to the Crusaders' "liberation" of Jerusalem, Saladin did not touch one Christian in the city, thereby turning aside their fear that they would all be massacred. He merely ordered all Latin (Catholic) Christians to leave Jerusalem. The Orthodox Christians, who were not Crusaders, were allowed to stay and worship as they chose.
Karen Armstrong describes the second capture of Jerusalem in these words:
On 2 October 1187 Saladin and his army entered Jerusalem as conquerors and for the next 800 years Jerusalem would remain a Muslim city. Saladin kept his word, and conquered the city according to the highest Islamic ideals. He did not take revenge for the 1099 massacre, as the Qur'an advised (16:127), and now that hostilities had ceased he ended the killing (2:193-194). Not a single Christian was killed and there was no plunder. The ransoms were deliberately very low ... Saladin was moved to tears by the plight of families who were rent asunder and he released many of them freely, as the Qur'an urged, though to the despair of his long-suffering treasurers. His brother al-Adil was so distressed by the plight of the prisoners that he asked Saladin for a thousand of them for his own use and then released them on the spot... All the Muslim leaders were scandalised to see the rich Christians escaping with their wealth, which could have been used to ransom all the prisoners… [The Patriarch] Heraclius paid his ten-dinar ransom like everybody else and was even provided with a special escort to keep his treasure safe during the journey to Tyre.13
In short, Saladin and his army treated the Christians with great mercy and justice, and showed them more compassion than their own leaders had.
When King Richard I of England captured the Castle of Acre, he massacred the Muslims. The painting below depicts the executions of hundreds of Muslim captives. Their corpses and severed heads piled up beneath the platform.
After Jerusalem, the Crusaders continued their barbarity and the Muslims their justice in other Palestinian cities. In 1194, Richard the Lionheart, who is portrayed as a great hero in British history, had 3,000 Muslims, among them many women and children, treacherously executed in the Castle of Acre. Although the Muslims witnessed this savagery, they never resorted to similar methods. Rather, they abided by God's command: "Let not the hatred of a people (who once) obstructed you from the Sacred Mosque lead you to transgress..." (Qur'an, 5:2) and never used violence against innocent civilians. In addition, they never used violence unnecessarily, not even against the defeated Crusader armies.
Crusader savagery and Muslim justice once more revealed a historic truth: An administration built upon the principles of Islam allowed people of different faiths to live together. This fact continued to be demonstrated for 800 years after Saladin, particularly during the Ottoman period.
The Ottoman Empire's Just and Tolerant Rule
After Sultan Selim's conquest of Jerusalem and its environs in 1514, a 400-year period of peace and security began on Palestinian lands.
In 1514, Sultan Selim captured Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and some 400 years of Ottoman rule in Palestine began. As in other Ottoman states, this period would enable Palestine to enjoy peace and stability despite the fact that adherents of three different faiths were living alongside each other.
The Ottoman Empire was administered by the "nation (millet) system," the fundamental feature of which was that people of different faiths were allowed to live according to their own beliefs and legal systems. Christians and Jews, which the Qur'an calls the People of the Book, found tolerance, security, and freedom in Ottoman lands.
The most important reason for this was that, although the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state administered by Muslims, it had no desire to force its citizens to adopt Islam. On the contrary, it sought to provide peace and security for non-Muslims and to govern them in such a way that they would be pleased with Islamic rule and justice.
Other major states at the same time had far more cruder, oppressive, and intolerant systems of government. Spain could not tolerate the existence of Muslims and Jews on Spanish soil, two communities on which it inflicted great violence. In many other European countries, Jews were oppressed just for being Jews (e.g., they were forced to live in ghettoes), and were sometimes the victims of mass slaughter (pogroms). Christians could not even get along with each another: the fighting between Protestants and Catholics during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries turned Europe into a bloody battlefield. The Thirty Years War (1618-48) was one result of this conflict. As a result of that war, central Europe became a battleground, and in Germany alone, 5 million people (one-third of the population), perished.
In contrast to these brutalities, the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim states established their rule upon the Qur'anic commands of tolerant, just and humane administration. The reason for the justice and civilization displayed by Umar, Saladin, the Ottoman sultans, and many Muslim rulers, which is accepted by the West today, was due to their faithfulness to the Qur'anic commands, some of which are as follows:
God commands you to return to their owners the things you hold on trust and, when you judge between people, to judge with justice. How excellent is what God exhorts you to do. God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Qur'an, 4:58)
O you who believe, be upholders of justice, bearing witness for God alone, even against yourselves or your parents and relatives. Whether they are rich or poor, God is well able to look after them. Do not follow your own desires and deviate from the truth. If you twist or turn away, God is aware of what you do. (Qur'an, 4:135)
Studies of Palestine during the late Ottoman period reveal an advanced level of welfare, trade, and industry throughout the region.
God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just. (Qur'an, 60:8)
If two parties of the believers fight, make peace between them. But if one of them attacks the other unjustly, fight the attackers until they revert to God's command. If they revert, make peace between them with justice and be even-handed. God loves those who are even-handed. (Qur'an, 49:9)
There is a phrase used in politics such that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This means that everyone who acquires political power becomes somehow morally corrupted by the ensuing opportunities. This really applies to most people, because they shape their morality according to social pressure. In other words, they avoid immorality because they are afraid of society's disapproval or punishment. Authority grants them power, however, and decreases the importance of these social pressures upon them. As a result, they become corrupt or find it ever more easy to compromise their own morality. If they possess absolute power (and thereby become dictators), they may try to satisfy their own desires in any way.
The Ottomans brought peace, stability, and civilization to all the lands they conquered. One can still find fountains, bridges, inns, and mosques from the Ottoman period throughout Palestine. (Left) Herogate, 16th century(Right) Khan al-Umdan
The only human examples to which the law of corruption does not apply is people who sincerely believe in God, embrace religion out of fear and love of Him, and live according to that religion. Given that their morals are not defined by society, not even the most absolute form of power can affect them. God states in a verse:
Those who, if We establish them firmly in the land, will perform prayer and pay charity tax, and command what is right and forbid what is wrong. The end result of all affairs is with God. (Qur'an, 22:41)
In the Qur'an, God presents Dawud, peace be upon him, as an example of the ideal ruler, explains how he judged with justice between those who came to ask for his judgment and how he prayed with complete submission to God. (Qur'an, 38:24)
The Ottomans brought peace, order, and tolerance everywhere they went.
The history of Islam, which reflects the morality that God teaches Muslims in the Qur'an, is full of just, merciful, humble, and mature rulers. Since Muslim rulers fear God, they cannot behave in a corrupt, proud, or cruel manner. Of course there were Muslim rulers who became corrupt and departed from Islamic morality, but they were exceptions to and deviations from the norm. Thus Islam proved to be the only belief system that has produced a just, tolerant, and compassionate form of government for the last 1,400 years.
The land of Palestine is a testament to Islam's fair and tolerant governance, and bears the influence of many different faiths and ideas. As reported earlier, the governments of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, Umar, Saladin, and the Ottoman sultans were such that even non-Muslims consented to them. This period of fair administration lasted until the twentieth century when, with the end of Muslim rule in 1917, the region was plunged into chaos, terror, bloodshed, and war.
Jerusalem, the center of three religions, experienced the longest period of stability in its history under the Ottomans, when peace, abundance, and prosperity reigned there and throughout the empire. Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and their various denominations, worshipped as they pleased, honored their own beliefs, and followed their own customs and traditions. This was possible because the Ottomans ruled with the belief that bringing order, justice, peace, prosperity, and tolerance to their lands was a sacred obligation.
Many historians and political scientists have drawn attention to this fact. One of them is Columbia University's world-famous Middle East expert Professor Edward Said. Originally from a Christian family of Jerusalem, he continues his research at American universities, far from his homeland. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, he recommended resurrecting the "Ottoman nation system" if a permanent peace is to be built in the Middle East. In his own words,
A Jewish minority can survive the way other minorities in the Arab world survived… it worked rather well under the Ottoman Empire, with its millet system. What they had then seems a lot more humane than what we have now.14
Indeed, Palestine never witnessed another "humane" administration once Ottoman rule ended. Between the two world wars, the British crushed the Arabs with their divide-and-conquer strategy and simultaneously empowered the Zionists, who would later prove antagonistic even to them. Zionism incurred the Arabs' wrath, and, from the 1930s on, Palestine became the scene of clashes between the two groups. Zionists formed terrorist groups to fight the Palestinians, and, shortly thereafter, began attacking the British as well. Once Britain threw up its hands and abandoned its mandate over the region in 1947, the clashes turned into war and the Israeli occupation and massacres (which continue to this day) began in earnest.
In order for the region to enjoy "humane" rule once again, Jews must abandon Zionism and its goal of a "Palestine exclusively for the Jews," and accept the idea of sharing the land with Arabs on equal terms. Arabs, for that matter, must abandon such un-Islamic goals as "driving Israel into the sea" or "putting all Jews to the sword," and accept the idea of living together with them. According to Said, this means reviving the Ottoman system, which is the only solution that will allow the region's people to live in peace and harmony. This system may create an environment of regional peace and security, just as it did in the past.
In the last chapter, we will examine the details of this solution. But before we do so, let's revisit the past to examine the chaos and cruelty that engulfed Palestine after Muslim rule ended.
TURKIYE - Turkish Daily, 15.4.95WE MISS THE OTTOMANSThe Arab world longs for the days when civilization, tolerance and justice prevailed.
TURKIYE - Turkish Daily, 7.01.96LEWIS: THE MIDDLE EAST IS LOOKING FOR A LEADER
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 30.8.01THE OTTOMAN SOLUTION FOR JERUSALEMThe plan for a solution to the Jerusalem problem, drawn up by Turkey on the basis of the policies implemented in the region by the Ottomans regarding the status of Jerusalem at a time when the Middle East peace process is going through its most difficult times, has been welcomed by the Palestinians, while Israel is uneasy at the suggestion.
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 8.10.01
TAKING THE OTTOMANS AS A MODELHP Chairman Fiorina says, "The 600-year empire was the cement of peace."Many of today's politicians and historians contend that the Ottoman model is an extremely important example of how the Middle East problem might be solved.
AKSAM-Turkish Daily, 8.11.01NOSTALGIA FOR THE OTTOMANS IN THE WESTAs the West seeks a solution to the conflicts in various parts of the world, it longs for the might of the Ottoman Empire.
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 10.11.01THE WESTERN WORLD LOOKS TO THE OTTOMANSAs the West seeks a solution to the conflicts in various parts of the world, it longs for the might of the Ottoman Empire.
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 10.11.01THE WESTERN WORLD LOOKS TO THE OTTOMANSThe West, unable to find a solution to the conflicts in different parts of the world, longs for the might of the Ottoman Empire. This view was expressed in a report aired by the American news agency Associated Press. VIOLENCE ROSE AFTER THE OTTOMANS LEFTThe violent events in the last century which began when the British forced the Ottomans out of the region led to the Palestinians suffering colonization, exile and occupation. The Israeli people, on the other hand, have never been able to live in security.
ZIONISM: A SECULAR NATIONALISM THAT BETRAYED JUDAISM
Zionism was brought to the world agenda in the latter part of the nineteenth century by Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), an Austrian Jewish journalist. Both Herzl and his comrades were people with very weak religious beliefs, if any at all. They saw "Jewishness" as the name of a race, not as a community of belief. They suggested that the Jews were a separate race from European nations, that it was impossible for them to live together, and that it was essential they establish their own homeland. They did not rely on religious thinking when deciding where that homeland should be. Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, once thought of Uganda, and this became known as the "Uganda Plan." The Zionists later decided on Palestine. The reason for this was Palestine was regarded as "the Jews' historical homeland," rather than for any religious significance it had for them.
The farmer and the Wailing Wall on this flier, which depict the Zionist leaders Max Nordau, Theodor Herzl, and Prof. Mandelstamm, represent the "Zionist Dream."
The Zionists made great efforts to get other Jews to accept these non-religious ideas. The new World Zionist Organization undertook vast propaganda work in almost all countries with Jewish populations, and began to suggest that Jews could not live peacefully with other nations and that they were a separate "race." Therefore, they had to go and settle in Palestine. Most Jewish communities ignored these calls.
According to Israeli statesman Amnon Rubinstein: "Zionism (was) a revolt againt their (Jews') fatherland and the synagouge of the Rabbis".15 Thus many Jews criticized the ideology of Zionism. Rabbi Hirsch, one of the foremost religious leaders of the time, said, "Zionism wants to define the Jewish people as a national entity ... which is a heresy."16
The famous French Muslim thinker Roger Garaudy writes this on the subject:
The worst enemy of the prophetic Jewish faith is the nationalist, racist and colonialist logic of tribal Zionism, born of the nationalism, racism and colonialism of 19th century Europe. This logic, which inspired all the colonialisms of the West and all its wars of one nationalism against another, is a suicidal logic. There is no future or security for Israel and no peace in the Middle East unless Israel becomes "dezionized" and returns to the faith of Abraham, which is the spiritual, fraternal and common heritage of the three revealed religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.17
In this way, Zionism entered world politics as a racist ideology maintaining that Jews should not live with other nations. First of all, this mistaken idea created grave problems for and pressure on Jews living in the diaspora. Then for Muslims in the Middle East, it brought the Israeli policy of occupation and annexation, together with poverty, terror, bloodshed and death.
In short, Zionism was actually a form of secular nationalism that stems from secular philosophies, not from religion. However, as in the case of other versions of nationalism, Zionism also attempted to use religion for its own ends.
Misinterpretation of the Torah by Zionists
The Torah is a holy book God revealed to Prophet Musa. God says in the Qur'an: "We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light..." (Qur'an, 5:44). The Qur'an also says that the Torah was later distorted by incorporating human words. That is why what we have today is the "Distorted Torah."
However, a close examination reveals the existence of many of the religious truths contained in this once-revealed Book, such as faith in God, submission to Him, being grateful to Him, fear of God, love of God, justice, compassion, mercy, opposing cruelty and injustice, all of which prevail throughout the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament.
Apart from this, the wars that occurred in history and the resulting carnage are related in the Torah. If people want to find a basis - although by distorting the facts - for the cruelty, massacres, and murders, they can well take these sections as references. Zionism resorts to this very method to legitimize its terrorism, which is actually a fascist terrorism. And, it has become quite succesful. For instance, it has used the sections related to war and massacre to legitimize its massacres of innocent Palestinians. This is a deliberately distorted interpretation, however. Zionism uses religion to legitimize its fascist and racist ideology.
The Zionists also base their claims on their own interpretations of verses that deal with the "chosenness" that God had once granted the Jews. Several Qur'anic verses deal with this subject:
O Tribe of Israel, remember the blessing I conferred upon you and that I preferred you over all other beings. (Qur'an, 2:47)
We gave the Book and Judgment and Prophethood to the tribe of Israel, provided them with good things, and favored them over all other people. (Qur'an, 45:16)
The Qur'an explains how at one time God blessed the Jews, and how at another time He made them dominant over other nations. But these verses do not implicate "chosenness" in the sense that radical Jews understand. They point to the fact that many prophets came from this line, and that Jews ruled a large area at that time. The verses explain that, by virtue of their position of authority, they "were favored over all other people." When they rejected Jesus, this characteristic also came to an end.
The Qur'an states that chosenness is for prophets and the believers whom God guided to truth. The verses relate that the prophets were chosen, impelled to the right path, and were blessed. Following are some of the verses that deal with this topic:
Who would deliberately renounce the religion of Ibrahim except someone who reveals himself to be a fool? We chose him in this world, and in the hereafter he will be one of the righteous. (Qur'an, 2: 130)
And some of their forebears, descendants and brothers; We chose them and guided them to a straight path. That is God's guidance, and He guides by it those of His servants whom He wills. If they had associated others with Him, nothing they did would have been of any use. They are the ones to whom We gave the Book, Judgment, and Prophethood. If these people reject it, We have already entrusted it to a people who did not. (Qur'an, 6:87-89)
Those are some of the Prophets whom God has blessed, from the descendants of Adam and from those We carried with Nuh, and from the descendants of Ibrahim and Isra'il, and from those We guided and chose. When the Signs of the All-Merciful were recited to them, they fell on their faces, weeping, prostrating. (Qur'an, 19:58)
But radical Jews, relying on distorted explanations, saw "chosenness" as a racial characteristic and therefore came to consider every Jew superior by birth and that the Children of Israel are forever considered superior to all other peoples.
The second great perversion in this viewpoint is presenting this alleged superiority as "an order to practice brutality on other nations." To this end, Zionists justify their behavior by some of the age-old hatreds that can be found in some aspects of Talmudic Judaism. According to this view, it is ordinary for Jews to deceive non-Jews, to plunder their property and real estate, and, when necessary, even to kill them, women and children included.18 In reality, all of these are crimes that violate true religion, for God commands us to preserve justice, honesty, and the rights of the oppressed, and to live in peace and love.
Moreover, such anti-gentile remarks contradict the Torah itself, such as those verse that condemn violence and cruelty. However, Zionism's racist ideology ignores such verses in order to create a belief system based upon resentment and rage. Rather than falling under the influence of Zionist ideology, those Jews who genuinely believe in God will realize that their religion tells them to abide by those other verses that praise peace, love, mercy, and ethical behavior, such as:
You shall do no injustice in judgment: you shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go about as talebearer among your people;nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. (Old Testament, Leviticus, 19:15-17)
He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you. But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Old Testament, Micah, 6:8)
You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house... (Old Testament, Exodus, 20:13-17)
According to the Qur'an as well, war is essentially a means of defense. Even if war has been declared on a community, the lives of innocents and the rule of law must be protected. An order to murder women, children, and the elderly cannot be sanctioned by any religion, but only by fabrications masquerading as religion. In the Qur'an, God not only condemns this type of animosity, but declares that all people are equal in His eyes and that superiority is based not on race, line, or any other earthly quality, but on righteousness - love for and nearness to God.
O mankind, We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other. The noblest among you in God's sight is the one of you who best performs his duty. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Qur'an, 49:13)
Apart from its false religious mask, the real reason for Zionism's barbarism and ruthlessness is its connection to nineteenth-century Europe's colonial mentality. Colonialism is not merely a political or economic system; it is simultaneously an ideology. Zionism, which believes that the industrialized nations of the West have the right to colonize and occupy the backward nations of this region, sees this as a natural result of an international "natural selection" process. In other words, Zionism is a product of Social Darwinism. Within the framework of this ideology, England colonized India, South Africa, and Egypt, and France colonized Indochina, North Africa, and Guyana. Inspired by these examples, Zionists decided to colonize Palestine for the Jews.
Zionist colonialism turned out to be far worse than its British or French counterparts, for at least they allowed their colonies to live (after they submitted) and even contributed to their colonies' education, fair administration, and infrastructure. But, as we will see later, the Zionists do not recognize the right of the Palestinians to live; they practice ethnic cleansing, and contribute nothing to those people under its domination. You might even say they have not laid even one brick for the Palestinians.
Zionism's Clash with the Jews
Another characteristic of Zionism is its reliance upon false propaganda themes, perhaps the most important of which is the slogan "a land without people for a people without land." In other words Palestine, the "land without people" must be given to the Jews, "the people without land." In the first 20 years of the twentieth century, the World Zionist Organization used this slogan insistently to convince European governments, principally England, and their people that Palestine should be given to the Jews. In 1917, as a result of this persuasion campaign, England announced in its Balfour Declaration that "His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people… in Palestine."
In fact, the slogan "a land without people for a people without land" was untrue. When the Zionist movement began, the Jews were not "without land," nor was Palestine without people…
The Jews were not without land, because most of them were living in various countries in peace and security. Especially in industrialized Western countries, Jewish congregations had no complaints about their lives. For most of them, the idea of leaving their countries to emigrate to Palestine had never entered their minds. This fact would emerge later when the Zionists' calls for "Migration to Palestine" were largely ignored. In later years, the anti-Zionist Jews in question actively resisted the Zionist movement through their own associations.
Having received the official support of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionists found themselves in a difficult position when many fellow Jews refused to emigrate. In this context, the words of Chaim Weizmann are quite striking:
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was built on air … every day and every hour of these last 10 years, when opening the newspapers, I thought: Whence will the next blow come? I trembled lest the British Government would call me and ask: "Tell us, what is this Zionist Organization? Where are they, your Zionists?" … The Jews, they knew, were against us; we stood alone on a little island, a tiny group of Jews with a foreign past.19
The letter sent by then-Foreign Secretary of England Sir Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild became known as the "Balfour Declaration." The original letter is pictured at right; Sir Balfour, above.
Thus the Zionists began to engage in "special activities" to "encourage" Jewish migration to Palestine, even force when necessary, such as harassing Jews in their home countries and cooperating with anti-Semites to ensure that governments would expel their Jews. (See Harun Yahya's The Holocaust Violence, Global Yayýncýlýk, Istanbul, 2002.) Thus Zionism developed as a movement that harrassed and terrorized its own people.
Approximately 100,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine between 1920-29.20 If one considers that there were about 750,000 Palestinians at that time, then 100,000 is certainly no small number. The Zionist organizations had complete control over this migration. Jews who set foot in Palestine were met by Zionist groups, who determined where they would stay and what type of work they would do. This migration was encouraged by Zionist executives with various incentives. As a result of intense work throughout Palestine, Europe, and Russia, the Jewish population in Palestine recorded extensive growth in terms of numbers and settlements. With the Nazi Party's rise to power, Jews in Germany were subjected to ever-increasing pressure, a development that further accelerated their migration to Palestine. The fact that the Zionists supported the Nazi suppression of Jews is a fact, and yet remains one of history's best-kept secrets. (See Harun Yahya's The Holocaust Violence, Global Yayýncýlýk, Istanbul, 2002.)
Zionism's Clash with the Arabs
Zionists undoubtedly saved the worst cruelty for the people who belonged to a "land without people": the Palestinians. From the day Zionism entered Palestine, its adherents have sought to destroy the Palestinians. To make room for the migrating Jews, whether influenced by Zionist ideals or afraid of anti-Semitism, the Palestinians were constantly pressured, exiled, and kicked out of their homes and lands. This movement to occupy and exile, accelerated by the founding of Israel in 1948, destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. To this day, about 3.5 million Palestinians still struggle for their lives as refugees under the most difficult conditions.
Ever since the 1920s, the Zionist-organized Jewish migration has steadily changed Palestinian demographics and has been the most important cause of the ongoing conflict. Statistics related to the increase in the Jewish population readily attest to this fact. These figures are an important demonstration of how a colonial power from abroad, one with no legal right to the land in question, came to rob the rights of the indigenous population.
According to official records, the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine increased from 100,000 in the 1920s to 232,000 in the 1930s.21 As of 1939, the Palestinian population of 1.5 million included 445,000 Jews. Their numbers, which had represented just 10% of the population 20 years earlier, now accounted for 30% of the population. Jewish settlements also expanded rapidly, and by 1939 the Jews owned twice the amount of land that they had owned in the 1920s.
YEAR
THE NUMBER OF JEWS MIGRATING
1920 (September-October)
5.514
1921
9.149
1922
7.844
1923
7.421
1924
12.856
1925
33.801
1926
13.081
1927
2.713
1928
2.178
1929
5.249
The official announcement of the Balfour Declaration marked the beginning of a large and rapid migration of Jews to Palestines. The table to the left shows the number of Jews who immigrated to Palestine between 1920-29. During this period, approximately 100,000 Jews entered Palestine.
British Government, The Political History of Palestine under the British Administration, Palestine Royal Commision Report, Cmd. 5479, 1937, P. 279
As of 1947, there were 630,000 Jews in Palestine and 1.3 million Palestinians. Between November 29, 1947, when Palestine was partitioned by the United Nations, and May 15, 1948, Zionist terrorist organizations captured three-fourths of Palestine. During this time, the number of Palestinians living in 500 cities, towns, and villages dropped from 950,000 to 138,000 as a result of attacks and massacres. Some were killed; others were exiled.22
In explaining the occupationist policy adopted by Israel in 1948, the famous Israeli revisionist Ilan Pappe spoke of a secret, unwritten plan to drive the Arabs from Palestine. According to this plan, any Arab village or neighborhood that would not surrender to the Jewish forces, that would not raise the white flag, would be uprooted, destroyed and the people expelled. After this decision was implemented, only four villages rose the white flag; all other towns and villages were potentially an object of expulsion.23
In this way, 400 Palestinian villages were wiped off the map during 1948-49. The property left behind by the Palestinians was seized by the Jews, by virtue of the Absentee Property Law. Until 1947, Jewish land ownership in Palestine was some 6%. By the time the state was formally established, it had sequestered 90% of the land.24
Groups of illegal immigrants organized by Zionist leaders managed to reach Palestine despite serious obstacles.
Every new consignment of Jews meant new cruelty, pressure, and violence for the Palestinians. In order to settle the newcomers, Zionist organizations used pressure and force to drive Palestinians from their land, which they had inhabitated for centuries, and into the desert. Joseph Weitz, the head of the Israeli government's transfer committee of 1948, wrote in his diary in December 20, 1940:
It must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country. No development will bring us closer to our aim, to be an independent people in this small country. After the Arabs are transferred, the country will be wide open for us;with the Arabs staying, the country will remain narrow and restricted. The only way is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries, all of them. Not a single village, or a single tribe must be left.25
YEAR
THE NUMBER OF JEWS MIGRATING
1930
4.944
1931
4.075
1932
9.553
1933
30.327
1934
42.359
1935
61.854
1936
29.727
1937
10.536
1938
12.868
1939
16.405
The wave of Jewish immigration continued unabated during the British Mandate. As a result of concerted efforts by Zionist organizers, 232,000 more Jews settled in Palestine between 1930-39. British Government, The Political History of Palestine under the British Administration, Palestine Royal Commision Report, Cmd. 5479, 1937, P. 279
Heilburn, the chairman of the committee for the re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, expressed the Zionist view of the Palestinian people in these words: "We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves."26 The flood of immigrants brought on by the outbreak of World War II made the Palestinians aware of what was happening, and so they started to resist these unjust practices. But every resistance movement was put down quite violently by British forces. The Palestinians found themselves under pressure from Zionist terrorist organizations on the one hand, and from British soldiers on the other. In other words, they were subjected to a two-pronged seige.
The picture to the left shows Jews emigrating to Palestine in 1930. The picture above shows Jews arriving in 1947. Before the Palestinians understood what these migrations would mean for their future, the population ratio in the region had shifted in favor of the Jews.
1) The country where the migration began2) The number of Jewish migrants3) The end of the migrationThe immigration program organized by Zionist leaders was put into action with surprising speed, starting in the early 1900s. Jews immigrating from North Africa, the USSR, and various Middle Eastern countries shifted the population ratio in Palestine in favor of the Jews.
During the British Mandate, more than 1,500 Palestinians fighting for their independence were killed in attacks coordinated by British soldiers. In addition, quite a few Palestinians were arrested by the British for opposing the Jewish occupation. The pressure of the British government caused serious hardship for them. But the Zionists' terrorism was incomparably more ruthless. Zionist brutality, which exploded with the end of the British Mandate, included the burning of villages; the execution-style shooting of women, children, and the elderly; the torture of innocent victims; and the rape of women and girls.
Approximately 850,000 Palestinians who could not stand this oppression and cruelty left their land and homes behind and settled in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and along the borders of Lebanon and Jordan. About a million Palestinians still live in those refugee camps, while another 3.5 million live as refugees far away from their homeland.
Palestinian Lands Are Divided Up 1) British territory2) Arab territory3) Jewish territory4) International territoryWhen Palestine came under British control following World War I, a large wave of Jewish migration to the area began. This migration gradually led to an increase in tension. During this period, several commissions were established to determine how the Jews and the Palestinians would share the land. The best-known of these were the Peel Commission, headed by England's former Foreign Secretary for India Lord Earl Peel, and the Morrison-Grady Commission, formed through an American-British partnership. The Peel Commission recommended that the British Mandate be lifted and that the region be divided between the two groups. Only Jerusalem and Haifa would remain under British control and would be open to international observation. The Morrison-Grady Plan recommended that Palestine be divided into four separate cantons. However, members of these commissions did not consider that the land that they were trying to divide up had belonged to the Palestinian people for centuries, and that no one had the right to force them to share it against their will.
English police intervened forcefully when Palestinians protested the rapidly increasing Jewish immigration. As a result of this clash in Jaffa in 1933, 30 Palestinians died and 200 more were injured.
Palestinians who live in refugee camps today have difficulty meeting even the most basic needs, can use water and electricity only when Israel allows it, and travel many miles to work for very low wages. For those who go to work or to visit relatives who live in a nearby refugee camp, the trip should take no more than 15 minutes. However, the whole event often turns into a nightmare due to ID checks at frequent checkpoints, where soldiers on duty subject them to verbal and physical harassment, patronization, and humiliation. They cannot get from point A to point B without a passport. And because Israeli soldiers often close roads for "security" reasons, Palestinians often cannot go to their jobs, the places they want to go, or even to the hospital when they are sick. Moreover, people living in the refugee camps live daily with the fear of being bombed, killed, wounded, and arrested, because the fanatical Jewish settlements surrounding the camps constitute a real threat due to the harassment and attacks launched by their fanatic Jewish inhabitants.
Of course, being kicked out of one's home and forced to leave one's native land results in a number of difficulties. However, it is God's pattern. Throughout history, Muslim communities have been driven from their homes and subjected to various types of pressure, torture, and threats by non-believers. Cruel leaders or peoples who come to power often drive innocent people from their homes merely because of their ancestry or beliefs. What Muslims in many countries, as well as the Palestinians, have endured is revealed in the Qur'an. But God helps all those who remain patient, show morality, and refuse to give in to intimidation despite experiencing hardship. As God states in the Qur'an:
Their Lord responds to them:"I will not let the deeds of any doer among you go to waste, male or female - you are both the same in that respect. Those who emigrated and were driven from their homes and suffered harm in My Way and fought and were killed, I will erase their bad actions from them and admit them into Gardens with rivers flowing under them, as a reward from God. The best of all rewards is with God." (Qur'an, 3:195)
Thus the day will come when all Palestinians will live in peace, security, and brotherhood. But this will be possible only by spreading the Qur'an's morality among people, for such morality is forgiving and tolerant; defends peace; emphasizes love, respect, and mercy; and its adherents compete with each other to do good works. Where this morality prevails, violence and strife cannot exist. And what is more, when this morality is experienced thoroughly, the Muslims' solidarity will increase and they will achieve the strength to wage an intellectual struggle against cruelty. Therefore, implementing the Qur'an's system of ethics will lead to the end of cruelty not only in Palestine, but throughout the world. The responsibility of Muslims is to spread these ethics.
Jewish immigrants indoctrinated with the slogan "Everyone should work with one hand, and hold a weapon with the other" soon took up their positions in the Zionist movement. While some were organizing protests with signs saying "Jerusalem is ours," others were bombing Palestinian villages.
In the coming chapters, we will examine more closely the pain and difficulty experienced over the years by the Palestinian refugees. But before we do so, we will address Zionist terror and the techniques used to drive the Palestinians from their homes.
As a result of the 3-year siege by Israeli forces, the Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp near Beirut was completely destroyed. This photograph depicts the camp's condition in 1988. Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan have been struggling with great difficulties for decades. Hunger, epidemics, inclement weather, and the constant fear of new Israeli attacks have become facts of life for them. These views of the barracks erected by the UN show the extent of their poverty.
ZIONIST TERROR
In the previous chapter, we examined the Zionists' view that the Jews' return to Palestine is a "holy goal" and that the war launched to reach this goal would be a "holy war." This idea plays an important role in the Israelis' education. In fact, prominent Israeli leaders sometimes express their view that children should be required to undergo a "Zionist" education. For example, the Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat announced on one of the most violent days of the al-Aqsa Intifada that "the country's children would henceforth be required to receive a Jewish-Zionist education" and that "Schools were part of the internal security of the state of Israel."27 The Old Testament has a special place in this education system, which the Zionists designed to focus upon certain verses. The book recalls with pride the acts of brutality inflicted (or allegedly inflicted) by the Children of Israel, led by Joshua, upon the native Palestinians.
In his classic The Case of Israel:A Study of Political Zionism, Roger Garaudy explains the attitude like this:
According to Israeli authorities, children must be indoctrinated with Zionist ideology from a very young age. As a result, children are raised to believe that they belong to a superior race. The Israeli soldiers' brutal treatment of Palestinians is a direct result of this indoctrination.
The Book of Joshua, so often invoked today by the army rabbinate in Israel in order to preach holy war, and also made much of in schoolteaching, dwells upon the sanctified extermination of conquered populations, putting everyone to "the edge of the sword" - "both man and woman, yound and old" (Joshua, vi, 21) - as we read in the story of Jericho and of so many other cities.28
The behavior exhibited by Israeli soldiers raised with such ideas is consistent with this attitude. Today in occupied Palestine, some dreadful scenes have become part of everyday life: 18-month-old babies dying in their beds when their houses are attacked by Israeli helicopter gunships, young girls working in the olive groves being shot and killed for no reason, and children returning home from school being wounded and permanently disabled. The Zionist education system is at the root of these inhuman, and all-too-common, episodes. Research shows that this education and brainwashing has been extremely effective. In a test conducted by Tel Aviv University psychologist G. Tamarin, a statement describing the Jericho massacre from the Old Testament's Book of Joshua was distributed to fourth- and eighth-grade students. They were asked: "Suppose the Israeli Army occupies an Arab village in a battle. Do you think it would be proper, or not, to act against the inhabitants as did Joshua with the people of Jericho?" The number who answered "Yes" varied between 66% and 95%, according to the school attended or the kibbutz or town where the children lived.29
Garaudy emphasizes that the Book of Joshua and the Old Testament in general are the source of Zionist terror:
This conception of the "promise", together with the means for its realisation (as the leaders of political Zionism derive these from the Book wherein Joshua recounts his feats of extermination of the previous inhabitants, which he carried out at God's command and with his support), plus the themes of "the chosen people" and of "Greater Israel", from the Nile to the Euphrates, constitute the ideological foundation of political Zionism.30
Israeli sharp-shooters fire on unarmed Palestinian civilians, women and children included.
The memoirs of an Israeli soldier published in the Israeli newspaper Davar are an important example of this. The soldier in question participated in an operation to seize the Palestinian village of Ed-Dawayma in 1948, and described the scenes of brutality he witnessed:
They killed between eighty to one hundred Arab men, women, and children. To kill the children, they (soldiers) fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one home without corpses. The men and women of the village were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite them.
One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a building he was about to blow up... Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman and her baby were made to clean up the place for a couple of days, then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered "good guys" ... became base murderers, and this is not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remain, the better.31
This is just one of the many brutal episodes that have occurred over the last 50 years.
Before the Israeli government was founded, the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern gangs were responsible for removing Palestinians from their lands. These terrorist organizations prior to 1948, and the Israeli army after 1948, conducted a terrorist campaign on Arab civilians. Menachem Begin, the Irgun's leader and a future prime minister, explained their strategy: "The Arabs fought tenaciously in defense of their homes, their women and their children."32 In other words, the Zionists' war would be waged against innocent people.
The truth is that since that date, the Palestinians have struggled to protect their homes, women, and children from Israel's official policy of terrorizing the entire Palestinian people. Newspaper reporter and Middle East expert Flora Lewis explains Israeli-style brutality in this article in the International Herald Tribune:
Israeli officials have now publicly acknowledged a policy of "targeted attacks" on Palestinians believed to be involved in terrorism. These are planned assassinations, quite rightly called "criminal acts... murder" by Moshe Neghi, a respected Israeli journalist... Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said on the radio that the policy was unequivocal. "If anyone has committed or is planning to carry out terrorist attacks, he has to be hit... It is effective, precise and just."33
EXECUTION ON THE STREET...
For Israeli soldiers, all Palestinians are targets. They do not care whether the person in their sights is a child, a woman, or an elderly man or woman.
Palestinians sometimes encounter Israeli bullets at checkpoints, in the markets, or while just standing on the corner or sleeping in bed.
AND SLAUGHTER
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 7.8.01BLATANT EXECUTION
GOZCU, Turkish Daily, 19.5.01ISRAEL BOMBS THE CITY OF GAZA
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 18.5.01PALESTINE IS BURNINGAttacking with helicopters, tanks and bulldozers, Israel has set light to Palestinian lands.
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 13.10.01Israel Rains Down MissilesPALESTINE AWASH WITH BLOOD
THE MUSLIM OBSERVER, 2.2002
THE INDEPENDENT, 12.2002
W. REPORT, 4-5.1993
CRESCENT INT., 16-31.8.01
Hardly a day goes by when innocent blood is not spilled in Palestine. Israeli soldiers are systematically destroying the Palestinian people. Villages are bombed, homes are demolished, and fields are burned. While this cruelty appears in the world press from time to time, it has, sadly, not been enough to move world leaders to action. An article in Crescent International clearly presents this situation when it states: "Palestinian deaths mount as Israelis given freedom to commit atrocities." The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, in its article "In Gaza, Israeli Rockets Replace Human Rights," signals that the violence in Palestine will only get worse. Other items in the Turkish press also reflect the gravity of the situation.
It should be emphasized that, as Sneh reported, Israel's struggle is not limited to terrorist elements; rather, it targets an entire people.
The details provided here are only a small part of the cruelty perpetrated by the Israeli government. But this is a practice that the Palestinian Muslims know all too well, for there are close similarities between the Qur'an's depiction of Pharaoh and what the Zionist Israeli leadership has done to innocent Palestinians. In his time, Pharaoh targeted the weakened, defenseless Jews and brutally murdered them. Also, the leaders of Pharaoh's tribe had strong feelings for their own land, and so told Pharaoh that Musa "desires to expel you from your land" (Qur'an, 7:110) The Israeli journalist Uri Avnery has drawn attention to this similarity. In the article "The Murder of Arafat," he reminds us that one of Judaism's fundamental tenets is that the period of Jewish enslavement in Egypt will never be forgotten. According to him, what Israel is doing to the Palestinians today is merely a variation of the cruelty meted out to their Jewish ancestors by Pharaoh:
In the new myth that is being born before our eyes, Sharon is the Pharaoh and we are the ancient Egyptians. In the story about the Exodus, the Bible lets God say: "I have hardened (Pharaoh's) heart and the heart of his servants." After every calamity that befell him, Pharaoh broke his promise to free the Israelites... He (God) wanted the Israelites to become hardened by the hardship, before they started on their long march. This is what is happening to the Palestinians now.34
The following verses describe how Pharaoh murdered the defenseless people:
Remember when Musa said to his people: "Remember God's blessing to you when He rescued you from the people of Pharaoh. They were inflicting an evil punishment on you, slaughtering your sons and letting your women live. In that there was a terrible trial from your Lord. And when your Lord announced: 'If you are grateful, I will certainly give you increase, but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is severe."' (Qur'an, 14:6-7)
With God's help, the Children of Israel finally escaped Pharaoh's brutality and cruelty. In our time, the radicals of Israel are in Pharaoh's position and advocate violence. The Palestinians must follow the advice that God gave the Children of Israel at that time: Be patient, trust in God, and stay true to His Path.
AN ISRAELI SOLDIER DESCRIBES THE SAVAGERY
My first Lebanon raid was in 1986. I was a 19-year-old Israeli conscript, and my paratroop platoon was sent to a village whose name I can't recall.… We broke down the door of a home, shoved the family aside, and pulled a middle-aged man outside. After blindfolding him and tying his hands behind his back, we took him to a secluded alley, forced him to his knees, and put a gun to his head, threatening to shoot if he didn't talk. A U.N. peacekeeper appeared and put an end to that incident, but there was more to come.
The next day we performed a mock execution on a 10-year-old Lebanese boy. We forced his family into the kitchen and dragged him to a nearby orchard. My lieutenant pressed the child's face into the dirt while I jammed my rifle against his skull.
Although the officer threatened to shoot his head off, the boy did not respond, keeping silent...
I was a recent transfer from another unit, and my colleagues were more familiar with the drill... The elderly, female, and young villagers were trapped in their homes, ordered to observe a 24-hour curfew. Their men were gathered in a central square, blindfolded, and hauled off for questioning.
Casual brutality was not limited to lower-income recruits. Omri, child of an intelligence officer, liked to fire bursts toward villagers peeking through doorways… During the invasion's first months, Israel killed 12,000-15,000 persons and lost 360. Although the Israeli casualties were combatants, most of their victims were civilians.
James Ron, the writer of this article, assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, is a field investigator for human rights groups. (Boston Globe, 25 May 2000)
Israeli Massacres
Some of the massacres perpetrated by the Israeli army and terrorist organizations (e.g., Haganah, Irgun, and Stern) between 1948 and 1982 are described on the following pages. None of these massacres were directed against armed groups. The history of Israel is full of violent actions against and massacres of civilians. Just a few examples will suffice: the blowing up of the King David Hotel in 1946; the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948, in which innocent villagers were tortured and killed; the inhuman massacre at Qibya village in 1958; the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, conducted by the pro-Israeli Christian Lebanese militias under the auspices of Ariel Sharon and resulting in almost 3,000 deaths; the attack on the Masjid al-Aqsa in 1990, which resulted in 11 deaths and almost 800 injuries; the massacre at Ibrahim's Mosque in 1994 during morning prayers; the massacre at Qana refugee camp in 1996; and the 1999 seige of a tunnel by 4,000 soldiers are just a few examples of this violence.
Those who died in these attacks were innocent people who had no means of protecting themselves. The massacres listed on the following pages are merely examples of the violence and terror that have continued from 1947 until today. While the figures are important to showing the extent of Zionist violence, they cannot even begin to describe the resulting harm, especially since the violence is still ongoing. Indeed, virtually every day since 1947 has generated news reports of attack, death, torture, and violence from the territories occupied by Israel. For example, when all of those who have died since October 2000 are accounted for, the number comes to almost 2,000. (This figure does not include those killed in Operation Defensive Shield.) In other words, Israel continues these daily killings in a systematic way.
Some Examples of Israel's Half-Century Reign of Terror
The King David Massacre, 1946: 92 dead
This attack was carried out by the Irgun terrorist organization and with the knowledge of David Ben Gurion, the highest-ranking Zionist official of the period. A total of 92 people, consisting of Britons, Palestinians, and Jews, were killed, and 45 were seriously injured.
Ninety-two people, including some Britons, were killed in an attack arranged by Zionist terrorists on the King David Hotel in 1946.
Baldat Al-Shaikh Massacre, 1947: 60 dead
Sixty Palestinians sleeping in their beds, among them women, children, and the elderly, lost their lives as a result of this attack, which was carried out by 150-200 Zionist terrorists. The attack began at 2:00 a.m. and lasted for 4 hours.
Yehida Massacre, 1947: 13 dead
At Yehida, one of the first Zionist settlements, Zionist assailants dressed as British soldiers opened fire on Muslims.
Khisas Massacre, 1947: 10 dead
Two cars full of Haganah members entered the village of Khisas on the Lebanese border and opened fire on everyone who crossed their paths.
Qazaza Massacre, 1947: 5 children dead
Five children lost their lives in this episode, in which Zionist terrorists attacked a random house.
The Semiramis Hotel Massacre, 1948: 19 dead
In an operation aimed at making the Palestinians uneasy and forcing them out of Jerusalem, a group of Zionist terrorists directed by Israel's first president, David Ben Gurion, blew up the Semiramis Hotel. Nineteen people were killed.
Naser al-Din Massacre, 1948
A group of Zionist terrorists dressed as Arab soldiers opened fire on those townspeople who left their homes to greet them. Only 40 people escaped the carnage, and the village was wiped off the map.
The Tantura Massacre, 1948: 200 dead
Tantura, now home to about 1,500 Jewish settlers, was the site of a large massacre of Muslims in 1948. Israeli historian Teddy Katz described the attack as follows: "From the numbers, this is definitely one of the biggest massacres."
The Dahmash Mosque Massacre, 1948: 100 dead
Israeli 89th Commando Battalion lead by the future Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, announced to the villagers that they would be safe only if they assembled at the mosque. However, the 100 Muslims who sought refuge there were slaughtered. The terrified residents of Lydda and Ramle abandoned their lands. Approximately 60,000 Palestinians emigrated, and 350 more died en route due to poor medical conditions.
Dawayma Massacre, 1948: 100 dead
This attack was one of the largest Israeli massacres. A majority of those killed were assembled at the mosque for Friday prayers. Palestinian women were raped during the attack, and homes were dynamited with people inside them.
Houla Massacre, 1948: 85 dead
Israeli soldiers forced 85 people into a house and then set it on fire. Afterwards, most of the terrified residents fled to Beirut. Of the 12,000 original residents of Houla, only 1,200 remained.
Salha Massacre, 1948: 105 dead
After residents of the village were forced into the mosque, the people were fired upon until not a single person remained alive.
THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE ARE BEING EXTERMINATED The cruelty endured by the Palestinians has continued for more than 50 years. In Palestine today, it is almost impossible to find a family that has not lost sons to Israeli bullets. Still other people have been crippled or disfigured, as seen in these photographs.
Deir Yassin Massacre, 1948: 254 dead
The fact that the world agenda is controlled by the Western media, most of which is pro-Israeli, sometimes prevents events occurring within Israel from coming to light. But some incidents of such violence and cruelty have been documented in detail by international organizations. This is one of those incidents, and was carried out by the Irgun and Stern terrorist organizations.
On the night of April 9, 1948, the people of Deir Yassin awoke to the order "evacuate the village" coming from loudspeakers. Before they understood what was happening, they had been slaughtered. Subsequent Red Cross and United Nations investigations conducted at the scene showed that houses were first set on fire and that all people trying to escape the flames were shot dead. During the attack, pregnant women were bayoneted in their abdomens while still alive. The victims' organs were mutilated, and even children were beaten and raped. Throughout the Deir Yassin massacre, 52 children were maimed under the eyes of their own mothers, and then they were slain and their heads cut off. More than 60 women were killed and their bodies mutilated.35 One woman who escaped alive related the following atrocity that she had witnessed:
I saw a soldier grabbing my sister, Saliha al-Halabi, who was nine months pregnant. He pointed a machine gun at her neck, then emptied its contents into her body. Then he turned into a butcher, and grabbed a knife and ripped open her stomach to take out the slaughtered childe with his iniquitious Nazi knife.36
Not satisfied with just the massacre, the terrorists then rounded up all the women and girls who remained alive, removed all their clothes, put them in open cars, driving them naked through the streets of the Jewish section of Jerusalem. Jacques Reynier, the Red Cross representative of Palestine at the time, who saw the mutilated bodies during his visit to Deir Yassin the day after the attack, could only say: "The situation was horrible."37
During the course of the attack, 280 Muslims, among them women and children, were first paraded through the streets and then shot execution-style. Most of the girls had been raped before their execution, and the boys' genitals had been cut off.38
Those who arrived at the site of the Deir Yassin massacre the following day discovered gruesome scenes: decapitated bodies, mutilated children, and women whose bellies had been slit open.
It should be pointed out that the terrorists who carried out this atrocity were not members of radical organizations acting outside the law or beyond the government's control; rather, they were controlled directly by the Israeli government. The Deir Yassin massacre was carried by the Irgun and Stern gangs, under the direct leadership of Menachem Begin, the future prime minister of Israel.
Begin described this inhuman operation, merely one example of the official policy of Israeli brutality, in these words: "The massacre was not only justified, but there would not have been a state of Israel without the 'victory' at Deir Yassin."39 Zionists used such attacks to terrorize the Palestinians and drive them from their land so that the immigrating Jews would have a place to settle. Israel Eldad, a famous Zionist leader, expressed this truth openly when he said: "Had it not been for Deir Yassin - half a million Arabs would be living in the state of Israel [in 1948]. The State of Israel would not have existed."40
The Zionists considered this type of ethnic cleansing as vital to establishing the state of Israel. Indeed these operations, which continued after the Deir Yassin attack, caused many Palestinians either to abandon their land and flee, or to suffer the same fate as the residents of Deir Yassin.
The Massacre at Qibya, 1953: 96 dead
Another Zionist attack designed to "encourage" the Palestinians to flee occurred in Qibya, a village of 2,000 on the Jordanian border. Later investigations at the scene conducted by quite a few observers clearly revealed the nature of this atrocity. The Qibya massacre, which occurred on October 13, 1953, consisted of demolishing 40 houses and murdering 96 civilians, a majority of them women and children. The "101" unit was led by Ariel Sharon, another future prime minister of Israel. Its approximately 600 soldiers first cordoned off the village and severed its contact with all other Arab villages. Entering it at 4:00 a.m., the Zionist terrorists began to systematically demolish houses and kill the residents. An unperturbed Sharon, who personally led the attack, made the following announcement after the massacre: "The orders were utterly clear: Qibya was to be an example to everyone."41
Dr. Yousif Haikal, Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations at that time, explained the massacre in his report to the Security Council:
The Israelis entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of houses, using automatic weapons, grenades, and incendiaries; and dynamited houses over victims' heads... Forty houses, the village school, and a reservoir were destroyed. Twenty-two cattle were killed and six shops looted.42
The famous Catholic journal The Sign, published in the United States, also reported on the atrocities perpetrated during this attack. Editor Ralph Gorman explained his thoughts as follows: "Terror was a political weapon of the Nazis. But the Nazis never used terror in a more cold-blooded and wanton manner than the Israelis in the massacre at Kibya."43
Those who later came to the massacre site encountered horrifying images. Most of the dead bore bullet wounds to the back of the head, and many had been decapitated. Along with people who died beneath the wreckage of their houses, many innocent women and children also were brutally murdered.
Kafr Qasem Massacre, 1956:49 dead
In the Kafr Qasem attack, Israeli soldiers once again murdered innocent babies.
The attack on Kafr Qasem, during which 49 innocent people, without regard to women or children, young or old, were brutally murdered, occurred on October 29, 1956. On this very day, Israel also launched its assault on Egypt. Israeli frontier guards went on security rounds at about 4:00 p.m., claiming that they were securing the borders. They told local officials in the border towns that curfew from that day onwards was to start from 5:00 p.m. instead of the usual 6:00 p.m. One of these towns was Kafr Qasem, near the Jewish settlement of Betah Tekfa.
The townspeople were informed of the new curfew only at 4:45 p.m. The local official told the Israeli soldiers that most of the townspeople worked outside the town and, as they would just be returning from work, they could not possibly be informed of this change. At the same time, Israeli soldiers started to erect a barricade at the town's entrance. Meanwhile, those working outside the town started returning home. The first group soon reached the border of the town. What follows is eyewitness Abdullah Samir Bedir's account of what happened next:
We reached the village entrance at about 4:55 p.m. We were suddenly confronted by a frontier unit consisting of 12 men and an officer, all occupying an army truck. We greeted the officer in Hebrew saying 'Shalom Katsin' which means 'Peace be unto you officer,' to which he gave no reply. He then asked us in Arabic: 'Are you happy?' and we said 'Yes.' The soldiers started stepping down from the truck and the officer ordered us to line up. Then he shouted to his soldier this order: 'Laktasour Otem,' which means 'Reap them!' The soldiers opened fire…44
Bedir, who escaped this terrifying ordeal only by playing dead, was certainly not the only witness of this brutality. From this moment on, Israeli soldiers stopped every vehicle attempting to enter the town and executed those inside. Among them were 15- and 16-year-old boys, young girls, and pregnant women. Those who heard the noise and went outside to see what was going on were shot for violating the curfew the moment they stepped outside. The Israeli soldiers were ordered not to arrest, but to execute, all who violated the curfew.
This incident, reported in full detail in official Israeli Parliament records, is one of the most striking examples of official Israeli policy.
When they are told: "Do not cause corruption on Earth," they say: "We are only putting things right." No indeed! They are the corrupters, but they are not aware of it. (Qur'an, 2:11-12)
Khan Yunis Massacre, 1956:275 dead
The Israeli soldiers who attacked the refugee camp in Khan Yunis murdered 275 people. UN officials who conducted an on-site investigation discovered victims who had been shot in the back of the head after their hands had been tied.45
The Massacre in Gaza City, 1956: 60 dead
In this attack, Zionists killed 60 people, including women and children.
Fakhani Massacre, 1981: 150 dead
As a result of Israeli air attacks on this Lebanese region, 150 people died and 600 were wounded.46
The Khan Yunis refugee camp has been the target of Israeli bombs since the day it was founded. Almost 130,000 Palestinians live in or near its dilapidated buildings.
TIME, 7.3.94
In 1994, fanatical Jews attacked the Ibrahimi Mosque during ritual prayers, killing more than 40 people and wounding hundreds of others. The incident made the cover of Time magazine.
The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, 1994: 50 dead
On Friday, February 25, 1994 a terrible massacre occurred in Palestine. In an attack carried out by a Zionist Jew on Muslims gathered for Friday prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque, more than 50 Muslims died and almost 300 were wounded. Some of the wounded later died from their injuries.
The massacre was perpetrated by a Jew living in the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement in Hebron. This terrorist also turned out to be a reserve officer in the Israeli army and a member of a Zionist terrorist organization. Israeli sources reported that he wore military clothing during the attack.
The attacker sneaked into the mosque and hid behind a column as the Muslims were performing their dawn prayers. As they bowed their heads in unison, he opened fire on them with a machine gun. According to eyewitness accounts, he did not act alone - he was simply busy pulling the trigger. As his clips emptied out, his accomplices replaced them.
Following this incident, Israeli soldiers surrounded the mosque and prevented reporters from reaching it. Many more people died when these soldiers opened fire on Palestinian Muslims who had gathered around the mosque to protest the attack.47
Qana Massacre, 1996: 109 dead
More than 100 people, mostly women and children, lost their lives in the Qana refugee camp when it was bombed by the Israeli air force. The terrible scenes of carnage, including those of decapitated children, have never been forgotten. A UN inspection team determined that the massacre was deliberate.
Massacre of Sabra and Shatilla
"I had to take the babies and put them in buckets of water to put out the flames. When I took them out half an hour later, they were still burning. Even in the mortuary, they smouldered for hours." Dr. Amal Shamaa of the Barbir hospital, after Israeli phosphorus shells had been fired into West Beirut, 29 July, 1982.48
During the slaughter at Qana, the occupying Israeli forces considered even sleeping babies enemies and killed them unhesitatingly.
UNFORGETTABLE PHOTOGRAPHS
These photographs of the slaughter that occurred in Qana reflect the true face of the cruelty experienced in Palestine.
The Zionist terrorist operations to intimidate Palestinians and drive them off their land following WWII resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. But Israel's attack on the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 will go down in history as one of the worst acts of Zionist genocide ever committed. During the attack by Lebanon's Christian Phalangist groups, with the support and direction of Israeli soldiers, more than 3,000 people, most of them women and children, were murdered. Subsequent research and investigation showed that Ariel Sharon, at that time Israel's defense minister and now prime minister, was responsible for the operation. Due to this bloody attack, he is still known as "The Butcher of Lebanon."
The horrible massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps was carried out under the orders and instructions of then-Defense Minister and current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Journalist and Middle East expert Robert Fisk reported on the horrifying scenes he saw immediately after the attack in an article written after Sharon was elected prime minister:
For everyone who stood in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut on 18 September 1982, his (Ariel Sharon's) name is synonymous with butchery; with bloated corpses and disembowelled women and dead babies, with rape and pillage and murder... Even when I walk these fetid streets today, more than 18 years after… the ghosts haunt me still. Over there, on the side of the road leading to the Sabra mosque, lay Mr Nouri, 90 years old, grey-bearded, in pyjamas with a small woollen hat still on his head and a stick by his side. I found him on a pile of garbage, on his back… Just up the lane, I came across two women sitting upright with their brains blown out, next to a cooking pot... One of the women appeared to have had her stomach slit open. A few metres away, I discovered the first babies, already black with decomposition, scattered across the road like rubbish… The flies racing between the reeking bodies and our faces, between dried blood and reporter's notebook, the hands of watches still ticking on dead wrists. I clambered up a rampart of earth - an abandoned bulldozer stood guiltily nearby - only to find, once I was atop the mound, that it swayed beneath me. And I looked down to find faces, elbows, mouths, a woman's legs protruding through the soil. I had to hold on to these body parts to climb down the other side. Then there was the pretty girl, her head surrounded by a halo of clothes pegs, her blood still running from a hole in her back.49
In another article, Fisk describes what he saw while touring the hospitals where the injured were being treated: "What we saw here we would not easily forget. Visiting the Barbir hospital was to see what gunfire does to flesh."50
SABRA AND SHATILLA MASSACRE
The brutality that these pitiful and innocent people were subjected to should serve as a warning of the Israeli leadership's ideology. Most of the murdered women had been raped. Pregnant women had been sliced open so that their babies could be ripped out. Children barely 3 or 4 years old had been murdered in front of their parents. Many of the men had had their ears and noses cut off before being shot execution-style.
A news report about the massacres appeared in the French Le Monde newspaper on February 13, 2001. Nihad Hamad, a now-42-year-old survivor, describes what happened:
The Israeli Armed Forces spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning surrounding the camp. They wanted to seal off the east side. Our mujaheddin had left. Around here there was no one left but some boys of 15 or 16… On Thursday night, the bombing got twice as intense. We realized our light weaponry wouldn't be of any use. Everyone in the shelters was a refugee. Everyone was afraid. The elders of the group, those that people listened to, decided to go to the Israelis and tell them that the camp would surrender. With white flags in their hands they got in the car and headed out. They never came back. Some young men left with weapons and went in the same direction. They never came back either, nor the ones who went looking for them. Then we realized much better that we had to get out of here right away… Hundreds of people were fleeing to the same common salon in the northern part of the camp. There were so many of us that we almost suffocated. At daybreak there was the silence of death everywhere; this place was a ghost town now. The bombing had stopped. Every once in a while we could hear single shots being fired. Then, from the direction of the mosque, a woman's screams pierced the silence. Her hair was a tangled mess, her tattered clothes covered in blood. She had the manner of someone who had lost her mind. At her feet were children whose throats had been slit... They behaved brutally, and they used their knives and other incisive tools to carry out the murders in silence. After the militias finished their work at the camps, they finished their dirty work at the Gaza Hospital. They dragged the doctors, nurses, and wounded out of the hospitals and killed them. Along with those who were missing, we learned that between 3,000 and 3,500 people had been killed.51
Sharon is known by Arabs and throughout the world as "The Butcher of Lebanon," and displays his ruthlessness at every opportunity.
This frightful scene was the work of Ariel Sharon, known for such remarks as "The Arabs know me, and I know them" and for describing the Arabs in such disparaging terms as "bugs."52 Following the 1967 War, Sharon caused 160,000 Palestinians to leave East Jerusalem and become refugees. His punishment techniques include bombing houses, bulldozing refugee camps, and arresting hundreds of youths for no reason and subjecting them to torture. When Sharon was responsible for security in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians were assassinated, thousands were arrested and deported, and in Gaza alone 2,000 homes were destroyed and 16,000 people were exiled for the second time. Aside from the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, 14,000 people (including 13,000 unarmed civilians) died within the space of a few weeks, and about half a million people were made homeless.
The cruelty and brutality described here has occurred continuously on Palestinian soil for the past 50 years. Moreover, the examples cited above are merely those massacres during which many Palestinians lost their lives on a single day. Similar events, among many others, are as follows: 8 people in al-Sammou, 1966; 9 people in Aitharoun and 16 people in Kawnin, 1975; 20 people in Hanin and 23 in Bint Jbeil, 1976; 7 people in Adloun, 1978; 80 people in Abbasieh, 1979; and 20 people in Saida, 1980. Beyond these, several people have been killed or maimed every day for years. And every day houses are still destroyed and people are still driven from their homeland. Clearly, Israel's ultimate goal is to intimidate the Palestinians, drive them off their land, and bend them to their will through a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing.
The entire world looks on as this community is murdered, as it is subjected to blatant genocide. For some reason, most governments have - and continue to - ignored these brutal and inhumane practices and apply no sanctions other than the occasional "condemnation."
In his classic work World Orders: Old and New, Middle East commentator Noam Chomsky describes the Israeli government's view of the Palestinian people and how American strategists evaluate this view:
As for the Palestinians, U.S. planners had no reason to doubt the assessment of Israeli government specialists in 1948 that the refugees would either assimilate elsewhere or "would be crushed": "some of them would die and most of them would turn into human dust and the waste of society, and join the most impoverished classes in the Arab countries." Accordingly, there was no need to trouble oneself about them. These basic interpretations have remained stable until today, taking concrete form as events unfolded.53
The prophecy of American and Israeli authorities has been fulfilled today. Moreover, the policy of violence and intimidating Palestinians practiced during Israel's founding period and early years continues unabated.
The Palestinian Muslims are facing trials and tribulations similar to those faced by Muslims throughout history. In the Qur'an, God reminds the believers of that time (the Children of Israel) about Pharaoh's violence:
Remember when We rescued you from the people of Pharaoh. They were inflicting an evil punishment on you - slaughtering your sons and letting your women live. In that there was a terrible trial for you from your Lord. (Qur'an, 2:49)
Indeed, God helps those who are patient, and, according to His law, salvation is always for genuine believers, even if they are few in number, weak, or downtrodden. But, we also should realize that this trial is not only for the Muslims of Palestine; rather, it is for all who witness or know of this cruelty. For wherever they are and no matter what their condition, Muslims are obligated to help the wronged and the oppressed. And the greatest help they can give is to deal with this evil from its roots. In other words, the greatest help people can offer the Palestinians who continue to fight for their lives amid the ongoing chaos and strife is to wage an intellectual struggle against the Zionism's fundamental Social Darwinistic attitude, which engenders strife, chaos, and anarchy.
ARIEL SHARON IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SABRA AND SHATILLA MASSACRES
The great massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla camps came back onto the agenda with the BBC program "The Accused" broadcast on June 17, 2001. In that documentary, which looked into Ariel Sharon's role in the massacre in which 3,000 people lost their lives, living witnesses who escaped the slaughter spoke at first hand of the savagery, which lasted nearly 3 days. The program concluded by saying that Ariel Sharon, who was then defense minister, was responsible for the massacre and must face trial for it.
"The Accused" Was Broadcast Despite Pressure From the State of Israel
People who escaped the massacre, the Phalange leaders who carried it out, representatives of the Israeli Army, lawyers, and academics participated in the documentary, which was prepared by journalist Fergal Keane. However, before it had even been broadcast it met with a strong reaction from Israel and radical Jewish communities. Right up until the last moment, everyone expected that it might be cancelled. However, according to statements by Keane, the program was screened "under thousands of e-mails, threatening messages, and warnings of boycotts." Furthermore, because of the wide interest it received, it was repeated several times on the BBC and shown on television channels in a number of foreign countries.
What Panorama revealed
The Sabra and Shatilla massacre was carried out by the Lebanese Christian Phalange groups whom Lebanese Muslim Arabs had been at war for a long time. Yet it was Israel that supported, organized, and armed these groups from the beginning. In his program, Keane described the relationship between the Phalangists and Israel in this manner:
The Phalange were led by the charismatic and ruthless Bashir Gemayel. He was Israel's main ally in Lebanon. Israel's Mossad knew from meetings with him that he wanted to "eliminate" the Palestinian problem, and now he was about to become president of Lebanon. Bashir's election worried the people of the camps, but they'd been promised security.
The Israeli Army, which guaranteed the Palestinians in the camps that nothing would happen to them, was firmly behind the Phalange, the force that carried out the massacre. Before the massacre, the Israeli Army took the camp under its control by bombing it for days. It later closed all the gates to the camp, forbidding anyone without permission to enter or leave. It also gave the Phalange the time and the means to carry out the slaughter by firing flares all night long that lit their way, and by not intervening for 40 hours. It made it easier for the massacre to continue by issuing death threats, and by turning back those Palestinians who tried to leave and who got as far as the exits and sought help. In Keane's words, "in the rubble were children who'd been scalped, young men who'd been castrated." One of the living witnesses of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre who spoke on the program, Nabil Ahmed, described what he went through in this way:
I was hoping to find my family alive. Then, when I started seeing the bodies in the streets, I accepted the fact then that I'll be grateful to find their bodies. You see what happened. They put them in a house, they killed them and they bulldozed the houses on them, so we were digging the rubble to identify. So we pulled the hair of my relative and that's when we realised that this is the spot where they are there.
The massacre perpetrated by the Phalange was indescribable. Statements of an Israeli officer in the program clearly revealed that the Phalange were enemies of the Muslims. Israeli paratroop brigade commander Yoram Yair recounted the shocking request he received from a Phalangist:
Judge Richard Goldstone is the former Chief Prosecutor of the UN War Crimes Tribunal
He say: "Do me a favour, make sure to bring me that much." I say: "What is it?" He say: "Listen, I know that you will sooner or later go inside West Beirut. Promise me that you will bring me that much Palestinian blood. I want to drink it."
Israel's then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon knew about every stage of this massacre which was carried out under an Israeli Army security umbrella. Keane explained Sharon's role in these words:
Ariel Sharon arrived in Beirut on Wednesday morning insisting there were PLO forces in the camps. And so after conferring with his senior officers, including Amos Yuron, the Commander for Beirut and the refugee camps, Ariel Sharon agreed a fateful order. "Only one element, and that is the Israeli Defence Force, shall command the forces in the area. For the operation in the camps the Phalangist should be sent in."
Ariel Sharon went to see the Phalange at their headquarters to discuss the Beirut operation… Now, a day after their leader's murder, the Israelis were asking the Phalange to fight in Palestinian camps. Could Ariel Sharon have been in any doubt about what would have happened if you sent the Phalangists into a Palestinian refugee camp, an undefended camp?
Then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon made constant observations in the conflict area, and scrutinized every stage of the war during his visit to the Phalange refugee camp.
Keane put that question to many officials, to Morris Draper, the U.S. Middle East representative at the time; Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor at the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal; Professor Richard Falk of Princeton University; and others… They all agreed that Ariel Sharon was responsible in the first degree for the massacre and that he was a war criminal. For instance, Goldstone revealed his thoughts in these terms: 'If the person who gave the command knows, or should know on the facts available to him or her, that is a situation where innocent civilians are going to be injured or killed, then that person is as responsible, in fact in my book more responsible even than the people who carry out the order." Space was given in the program to a telephone conversation that supported these opinions. Israeli journalist Ron Ben Yishai reported a conversation between himself and Sharon on the second day in this way:
I found him at home sleeping. He woke up and I told him: "Listen, there are stories about killings and massacres in the camps. A lot of our officers know about it and tell me about it, and if they know it, the whole world will know about it. You can still stop it." I didn't know that the massacre actually started 24 hours earlier. I thought it started only then and I said to him: "Look, we still have time to stop it. Do something about it." He didn't react.
In short, although he has denied it for years, Ariel Sharon knew about the massacre, decided on it together with the Phalangists, and made no effort to stop the killings in the camps, which were under his responsibility.
This reality that Panorama revealed was one that had been expressed for years by those who have studied the event closely and those who lived through it. However, the reason why the program attracted so much attention was that it was the first time that such a respectable channel as BBC had broadcast statements directly accusing Israel, and because it also accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Death Threats To Those Who Declare Ariel Sharon To Be A War Criminal
Professor Richard Falk, Princeton University.
ZAMAN, 28.6.01A Death Threat to Falk,who had declared the need for Sharon to be put on trial. MILLI GAZETE, 28.6.01A Threat From MOSSAD to the professor who told the BBCthat Sharon should be tried as a war criminal.
There was a most interesting reaction after this broadcast. Professor Richard Falk of Princeton University, who said that Ariel Sharon should be indicted as a war criminal, further noted:
I think there is no question in my mind that he is indictable for the kind of knowledge that he either had or should have had.
Falk began to receive death threats after that statement. Shortly afterwards, his home and family were given police protection. Israel was once again attempting to silence people and prevent the truth from being told by means of violence, pressure, and threats. However, Falk stated in The Independent that his conscience was easy and that he had told the truth.
After the program, debates began over whether or not Ariel Sharon could be tried. Several international jurists joined in. However, these debates were an example of insincerity. The genocide of the Palestinians, which most states had ignored for more than half a century, was now being talked about 20 years after it happened. Those who had ignored it at the time, and those who made no effort to stop Israel, were behaving as if these massacres were being revealed for the very first time.
In fact, this charge is not limited to Sharon but extends to Zionism itself, Israel's official ideology. It is enough to look at Israel's basic principles to see this, and to understand the philosophy behind the bloodshed at Sabra and Shatilla.
Will Ariel Sharon Be Tried As A "War Criminal"?
When the BBC program "The Accused" was aired, 28 Palestinians who survived the Sabra and Shatilla massacre sued Aried Sharon in Belgium so that he could be tried as a war criminal in Belgian courts. Belgium is one of the few countries whose law permits the trial of anyone who commits human rights violations in any country.
The indictment sheds a great deal of light on Sharon's and Israel's bloody history. The indictment, which presents commission reports and research by important historians and writers as evidence, contains important information that Sharon knew about the massacre, that he supported those who carried it out, and even that he was working with them:
Historians and journalists agree that it was probably during a meeting between Ariel Sharon and Bashir Gemayel in Bikfaya on 12 September [1982] that an agreement was concluded to authorise the "Lebanese forces" to "mop up" these Palestinian camps. 1
The intention to send the Phalangist forces into West Beirut had already been announced by Mr Sharon on 9 July 1982 2, and in his biography (called "Warrior"), he confirms having negotiated the operation during his meeting with Bikfaya. 3
According to Ariel Sharon's 22 September 1982 declarations in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), the entry of the Phalangists into the refugee camps of Beirut was decided on Wednesday 15 September 1982 at 15.30.4
Also according to General Sharon, the Israeli commandant had received the following instruction: "The Tsahal forces are forbidden to enter the refugee camps. The 'mopping-up' of the camps will be carried out by the Phalanges or the Lebanese army." 5
At that point, General Drori telephoned Ariel Sharon and announced, "Our friends (the Phalangists) are advancing into the camps. We have coordinated their entry." Sharon replied, "Congratulations! Our friends' operation is approved." 6
(For the whole text of the indictment and detailed statements by the victims, see http://www.mallat.com/complaint.htm)
The above details are only a part of the evidence revealing the relationship between Sharon and Gemayel. Sharon's autobiography, "Warrior," provides many more details of the massacre carried out by the Phalangists. In any case, the fact that Israeli soldiers did not enter a camp under their control for 3 days, that they did not know what was going on inside, while all the time preparing logistical support and bulldozers to open graves and demolish houses, means that the claim that they were "well-intentioned" is false.
HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS, 2.2003
BBC NEWS, 5.2002
LE MONDE, 28.6.01
Widely covered news reports in the foreign press reminded readers of what Sharon had done in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. A report in Le Monde reported that "Sharon Feels the Heat from Belgian Justice Dept., Prepares Defense." The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that debates over the massacres in the camps were being rekindled.
CBS television also initiated a debate on whether or not Sharon would be tried as a "war criminal" after Milosevic.
What Will Ariel Sharon's Being Tried As A War Criminal Change?
The trial of Ariel Sharon for the Sabra and Shatilla massacre would be an important initiative. However, the current campaign by some survivors is not receiving sufficient world support. Apart from a few human rights organizations, nobody is supporting them. The most important thing is that massacres in Palestine are still ongoing.
In Palestine, hundreds of innocent Palestinians are being forced out of their homes and exiled from their land. Bulldozers run over their homes. Again a defenceless father is killed, together with the child in his arms. Israeli troops carry out new killings and attacks every day. And the man giving the orders is Ariel Sharon. Even if someone else replaces him, the massacres will continue, for Israeli violence is based upon such a deep-rooted ideology that just bringing Sharon to trial will not expunge it. And until Israel abandons its Zionist ideology, it will continue to bring death and blood to the Middle East.
Of course getting past massacres onto the agenda is an important initiative. But for this to be a statement of sincerity, the commitment displayed must continue until the cruelty ends. Therefore, all sincere people need to pursue wide-scale international legal sanctions (for instance an embargo) and a policy of isolation to force an end to the killings committed by the Zionists in the name of their ideology.
1- Benny Morris, The Righteous Victims, New York, A. Knopf, 1999, p. 540 2- Schiff & Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1984, p. 2513- A. Sharon, Warrior: An Autobiography, Simon and Schuster, Ney York, 1989, p. 4984- Sharon à la Knesset, Annexe au rapport de la Commission Kahan, The Beirut Massacre, The Complete Kahan Commission Report, Princeton, Karz Cohl, 1983, p. 124. (Ci-après, Kahan Commission Report).5- Kahan Report, p. 125: "mopping-up"6- Amnon Kapeliouk, Sabra et Chatila: Enquête Sur un Massacre, Paris, Seuil, 1982, p. 37
What reason could you have for not fighting in the Way of God - for those men, women and children who are oppressed and say: "Our Lord, take us out of this city whose inhabitants are wrongdoers! Give us a protector from You! Give us a helper from You!"? (Qur'an, 4:75)
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 5.08.01IMAGE BUILDING IN THE PRESSThe first green light for Israel, as it seeks to improve its image, came from the BBC's decision not to refer to the killings of Palestinians as murders.
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 5.08.01ISRAELI CENSORSHIP AT THE BBC
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 5.08.01THE BBC BOWS TO ISRAELIn a message sent to its reporters in Britain and the Middle East by the BBC management, Israeli officials demanded that the deaths of Palestinians be referred to as the identification and elimination of targets instead of as killings.
Western media outlets usually report on Middle Eastern events in a biased way. Those who do otherwise incur the wrath of the Israeli government, and generally have to retreat. England's famous broadcast center, BBC, is just one of the media outlets that has succumbed to Israeli pressure and been forced to toe the line. There are journalists like Robert Fisk all over the world, however, who have the courage to tell the truth and who bring the real events in Palestine to the world agenda at every opportunity. In his article "BBC staff told not to call Israeli killings 'assassinations'," Fisk criticizes Israel's influence on the media.
Are the Witnesses Against Sharon Being Eliminated?
While the issue of Sharon's facing trial before the Belgian courts over the Sabra and Shatila massacres was still on the agenda, interesting reports began to come in from different parts of the world. Those individuals who played a personal role in the 1982 massacre were, one by one, losing their lives in mysterious circumstances.
Although the Belgian court has not decided whether Sharon should face charges or not, the lawyers for the survivors keep producing new evidence. However, the most important new evidence is the memories of those who witnessed and even took part in this savagery. For some reason, some of these participants have been killed in recent months, thus eliminating the most important witnesses. First of all, Jean Ghanem, the closest friend of Elia Hobeika, the leader of the Phalange groups that carried out the attack in 1982, lost his life in an odd traffic accident. His car drove into a clearly visible tree on New Year's Eve, resulting in his death after two weeks in a coma.
Elia Hobeika, known as one of the bloodiest and most ruthless leaders in Lebanese history, was killed by a bomb placed in his car. One reason why all eyes turned toward the Israeli forces immediately after this event was that approximately 24 hours before his death, he had announced that he would give evidence against Sharon in Belgium. At a press conference, Hobeika even said: "And I have evidence of what actually happened at Sabra and Shatila which will throw a completely new light on the Kahan commission report." a
Such evidence clearly would make things very difficult for Sharon. Hobeika had been trained by the Israeli security forces in Israeli camps during the 1980s, and became leader of the Phalangists who carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacre at Sharon's direction. In fact, the Kahan Commission, charged with investigating the massacre in Israel gave Hobeika's name and stated that he and the then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon were responsible for the massacre in the first degree. b
In short, the civilians who lost their lives in the Sabra and Shatila camps were the victims of Hobeika's Phalangists, who were operating under Israeli protection. One of the best known anecdotes about him comes from while the attack was going on, when one Phalangist officer asked him what should be done about the Palestian civilian prisoners. Smiling, Hobeika gave the order for all of them to be killed, saying: "Don't ask me such a stupid question again." c
Michael Nassar, one of the late Hobeika's former assistants, sold arms left over from the Lebanese civil war to the Croatian militia during the conflict in the Balkans. With the money he obtained, he emigrated to Brazil. Nassar was shot in his car, together with his wife. Although it may be suggested that he was killed by the Brazilian mafia, the fact that these murders followed one another in close succession offers an important clue as to what really happened.
1- The Independent, 25 Ocak 20022- The Independent, 25 Ocak 20023- The Independent, 25 Ocak 2002
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 25.1.02BLOWN TO PIECES WITH HIS SECRETSHobeika, former leader of the Lebanese Christian militia, has been killed.
HURRIYET-Turkish Daily, 25.1.02ASSASSINATION OF IMPORTANT EYE WITNESS TO THE SABRA AND SHATILLA MASSACRES.
MILLIYET-Turkish Daily, 25.1.02A WITNESS IS SILENCEDA Lebanese witness preparing to give evidence against Sharon regarding the Sabra and Shatilla massacres has been killed.
REFUGEE CAMPS
Israeli attacks left Palestinians no choice but to leave the places where they had been born and raised.
In 1948, with the recognition of UN Resolution 181, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians instantly found themselves stateless in their own land. According to this resolution, Palestine was to be partitioned as follows: 55% of the land, including the greater part of the valuable coastal area, went to the Israelis, while the remaining 45%, including the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, half of Galilee, the Judaean and Samarian uplands, and a bit of the Negev, went to the Palestinians. Once the British pulled out of the region completely, a war started on May 15, 1948 between Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq on one side, and Israel on the other. War ended in December and Israel emerged from the war with about 50 percent more land than it had been allotted under the UN plan, including all of Galilee, the coastal area, and northwestern Jerusalem, leaving only the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As a result, more than 750,000 Palestinian Arabs left behind everything they owned and emigrated. About one-third of them settled in the West Bank, another third in the Gaza Strip, and the remaining third sought refuge in neighboring Arab countries, principally Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. During the Six Day War of 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and a majority of Palestinians left these areas as well for neighboring Arab countries. The number of Palestinians scattered around the world today is estimated to be 3.5 to 4 million. Of these, about one million live in West Bank and Gaza Strip refugee camps and along the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The others live outside the camps, but without any citizenship.
Most middle-aged Palestinians today were born in these refugee camps. Palestinian Muslims live in extremely difficult and primitive conditions in these camps, for each living unit is about 60 meters square and has virtually no infrastructure. One of the biggest problems is that most of the residents are unemployed.
REFUGEE CAMPS
IN THE CAMPS
OUTSIDE THE CAMPS
TOTAL
Jordan
238.188
1.050.009
1.288.197
West Bank
131.705
385.707
517.412
Gaza
362.626
320.934
683.560
Lebanon
175.747
170.417
346.164
Syria
83.311
253.997
337.308
Total
991.577
2.181.064
3.172.641
Zaman Turkish Daily, 6 March 2001
Gaza's dense population of 2,500 people per square kilometer only increases the violence of the refugees' living conditions. And when you consider that these people left behind all of their possessions and job opportunities to seek refuge in these regions, it is easier to visualize the conditions in which they live.
In his book The Israeli Connection: Who Israel Arms and Why, Haifa University professor Benjamin Beit Hallahmi describes the situation of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Israel's attitude toward them:
In 1986, the Gaza population stood at 525,000, and the density at 2,150 per square kilometer (in Israel it is 186)… Most able-bodied Gazans, starting sometimes at age eight, work in Israel, at wages which are 40 percent below average Israeli pay. They pay income tax and social security tax - without being entitled to any benefits, since they are defined as nonresidents… In the Israeli consciousness Gaza has become the symbol of helplessness and squalor, but there is no sympathy for the denizens of Gaza, for they are the enemy.54
Without a doubt, those who suffer most from the difficult conditions in the camps are women, the elderly, and school-age children.
For a better understanding of the refugee camps' reality, consider the impressions of a Palestinian-American who visited the camps. Yasmine Subhi Ali, a medical student, made the following observations during her visit to Shatilla camp in 1999:
... Passing many damaged remnants of the civil war and the Israeli invasion all along our route. I expected that we would have to stop at some gate signifying the entrance to the camp when we reached it, but I saw nothing of the sort. I didn't need to: the contrast between the camp and the surrounding area (which was not the nicest part of town in the first place) was so striking that there could be no mistaking it. There were piles upon piles of trash, junk, and stones lining both sides of the road… Crowded shops line the street now, but in the distance behind them reminders remain: those bullet-hole-ridden, gunpowder-stained buildings … and a graveyard for which (we were told) the camp inhabitants were not allowed to build any memorials or even tombstones.55
The world is ignoring the plight of the Palestinians, who struggle with snow, rain and mud in winter, and scorching heat in summer.
Another important refugee camp is Dheisheh, near Bethlehem. In the October 2000 issue of the French magazine Le Monde Diplomatique, Muna Hamzeh-Muhaisen, in her capacity as the technical director and public relations manager of Birzeit University's Across Borders Project, published excerpts from her journal about this camp. The events quoted below are interesting for their reflection of the Palestinians' condition:
Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed and identification cards seized survive in makeshift tents and wait hopefully for the day when they can return to their homes.
No one in Dheisheh has the chance to go to work, except those working in Bethlehem. Each Palestinian living unit in Region A is cut off from all the others by tanks. We can't go from Bethlehem to Al-Khalil or Jerusalem. We spend our entire day following the news... People are subjected to such pressure, that they think the time has come - it's either them or us... People have gotten sick and tired of this. They're fed up with the provocations of Israel, with the rottenness of the authorities. They're fed up with these agreements to found a racist state on this land, to divide the West Bank into two hundred little islands. They're sick of the peace agreements... And while all this is happening in Israel the normal rhythm of life continues. Israelis wake up every day, while their children go to school and they go to their jobs. They go out to visit restaurants or to go to the theater. They don't care what's happening here. They act as if the people wounding, maiming, and killing us are not their own husbands, sons, and fathers, but rather some hired guns brought from far away... No one wants to hear news about new agreements. Israel will pull back its heavy artillery. Then what? They'll still use real ammunition to kill civilians. They'll use rubber bullets and tear gas. We'll still be waking up in an apartheid system…
How shall we now look Um Hazem in the face? Mustafa, the son of Um Hazem, has joined the army of the martyred. Israeli bullets turned Mustafa's chest and arms into coal. They showed us the body in the hospital room. We could see his bones. Four sniper bullets had torn his body apart...
In a dark September in 1967, I was a child in Amman. Throughout almost the entire Intifada I lived in Palestine. But for the first time, the sound of shells did not scare me. And I understood for the first time why Palestinians who spend their lives under occupation continuously struggle with the Israelis, and why they confront their weapons with stones...56
These conditions, as well as Israeli violence, continue in the camps today. Author Norman Finkelstein, himself born in a Jewish Polish ghetto, describes examples of this violence in The Rise and Fall of Palestine, his book about the Intifada years:
The most common form of Israeli violence in the refugee camps was "the pogroms. Entering the camps after dusk, soldiers or settlers sprayed them [the Palestinians] with bullets and tear gas, banged on doors and smashed windows and solar heaters, broke into homes, then beat a swift retreat (usually with a hostage or two)."57
The only wish of the Palestinian refugees is to return to their land and their country. In fact, their plight is one of the main discussion points of all peace negotiations. However, Israel has a very strict policy on this matter. This is shown clearly by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's motto: "Jerusalem cannot be divided - the refugees cannot return." As long as he remains in office, this will remain official Israeli policy.
Unhealthy living conditions, lack of medical supplies, and other difficulties brought by economic embargo affect Palestinian children the most.
As mentioned earlier, the Zionists consider the protection and fortification of an all-Jewish Israeli nation-state as sacred as the formation of Israel. This fortification is possible only through expanding the settlements and increasing the number of Jews living in the Holy Land. In a press statement of March 2001, Sharon explained that approximately one million Jews must immigrate to Israel within the next 10 to 12 years, and that by 2020 they must create suitable living conditions for those Jews moving to, and already living in, Israel. Sharon's view that "[Israel] must create the right conditions for them to move... If they want to remain Jewish, they must move to live here. Every effort must be made to bring Jews here."58 goes to show how important it is for Israel to rob Palestinians of their land.
The cruelty perpetrated against the Palestinians is being done before the eyes of the world. The refugees live in extremely difficult conditions and face the threat of new bombings every moment. But it must not be forgotten that true believers always have God's help and support, both here on Earth and in Heaven, as described in:
Many a Prophet has been killed, when there were many thousands with him! They did not give up in the face of what assailed them in the Way of God, nor did they weaken, nor did they yield. God loves the steadfast. All they said was: "Our Lord, forgive us our wrong actions and any excesses we went to in what we did. Make our feet firm and help us against these disbelieving people." So God gave them the reward of this world and the best reward of the hereafter. God loves good-doers. (Qur'an, 3:146-148)
As we emphasized earlier, true Muslims cannot ignore such cruelty. While innocent people are dying one by one, it is impossible for any Muslim to sleep peacefully, go about his or her daily business, and think only of personal comfort. The Qur'an provides the solution, and those who can carry it out are Muslims. With these verses, "A Light has come to you from God and a Clear Book. By it, God guides those who follow that which pleases Him to the ways of peace. He will bring them from the darkness to the light by His permission, and guide them to a straight path" (Qur'an, 5:15-16), God reveals that those subjected to cruelty can achieve salvation through the Qur'an's guidance. The solution is to embrace the Qur'an, demand that the rights of Muslims around the world be respected, and struggle against the foes of religious morality.
Life under Siege
The Israeli government also forces the Palestinians to live under blockades. Though they only own very small amounts of land in proportion to their population, the Palestinians are under strict control and subjected to continuous supervision. (In fact, they do not currently own any land. They have been sentenced to live only in those parts of the Occupied Territories for which Israel has given permission.)
Israel continues to exercise supervisory authority over 97% of the West Bank and 40% of the Gaza Strip, both of which fall under the autonomous Palestinian Authority. Although it might appear that the Palestinians living in these regions are ruled by their own government, Israel has placed severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of all Palestinians living in the West Bank and in most of the Gaza Strip. Since March 1993, travel by Palestinians living in Israel and East Jerusalem has been subject to government approval. Not only does this limit the Palestinians' economic activities, but it also takes away such basic rights as education, health, and the freedom to worship.
Israel's blockade policy is actually two-faceted. The most visible aspect consists of placing checkpoints at various places and deploying large troop concentrations near Palestinian-inhabited areas for "security" reasons. Recently, Israeli forces have even begun to erect barbed wire fences and concrete walls around Palestinian areas and dig trenches across the main roads. As these forces are quite aggressive, these points are often the scene of deadly confrontations.
Every moment of Palestinians' lives are under the control of Israeli soldiers. Security checks of houses, cars, and workplaces are just another form of torture.
In an article published in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, journalist Graham Usher describes the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which began in 2001, and its effect upon the Palestinians:
There are around 90 army roadblocks in the West Bank and 163 earth barricades.... Palestians overcome this by wading through cornfields and over rocky tracks to reach their jobs in Israel … there are between 10,000-30,000 Palestinians working in Israel… The most common blockade is the mud and gravel rampart about a metre high, encircled by ditches about a metre deep… These have torn apart virtually every road leading to a town, village or camp in the West Bank… It is realities like these that convince Palestinians that the siege is precisely what the Israeli government is most loath to describe it: a collective punishment against an innocent and unarmed civilian population. And it hurts like hell… The undeclared aim of such oppression is to exhaust the Palestinians into giving up the fight.59
These barricades also hinder Palestinian access to such basic needs as medicine and water. In many camps, where the lack of infrastructure and plumbing means that people get water from trucks, such trenches prevent the trucks from passing. Many people in this situation now try to meet their water needs by collecting rainwater.
Beyond this, the right to educate the children living in these refugee camps also is being violated. As teachers generally travel to refugee camps and villages from other cities, the blockade prevents them from reaching their students. The blockade also impacts negatively upon Palestinian farmers, for the trucks bringing their crops to market fall into the trenches. Thus they have no choice but to carry their goods on their backs.
Israeli journalist Gordon Levy has spent much time in the Occupied Territories and has witnessed the hardship experienced by Palestinians. In his article "Women in Black," he describes life in these blockaded camps and villages:
The West Bank is under siege, its towns and villages are blocked and most of the main roads are open to Jews only… The drivers pass on information to one another with hand gestures. These are not traffic reports on the radio, they are life-and-death messages about the location of the soldiers and the settlers… The soldiers are seen from afar, watching from the roadblock and from the main road. Sometimes they swoop down in their jeeps to stop the forbidden traffic. Sometimes they confiscate the ID cards of the passengers … and sometimes they beat up drivers… They also chase back anyone who tries to cross the fields on foot.
Sometimes they open fire, as they did on a young passenger, Fatma Abu Jish from the neighboring village, who was killed here on Sunday of this week a short time after we had passed by.60
W. REPORT, 4-5.94
W. REPORT, 8-9.01
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 12.6.01THE PATIENT DENIED PERMISSION BY ISRAEL DIED Israeli soldiers and settlers compete with each other to harass, torture, and attack Palestinians. They barricade roads, dig trenches, and deny Palestinians even their most essential needs.
Any encounter between the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers means that gunshots will soon be heard. Most of the time, the Palestinians are the losers in these exchanges. The practice of blockading certain streets with concrete blocks does not reduce conflict; rather, it increases it. Palestinians trying to go to school or work do so in the constant shadow of Israeli soldiers and automatic weapons.
The Settlements and Blockaded Palestinian Lands
One subtle aspect of the blockade is that the Palestinians' remaining land is being constricted by the continuous building of Jewish settlements. Israel is following a systematic policy of creating new settlement areas. What is more, these settlements, which are built for maximum occupancy, have a profound importance for Israel. For example, the Jewish settlements in Gaza and on the West Bank, areas thought to have been left to the Palestinian Authority, are considered very important. Even though these lands have been left to Palestine, Israel will never agree to remove these settlers. In fact, Palestinian police have no authority to supervise and inspect these areas. This situation means that Israel will never withdraw from these de facto Occupied Territories.
These settlements also are important because they surround the Palestinian enclaves. To get from one settlement to another, settlers can travel through tunnels constructed by the Israeli government without setting foot on Palestinian land. But Palestinians who want to leave their camps to visit relatives living in another camp, or who just have to get to work everyday, must pass through a series of military checkpoints. Even if Palestine declared its independence today, it would consist of many noncontiguous and widely separated regions. Moreover, all of these regions still would be under the control of Israeli forces. How would the borders of such a nation be determined? How would the economy develop? How would investments be made in health and education? Obviously, Israel's goal is to destroy, through assimilation, those Palestinians who it could not destroy physically. Thus it plans to create communities that are far apart and inaccessible to each other, and then to isolate them culturally and sociologically.
The deliberate deployment of settlements in the middle of overwhelmingly Palestinian areas is actually one of the basic reasons for the clashes. Le Monde Diplomatique magazine's publishing director Alain Gresh, who is known for his books about the Middle East, wrote the following about the Israeli settlements in an article:
These settlements, right in the center of the Palestinian lands… These settlements eat away at the Palestinian lands, a little bit at a time, every day. Thousands of Israeli soldiers are put there for their "protection," countless checkpoints are set up, and for Palestinians these become the scene of every type of humiliation. Roads are made for the settlements. Just the presence of these is enough to damage the notion of a permanent and independent nation.61
These settlements on Palestinian land are among the bloodiest flashpoints of the new Intifada, for the message given by those Palestinians who resist is clear: Israel is in a position to choose between these settlements and peace. And these settlements are classified by the International Criminal Code as a "war crime." M. Yossi Sarid, a parliamentarian from the leftist Meretz movement, makes the following admission:
These settlements are in the eye of the storm, and have always invited danger, both for the residents and for the soldiers. These settlements must be dispersed without wasting any time.62
Being taken into custody by Israeli soldiers means either an indefinite prison term or that the person has been "disappeared" for Palestinians. For this reason, being taken into custody is one of a Palestinian's biggest fears.
Eitan Felner is the director of B'Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. His essay on the Maale Adumim settlement is entitled "En Afrique du Sud, On appelait cela l'Apartheid" (In South Africa, they call it apartheid). He points out that while creating the settlements, the Israel government forced Palestinians from their homes, and then made large investments in those same areas and provided government incentives for people to move there. Then-prime minister Ehud Barak was conducting peace discussions on the one hand while, on the other, he was accelerating the building of new settlements. The article emphasizes his speech made at Ma'aleh Adumim's opening ceremony: "Every house you have built here is part of the state of Israel. Forever. Period. The new government will continue to strengthen the state of Israel, its hold over the Land of Israel, and we will continue to develop and strengthen Ma'aleh Adumim." The result, stresses Felner, is that,
But Ma'aleh Adumim is not just the story of a successful urban development as depicted in the municipality's glossy brochures and snazzy website. Ma'aleh Adumim was established on lands taken from Palestinians, from the villages of Abu Dis, Al Izariyah, Al Issawiyah, Al Tuor and Anata.63
Cruelty at the Checkpoints
Actually, Israel's hypocritical policy has continued ever since the peace process began. When the Oslo Accords came into effect in 1993, Israel recognized the autonomous Palestinian Authority. These accords were the means by which an autonomous Palestinian nation-state could be brought to the agenda, even if its borders were not yet exactly clear. While this seemed to be a positive development, the Israeli government has used it as yet another tool to inflict cruelty upon the Palestinians.
After the Palestinian Authority's boundaries were laid out, the Palestinians were faced with even more debilitating restrictions. Crossing these borders was now subject to visa requirements, a practice that thoroughly eroded their ability to travel. Already subjected to frequent ID checks, Palestinians now were removed from their cars and searched, not to mention harassed and insulted, at barricades erected on the roads. In other words, they were effectively put under complete Israeli control. One result of this practice was the frequent news items such as "An elderly Palestinian man died when an ambulance was not allowed to pick him up" or "A sick woman died when she was not granted passage to the hospital."
Suleiman Abu Karsh, the deputy trade minister of Palestine, describes in an interview how these blockades have tormented the lives of Palestinians:
Do you know how I got here? The area between our home and the airport was full of Israeli tanks. If they had killed me, who would have called them to account? Israel would just say that I was suspicious, and that is why I was killed. The Israeli soldiers did not allow my delegation to continue to the airport. Now I'm going home, but my son tells me on the phone that the roads are closed. I don't know if I'll make it home or not.64
ALL THE LIVES ARE UNDER CONTROL
Palestinians cannot travel, commute to work, sell their goods, or even worship without the approval of Israeli soldiers.
English parliamentarian Bashir Khanbhai, a member of the European Parliament, witnessed such events during a visit to Palestine. The following is quoted from his report to Parliament regarding Israel's oppressive and aggressive policy:
Israel has exercised its powers to confiscate; destroy homes and farms; detain, torture and assassinate innocent civilians and punish collectively through curfew and crude intimidation without any sanction from the international community…
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) is the largest and best funded ministry. It controls all publications (newspapers) for circulation in Palestine; which goods and services can be imported; all movement of people and vehicles; use of land including construction of new buildings and supply of utilities. It determines protection for the hundreds of new settlements which have mushroomed all over the Palestinian land - land seized without compensation! Some of these settlements only house 30 or 40 people but they have hundreds of armed soldiers…
The Israeli curfew imposed since last September last year has closed schools, presevented olive farmers from harvesting the crop, killed tourist trade and deprived over 120,000 workers of work in Israel.65
The Radical Settlers Practice Their Own Terror
Radical Israeli settlers always have been one of the most important players in the policy of terrorizing and oppressing the Palestianians.
The Jewish migration to Palestine, which began with the end of World War I, resulted in the Palestinians' being driven from their land so that they could be used to establish Jewish settlements. The Israeli government then used these settlements to expand its occupation of Palestinian territory.
This policy continues unabated today. For example, since the Oslo Accords of 1993, the number of settlements in the Occupied Territories has increased by 50 percent. Furthermore, Israel budgets millions of dollars every year to develop them. According to statements made in November 2000, the Israeli government decided to allocate $500 million to expand settlements in the Occupied Territories in 2001.66
The settlements in question represent a dire threat to the Palestinian people in quite a few ways. In addition to being an obstacle to the Palestinians' hopes of returning to their homes, the settlers also threaten them with their aggressive behavior. The Israeli army and the militant settlers, in fact, act as partners in attacking Palestinians. In the article "Exposing Israel: A Nation of Colonialists" in the American journal The Palestine Chronicle, Middle East expert Ramzy Baroud describes this collaboration:
Mistakenly, many create the distinction between the Israeli army and Israeli settlers, as if the two are not clearly opposite sides of the same coin. It is often witnessed that even well-intending human rights groups naively call on the Israeli army to protect the Palestinian population from settlers's assaults, disregarding the fact that Israeli settlements and the Israeli army are both part of Israel's offensive strategy aimed at strengthening the grip of the Jewish state in the Occupied Territories.67
A good portion of the settlers living in about 200 settlements are being directed by Kach, the notorious radical terrorist organization. (The Kach organization, founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, is known for such terrorist activities as the 1994 al-Khalil massacre and the Masjid al-Aqsa bombing attempt.) Kach members are known to conduct armed raids on the refugee camps, with the soldiers' aid and support, during which they murder innocent people and damage their homes and places of worship. In his article, Baroud describes these attacks:
Just listen to the news, which hardly fails to point out the joint cooperation between Israeli army units and settlers. "Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian protestors, Jewish settlers open fire at villagers…," "Israeli army shells a refugee camp, settlers block the main road leading to it…," "Army declares Palestinian land military zone, settlers rush to expand a settlement…," "Soldiers prevent Palestinian farmers from reaching their land for harvest, settlers kill a farmer while harvesting his olive trees…"68
Raids conducted by settlers and soldiers about the time that the al-Aqsa Intifada began also were reported in the Turkish media. For example, Yeni Safak reported on October 10, 2000, that,
Settlers from the northern Israel city of Nazareth, supported by soldiers, orchestrated sudden raids on areas inhabited by Muslims. It is reported that two Palestinians died and hundreds were wounded in the raids… Eyewitnesses reported that more than one thousand Israelis went to the Arab villages, stoning houses and attacking some Arabs with weapons. It was also reported that Israeli police provided support for the assailants by lighting flares over the area.
A Palestinian man who had closed his shop in Jerusalem and fled during 1948 returned in 1967 to discover that an Israeli merchant had occupied his location. Many Palestinians face the same situation.
These frequently recurring incidents occasionally make their way into the international media. An article appearing in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, one of the few American magazines that does not follow a pro-Israel policy, a Muslim who witnessed one of these raids gives a first-hand account of what he saw. Samah Jabr describes life under siege on the outskirts of Jerusalem:
Since the Al-Aqsa intifada began, we cannot leave the house at night and sometimes we cannot go out in the day, either. Even if one of us becomes violently ill, we cannot go out to summon a physician or go to a hospital. If we need milk from the store, too bad. It will have to wait.69
Alerted by their neighbors' screams of "The settlers are attacking!" as he is sitting at home with his family, Jabr describes the terrifying ordeal:
Most settlers living illegally on Palestinian land believe that it is their religious task to reunite the Holy Land with themselves, God's Chosen People. Others, the followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, believe that they must take back the Temple Mount, reconstruct the Jewish Temple… Neve Yaqoup is the settlement of God's People nearest our home.
The night of the attack was dark and shadowless, but we peered from our windows into the night, trying to see. We could only hear shouting and shooting… From the nearby mosque, we heard a voice on the loud speaker… This Palestinian Arabic speaker told us to gather stones and glass for defense and to stay in our homes with the lights out. Outside our compound, we heard the rustle of kids gathering stones … the kids actually cleaned up the area… Settlers never come in the day. Like the fox to a barnyard, they sneak in at night. They come fully armed, and often with Israeli soldiers… While it is rare for them actually to kill one of us, they have a habit of destroying property and terrorizing our children… As the shooting and shouting came closer to our house, the street lights went out. In the dark, we sat on the floor for about four hours... Finally, we heard one of our Christian neighbors calling out. "Help!" he yelled. "The settlers are in the mosque with their fire." Then, he began to chant our Islamic prayer, "Allahu Akbar," - God is great.70
Israeli soldiers have no monopoly on tormenting Palestinians. Jewish settlers attack Palestinians, raid their homes, and commit various types of harassment. When it comes to Palestinians, every settler behaves as if he or she were an Israeli soldier.
Incidents like the ones you have read about above, and even more violent ones, appear frequently in the media of Muslim countries, on the Internet, and in the few Western media sources that cover Middle Eastern events objectively. And these events have been a part of everyday life for the Palestinians for more than 50 years. As described in the examples above, settlers who carry out these attacks do so with the support of the Israeli military. In one of his articles, Israeli journalist Amnon Denkner describes the terror carried out by settlers with the support of soldiers:
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 7.6.01JEWS ATTACK A PALESTINIAN VILLAGE
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 15.7.01SHARON REFUSES TO GIVE UP ON JEWISH SETTLEMENTS
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 21.7.01
W. REPORT, OCT.-NOV.97
Jewish settlers on Palestinian lands, homes, and farmland frequently attack Palestinian villages and murder innocent people. These are not soldiers, but radical Jewish civilians armed by the Israeli government. The above news report by the Turkish Daily Yeni Mesaj says:"Emboldened by the Israeli army, Jewish settlers have attacked Palestinians. Among the three Palestinians killed when the Jews opened fire was a three-month-old baby."
The simple truth is that an Arab who attempts to shoot a Jew forfeits his life-and justly. [B]ut a Jew who attempts to shoot an Arab is immune from the wrath of the soldiers, if they act according to the army's orders. They will not hinder him or prevent him from murdering an Arab, they will not shoot over his head or shoot at his legs, and certainly will not shoot to kill before he commits his dastardly crime.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED
Absolutely nothing has changed for the Palestinians since 1948. Neither peace negotiations nor ceasefires could prevent brutal attacks by Israeli soldiers.
In the continuation of his article, Denkner states that these standing orders "invite all the settler fanatics to shoot Arabs, guaranteeing to them that in the course of the action not a hair on their heads will be harmed."71
The great massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla camps came back onto the agenda with the BBC program "The Accused" broadcast on June 17, 2001. In that documentary, which looked into Ariel Sharon's role in the massacre in which 3,000 people lost their lives, living witnesses who escaped the slaughter spoke at first hand of the savagery, which lasted nearly 3 days. The program concluded by saying that Ariel Sharon, who was then defense minister, was responsible for the massacre and must face trial for it.
"The Accused" Was Broadcast Despite Pressure From the State of Israel
People who escaped the massacre, the Phalange leaders who carried it out, representatives of the Israeli Army, lawyers, and academics participated in the documentary, which was prepared by journalist Fergal Keane. However, before it had even been broadcast it met with a strong reaction from Israel and radical Jewish communities. Right up until the last moment, everyone expected that it might be cancelled. However, according to statements by Keane, the program was screened "under thousands of e-mails, threatening messages, and warnings of boycotts." Furthermore, because of the wide interest it received, it was repeated several times on the BBC and shown on television channels in a number of foreign countries.
What Panorama revealed
The Sabra and Shatilla massacre was carried out by the Lebanese Christian Phalange groups whom Lebanese Muslim Arabs had been at war for a long time. Yet it was Israel that supported, organized, and armed these groups from the beginning. In his program, Keane described the relationship between the Phalangists and Israel in this manner:
The Phalange were led by the charismatic and ruthless Bashir Gemayel. He was Israel's main ally in Lebanon. Israel's Mossad knew from meetings with him that he wanted to "eliminate" the Palestinian problem, and now he was about to become president of Lebanon. Bashir's election worried the people of the camps, but they'd been promised security.
The Israeli Army, which guaranteed the Palestinians in the camps that nothing would happen to them, was firmly behind the Phalange, the force that carried out the massacre. Before the massacre, the Israeli Army took the camp under its control by bombing it for days. It later closed all the gates to the camp, forbidding anyone without permission to enter or leave. It also gave the Phalange the time and the means to carry out the slaughter by firing flares all night long that lit their way, and by not intervening for 40 hours. It made it easier for the massacre to continue by issuing death threats, and by turning back those Palestinians who tried to leave and who got as far as the exits and sought help. In Keane's words, "in the rubble were children who'd been scalped, young men who'd been castrated." One of the living witnesses of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre who spoke on the program, Nabil Ahmed, described what he went through in this way:
I was hoping to find my family alive. Then, when I started seeing the bodies in the streets, I accepted the fact then that I'll be grateful to find their bodies. You see what happened. They put them in a house, they killed them and they bulldozed the houses on them, so we were digging the rubble to identify. So we pulled the hair of my relative and that's when we realised that this is the spot where they are there.
The massacre perpetrated by the Phalange was indescribable. Statements of an Israeli officer in the program clearly revealed that the Phalange were enemies of the Muslims. Israeli paratroop brigade commander Yoram Yair recounted the shocking request he received from a Phalangist:
Judge Richard Goldstone is the former Chief Prosecutor of the UN War Crimes Tribunal
He say: "Do me a favour, make sure to bring me that much." I say: "What is it?" He say: "Listen, I know that you will sooner or later go inside West Beirut. Promise me that you will bring me that much Palestinian blood. I want to drink it."
Israel's then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon knew about every stage of this massacre which was carried out under an Israeli Army security umbrella. Keane explained Sharon's role in these words:
Ariel Sharon arrived in Beirut on Wednesday morning insisting there were PLO forces in the camps. And so after conferring with his senior officers, including Amos Yuron, the Commander for Beirut and the refugee camps, Ariel Sharon agreed a fateful order. "Only one element, and that is the Israeli Defence Force, shall command the forces in the area. For the operation in the camps the Phalangist should be sent in."
Ariel Sharon went to see the Phalange at their headquarters to discuss the Beirut operation… Now, a day after their leader's murder, the Israelis were asking the Phalange to fight in Palestinian camps. Could Ariel Sharon have been in any doubt about what would have happened if you sent the Phalangists into a Palestinian refugee camp, an undefended camp?
Then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon made constant observations in the conflict area, and scrutinized every stage of the war during his visit to the Phalange refugee camp.
Keane put that question to many officials, to Morris Draper, the U.S. Middle East representative at the time; Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor at the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal; Professor Richard Falk of Princeton University; and others… They all agreed that Ariel Sharon was responsible in the first degree for the massacre and that he was a war criminal. For instance, Goldstone revealed his thoughts in these terms: 'If the person who gave the command knows, or should know on the facts available to him or her, that is a situation where innocent civilians are going to be injured or killed, then that person is as responsible, in fact in my book more responsible even than the people who carry out the order." Space was given in the program to a telephone conversation that supported these opinions. Israeli journalist Ron Ben Yishai reported a conversation between himself and Sharon on the second day in this way:
I found him at home sleeping. He woke up and I told him: "Listen, there are stories about killings and massacres in the camps. A lot of our officers know about it and tell me about it, and if they know it, the whole world will know about it. You can still stop it." I didn't know that the massacre actually started 24 hours earlier. I thought it started only then and I said to him: "Look, we still have time to stop it. Do something about it." He didn't react.
In short, although he has denied it for years, Ariel Sharon knew about the massacre, decided on it together with the Phalangists, and made no effort to stop the killings in the camps, which were under his responsibility.
This reality that Panorama revealed was one that had been expressed for years by those who have studied the event closely and those who lived through it. However, the reason why the program attracted so much attention was that it was the first time that such a respectable channel as BBC had broadcast statements directly accusing Israel, and because it also accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Death Threats To Those Who Declare Ariel Sharon To Be A War Criminal
Professor Richard Falk, Princeton University.
ZAMAN, 28.6.01A Death Threat to Falk,who had declared the need for Sharon to be put on trial. MILLI GAZETE, 28.6.01A Threat From MOSSAD to the professor who told the BBCthat Sharon should be tried as a war criminal.
There was a most interesting reaction after this broadcast. Professor Richard Falk of Princeton University, who said that Ariel Sharon should be indicted as a war criminal, further noted:
I think there is no question in my mind that he is indictable for the kind of knowledge that he either had or should have had.
Falk began to receive death threats after that statement. Shortly afterwards, his home and family were given police protection. Israel was once again attempting to silence people and prevent the truth from being told by means of violence, pressure, and threats. However, Falk stated in The Independent that his conscience was easy and that he had told the truth.
After the program, debates began over whether or not Ariel Sharon could be tried. Several international jurists joined in. However, these debates were an example of insincerity. The genocide of the Palestinians, which most states had ignored for more than half a century, was now being talked about 20 years after it happened. Those who had ignored it at the time, and those who made no effort to stop Israel, were behaving as if these massacres were being revealed for the very first time.
In fact, this charge is not limited to Sharon but extends to Zionism itself, Israel's official ideology. It is enough to look at Israel's basic principles to see this, and to understand the philosophy behind the bloodshed at Sabra and Shatilla.
Will Ariel Sharon Be Tried As A "War Criminal"?
When the BBC program "The Accused" was aired, 28 Palestinians who survived the Sabra and Shatilla massacre sued Aried Sharon in Belgium so that he could be tried as a war criminal in Belgian courts. Belgium is one of the few countries whose law permits the trial of anyone who commits human rights violations in any country.
The indictment sheds a great deal of light on Sharon's and Israel's bloody history. The indictment, which presents commission reports and research by important historians and writers as evidence, contains important information that Sharon knew about the massacre, that he supported those who carried it out, and even that he was working with them:
Historians and journalists agree that it was probably during a meeting between Ariel Sharon and Bashir Gemayel in Bikfaya on 12 September [1982] that an agreement was concluded to authorise the "Lebanese forces" to "mop up" these Palestinian camps. 1
The intention to send the Phalangist forces into West Beirut had already been announced by Mr Sharon on 9 July 1982 2, and in his biography (called "Warrior"), he confirms having negotiated the operation during his meeting with Bikfaya. 3
According to Ariel Sharon's 22 September 1982 declarations in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), the entry of the Phalangists into the refugee camps of Beirut was decided on Wednesday 15 September 1982 at 15.30.4
Also according to General Sharon, the Israeli commandant had received the following instruction: "The Tsahal forces are forbidden to enter the refugee camps. The 'mopping-up' of the camps will be carried out by the Phalanges or the Lebanese army." 5
At that point, General Drori telephoned Ariel Sharon and announced, "Our friends (the Phalangists) are advancing into the camps. We have coordinated their entry." Sharon replied, "Congratulations! Our friends' operation is approved." 6
(For the whole text of the indictment and detailed statements by the victims, see http://www.mallat.com/complaint.htm)
The above details are only a part of the evidence revealing the relationship between Sharon and Gemayel. Sharon's autobiography, "Warrior," provides many more details of the massacre carried out by the Phalangists. In any case, the fact that Israeli soldiers did not enter a camp under their control for 3 days, that they did not know what was going on inside, while all the time preparing logistical support and bulldozers to open graves and demolish houses, means that the claim that they were "well-intentioned" is false.
HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS, 2.2003
BBC NEWS, 5.2002
LE MONDE, 28.6.01
Widely covered news reports in the foreign press reminded readers of what Sharon had done in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. A report in Le Monde reported that "Sharon Feels the Heat from Belgian Justice Dept., Prepares Defense." The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that debates over the massacres in the camps were being rekindled.
CBS television also initiated a debate on whether or not Sharon would be tried as a "war criminal" after Milosevic.
What Will Ariel Sharon's Being Tried As A War Criminal Change?
The trial of Ariel Sharon for the Sabra and Shatilla massacre would be an important initiative. However, the current campaign by some survivors is not receiving sufficient world support. Apart from a few human rights organizations, nobody is supporting them. The most important thing is that massacres in Palestine are still ongoing.
In Palestine, hundreds of innocent Palestinians are being forced out of their homes and exiled from their land. Bulldozers run over their homes. Again a defenceless father is killed, together with the child in his arms. Israeli troops carry out new killings and attacks every day. And the man giving the orders is Ariel Sharon. Even if someone else replaces him, the massacres will continue, for Israeli violence is based upon such a deep-rooted ideology that just bringing Sharon to trial will not expunge it. And until Israel abandons its Zionist ideology, it will continue to bring death and blood to the Middle East.
Of course getting past massacres onto the agenda is an important initiative. But for this to be a statement of sincerity, the commitment displayed must continue until the cruelty ends. Therefore, all sincere people need to pursue wide-scale international legal sanctions (for instance an embargo) and a policy of isolation to force an end to the killings committed by the Zionists in the name of their ideology.
1- Benny Morris, The Righteous Victims, New York, A. Knopf, 1999, p. 540 2- Schiff & Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1984, p. 2513- A. Sharon, Warrior: An Autobiography, Simon and Schuster, Ney York, 1989, p. 4984- Sharon à la Knesset, Annexe au rapport de la Commission Kahan, The Beirut Massacre, The Complete Kahan Commission Report, Princeton, Karz Cohl, 1983, p. 124. (Ci-après, Kahan Commission Report).5- Kahan Report, p. 125: "mopping-up"6- Amnon Kapeliouk, Sabra et Chatila: Enquête Sur un Massacre, Paris, Seuil, 1982, p. 37
What reason could you have for not fighting in the Way of God - for those men, women and children who are oppressed and say: "Our Lord, take us out of this city whose inhabitants are wrongdoers! Give us a protector from You! Give us a helper from You!"? (Qur'an, 4:75)
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 5.08.01IMAGE BUILDING IN THE PRESSThe first green light for Israel, as it seeks to improve its image, came from the BBC's decision not to refer to the killings of Palestinians as murders.
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 5.08.01ISRAELI CENSORSHIP AT THE BBC
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 5.08.01THE BBC BOWS TO ISRAELIn a message sent to its reporters in Britain and the Middle East by the BBC management, Israeli officials demanded that the deaths of Palestinians be referred to as the identification and elimination of targets instead of as killings.
Western media outlets usually report on Middle Eastern events in a biased way. Those who do otherwise incur the wrath of the Israeli government, and generally have to retreat. England's famous broadcast center, BBC, is just one of the media outlets that has succumbed to Israeli pressure and been forced to toe the line. There are journalists like Robert Fisk all over the world, however, who have the courage to tell the truth and who bring the real events in Palestine to the world agenda at every opportunity. In his article "BBC staff told not to call Israeli killings 'assassinations'," Fisk criticizes Israel's influence on the media.
Are the Witnesses Against Sharon Being Eliminated?
While the issue of Sharon's facing trial before the Belgian courts over the Sabra and Shatila massacres was still on the agenda, interesting reports began to come in from different parts of the world. Those individuals who played a personal role in the 1982 massacre were, one by one, losing their lives in mysterious circumstances.
Although the Belgian court has not decided whether Sharon should face charges or not, the lawyers for the survivors keep producing new evidence. However, the most important new evidence is the memories of those who witnessed and even took part in this savagery. For some reason, some of these participants have been killed in recent months, thus eliminating the most important witnesses. First of all, Jean Ghanem, the closest friend of Elia Hobeika, the leader of the Phalange groups that carried out the attack in 1982, lost his life in an odd traffic accident. His car drove into a clearly visible tree on New Year's Eve, resulting in his death after two weeks in a coma.
Elia Hobeika, known as one of the bloodiest and most ruthless leaders in Lebanese history, was killed by a bomb placed in his car. One reason why all eyes turned toward the Israeli forces immediately after this event was that approximately 24 hours before his death, he had announced that he would give evidence against Sharon in Belgium. At a press conference, Hobeika even said: "And I have evidence of what actually happened at Sabra and Shatila which will throw a completely new light on the Kahan commission report." a
Such evidence clearly would make things very difficult for Sharon. Hobeika had been trained by the Israeli security forces in Israeli camps during the 1980s, and became leader of the Phalangists who carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacre at Sharon's direction. In fact, the Kahan Commission, charged with investigating the massacre in Israel gave Hobeika's name and stated that he and the then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon were responsible for the massacre in the first degree. b
In short, the civilians who lost their lives in the Sabra and Shatila camps were the victims of Hobeika's Phalangists, who were operating under Israeli protection. One of the best known anecdotes about him comes from while the attack was going on, when one Phalangist officer asked him what should be done about the Palestian civilian prisoners. Smiling, Hobeika gave the order for all of them to be killed, saying: "Don't ask me such a stupid question again." c
Michael Nassar, one of the late Hobeika's former assistants, sold arms left over from the Lebanese civil war to the Croatian militia during the conflict in the Balkans. With the money he obtained, he emigrated to Brazil. Nassar was shot in his car, together with his wife. Although it may be suggested that he was killed by the Brazilian mafia, the fact that these murders followed one another in close succession offers an important clue as to what really happened.
1- The Independent, 25 Ocak 20022- The Independent, 25 Ocak 20023- The Independent, 25 Ocak 2002
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 25.1.02BLOWN TO PIECES WITH HIS SECRETSHobeika, former leader of the Lebanese Christian militia, has been killed.
HURRIYET-Turkish Daily, 25.1.02ASSASSINATION OF IMPORTANT EYE WITNESS TO THE SABRA AND SHATILLA MASSACRES.
MILLIYET-Turkish Daily, 25.1.02A WITNESS IS SILENCEDA Lebanese witness preparing to give evidence against Sharon regarding the Sabra and Shatilla massacres has been killed.
REFUGEE CAMPS
Israeli attacks left Palestinians no choice but to leave the places where they had been born and raised.
In 1948, with the recognition of UN Resolution 181, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians instantly found themselves stateless in their own land. According to this resolution, Palestine was to be partitioned as follows: 55% of the land, including the greater part of the valuable coastal area, went to the Israelis, while the remaining 45%, including the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, half of Galilee, the Judaean and Samarian uplands, and a bit of the Negev, went to the Palestinians. Once the British pulled out of the region completely, a war started on May 15, 1948 between Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq on one side, and Israel on the other. War ended in December and Israel emerged from the war with about 50 percent more land than it had been allotted under the UN plan, including all of Galilee, the coastal area, and northwestern Jerusalem, leaving only the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As a result, more than 750,000 Palestinian Arabs left behind everything they owned and emigrated. About one-third of them settled in the West Bank, another third in the Gaza Strip, and the remaining third sought refuge in neighboring Arab countries, principally Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. During the Six Day War of 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and a majority of Palestinians left these areas as well for neighboring Arab countries. The number of Palestinians scattered around the world today is estimated to be 3.5 to 4 million. Of these, about one million live in West Bank and Gaza Strip refugee camps and along the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The others live outside the camps, but without any citizenship.
Most middle-aged Palestinians today were born in these refugee camps. Palestinian Muslims live in extremely difficult and primitive conditions in these camps, for each living unit is about 60 meters square and has virtually no infrastructure. One of the biggest problems is that most of the residents are unemployed.
REFUGEE CAMPS
IN THE CAMPS
OUTSIDE THE CAMPS
TOTAL
Jordan
238.188
1.050.009
1.288.197
West Bank
131.705
385.707
517.412
Gaza
362.626
320.934
683.560
Lebanon
175.747
170.417
346.164
Syria
83.311
253.997
337.308
Total
991.577
2.181.064
3.172.641
Zaman Turkish Daily, 6 March 2001
Gaza's dense population of 2,500 people per square kilometer only increases the violence of the refugees' living conditions. And when you consider that these people left behind all of their possessions and job opportunities to seek refuge in these regions, it is easier to visualize the conditions in which they live.
In his book The Israeli Connection: Who Israel Arms and Why, Haifa University professor Benjamin Beit Hallahmi describes the situation of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Israel's attitude toward them:
In 1986, the Gaza population stood at 525,000, and the density at 2,150 per square kilometer (in Israel it is 186)… Most able-bodied Gazans, starting sometimes at age eight, work in Israel, at wages which are 40 percent below average Israeli pay. They pay income tax and social security tax - without being entitled to any benefits, since they are defined as nonresidents… In the Israeli consciousness Gaza has become the symbol of helplessness and squalor, but there is no sympathy for the denizens of Gaza, for they are the enemy.54
Without a doubt, those who suffer most from the difficult conditions in the camps are women, the elderly, and school-age children.
For a better understanding of the refugee camps' reality, consider the impressions of a Palestinian-American who visited the camps. Yasmine Subhi Ali, a medical student, made the following observations during her visit to Shatilla camp in 1999:
... Passing many damaged remnants of the civil war and the Israeli invasion all along our route. I expected that we would have to stop at some gate signifying the entrance to the camp when we reached it, but I saw nothing of the sort. I didn't need to: the contrast between the camp and the surrounding area (which was not the nicest part of town in the first place) was so striking that there could be no mistaking it. There were piles upon piles of trash, junk, and stones lining both sides of the road… Crowded shops line the street now, but in the distance behind them reminders remain: those bullet-hole-ridden, gunpowder-stained buildings … and a graveyard for which (we were told) the camp inhabitants were not allowed to build any memorials or even tombstones.55
The world is ignoring the plight of the Palestinians, who struggle with snow, rain and mud in winter, and scorching heat in summer.
Another important refugee camp is Dheisheh, near Bethlehem. In the October 2000 issue of the French magazine Le Monde Diplomatique, Muna Hamzeh-Muhaisen, in her capacity as the technical director and public relations manager of Birzeit University's Across Borders Project, published excerpts from her journal about this camp. The events quoted below are interesting for their reflection of the Palestinians' condition:
Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed and identification cards seized survive in makeshift tents and wait hopefully for the day when they can return to their homes.
No one in Dheisheh has the chance to go to work, except those working in Bethlehem. Each Palestinian living unit in Region A is cut off from all the others by tanks. We can't go from Bethlehem to Al-Khalil or Jerusalem. We spend our entire day following the news... People are subjected to such pressure, that they think the time has come - it's either them or us... People have gotten sick and tired of this. They're fed up with the provocations of Israel, with the rottenness of the authorities. They're fed up with these agreements to found a racist state on this land, to divide the West Bank into two hundred little islands. They're sick of the peace agreements... And while all this is happening in Israel the normal rhythm of life continues. Israelis wake up every day, while their children go to school and they go to their jobs. They go out to visit restaurants or to go to the theater. They don't care what's happening here. They act as if the people wounding, maiming, and killing us are not their own husbands, sons, and fathers, but rather some hired guns brought from far away... No one wants to hear news about new agreements. Israel will pull back its heavy artillery. Then what? They'll still use real ammunition to kill civilians. They'll use rubber bullets and tear gas. We'll still be waking up in an apartheid system…
How shall we now look Um Hazem in the face? Mustafa, the son of Um Hazem, has joined the army of the martyred. Israeli bullets turned Mustafa's chest and arms into coal. They showed us the body in the hospital room. We could see his bones. Four sniper bullets had torn his body apart...
In a dark September in 1967, I was a child in Amman. Throughout almost the entire Intifada I lived in Palestine. But for the first time, the sound of shells did not scare me. And I understood for the first time why Palestinians who spend their lives under occupation continuously struggle with the Israelis, and why they confront their weapons with stones...56
These conditions, as well as Israeli violence, continue in the camps today. Author Norman Finkelstein, himself born in a Jewish Polish ghetto, describes examples of this violence in The Rise and Fall of Palestine, his book about the Intifada years:
The most common form of Israeli violence in the refugee camps was "the pogroms. Entering the camps after dusk, soldiers or settlers sprayed them [the Palestinians] with bullets and tear gas, banged on doors and smashed windows and solar heaters, broke into homes, then beat a swift retreat (usually with a hostage or two)."57
The only wish of the Palestinian refugees is to return to their land and their country. In fact, their plight is one of the main discussion points of all peace negotiations. However, Israel has a very strict policy on this matter. This is shown clearly by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's motto: "Jerusalem cannot be divided - the refugees cannot return." As long as he remains in office, this will remain official Israeli policy.
Unhealthy living conditions, lack of medical supplies, and other difficulties brought by economic embargo affect Palestinian children the most.
As mentioned earlier, the Zionists consider the protection and fortification of an all-Jewish Israeli nation-state as sacred as the formation of Israel. This fortification is possible only through expanding the settlements and increasing the number of Jews living in the Holy Land. In a press statement of March 2001, Sharon explained that approximately one million Jews must immigrate to Israel within the next 10 to 12 years, and that by 2020 they must create suitable living conditions for those Jews moving to, and already living in, Israel. Sharon's view that "[Israel] must create the right conditions for them to move... If they want to remain Jewish, they must move to live here. Every effort must be made to bring Jews here."58 goes to show how important it is for Israel to rob Palestinians of their land.
The cruelty perpetrated against the Palestinians is being done before the eyes of the world. The refugees live in extremely difficult conditions and face the threat of new bombings every moment. But it must not be forgotten that true believers always have God's help and support, both here on Earth and in Heaven, as described in:
Many a Prophet has been killed, when there were many thousands with him! They did not give up in the face of what assailed them in the Way of God, nor did they weaken, nor did they yield. God loves the steadfast. All they said was: "Our Lord, forgive us our wrong actions and any excesses we went to in what we did. Make our feet firm and help us against these disbelieving people." So God gave them the reward of this world and the best reward of the hereafter. God loves good-doers. (Qur'an, 3:146-148)
As we emphasized earlier, true Muslims cannot ignore such cruelty. While innocent people are dying one by one, it is impossible for any Muslim to sleep peacefully, go about his or her daily business, and think only of personal comfort. The Qur'an provides the solution, and those who can carry it out are Muslims. With these verses, "A Light has come to you from God and a Clear Book. By it, God guides those who follow that which pleases Him to the ways of peace. He will bring them from the darkness to the light by His permission, and guide them to a straight path" (Qur'an, 5:15-16), God reveals that those subjected to cruelty can achieve salvation through the Qur'an's guidance. The solution is to embrace the Qur'an, demand that the rights of Muslims around the world be respected, and struggle against the foes of religious morality.
Life under Siege
The Israeli government also forces the Palestinians to live under blockades. Though they only own very small amounts of land in proportion to their population, the Palestinians are under strict control and subjected to continuous supervision. (In fact, they do not currently own any land. They have been sentenced to live only in those parts of the Occupied Territories for which Israel has given permission.)
Israel continues to exercise supervisory authority over 97% of the West Bank and 40% of the Gaza Strip, both of which fall under the autonomous Palestinian Authority. Although it might appear that the Palestinians living in these regions are ruled by their own government, Israel has placed severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of all Palestinians living in the West Bank and in most of the Gaza Strip. Since March 1993, travel by Palestinians living in Israel and East Jerusalem has been subject to government approval. Not only does this limit the Palestinians' economic activities, but it also takes away such basic rights as education, health, and the freedom to worship.
Israel's blockade policy is actually two-faceted. The most visible aspect consists of placing checkpoints at various places and deploying large troop concentrations near Palestinian-inhabited areas for "security" reasons. Recently, Israeli forces have even begun to erect barbed wire fences and concrete walls around Palestinian areas and dig trenches across the main roads. As these forces are quite aggressive, these points are often the scene of deadly confrontations.
Every moment of Palestinians' lives are under the control of Israeli soldiers. Security checks of houses, cars, and workplaces are just another form of torture.
In an article published in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, journalist Graham Usher describes the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which began in 2001, and its effect upon the Palestinians:
There are around 90 army roadblocks in the West Bank and 163 earth barricades.... Palestians overcome this by wading through cornfields and over rocky tracks to reach their jobs in Israel … there are between 10,000-30,000 Palestinians working in Israel… The most common blockade is the mud and gravel rampart about a metre high, encircled by ditches about a metre deep… These have torn apart virtually every road leading to a town, village or camp in the West Bank… It is realities like these that convince Palestinians that the siege is precisely what the Israeli government is most loath to describe it: a collective punishment against an innocent and unarmed civilian population. And it hurts like hell… The undeclared aim of such oppression is to exhaust the Palestinians into giving up the fight.59
These barricades also hinder Palestinian access to such basic needs as medicine and water. In many camps, where the lack of infrastructure and plumbing means that people get water from trucks, such trenches prevent the trucks from passing. Many people in this situation now try to meet their water needs by collecting rainwater.
Beyond this, the right to educate the children living in these refugee camps also is being violated. As teachers generally travel to refugee camps and villages from other cities, the blockade prevents them from reaching their students. The blockade also impacts negatively upon Palestinian farmers, for the trucks bringing their crops to market fall into the trenches. Thus they have no choice but to carry their goods on their backs.
Israeli journalist Gordon Levy has spent much time in the Occupied Territories and has witnessed the hardship experienced by Palestinians. In his article "Women in Black," he describes life in these blockaded camps and villages:
The West Bank is under siege, its towns and villages are blocked and most of the main roads are open to Jews only… The drivers pass on information to one another with hand gestures. These are not traffic reports on the radio, they are life-and-death messages about the location of the soldiers and the settlers… The soldiers are seen from afar, watching from the roadblock and from the main road. Sometimes they swoop down in their jeeps to stop the forbidden traffic. Sometimes they confiscate the ID cards of the passengers … and sometimes they beat up drivers… They also chase back anyone who tries to cross the fields on foot.
Sometimes they open fire, as they did on a young passenger, Fatma Abu Jish from the neighboring village, who was killed here on Sunday of this week a short time after we had passed by.60
W. REPORT, 4-5.94
W. REPORT, 8-9.01
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 12.6.01THE PATIENT DENIED PERMISSION BY ISRAEL DIED Israeli soldiers and settlers compete with each other to harass, torture, and attack Palestinians. They barricade roads, dig trenches, and deny Palestinians even their most essential needs.
Any encounter between the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers means that gunshots will soon be heard. Most of the time, the Palestinians are the losers in these exchanges. The practice of blockading certain streets with concrete blocks does not reduce conflict; rather, it increases it. Palestinians trying to go to school or work do so in the constant shadow of Israeli soldiers and automatic weapons.
The Settlements and Blockaded Palestinian Lands
One subtle aspect of the blockade is that the Palestinians' remaining land is being constricted by the continuous building of Jewish settlements. Israel is following a systematic policy of creating new settlement areas. What is more, these settlements, which are built for maximum occupancy, have a profound importance for Israel. For example, the Jewish settlements in Gaza and on the West Bank, areas thought to have been left to the Palestinian Authority, are considered very important. Even though these lands have been left to Palestine, Israel will never agree to remove these settlers. In fact, Palestinian police have no authority to supervise and inspect these areas. This situation means that Israel will never withdraw from these de facto Occupied Territories.
These settlements also are important because they surround the Palestinian enclaves. To get from one settlement to another, settlers can travel through tunnels constructed by the Israeli government without setting foot on Palestinian land. But Palestinians who want to leave their camps to visit relatives living in another camp, or who just have to get to work everyday, must pass through a series of military checkpoints. Even if Palestine declared its independence today, it would consist of many noncontiguous and widely separated regions. Moreover, all of these regions still would be under the control of Israeli forces. How would the borders of such a nation be determined? How would the economy develop? How would investments be made in health and education? Obviously, Israel's goal is to destroy, through assimilation, those Palestinians who it could not destroy physically. Thus it plans to create communities that are far apart and inaccessible to each other, and then to isolate them culturally and sociologically.
The deliberate deployment of settlements in the middle of overwhelmingly Palestinian areas is actually one of the basic reasons for the clashes. Le Monde Diplomatique magazine's publishing director Alain Gresh, who is known for his books about the Middle East, wrote the following about the Israeli settlements in an article:
These settlements, right in the center of the Palestinian lands… These settlements eat away at the Palestinian lands, a little bit at a time, every day. Thousands of Israeli soldiers are put there for their "protection," countless checkpoints are set up, and for Palestinians these become the scene of every type of humiliation. Roads are made for the settlements. Just the presence of these is enough to damage the notion of a permanent and independent nation.61
These settlements on Palestinian land are among the bloodiest flashpoints of the new Intifada, for the message given by those Palestinians who resist is clear: Israel is in a position to choose between these settlements and peace. And these settlements are classified by the International Criminal Code as a "war crime." M. Yossi Sarid, a parliamentarian from the leftist Meretz movement, makes the following admission:
These settlements are in the eye of the storm, and have always invited danger, both for the residents and for the soldiers. These settlements must be dispersed without wasting any time.62
Being taken into custody by Israeli soldiers means either an indefinite prison term or that the person has been "disappeared" for Palestinians. For this reason, being taken into custody is one of a Palestinian's biggest fears.
Eitan Felner is the director of B'Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. His essay on the Maale Adumim settlement is entitled "En Afrique du Sud, On appelait cela l'Apartheid" (In South Africa, they call it apartheid). He points out that while creating the settlements, the Israel government forced Palestinians from their homes, and then made large investments in those same areas and provided government incentives for people to move there. Then-prime minister Ehud Barak was conducting peace discussions on the one hand while, on the other, he was accelerating the building of new settlements. The article emphasizes his speech made at Ma'aleh Adumim's opening ceremony: "Every house you have built here is part of the state of Israel. Forever. Period. The new government will continue to strengthen the state of Israel, its hold over the Land of Israel, and we will continue to develop and strengthen Ma'aleh Adumim." The result, stresses Felner, is that,
But Ma'aleh Adumim is not just the story of a successful urban development as depicted in the municipality's glossy brochures and snazzy website. Ma'aleh Adumim was established on lands taken from Palestinians, from the villages of Abu Dis, Al Izariyah, Al Issawiyah, Al Tuor and Anata.63
Cruelty at the Checkpoints
Actually, Israel's hypocritical policy has continued ever since the peace process began. When the Oslo Accords came into effect in 1993, Israel recognized the autonomous Palestinian Authority. These accords were the means by which an autonomous Palestinian nation-state could be brought to the agenda, even if its borders were not yet exactly clear. While this seemed to be a positive development, the Israeli government has used it as yet another tool to inflict cruelty upon the Palestinians.
After the Palestinian Authority's boundaries were laid out, the Palestinians were faced with even more debilitating restrictions. Crossing these borders was now subject to visa requirements, a practice that thoroughly eroded their ability to travel. Already subjected to frequent ID checks, Palestinians now were removed from their cars and searched, not to mention harassed and insulted, at barricades erected on the roads. In other words, they were effectively put under complete Israeli control. One result of this practice was the frequent news items such as "An elderly Palestinian man died when an ambulance was not allowed to pick him up" or "A sick woman died when she was not granted passage to the hospital."
Suleiman Abu Karsh, the deputy trade minister of Palestine, describes in an interview how these blockades have tormented the lives of Palestinians:
Do you know how I got here? The area between our home and the airport was full of Israeli tanks. If they had killed me, who would have called them to account? Israel would just say that I was suspicious, and that is why I was killed. The Israeli soldiers did not allow my delegation to continue to the airport. Now I'm going home, but my son tells me on the phone that the roads are closed. I don't know if I'll make it home or not.64
ALL THE LIVES ARE UNDER CONTROL
Palestinians cannot travel, commute to work, sell their goods, or even worship without the approval of Israeli soldiers.
English parliamentarian Bashir Khanbhai, a member of the European Parliament, witnessed such events during a visit to Palestine. The following is quoted from his report to Parliament regarding Israel's oppressive and aggressive policy:
Israel has exercised its powers to confiscate; destroy homes and farms; detain, torture and assassinate innocent civilians and punish collectively through curfew and crude intimidation without any sanction from the international community…
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) is the largest and best funded ministry. It controls all publications (newspapers) for circulation in Palestine; which goods and services can be imported; all movement of people and vehicles; use of land including construction of new buildings and supply of utilities. It determines protection for the hundreds of new settlements which have mushroomed all over the Palestinian land - land seized without compensation! Some of these settlements only house 30 or 40 people but they have hundreds of armed soldiers…
The Israeli curfew imposed since last September last year has closed schools, presevented olive farmers from harvesting the crop, killed tourist trade and deprived over 120,000 workers of work in Israel.65
The Radical Settlers Practice Their Own Terror
Radical Israeli settlers always have been one of the most important players in the policy of terrorizing and oppressing the Palestianians.
The Jewish migration to Palestine, which began with the end of World War I, resulted in the Palestinians' being driven from their land so that they could be used to establish Jewish settlements. The Israeli government then used these settlements to expand its occupation of Palestinian territory.
This policy continues unabated today. For example, since the Oslo Accords of 1993, the number of settlements in the Occupied Territories has increased by 50 percent. Furthermore, Israel budgets millions of dollars every year to develop them. According to statements made in November 2000, the Israeli government decided to allocate $500 million to expand settlements in the Occupied Territories in 2001.66
The settlements in question represent a dire threat to the Palestinian people in quite a few ways. In addition to being an obstacle to the Palestinians' hopes of returning to their homes, the settlers also threaten them with their aggressive behavior. The Israeli army and the militant settlers, in fact, act as partners in attacking Palestinians. In the article "Exposing Israel: A Nation of Colonialists" in the American journal The Palestine Chronicle, Middle East expert Ramzy Baroud describes this collaboration:
Mistakenly, many create the distinction between the Israeli army and Israeli settlers, as if the two are not clearly opposite sides of the same coin. It is often witnessed that even well-intending human rights groups naively call on the Israeli army to protect the Palestinian population from settlers's assaults, disregarding the fact that Israeli settlements and the Israeli army are both part of Israel's offensive strategy aimed at strengthening the grip of the Jewish state in the Occupied Territories.67
A good portion of the settlers living in about 200 settlements are being directed by Kach, the notorious radical terrorist organization. (The Kach organization, founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, is known for such terrorist activities as the 1994 al-Khalil massacre and the Masjid al-Aqsa bombing attempt.) Kach members are known to conduct armed raids on the refugee camps, with the soldiers' aid and support, during which they murder innocent people and damage their homes and places of worship. In his article, Baroud describes these attacks:
Just listen to the news, which hardly fails to point out the joint cooperation between Israeli army units and settlers. "Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian protestors, Jewish settlers open fire at villagers…," "Israeli army shells a refugee camp, settlers block the main road leading to it…," "Army declares Palestinian land military zone, settlers rush to expand a settlement…," "Soldiers prevent Palestinian farmers from reaching their land for harvest, settlers kill a farmer while harvesting his olive trees…"68
Raids conducted by settlers and soldiers about the time that the al-Aqsa Intifada began also were reported in the Turkish media. For example, Yeni Safak reported on October 10, 2000, that,
Settlers from the northern Israel city of Nazareth, supported by soldiers, orchestrated sudden raids on areas inhabited by Muslims. It is reported that two Palestinians died and hundreds were wounded in the raids… Eyewitnesses reported that more than one thousand Israelis went to the Arab villages, stoning houses and attacking some Arabs with weapons. It was also reported that Israeli police provided support for the assailants by lighting flares over the area.
A Palestinian man who had closed his shop in Jerusalem and fled during 1948 returned in 1967 to discover that an Israeli merchant had occupied his location. Many Palestinians face the same situation.
These frequently recurring incidents occasionally make their way into the international media. An article appearing in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, one of the few American magazines that does not follow a pro-Israel policy, a Muslim who witnessed one of these raids gives a first-hand account of what he saw. Samah Jabr describes life under siege on the outskirts of Jerusalem:
Since the Al-Aqsa intifada began, we cannot leave the house at night and sometimes we cannot go out in the day, either. Even if one of us becomes violently ill, we cannot go out to summon a physician or go to a hospital. If we need milk from the store, too bad. It will have to wait.69
Alerted by their neighbors' screams of "The settlers are attacking!" as he is sitting at home with his family, Jabr describes the terrifying ordeal:
Most settlers living illegally on Palestinian land believe that it is their religious task to reunite the Holy Land with themselves, God's Chosen People. Others, the followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, believe that they must take back the Temple Mount, reconstruct the Jewish Temple… Neve Yaqoup is the settlement of God's People nearest our home.
The night of the attack was dark and shadowless, but we peered from our windows into the night, trying to see. We could only hear shouting and shooting… From the nearby mosque, we heard a voice on the loud speaker… This Palestinian Arabic speaker told us to gather stones and glass for defense and to stay in our homes with the lights out. Outside our compound, we heard the rustle of kids gathering stones … the kids actually cleaned up the area… Settlers never come in the day. Like the fox to a barnyard, they sneak in at night. They come fully armed, and often with Israeli soldiers… While it is rare for them actually to kill one of us, they have a habit of destroying property and terrorizing our children… As the shooting and shouting came closer to our house, the street lights went out. In the dark, we sat on the floor for about four hours... Finally, we heard one of our Christian neighbors calling out. "Help!" he yelled. "The settlers are in the mosque with their fire." Then, he began to chant our Islamic prayer, "Allahu Akbar," - God is great.70
Israeli soldiers have no monopoly on tormenting Palestinians. Jewish settlers attack Palestinians, raid their homes, and commit various types of harassment. When it comes to Palestinians, every settler behaves as if he or she were an Israeli soldier.
Incidents like the ones you have read about above, and even more violent ones, appear frequently in the media of Muslim countries, on the Internet, and in the few Western media sources that cover Middle Eastern events objectively. And these events have been a part of everyday life for the Palestinians for more than 50 years. As described in the examples above, settlers who carry out these attacks do so with the support of the Israeli military. In one of his articles, Israeli journalist Amnon Denkner describes the terror carried out by settlers with the support of soldiers:
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 7.6.01JEWS ATTACK A PALESTINIAN VILLAGE
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 15.7.01SHARON REFUSES TO GIVE UP ON JEWISH SETTLEMENTS
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 21.7.01
W. REPORT, OCT.-NOV.97
Jewish settlers on Palestinian lands, homes, and farmland frequently attack Palestinian villages and murder innocent people. These are not soldiers, but radical Jewish civilians armed by the Israeli government. The above news report by the Turkish Daily Yeni Mesaj says:"Emboldened by the Israeli army, Jewish settlers have attacked Palestinians. Among the three Palestinians killed when the Jews opened fire was a three-month-old baby."
The simple truth is that an Arab who attempts to shoot a Jew forfeits his life-and justly. [B]ut a Jew who attempts to shoot an Arab is immune from the wrath of the soldiers, if they act according to the army's orders. They will not hinder him or prevent him from murdering an Arab, they will not shoot over his head or shoot at his legs, and certainly will not shoot to kill before he commits his dastardly crime.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED
Absolutely nothing has changed for the Palestinians since 1948. Neither peace negotiations nor ceasefires could prevent brutal attacks by Israeli soldiers.
In the continuation of his article, Denkner states that these standing orders "invite all the settler fanatics to shoot Arabs, guaranteeing to them that in the course of the action not a hair on their heads will be harmed."71
Torture in Israeli Prisons
Another intimidation tactic consists of arresting Palestinians for no reason or without an arrest warrant, and then taking them into custody and deliberately postponing their court dates. These periods of arrest sometimes last for weeks. An Amnesty International report dated June 14, 2000 provides a striking example. According to the report, a 15-year-old girl named Suad Hilme Gazal was arrested in December 1998 for suspicion of attacking an Israeli, but as of the date of the report's publication, she had yet to be brought before an Israeli court.72
As of August 1999, more than 3,000 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons; 1,400 had been sentenced to death. In addition to these prisoners, new people frequently are taken into custody on the pretext of participating in various events. They are kept in very poor conditions, and sometimes spend years in custody without their cases being adjudicated. This happened to Ahmad Qatamesh who, although he still had not been found guilty after 6 years, was held without bail for the entire 6 years before being released.73
Aside from these prisoners, between 1989 and 1998 another 20,000 Palestinians were held in custody as so-called "administrative detainees." This term designates those individuals who have been arrested by an authorized administrative body without being issued a trial date. Thanks to this practice, Israel is able to arrest Palestinians without just cause and keep them in jail for years without informing them of the charge or bringing them before a judge. During this period, detainees have no right of access to their attornies or their families.
The table below provides details of the numbers of Palestinians taken into custody during the al-Aqsa Intifada and the length of incarceration.
Month
Day
Total number of prisoners and detainees
Serving Sentence
Detained for Interrogation
Detained until end of legal process
Administrative detainees
January 2001
34
737719
571202
375
131496
-16
February2001
815
747761
557223
418
129514
-16
March 2001
515
751787
74248
4412
132513
114
April 2001
411
757812
572279
4216
142506
111
May 2001
88
725820
574302
4412
151495
111
June 2001
1014
748823
574291
3916
174504
112
July 2001
1117
813849
582284
4521
184535
19
Minors in Israel Prisons Service Facilities, 2001
Date
Prisoners and detainees
Serving sentencer
Detained until the end of legal process
3 January
16
6
10
8 February
15
6
9
5 March
10
3
7
4 April
10
3
7
8 May
9
3
6
10 June
16
4
12
11 July
16
7
9
These figures were prepared by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem using data obtained from the Red Cross, the UN, and other organizations operating in the region.
Palestinians are generally kept in inhumane conditions in desert tent prisons. One of these is the Nagev desert prison, where hundreds of Palestinians are detained on such trumped-up charges as "keeping secret files" or "forming private relationships." All of them, even elderly and gravely ill men, are subjected to physical and mental torture. The prison's location and the concomitant transportation difficulties make living conditions worse and also make it exceedingly difficult for the prisoners to receive regular family visits. The tents cannot protect them from either the summer's scorching heat or the winter's freezing cold. Moreover, even after they have served their prison sentences, prisoners are sometimes unable to leave due to a practice known as "repeat of punishment." A person who has completed his sentence and is preparing to leave the prison receives a summons at the last minute, indicating that he now will begin serving a sentence for some past offense.74
Whether during the interrogation period or while in prison, torture is one of the Israeli government's most-used techniques. Israel's horrible torture techniques first came to light as the result of a long study published in London's Sunday Times in 1977. This study provided the first documented cases of torture practiced by the Israeli government.
According to the report, unbelievable types of torture were practiced in the prisons of Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Gaza, in an interrogation center in Jerusalem known as Moscobiya, and in such special army prisons as Kfar Yonah, al-Ramle, Sarafand, and Nafha. Aside from systematic beatings, other forms of torture involve applying electricity to sexual organs, plunging the naked prisoner into ice water, attacking the blindfolded prisoner with specially trained dogs, putting out cigarettes on various parts of the body, and pulling out nails and healthy teeth. Some prisoners' daughters were arrested and raped in front of their fathers. Some fathers then were forced to have sex with their own daughters.75
The inside view of the Khiam prison (below) is strikingly different from the outside view.
Middle East expert Robert Fisk describes the famous Khiam prison and various torture techniques in an article about Israeli prisons:
Khiam is an awful place. Electrical wires attached to the penis and feet, constant whipping, cold nights attached to a pole while pails of freezing water are thrown over near-naked bodies… I met one inmate just 10 days after his release, a man who had spent more than a year in Khiam. "When they interrogated me, they hit me on the head, then on the back with a Kalashnikov rifle. I fell down. The man put his boot in my face and broke part of my jaw. I have lost the hearing in part of my right ear. The ear-drum is broken… Now I have bad breathing problems and the doctor says there is no medicine for it. That this problem will stay with me all my life."76
Israeli solders have no compunction about beating and killing Palestinians in the middle of the street or in front of cameras, and torturing those taken into custody. Human rights organizations report on these practices in graphic detail.
Places known as death camps, where Palestinians are taken after being arrested en masse and before being presented to a judge, have become true torture centers. Author Norman Finkelstein quotes Israeli journalist Ari Shavit's description of a death camp in which many Palestinians are awaiting trial:
Among them, here and there, are some boys who are small and appear to be very young... The prison has twelve guard towers… The Shin Bet [an Israeli investigative agency] delivers to the [soldiers] a list with the names of friends of the young men... Then the soldiers ... go out almost every night to the city and ... come back with children of fifteen or sixteen years of age. The children grit their teeth. Their eyes bulge from their sockets. In not a few cases they have already been beaten ... a young man, barefoot, wounded, who looks as if he's having an epileptic fit, who tells you that they beat him just now on the back and stomach and over the heart. There are ugly red marks all over his body. The doctor turns to the young man and shouts at him. In a loud, raging voice he says: "May you die!" And then he turns to me with a laugh: "May they all die!"77
FIRST ARREST THEN, TORTURE The internal organs of murdered Palestinians often are removed so that they can be used on the "organ market." Israeli Arab parliamentarian Ahmed Teibi brought this issue to the Parliament's attention. The photographs below depict Palestinians who were killed in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, and whose organs were discovered missing during autopsies.
One of the reasons why torture is so frequent and common is that Shin Bet, the internal security agency, until recently was permitted by Israeli law to torture during interrogations. Thus Shin Bet officials could treat prisoners however they liked, and could force them to confess to imaginary crimes under the pretense of obtaining confessions. Following these torture-assisted interrogations, long prison sentences awaited those who "confessed" to crimes. Gideon Levy, an anti-Zionist Israeli author, wrote the following after visiting a Palestinian who had been tortured by Shin Bet and spent years in prison:
Omar Ranimat has trouble sitting down. He also finds it difficult to stand, walk or climb stairs. When I met him just a few weeks ago, two and a half years after his interrogation by the Shin Bet, which lasted 45 days and nights, he was a wreck… Ranimat and Ahmed, like thousands of other Palestinians, underwent routine Shin Bet treatment - the "shabah," the "gift," the "frog," sleep deprivation, ear-splitting non-stop music, a stinking sack over the head, a foot on the testicles and abrasive handcuffs on the writs and ankles. Most had no connection whatever with ticking bombs.78
Economic Siege
One technique used to intimidate the Palestinians, particularly in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is to keep them under pressure and economically dependent so that they cannot stand on their own two feet and live decently. Zionist ideology asserts that the Palestinians are a people sentenced to live in poverty and primitive conditions, and thus their needs mean nothing to Israel. The fact that no money has been spent on their behalf in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and that the Jewish settlers in those areas have been provided with the means to live luxuriously, is just one sign of this situation.
For example, the settlements in Gaza occupy a large strip of the coast and cover the most valuable land. These settlements, surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences, are covered with trees and vegetation, and benefit from public buildings and commercial activities. On the other hand, the scenes at the nearby Palestinian refugee camps are heartbreaking. Some 4,000 Jewish settlers use most of this desert region's restricted water for agriculture and for such beneits as as a huge artificial lake in front of a luxury hotel, while the Palestinians are permitted only to scavenge what water they can from the nearly dry wells.79
Israel closed off Palestinian water reserves in al-Khalil (Hebron), claiming them for itself. By bulldozing the water reservoirs of Palestinian farmers, Israel has brought them to the verge of economic collapse. At right is a Palestinian farmer who was subjected to this practice.
Israeli journalist and military correspondent Ze'ev Schiff described Israel's Gaza Strip policy in March 1993:
We have continued to steal the Strip's water, even though its quality deteriorated from year to year, to steal the Strip's tiny land resources, in order to found there more and more [Jewish] settlements, as if we deliberately wanted to make the inhabitants despair, and in their despair think in terms of having nothing to lose.80
Another Israeli strategy to force the Palestinians into a corner is to take away their agricultural capabilities by building settlements on the most fertile land. In this way, the Israeli government hampers Palestinian efforts to continue their already-difficult agricultural activities, thus depriving them of their livelihood. An example of this is the prohibition on fishing, which represented the only source of income for many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, widespread attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers on Palestinian farms contribute to lower rates of production and income. New regulatory measures, such as mandating the use of Israeli middlemen to sell all produce in Israel or only allowing Israeli firms to export produce, also create enormous economic strains. For example, Palestinian producers can no longer sell their products directly to consumers. In Gaza, for example, the severe restrictions placed on the export of oranges, a main source of income, means that more than half of the producers' crops now simply rots and must be destroyed. As Danny Rubinstein, a veteran Israeli journalist who writes for Ha'aretz, reports, "With fishing barred and Arab fruit and citrus cultivation dwindling, the population of the Gaza Strip was compelled to rely on work under intolerable conditions at miserable pay in Israel or subcontracting for Israeli industries by women and children at home, as in the early days of the industrial revolution."81
Once again, innocent civilians are paying the price for Israel's economic siege.
Quoting from Sara Roy, a Gaza researcher, Noam Chomsky describes the main purpose of Israel's policy:
The goal, Roy and other observers conclude, is to turn parts of Gaza into a "branch plant" economy designed "to serve Israeli interests . . . primarily," with Israel retaining control over land, zoning, water, and any development that may take place in the areas released to local self-administration.82
While the amount of arable land under Israeli control increases daily, Palestinian farmland is occupied by the Israeli government and turned into roads.
ISRAELI COMFORTAreas inhabited by Israelis feature the prosperity and modernity of any European city. Their skyscrapers, ports, luxury hotels, wide boulevards, and department stores have been built upon stolen Palestinian land.
PALESTINIAN POVERTYPalestinians are confined by Israeli forces to a hermitic lifestyle on arid lands devoid of infrastructure, where no investment or development is allowed.
ISRAEL On one hand are Israelis, who live a peaceful life in luxurious comfort. On the other hand are Palestinians, trying to survive, struggling with hunger, thirst, unsanitary living conditions, and Israeli attacks.
PALESTINE
Given that factories in the Gaza Strip and cantons in the West Bank offer an easily exploitable and very cheap labor force, keeping these areas economically dependent on Israel is an important component of Israel's policy. The Palestinian economy has suffered greatly due to the curfews and blockades in the camps imposed by the Israelis since the earliest days of the al-Aqsa Intifada. According to a UN report published on December 5, 2000, Israel's prohibition on the movement of Palestinian workers and goods did more than $500 million of damage to the Palestinian economy. Another fact not cited in the report is that Palestine's agricultural sector lost an additional $120 million because Israeli soldiers would not allow Palestinian farmers to harvest and sell their crops. The Palestinians are being oppressed by military force on the one hand, while being refused the right to live by economic pressure on the other.
The Burning of Olive Groves
For many centuries, olive groves have comprised one of the Palestinians' principal sources of income. But just as they have had to leave behind their homes and everything else they own, they also have been forced to leave their olive groves behind and migrate elsewhere. Many of these groves, which contain trees dating from the nineteenth century, and some even much earlier, have been ruined. The few small farms that the Palestinians still own are subjected to frequent attacks by settlers, who burn and cut down all the trees they can find. The situation was described in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine:
Thousands of olive trees were also destroyed. Palestinians who relied for their livelihood on orchards their families had tended for many generations saw them cut down in an afternoon by Israeli soldiers and settlers armed with chain saws.83
Palestinian olive groves get a little smaller every day as a result of Israeli occupations.
During the first Intifada, between 1988 and 1992, the Israeli army cut down 90,000 olive trees on the pretext that stone-throwing children were hiding in them. Between 1993 and August 2001, the State of Israel has uprooted 280,000 fruit and olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank alone. In 2001 alone, the State of Israel uprooted 23,551 fruit and olive trees.84
The world turns a blind eye to the Palestinians, whose only desire is to live a life in which they can worship freely, live peacefully in their homes, send their children to school, and conduct their business in safety.
Moreover, olive groves workers, who are usually women and children, often are fired upon by Israeli helicopter gunships. Most Palestinians who have been beaten while trying to harvest olives no longer visit their groves. The soldiers who fired upon these workers had no valid reason to do so, for they were neither throwing stones at Israeli soldiers nor participating in a demonstration. They were simply trying to make a living by working the small plots of land that they still owned. For some reason, the Israeli administration will not allow even this. Just as they do in every aspect of their social lives, Palestinians face almost insurmountable obstacles in their economic lives as well - they are not permitted even to raise their own crops.
If one thinks about the broader picture, it becomes clear that destroying olive groves or other agricultural areas is not a random affair, but rather part of a comprehensive Israeli strategy, for it takes 6 to 7 years for a new tree to bear olives. And, many Palestinians derive their families' livelihoods through olives or other crops. Those whose crops are constantly being destroyed, however, eventually will be unable to make a living and, rather than dealing with agriculture, will begin to look for work as day laborers. In this way, Palestinian villages are being transformed from productive agricultural units into a source of cheap labor for Israeli industry.
Throughout history, authoritarian and oppressive leaders have practiced such types of oppression and cruelty on other peoples. Just like today's cruel dictators, oppressive despots, and racist leaders, those people practiced violence, torture, and oppression on those under their command. And as God states, once these "sowers of discord" are in power, they continue to inflict physical violence upon their subjects and make a special effort to wipe out their "animals and crops." In other words, just as the current Israeli administration has done, they systematically used every technique in their attempt to destroy a people. This method is described in the Qur'an:
Whenever he holds the upper hand, he goes about the Earth corrupting it, destroying (people's) crops and animals. God does not love corruption. (Qur'an, 2:205)
These very techniques are seen today in the most profound way in Palestine. The Israeli administration is conducting a systematic program of ethnic cleansing and, at the same time, undermining all of the Palestinians' agricultural activities. In such an environment, where peace and security cannot exist, barrenness can only become more widespread. However, God does not love corruption and He invites all people to "enter absolutely into peace" (Qur'an, 2:208).
Demolition of Houses
Now 58 years old, Mohana lives alone in a broken bus surrounded by a mesh of barbed wire, among new neighbors who still don't know his name. In 1984, when Gilo extension called Metzpe Bethlehem was underway, Mohana returned from the Bethlehem market with his father, a tailor named Salman, to find a bulldozer on its way to remove his two story stone house. By that time most of Mohana's land was in the process of being mysteriously expropriated by the Israeli Municipality even while he still maintained ownership by showing his Ottoman and Jordanian land documents in Israeli courts. The Israeli Municipality later apologized for the demolition saying it was a mistake, but compensated Mohana only with a broken bus and prohibited him from building anything more than a wooden shed which he currently uses for storage and an outdoor bathroom.85
The excerpt quoted above is just one of the possibly hundreds of incidents experienced on Palestinian lands. For that matter, most of the hundreds of Palestinians who return home from the markets to discover that their homes and all of their possessions have been destroyed are not lucky enough to acquire a broken-down bus. The Israeli government does not stop at merely demolishing houses through an expropriation order while its residents are not at home. Many Palestinians' houses are bombed and razed to the ground with their residents still inside.
Israeli police give Palestinians only 15 minutes to vacate their houses, where they have lived for many years, before they are demolished. Palestinians have suffered this cruel policy for 50 years. In the past 10 years alone, almost 3,000 homes have been demolished.
The Palestinians have no right to object when Israeli soldiers arrive to demolish their homes. All they can do is collect as much as they can and save themselves.
AKIT-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01JEWS ON A RAMPAGE OF DESTRUCTIONBacked by hundreds of troops, the terrorist state of Israel has bulldozed eight homes belonging to Palestinians. It is reported that the Zionist administration carries out such operations in order to keep down the numbers of Palestinians in Jerusalem.
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 12.7.01ZIONIST VIOLENCE CONTINUES FULL SPEED AHEADDeaf to the protests from the rest of the world, the Sharon administration continues to spread terror.
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 11.7.01SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTIONAs Israel continues with its policy of destruction, it yesterday tore down 26 houses and 12 shops in the Rafah refugee camp. The fiercest fighting since the ceasefire erupted.
YENI ASYA-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01PALESTINIAN HOMES RAZED TO THE GROUND
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 3.5.01BULLDOZERS ATTACK HOMES IN GAZA
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01AS THE ISRAELI ARMY'S ATTACKS ON PALESTINIANS CONTINUE, ISRAELI TROOPS HAVE DEMOLISHED PALESTINIAN HOMES IN JERUSALEM.YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01ISRAEL DEMOLISHES PALESTINIAN HOMES
W. REPORT, DEC.97
BORNEO BULLETIN, 25.8.01
W. REPORT, DEC.98
The periodical Borneo Bulletin addresses the Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian houses in its article "Israel Bares its Teeth" (above). An article published in the the magazine Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1998 reports on Israeli forces' opening fire on Arab protesters (below).
According to an Amnesty International report published on June 14, 2000, during early 1987 to January 1999, 2,650 houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem were destroyed, rendering 16,800 people (7,300 of them children) homeless. According to this report, this practice was not curtailed even after the Oslo Accords were signed by the Palestinian Authority and Israel.86
It is worth noting that Israel gives no advance warning before demolishing a Palestinian family's home. First, the home to be destroyed is surrounded by bulldozers and Israeli soldiers equipped with modern weapons. Then, the homeowners are given 15 minutes to collect their belongings. After this, the soldiers go inside and throw all of the remaining things into the street and then destroy the house with bulldozers. If the homeowners offer any resistance, they are beaten severely and sometimes even fired upon by Israeli soldiers.
For example, in January 1999, when some Palestinians in Eizriya, a village near Jerusalem, protested the demolition of their home, Israeli soldiers fired upon them. Zaki Ubeyd, a 28-year-old man, was killed. According to Amnesty International's report, he was killed by a shot to the back of the head at close range. This shows that this killing was no accident; rather, it was done deliberately and consciously.
Another Israeli practice is to grant temporary settlement papers to Palestinians, especially those living in East Jerusalem, and then making it difficult for them to renew their papers once they expire. In this way, Palestinians are removed from their property one section at a time. Those who lose their settlement rights also lose their social security, and thus are sentenced to a type of exile. Information obtained from Israel's Interior Ministry shows that in 1996 alone, 1,641 Palestinians and their families lost the right to live in Jerusalem.87
In 2001, Israel's activities designed to remove Palestinians from their homes and lands continued at a rapid pace. In his article "Easter in the Holy Land: Families Watch as Their Homes are Destroyed," Robert Fisk describes developments that occurred during April 2001:
On one of the holiest days in the Middle East, how does one write about this wanton Israeli destruction of homes in Gaza?.. Not to mention the 35 wounded, the boy with his leg chopped off by an Israeli shell, the teenager with sharpnel nudging at his shoulder bone and no feeling in his left hand, flapping it uselessly towards me from his hospital bed. Is this a tragedy or a war crime, this deliberate attack on the homes of civilians?…
The first big lie of the weekend, however, came from the Israeli army, which blandly announced that the destruction of the Palestinian homes in Rafah was no more than "engineering activity" and that in any case the houses that their tanks and bulldozers turned into rubble were unoccupied. This was totally untrue as the Israelis, who inhabit a massive block-house above the shacks, knew very well. When the first tanks burst through the dividing wall before dusk on Saturday, firing anti-armour missiles into the nearest apartment blocks even though a small market was open 300 metres away where hundreds of men, women and children ran screaming into the neighbouring streets… The Western media were hard at work belittling the event… All of this, according to the Israelis like the destruction of more than 30 homes in Khan Younis last week, was in the name of "security."88
All of the above incidents and information point to one clear fact: The main target of all of this cruelty is the Palestinian people. And the vast majority of Palestinians are being driven from their homes merely because they are of another faith or ethnicity. And again for this reason, Israel is trying to destroy them. All that the Palestinians have done in the face of this is to try and protect the holy lands that have belonged to them for thousands of years, and which have been bequeathed to the entire Muslim world. Moreover, all Muslims are obliged to shoulder this task. All people of conscience who see what is happening here, but in particular Muslims who know and follow the Qur'an's ethics, have great responsibilities. This systematic cruelty, although taking place before the eyes of the world, only can be ended by sincere Muslims and the spiritual values that bind them to this place.
The Bias Among the Western Media
Why can't the Israeli policies of occupation and depopulation be stopped? Why doesn't the international community use its power to persuade Israel to adopt a humane and just policy? The answer has several dimensions, one of which is the bias in some parts of the Western media against the Palestinian cause. As Edward Said explained well in Covering Islam, most of the Western journalists and commentators see the Middle East through streotypes in which "terrorism" is always associated with the Arab Muslim world and never linked with Israel.
This misconception is so obvious that some news agencies reporting on events in Palestine have adopted a style and vocabulary favorable to Israel. For example, when following news reports about Palestine, you seldom encounter the phrases "the territories occupied by Israel" or "the Occupied Territories." Likewise, in news reports that mention Israeli attacks, the words "Israel's retaliation" are used as a matter of course. This gives readers the following message: "First the Palestinians attacked; Israel counterattacked only to defend itself."
One of the most frequently encountered sentences in the Western media describes instances of Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children: "A Palestinian child died during an exchange of gunfire." This carries the message: "If Palestinians had not engaged in aggressive conduct, these children would not have died." In fact, The Independent newspaper's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk emphasizes what is meant by "crossfire" where Israel is concerned: "When I read the word 'crossfire', I reach for my pen. In the Middle East, it almost always means that the Israelis have killed an innocent person."89 As far as the Western media is concerned, Palestinians always die in "crossfire." The intention here is to hide the fact that Israeli sharpshooters take aim at Palestinians and shoot with the intention to kill.
This influence is described today by many political scientists and Middle East experts. This attitude, which ignores Palestinian suffering and Israeli brutality and tries to make Israel look innocent, prevails in almost every country, particularly in America. Fisk discusses this in his article "I Am Being Vilified for Telling the Truth About Palestinians":
But the degree of abuse and outright threats now being directed at any one academic, analyst, reporter who dares to criticise Israel (or dares to tell the truth about the Palestinian uprising) is fast reaching McCarthyite proportions. Take Edward Said, the brilliant Palestinian academic who is a professor at Columbia University.
Palestinian streets are besieged with the message "Kill All Arabs."
He has been facing unprecedented abuse from the Zionist Organisation of America, which last year demanded that he be fired from the Modern Language Association and which now demands on an almost daily basis his dismissal from his professorship at Columbia solely because he points out, with clinical ferocity and painful accuracy, the historical tragedy of Palestinian dispossession, the brutality of Israel's continued occupation and the bankruptcy of the Oslo "peace" agreement… Too true. Noam Chomsky, himself Jewish, is one of the most profound philosophers of our age, but his scathing reviews of the Israeli occupation and America's blind, unquestioning support for Israel now earn him ever more ruthless abuse... Ignorance of the Middle East is now so firmly adhered to in the US that only a few tiny newspapers report anything other than Israel's point of view. You won't find Chomsky in The New York Times. It was put very well by Charlie Reese in a recent issue of the Orlando Sentinel, note the boondocks location, when he wrote that "Palestinians won't get their independence until Americans get theirs". But the attempt to force the media to obey Israel's rules is now international. We must say that Israel is under siege by Palestinians (rather than occupying Palestinian land), that Palestinians are responsible for the violence (even though Palestinians are the principal victims), that Arafat turned down a good deal at Camp David (though he was offered just over 60 per cent of his land, not 94 per cent), and that Palestinians indulge in child sacrifice (rather than question why the Israeli troops have shot so many Palestinian children).90
As Fisk describes, most Western media outlets do not hesitate to report false news when the subject is Israel. The facts are carefully hidden. Israel's operations, murders, slaughters, bombings, occupations, exilings, and hundreds of other types of cruelty either are ignored in Western media outlets or reported in such a way as to make Israel appear blameless. Israel is still an aggressor state occupying lands that do not belong to it, in direct contravention of UN mandates. Yet it is presented to the world as the "representative of peace and stability in the Middle East."
When faced with the false news reports and misinformation of the al-Aqsa Intifada's early days, Fisk could not help asking: "Why do we always get taken in by the same lies? Don't reporters carry history books, even a cuttings file, to remind them of what they wrote in the last Arab-Israeli war? Even the quotes - the meretricious, cliché-soaked statements - are the same."91
Even when Israel intensifies its use of violence and terror, the Western press takes a clear pro-Israel stance, failing to find the inhumane slaughters of civilians newsworthy. In fact, some newspapers even act as spokesman for Israel, offering those who personally perpetrated the massacres to write columns, hence publishing a purely slanted version of events. Noam Chomsky describes how, in 1986, The New York Times presented Ariel Sharon, a future Prime Minister of Israel and known as "The Butcher of Lebanon," as its "terror expert":
The New York Times called upon an expert on terrorism to offer his thoughts on how to counter the plague… The Times editors gave his [the expert's] article the title: "It's Past Time to Crush The Terrorist Monster," and they highlighted the words: "Stop the slaughter of innocents [Israelis]." They identify the author solely as "Israel's Minister of Trade and Industry." His name is Ariel Sharon. His terrorist career, dating back to the early 1950s, includes the slaughter of 69 villagers in Qibya and 20 at the al-Bureig refugee camp in 1953; terrorist operations in the Gaza region and northeastern Sinai in the early 1970s including the expulsion of some ten thousand farmers into the desert, their homes bulldozed and farmlands destroyed in preparation for Jewish settlement; the invasion of Lebanon undertaken in an effort - as now widely conceded - to overcome the threat of PLO diplomacy; the subsequent massacre at Sabra and Shatilla; and others… In a moral and intellectual climate such as this, it may well be appropriate for the world's greatest newspaper to select Ariel Sharon as our tutor on the evils of terrorism and how to combat it.92
Most Western media outlets apply a very simple technique when reporting on Palestine: They take Israel's official statement, make room for the Prime Minister's comments, and dress up the piece with footage from Israeli news sources. Grace Halsell, President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary for almost 3 years, was an internationally recognized columnist and Middle East expert. In one article, she describes how the Western media report on events in Israel:
Police, said the Israelis, used live ammunition on the Palestinians only after the Palestinians began an assault on Jewish worshippers. Without exception, the Western media initially reported this "official" Israeli explanation.
Now, however, eyewitness accounts, reports from four Palestinian and Jewish human rights groups, as well as three videotapes, reveal the Israeli version is false. All available evidence supports Arab charges that Israeli police initiated the conflict and then shot Palestinians in cold blood.
On Nov. 9, after UN Security Council representatives viewed one of the videotapes, the Soviet ambassador, Yuli M. Vorontsov, said the filmed document undermines Israel's claim that Palestinians incited the violence…
A three-man Israeli commission then issued a report upholding the "official" Israeli line that Palestinians had started the conflict…
Among others, the commission criticized Aryeh Bibi, in charge at the scene of the killings… Shortly thereafter, Israeli officials called in Bibi and said he was being promoted to full commander of the Israeli Police Manpower Division. Whatever the motivation, his promotion, carrying not only an increase in rank but also in pay, will signal other police that, officially, it "pays" to shoot Palestinians…
Moreover, the US media, which has several dozen writers stationed in Israel, makes little or no attempt to understand and report on the meaning of these assaults. They do little or no investigative reporting, but rather too readily accept "official" explanations of events provided them by the Israelis.93
But we must remember that the responsibility for the cruelty occuring in Palestine is not reserved only for those who actually inflict it, but also for those who endorse it with their silence and support it indirectly. As we read, "... (Those who) cause corruption in the Earth, the curse will be upon them. They will have the Evil Abode." (Qur'an, 13:25), God warns us that those who sow discord will be condemned on Judgment Day.
Another intimidation tactic consists of arresting Palestinians for no reason or without an arrest warrant, and then taking them into custody and deliberately postponing their court dates. These periods of arrest sometimes last for weeks. An Amnesty International report dated June 14, 2000 provides a striking example. According to the report, a 15-year-old girl named Suad Hilme Gazal was arrested in December 1998 for suspicion of attacking an Israeli, but as of the date of the report's publication, she had yet to be brought before an Israeli court.72
As of August 1999, more than 3,000 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons; 1,400 had been sentenced to death. In addition to these prisoners, new people frequently are taken into custody on the pretext of participating in various events. They are kept in very poor conditions, and sometimes spend years in custody without their cases being adjudicated. This happened to Ahmad Qatamesh who, although he still had not been found guilty after 6 years, was held without bail for the entire 6 years before being released.73
Aside from these prisoners, between 1989 and 1998 another 20,000 Palestinians were held in custody as so-called "administrative detainees." This term designates those individuals who have been arrested by an authorized administrative body without being issued a trial date. Thanks to this practice, Israel is able to arrest Palestinians without just cause and keep them in jail for years without informing them of the charge or bringing them before a judge. During this period, detainees have no right of access to their attornies or their families.
The table below provides details of the numbers of Palestinians taken into custody during the al-Aqsa Intifada and the length of incarceration.
Month
Day
Total number of prisoners and detainees
Serving Sentence
Detained for Interrogation
Detained until end of legal process
Administrative detainees
January 2001
34
737719
571202
375
131496
-16
February2001
815
747761
557223
418
129514
-16
March 2001
515
751787
74248
4412
132513
114
April 2001
411
757812
572279
4216
142506
111
May 2001
88
725820
574302
4412
151495
111
June 2001
1014
748823
574291
3916
174504
112
July 2001
1117
813849
582284
4521
184535
19
Minors in Israel Prisons Service Facilities, 2001
Date
Prisoners and detainees
Serving sentencer
Detained until the end of legal process
3 January
16
6
10
8 February
15
6
9
5 March
10
3
7
4 April
10
3
7
8 May
9
3
6
10 June
16
4
12
11 July
16
7
9
These figures were prepared by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem using data obtained from the Red Cross, the UN, and other organizations operating in the region.
Palestinians are generally kept in inhumane conditions in desert tent prisons. One of these is the Nagev desert prison, where hundreds of Palestinians are detained on such trumped-up charges as "keeping secret files" or "forming private relationships." All of them, even elderly and gravely ill men, are subjected to physical and mental torture. The prison's location and the concomitant transportation difficulties make living conditions worse and also make it exceedingly difficult for the prisoners to receive regular family visits. The tents cannot protect them from either the summer's scorching heat or the winter's freezing cold. Moreover, even after they have served their prison sentences, prisoners are sometimes unable to leave due to a practice known as "repeat of punishment." A person who has completed his sentence and is preparing to leave the prison receives a summons at the last minute, indicating that he now will begin serving a sentence for some past offense.74
Whether during the interrogation period or while in prison, torture is one of the Israeli government's most-used techniques. Israel's horrible torture techniques first came to light as the result of a long study published in London's Sunday Times in 1977. This study provided the first documented cases of torture practiced by the Israeli government.
According to the report, unbelievable types of torture were practiced in the prisons of Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Gaza, in an interrogation center in Jerusalem known as Moscobiya, and in such special army prisons as Kfar Yonah, al-Ramle, Sarafand, and Nafha. Aside from systematic beatings, other forms of torture involve applying electricity to sexual organs, plunging the naked prisoner into ice water, attacking the blindfolded prisoner with specially trained dogs, putting out cigarettes on various parts of the body, and pulling out nails and healthy teeth. Some prisoners' daughters were arrested and raped in front of their fathers. Some fathers then were forced to have sex with their own daughters.75
The inside view of the Khiam prison (below) is strikingly different from the outside view.
Middle East expert Robert Fisk describes the famous Khiam prison and various torture techniques in an article about Israeli prisons:
Khiam is an awful place. Electrical wires attached to the penis and feet, constant whipping, cold nights attached to a pole while pails of freezing water are thrown over near-naked bodies… I met one inmate just 10 days after his release, a man who had spent more than a year in Khiam. "When they interrogated me, they hit me on the head, then on the back with a Kalashnikov rifle. I fell down. The man put his boot in my face and broke part of my jaw. I have lost the hearing in part of my right ear. The ear-drum is broken… Now I have bad breathing problems and the doctor says there is no medicine for it. That this problem will stay with me all my life."76
Israeli solders have no compunction about beating and killing Palestinians in the middle of the street or in front of cameras, and torturing those taken into custody. Human rights organizations report on these practices in graphic detail.
Places known as death camps, where Palestinians are taken after being arrested en masse and before being presented to a judge, have become true torture centers. Author Norman Finkelstein quotes Israeli journalist Ari Shavit's description of a death camp in which many Palestinians are awaiting trial:
Among them, here and there, are some boys who are small and appear to be very young... The prison has twelve guard towers… The Shin Bet [an Israeli investigative agency] delivers to the [soldiers] a list with the names of friends of the young men... Then the soldiers ... go out almost every night to the city and ... come back with children of fifteen or sixteen years of age. The children grit their teeth. Their eyes bulge from their sockets. In not a few cases they have already been beaten ... a young man, barefoot, wounded, who looks as if he's having an epileptic fit, who tells you that they beat him just now on the back and stomach and over the heart. There are ugly red marks all over his body. The doctor turns to the young man and shouts at him. In a loud, raging voice he says: "May you die!" And then he turns to me with a laugh: "May they all die!"77
FIRST ARREST THEN, TORTURE The internal organs of murdered Palestinians often are removed so that they can be used on the "organ market." Israeli Arab parliamentarian Ahmed Teibi brought this issue to the Parliament's attention. The photographs below depict Palestinians who were killed in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, and whose organs were discovered missing during autopsies.
One of the reasons why torture is so frequent and common is that Shin Bet, the internal security agency, until recently was permitted by Israeli law to torture during interrogations. Thus Shin Bet officials could treat prisoners however they liked, and could force them to confess to imaginary crimes under the pretense of obtaining confessions. Following these torture-assisted interrogations, long prison sentences awaited those who "confessed" to crimes. Gideon Levy, an anti-Zionist Israeli author, wrote the following after visiting a Palestinian who had been tortured by Shin Bet and spent years in prison:
Omar Ranimat has trouble sitting down. He also finds it difficult to stand, walk or climb stairs. When I met him just a few weeks ago, two and a half years after his interrogation by the Shin Bet, which lasted 45 days and nights, he was a wreck… Ranimat and Ahmed, like thousands of other Palestinians, underwent routine Shin Bet treatment - the "shabah," the "gift," the "frog," sleep deprivation, ear-splitting non-stop music, a stinking sack over the head, a foot on the testicles and abrasive handcuffs on the writs and ankles. Most had no connection whatever with ticking bombs.78
Economic Siege
One technique used to intimidate the Palestinians, particularly in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is to keep them under pressure and economically dependent so that they cannot stand on their own two feet and live decently. Zionist ideology asserts that the Palestinians are a people sentenced to live in poverty and primitive conditions, and thus their needs mean nothing to Israel. The fact that no money has been spent on their behalf in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and that the Jewish settlers in those areas have been provided with the means to live luxuriously, is just one sign of this situation.
For example, the settlements in Gaza occupy a large strip of the coast and cover the most valuable land. These settlements, surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences, are covered with trees and vegetation, and benefit from public buildings and commercial activities. On the other hand, the scenes at the nearby Palestinian refugee camps are heartbreaking. Some 4,000 Jewish settlers use most of this desert region's restricted water for agriculture and for such beneits as as a huge artificial lake in front of a luxury hotel, while the Palestinians are permitted only to scavenge what water they can from the nearly dry wells.79
Israel closed off Palestinian water reserves in al-Khalil (Hebron), claiming them for itself. By bulldozing the water reservoirs of Palestinian farmers, Israel has brought them to the verge of economic collapse. At right is a Palestinian farmer who was subjected to this practice.
Israeli journalist and military correspondent Ze'ev Schiff described Israel's Gaza Strip policy in March 1993:
We have continued to steal the Strip's water, even though its quality deteriorated from year to year, to steal the Strip's tiny land resources, in order to found there more and more [Jewish] settlements, as if we deliberately wanted to make the inhabitants despair, and in their despair think in terms of having nothing to lose.80
Another Israeli strategy to force the Palestinians into a corner is to take away their agricultural capabilities by building settlements on the most fertile land. In this way, the Israeli government hampers Palestinian efforts to continue their already-difficult agricultural activities, thus depriving them of their livelihood. An example of this is the prohibition on fishing, which represented the only source of income for many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, widespread attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers on Palestinian farms contribute to lower rates of production and income. New regulatory measures, such as mandating the use of Israeli middlemen to sell all produce in Israel or only allowing Israeli firms to export produce, also create enormous economic strains. For example, Palestinian producers can no longer sell their products directly to consumers. In Gaza, for example, the severe restrictions placed on the export of oranges, a main source of income, means that more than half of the producers' crops now simply rots and must be destroyed. As Danny Rubinstein, a veteran Israeli journalist who writes for Ha'aretz, reports, "With fishing barred and Arab fruit and citrus cultivation dwindling, the population of the Gaza Strip was compelled to rely on work under intolerable conditions at miserable pay in Israel or subcontracting for Israeli industries by women and children at home, as in the early days of the industrial revolution."81
Once again, innocent civilians are paying the price for Israel's economic siege.
Quoting from Sara Roy, a Gaza researcher, Noam Chomsky describes the main purpose of Israel's policy:
The goal, Roy and other observers conclude, is to turn parts of Gaza into a "branch plant" economy designed "to serve Israeli interests . . . primarily," with Israel retaining control over land, zoning, water, and any development that may take place in the areas released to local self-administration.82
While the amount of arable land under Israeli control increases daily, Palestinian farmland is occupied by the Israeli government and turned into roads.
ISRAELI COMFORTAreas inhabited by Israelis feature the prosperity and modernity of any European city. Their skyscrapers, ports, luxury hotels, wide boulevards, and department stores have been built upon stolen Palestinian land.
PALESTINIAN POVERTYPalestinians are confined by Israeli forces to a hermitic lifestyle on arid lands devoid of infrastructure, where no investment or development is allowed.
ISRAEL On one hand are Israelis, who live a peaceful life in luxurious comfort. On the other hand are Palestinians, trying to survive, struggling with hunger, thirst, unsanitary living conditions, and Israeli attacks.
PALESTINE
Given that factories in the Gaza Strip and cantons in the West Bank offer an easily exploitable and very cheap labor force, keeping these areas economically dependent on Israel is an important component of Israel's policy. The Palestinian economy has suffered greatly due to the curfews and blockades in the camps imposed by the Israelis since the earliest days of the al-Aqsa Intifada. According to a UN report published on December 5, 2000, Israel's prohibition on the movement of Palestinian workers and goods did more than $500 million of damage to the Palestinian economy. Another fact not cited in the report is that Palestine's agricultural sector lost an additional $120 million because Israeli soldiers would not allow Palestinian farmers to harvest and sell their crops. The Palestinians are being oppressed by military force on the one hand, while being refused the right to live by economic pressure on the other.
The Burning of Olive Groves
For many centuries, olive groves have comprised one of the Palestinians' principal sources of income. But just as they have had to leave behind their homes and everything else they own, they also have been forced to leave their olive groves behind and migrate elsewhere. Many of these groves, which contain trees dating from the nineteenth century, and some even much earlier, have been ruined. The few small farms that the Palestinians still own are subjected to frequent attacks by settlers, who burn and cut down all the trees they can find. The situation was described in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine:
Thousands of olive trees were also destroyed. Palestinians who relied for their livelihood on orchards their families had tended for many generations saw them cut down in an afternoon by Israeli soldiers and settlers armed with chain saws.83
Palestinian olive groves get a little smaller every day as a result of Israeli occupations.
During the first Intifada, between 1988 and 1992, the Israeli army cut down 90,000 olive trees on the pretext that stone-throwing children were hiding in them. Between 1993 and August 2001, the State of Israel has uprooted 280,000 fruit and olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank alone. In 2001 alone, the State of Israel uprooted 23,551 fruit and olive trees.84
The world turns a blind eye to the Palestinians, whose only desire is to live a life in which they can worship freely, live peacefully in their homes, send their children to school, and conduct their business in safety.
Moreover, olive groves workers, who are usually women and children, often are fired upon by Israeli helicopter gunships. Most Palestinians who have been beaten while trying to harvest olives no longer visit their groves. The soldiers who fired upon these workers had no valid reason to do so, for they were neither throwing stones at Israeli soldiers nor participating in a demonstration. They were simply trying to make a living by working the small plots of land that they still owned. For some reason, the Israeli administration will not allow even this. Just as they do in every aspect of their social lives, Palestinians face almost insurmountable obstacles in their economic lives as well - they are not permitted even to raise their own crops.
If one thinks about the broader picture, it becomes clear that destroying olive groves or other agricultural areas is not a random affair, but rather part of a comprehensive Israeli strategy, for it takes 6 to 7 years for a new tree to bear olives. And, many Palestinians derive their families' livelihoods through olives or other crops. Those whose crops are constantly being destroyed, however, eventually will be unable to make a living and, rather than dealing with agriculture, will begin to look for work as day laborers. In this way, Palestinian villages are being transformed from productive agricultural units into a source of cheap labor for Israeli industry.
Throughout history, authoritarian and oppressive leaders have practiced such types of oppression and cruelty on other peoples. Just like today's cruel dictators, oppressive despots, and racist leaders, those people practiced violence, torture, and oppression on those under their command. And as God states, once these "sowers of discord" are in power, they continue to inflict physical violence upon their subjects and make a special effort to wipe out their "animals and crops." In other words, just as the current Israeli administration has done, they systematically used every technique in their attempt to destroy a people. This method is described in the Qur'an:
Whenever he holds the upper hand, he goes about the Earth corrupting it, destroying (people's) crops and animals. God does not love corruption. (Qur'an, 2:205)
These very techniques are seen today in the most profound way in Palestine. The Israeli administration is conducting a systematic program of ethnic cleansing and, at the same time, undermining all of the Palestinians' agricultural activities. In such an environment, where peace and security cannot exist, barrenness can only become more widespread. However, God does not love corruption and He invites all people to "enter absolutely into peace" (Qur'an, 2:208).
Demolition of Houses
Now 58 years old, Mohana lives alone in a broken bus surrounded by a mesh of barbed wire, among new neighbors who still don't know his name. In 1984, when Gilo extension called Metzpe Bethlehem was underway, Mohana returned from the Bethlehem market with his father, a tailor named Salman, to find a bulldozer on its way to remove his two story stone house. By that time most of Mohana's land was in the process of being mysteriously expropriated by the Israeli Municipality even while he still maintained ownership by showing his Ottoman and Jordanian land documents in Israeli courts. The Israeli Municipality later apologized for the demolition saying it was a mistake, but compensated Mohana only with a broken bus and prohibited him from building anything more than a wooden shed which he currently uses for storage and an outdoor bathroom.85
The excerpt quoted above is just one of the possibly hundreds of incidents experienced on Palestinian lands. For that matter, most of the hundreds of Palestinians who return home from the markets to discover that their homes and all of their possessions have been destroyed are not lucky enough to acquire a broken-down bus. The Israeli government does not stop at merely demolishing houses through an expropriation order while its residents are not at home. Many Palestinians' houses are bombed and razed to the ground with their residents still inside.
Israeli police give Palestinians only 15 minutes to vacate their houses, where they have lived for many years, before they are demolished. Palestinians have suffered this cruel policy for 50 years. In the past 10 years alone, almost 3,000 homes have been demolished.
The Palestinians have no right to object when Israeli soldiers arrive to demolish their homes. All they can do is collect as much as they can and save themselves.
AKIT-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01JEWS ON A RAMPAGE OF DESTRUCTIONBacked by hundreds of troops, the terrorist state of Israel has bulldozed eight homes belonging to Palestinians. It is reported that the Zionist administration carries out such operations in order to keep down the numbers of Palestinians in Jerusalem.
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 12.7.01ZIONIST VIOLENCE CONTINUES FULL SPEED AHEADDeaf to the protests from the rest of the world, the Sharon administration continues to spread terror.
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 11.7.01SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTIONAs Israel continues with its policy of destruction, it yesterday tore down 26 houses and 12 shops in the Rafah refugee camp. The fiercest fighting since the ceasefire erupted.
YENI ASYA-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01PALESTINIAN HOMES RAZED TO THE GROUND
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 3.5.01BULLDOZERS ATTACK HOMES IN GAZA
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01AS THE ISRAELI ARMY'S ATTACKS ON PALESTINIANS CONTINUE, ISRAELI TROOPS HAVE DEMOLISHED PALESTINIAN HOMES IN JERUSALEM.YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 10.7.01ISRAEL DEMOLISHES PALESTINIAN HOMES
W. REPORT, DEC.97
BORNEO BULLETIN, 25.8.01
W. REPORT, DEC.98
The periodical Borneo Bulletin addresses the Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian houses in its article "Israel Bares its Teeth" (above). An article published in the the magazine Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1998 reports on Israeli forces' opening fire on Arab protesters (below).
According to an Amnesty International report published on June 14, 2000, during early 1987 to January 1999, 2,650 houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem were destroyed, rendering 16,800 people (7,300 of them children) homeless. According to this report, this practice was not curtailed even after the Oslo Accords were signed by the Palestinian Authority and Israel.86
It is worth noting that Israel gives no advance warning before demolishing a Palestinian family's home. First, the home to be destroyed is surrounded by bulldozers and Israeli soldiers equipped with modern weapons. Then, the homeowners are given 15 minutes to collect their belongings. After this, the soldiers go inside and throw all of the remaining things into the street and then destroy the house with bulldozers. If the homeowners offer any resistance, they are beaten severely and sometimes even fired upon by Israeli soldiers.
For example, in January 1999, when some Palestinians in Eizriya, a village near Jerusalem, protested the demolition of their home, Israeli soldiers fired upon them. Zaki Ubeyd, a 28-year-old man, was killed. According to Amnesty International's report, he was killed by a shot to the back of the head at close range. This shows that this killing was no accident; rather, it was done deliberately and consciously.
Another Israeli practice is to grant temporary settlement papers to Palestinians, especially those living in East Jerusalem, and then making it difficult for them to renew their papers once they expire. In this way, Palestinians are removed from their property one section at a time. Those who lose their settlement rights also lose their social security, and thus are sentenced to a type of exile. Information obtained from Israel's Interior Ministry shows that in 1996 alone, 1,641 Palestinians and their families lost the right to live in Jerusalem.87
In 2001, Israel's activities designed to remove Palestinians from their homes and lands continued at a rapid pace. In his article "Easter in the Holy Land: Families Watch as Their Homes are Destroyed," Robert Fisk describes developments that occurred during April 2001:
On one of the holiest days in the Middle East, how does one write about this wanton Israeli destruction of homes in Gaza?.. Not to mention the 35 wounded, the boy with his leg chopped off by an Israeli shell, the teenager with sharpnel nudging at his shoulder bone and no feeling in his left hand, flapping it uselessly towards me from his hospital bed. Is this a tragedy or a war crime, this deliberate attack on the homes of civilians?…
The first big lie of the weekend, however, came from the Israeli army, which blandly announced that the destruction of the Palestinian homes in Rafah was no more than "engineering activity" and that in any case the houses that their tanks and bulldozers turned into rubble were unoccupied. This was totally untrue as the Israelis, who inhabit a massive block-house above the shacks, knew very well. When the first tanks burst through the dividing wall before dusk on Saturday, firing anti-armour missiles into the nearest apartment blocks even though a small market was open 300 metres away where hundreds of men, women and children ran screaming into the neighbouring streets… The Western media were hard at work belittling the event… All of this, according to the Israelis like the destruction of more than 30 homes in Khan Younis last week, was in the name of "security."88
All of the above incidents and information point to one clear fact: The main target of all of this cruelty is the Palestinian people. And the vast majority of Palestinians are being driven from their homes merely because they are of another faith or ethnicity. And again for this reason, Israel is trying to destroy them. All that the Palestinians have done in the face of this is to try and protect the holy lands that have belonged to them for thousands of years, and which have been bequeathed to the entire Muslim world. Moreover, all Muslims are obliged to shoulder this task. All people of conscience who see what is happening here, but in particular Muslims who know and follow the Qur'an's ethics, have great responsibilities. This systematic cruelty, although taking place before the eyes of the world, only can be ended by sincere Muslims and the spiritual values that bind them to this place.
The Bias Among the Western Media
Why can't the Israeli policies of occupation and depopulation be stopped? Why doesn't the international community use its power to persuade Israel to adopt a humane and just policy? The answer has several dimensions, one of which is the bias in some parts of the Western media against the Palestinian cause. As Edward Said explained well in Covering Islam, most of the Western journalists and commentators see the Middle East through streotypes in which "terrorism" is always associated with the Arab Muslim world and never linked with Israel.
This misconception is so obvious that some news agencies reporting on events in Palestine have adopted a style and vocabulary favorable to Israel. For example, when following news reports about Palestine, you seldom encounter the phrases "the territories occupied by Israel" or "the Occupied Territories." Likewise, in news reports that mention Israeli attacks, the words "Israel's retaliation" are used as a matter of course. This gives readers the following message: "First the Palestinians attacked; Israel counterattacked only to defend itself."
One of the most frequently encountered sentences in the Western media describes instances of Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children: "A Palestinian child died during an exchange of gunfire." This carries the message: "If Palestinians had not engaged in aggressive conduct, these children would not have died." In fact, The Independent newspaper's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk emphasizes what is meant by "crossfire" where Israel is concerned: "When I read the word 'crossfire', I reach for my pen. In the Middle East, it almost always means that the Israelis have killed an innocent person."89 As far as the Western media is concerned, Palestinians always die in "crossfire." The intention here is to hide the fact that Israeli sharpshooters take aim at Palestinians and shoot with the intention to kill.
This influence is described today by many political scientists and Middle East experts. This attitude, which ignores Palestinian suffering and Israeli brutality and tries to make Israel look innocent, prevails in almost every country, particularly in America. Fisk discusses this in his article "I Am Being Vilified for Telling the Truth About Palestinians":
But the degree of abuse and outright threats now being directed at any one academic, analyst, reporter who dares to criticise Israel (or dares to tell the truth about the Palestinian uprising) is fast reaching McCarthyite proportions. Take Edward Said, the brilliant Palestinian academic who is a professor at Columbia University.
Palestinian streets are besieged with the message "Kill All Arabs."
He has been facing unprecedented abuse from the Zionist Organisation of America, which last year demanded that he be fired from the Modern Language Association and which now demands on an almost daily basis his dismissal from his professorship at Columbia solely because he points out, with clinical ferocity and painful accuracy, the historical tragedy of Palestinian dispossession, the brutality of Israel's continued occupation and the bankruptcy of the Oslo "peace" agreement… Too true. Noam Chomsky, himself Jewish, is one of the most profound philosophers of our age, but his scathing reviews of the Israeli occupation and America's blind, unquestioning support for Israel now earn him ever more ruthless abuse... Ignorance of the Middle East is now so firmly adhered to in the US that only a few tiny newspapers report anything other than Israel's point of view. You won't find Chomsky in The New York Times. It was put very well by Charlie Reese in a recent issue of the Orlando Sentinel, note the boondocks location, when he wrote that "Palestinians won't get their independence until Americans get theirs". But the attempt to force the media to obey Israel's rules is now international. We must say that Israel is under siege by Palestinians (rather than occupying Palestinian land), that Palestinians are responsible for the violence (even though Palestinians are the principal victims), that Arafat turned down a good deal at Camp David (though he was offered just over 60 per cent of his land, not 94 per cent), and that Palestinians indulge in child sacrifice (rather than question why the Israeli troops have shot so many Palestinian children).90
As Fisk describes, most Western media outlets do not hesitate to report false news when the subject is Israel. The facts are carefully hidden. Israel's operations, murders, slaughters, bombings, occupations, exilings, and hundreds of other types of cruelty either are ignored in Western media outlets or reported in such a way as to make Israel appear blameless. Israel is still an aggressor state occupying lands that do not belong to it, in direct contravention of UN mandates. Yet it is presented to the world as the "representative of peace and stability in the Middle East."
When faced with the false news reports and misinformation of the al-Aqsa Intifada's early days, Fisk could not help asking: "Why do we always get taken in by the same lies? Don't reporters carry history books, even a cuttings file, to remind them of what they wrote in the last Arab-Israeli war? Even the quotes - the meretricious, cliché-soaked statements - are the same."91
Even when Israel intensifies its use of violence and terror, the Western press takes a clear pro-Israel stance, failing to find the inhumane slaughters of civilians newsworthy. In fact, some newspapers even act as spokesman for Israel, offering those who personally perpetrated the massacres to write columns, hence publishing a purely slanted version of events. Noam Chomsky describes how, in 1986, The New York Times presented Ariel Sharon, a future Prime Minister of Israel and known as "The Butcher of Lebanon," as its "terror expert":
The New York Times called upon an expert on terrorism to offer his thoughts on how to counter the plague… The Times editors gave his [the expert's] article the title: "It's Past Time to Crush The Terrorist Monster," and they highlighted the words: "Stop the slaughter of innocents [Israelis]." They identify the author solely as "Israel's Minister of Trade and Industry." His name is Ariel Sharon. His terrorist career, dating back to the early 1950s, includes the slaughter of 69 villagers in Qibya and 20 at the al-Bureig refugee camp in 1953; terrorist operations in the Gaza region and northeastern Sinai in the early 1970s including the expulsion of some ten thousand farmers into the desert, their homes bulldozed and farmlands destroyed in preparation for Jewish settlement; the invasion of Lebanon undertaken in an effort - as now widely conceded - to overcome the threat of PLO diplomacy; the subsequent massacre at Sabra and Shatilla; and others… In a moral and intellectual climate such as this, it may well be appropriate for the world's greatest newspaper to select Ariel Sharon as our tutor on the evils of terrorism and how to combat it.92
Most Western media outlets apply a very simple technique when reporting on Palestine: They take Israel's official statement, make room for the Prime Minister's comments, and dress up the piece with footage from Israeli news sources. Grace Halsell, President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary for almost 3 years, was an internationally recognized columnist and Middle East expert. In one article, she describes how the Western media report on events in Israel:
Police, said the Israelis, used live ammunition on the Palestinians only after the Palestinians began an assault on Jewish worshippers. Without exception, the Western media initially reported this "official" Israeli explanation.
Now, however, eyewitness accounts, reports from four Palestinian and Jewish human rights groups, as well as three videotapes, reveal the Israeli version is false. All available evidence supports Arab charges that Israeli police initiated the conflict and then shot Palestinians in cold blood.
On Nov. 9, after UN Security Council representatives viewed one of the videotapes, the Soviet ambassador, Yuli M. Vorontsov, said the filmed document undermines Israel's claim that Palestinians incited the violence…
A three-man Israeli commission then issued a report upholding the "official" Israeli line that Palestinians had started the conflict…
Among others, the commission criticized Aryeh Bibi, in charge at the scene of the killings… Shortly thereafter, Israeli officials called in Bibi and said he was being promoted to full commander of the Israeli Police Manpower Division. Whatever the motivation, his promotion, carrying not only an increase in rank but also in pay, will signal other police that, officially, it "pays" to shoot Palestinians…
Moreover, the US media, which has several dozen writers stationed in Israel, makes little or no attempt to understand and report on the meaning of these assaults. They do little or no investigative reporting, but rather too readily accept "official" explanations of events provided them by the Israelis.93
But we must remember that the responsibility for the cruelty occuring in Palestine is not reserved only for those who actually inflict it, but also for those who endorse it with their silence and support it indirectly. As we read, "... (Those who) cause corruption in the Earth, the curse will be upon them. They will have the Evil Abode." (Qur'an, 13:25), God warns us that those who sow discord will be condemned on Judgment Day.
THE INTIFADA
Intifada, which means "uprising" in Arabic, is the name of the struggle waged by a handful of Palestinians, armed only with stones, against one of the world's best-equipped armies - and one that answers thrown stones with bullets, rockets, and missiles. In fact, it seldom hesitates to take aim at those who have not even thrown stones, and has managed to kill dozens of children in a ruthless manner.
The first Intifada entered the political landscape in 1987, begun by Palestinian youths reacting to the killing of six Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers. Lasting until 1993, it met with a very severe Israeli response and, according to the principle that "violence begets violence," the Middle East again descended into chaos. Throughout this period, the world's attention was drawn by cases of children whose skulls were cracked and arms were broken by Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian people, from the very youngest to the very oldest, opposed the Israeli military's violence and oppression with whatever stones they could find. In response, Israeli soldiers largely forsook their weapons in favor of beating, arm-breaking, and hitting the Palestinians' stomachs and heads with rifle butts. By 1989, 13,000 Palestinian children were being held in Israeli jails.
Whatever the excuse, resorting to violence never solves the problem. And yet, certain important truths must be kept in mind when considering the land in which the Intifada occurred. First of all, as corroborated by UN decrees, Israeli soldiers are occupying forces that, in compliance with international law, should be withdrawn. If, despite this, Israel demands that its presence on these lands be accepted, the way to show it cannot be to murder innocent people. As all people with common sense must agree, if it is wrong for Palestinians to resort to violence, than it is just as wrong for Israeli soldiers to kill them. Every country has a right to defend and protect itself, but what has happened in Palestine goes far beyond self-defense.
Occupying Israeli forces respond to the rocks and slingshots of Palestinian teens with automatic weapons and real bullets. For this reason, at least several Palestinians die every day.
During the Intifada years, an incident occurred in the Christian village of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. The incident, witnessed by resident Norman Finkelstein, is just one of many examples belying the assertion that the military's interventions are motivated by self-defense:
Once at Jalazoun refugee camp, children were burning tires when a car pulled up. "The doors swung open, and four men (either settlers or the army in plainclothes) jumped out, shooting with abandon in every direction. The boy beside me was shot in the back, the bullet exiting from his navel... Next day the Jerusalem Post reported that the army had fired in self-defense."94
The Palestinian people's Intifada, waged with stones and clubs against one of the world's most advanced armies, succeeded in drawing international attention to this region. The images substantiating Israeli soldiers' murdering of school-age children demonstrate once again the occupying government's policy of terror. This period lasted until the Oslo Accords in 1993, when Israel and the PLO sat down at the negotiating table. At these meetings, Israel recognized Yasser Arafat for the first time as the Palestinians' official representative.
After the first Intifada culminated in a peace agreement, people waited patiently for peace and security to return to Palestinian territories. This waiting lasted until September 2000, when Ariel Sharon, known as "The Butcher of Lebanon," made a provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa along with tens of Israeli police. This event lit the fuse of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
In order to stop the bloodshed in Palestine, both sides will have to give up violence. And in order to achieve a permanent peace, Israel must end its occupation and completely withdraw from the Occupied Territories. Palestinians must be granted the right to establish an independent nation-state on their own land.
The unending pain and suffering of the Palestinians only increased with the al-Aqsa Intifada. Today, there are daily news reports of children and teens dying in the Palestinian territories. From its beginning in September 2000 until December 2001, 936 Palestinians died (figures provided by Palestinian Health Organization).95 Throughout the conflict, Israeli units subjected many civilians, including children returning home from school, to bombardment by helicopters.
Israeli soldiers use their weapons not to disarm Palestinian children, but to maim and kill them. Suleiman Abu Karsh, Palestine's deputy trade minister, expressed his people's feelings about the Intifada in an interview:
This Intifada was born of Zionist Israel's cruelty and provocation toward Palestinian people and the things that are holy to us. Because of the Palestinians' strong ties to these holy sites - principally Masjid al-Aqsa, which is the first qibla of Muslims, their mosque, and one of the central features of the Haram ash-Sharif - Israel has performed acts of cruelty.96
Many Palestinian children are being held today in Israeli jails. Children arrested in clashes are subjected to various types of torture, as described in the detailed reports of numerous human rights organizations. However, most governments ignore these reports.
In Palestine, where 70% of the population consists of young people, even children have experienced migration, exile, arrest, prison, and massacre ever since the 1948 occupation. They have been treated like second-class citizens on their own land. They have learned to survive in very difficult conditions. Consider the following facts: 29% of those who have been killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada were under the age of 16; 60% of the injured were under the age of 18; and in regions where clashes are intense, at least five children are killed every day, and at least 10 are wounded.
Chris Hedges, who served as The Times' Middle East bureau chief for many years, states how Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian children without hesitation in an interview:"I've seen kids shot in Sarajevo. I mean, snipers would shoot kids in Sarajevo. I've seen death squads kill families in Algeria or El Salvador. But I'd never seen soldiers bait or taunt kids like this and then shoot them for sport." (NPR Interview of Chris Hedges)
These Israeli soldiers, who aim at civilians and children, do not hesitate to fire even upon children playing at their schools' playgrounds. Due to the Israeli-imposed curfews, for most of the year they cannot go to school. When they can go, they are subject to Israeli attacks. One such attack occurred on March 15, 2001. While students at Ibrahimi Basic School in al-Khalil were playing during recess, Israeli soldiers fired upon them. This episode, in which six children were severely injured, is neither the first nor the last example of such cruelty.97
In The Palestine Chronicle, journalist-author Ruth Anderson describes some of the inhumane scenes of the al-Aqsa Intifada:
No one mentions the newly married young man who went off to demonstrate only to die a martyr, leaving his young bride a widow. No one mentions the Palestinian youth whose head was crushed by Israelis and whose arms were broken before he was so brutally slaughtered. No one mentions the little 8-year-old boy who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers. No one says how Jewish settlers, armed with all sorts of weapons and encouraged by Barak's government, storm Palestinian villages and uproot olive trees and murder Palestinian civilians. No one mentions the Palestinian babies who have died when their homes were bombed by air raids or who were caught in a hail of Israeli bullets while being transported to an envisioned safety. Everyone knows that babies cannot throw stones. Everyone knows but Israelis and Americans.98
The al-Aqsa Intifada Is Ariel Sharon's Handiwork
In order to understand the violence that spiraled out of control in April 2001 and turned Israel-Palestine into a bloodbath, one must remember how this latest Intifada started. The person at the center of these events was Ariel Sharon, who subsequently became - and still is - the prime minister of Israel. Sharon is well-known to Muslims as a politician who favors the use of violence. The whole world knows him for the massacres he has perpetrated against the Palestinian people, his provocative behavior, and his violent words. The largest of these massacres occurred 20 years ago at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, following Israel's June 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In this massacre, approximately 3,000 defenseless people were killed, subjected to intense torture, and burned alive. In addition, many of the corpses were burned or mutilated beyond recognition. The second name we encounter in this episode is that of Ehud Barak, at that time the commander of the Israeli forces and another future prime minister.
ZIONIST MASSACRES ALSO TARGET CHILDRENIsraeli soldiers have been ruthlessly killing Palestinian children. Below is a young Palestinian student, still wearing his backpack, the target of Israeli bullets.
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 23.5.01THEY ARE POISONING PALESTINIAN CHILDREN WITH SWEETSPalestinians claimed that the chocolates thrown from Israeli planes are poisoned.
W. REPORT, APR-MAY.93
MILLI GAZATE-Turkish Daily, 25.7.01PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN THE CROSS-HAIRS
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 2.5.01THEIR CRIME WAS SITTING AT HOME
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 21.7.01THE LATEST VICTIM IS A THREE-MONTH BABY
W. REPORT, JAN-FEB.99 According to Zionist ideology, there should be no foreign element whatsoever on the "promised lands." Hence there is no objection to killing children or even babies in their cribs. In Rachel Marshall's article "Sowing Dragonseed: Israel's Torment of Children Under Occupation" in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, she describes the torment endured by Palestinian children.
The Muslim world has never forgotten this massacre or the other ones orchestrated by the Israeli military over the last 50 years. For this reason, Sharon's provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa was far more significant than one made by any other Israeli politician. Sharon and his Likud Party were following a strict policy of not withdrawing from the Occupied Territories, expanding settlements, and refusing to discuss the final status of Jerusalem. Today, the world agrees on one fact: Sharon endorses violence and wastes no opportunity to encourage or practice it himself.
The massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps carried out under Sharon's directives were neither his first nor his last. Sharon has not changed in all these years, and as soon as he became prime minister he picked up where he had left off. Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa sparked the second Intifada.(Right) AKSIYON-Turkish Magazine, 14.10.01
The latest spiral of violence began when Sharon, under the guard of 1,200 police, entered the Masjid al-Aqsa, a site holy to Muslims. Everyone, including Israeli leaders and the Israeli people, agrees that Sharon's entering this holy site, an act normally forbidden to non-Muslims, was a provocation designed to strain the already tense environment and rekindle the conflict. He clearly succeeded. Its timing was just as important as the location for, on the previous day, Ehud Barak had announced that Jerusalem might be divided in two and that it was possible to compromise with the Palestinians. For Sharon, who violently criticized any concessions and refused to debate the issue of Jerusalem, this was all the reason he needed to make his fateful visit.
Following Sharon's visit, the Palestinian territories were once again plunged into chaos.
However, one could expect from Sharon, a deeply religious Jew, to be much more humane and peaceful. Sharon's policy seems to be one case in the line of Revisionist Zionism, a movement that was formulated by the proto-fascist Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky's ideology was surely not a religious one, but a Social Darwinist, militant doctrine inspired by Nazism and Mussolini's fascism. After the formation of the State of Israel, Jabotinsky's legacy found haven in the right-wing Herut Party and, over time, developed a religious tone. Herut evolved into Likud in the following decades and became Israel's most powerful political party. However, the party's religious rhetoric, like other cases of ultra-right wing political agendas, is deceptive. One very obvious example of this is the huge gap between Likud's militancy and the peaceful message of the Torah. "Thou shall not kill" says the Old Testament,which is therefore very opposed to the radical Likudniks' zeal to depopulate Palestinian lands. We hope that both Ariel Sharon and his likes may return to the true ideals of Judaism and try to build a nation that will be "a light onto nations," as proposed by the Torah.
Is The Real Goal To Destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa
In order to understand the importance of the Masjid al-Aqsa and of Jerusalem and its environs to the Israelis, it is necessary to look at this region through Zionist eyes. Radical politicized Jewish belief asserts that the period beginning with Zionism will continue with the coming of the Messiah. To realize this goal, however, radical Jews believe that three important events must occur. First, an independent Israel must be established in the Holy Land and its Jewish population must increase. The migration of Jews to the Holy Land has been systematically realized by Zionist leaders since the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition, Israel became an independent nation-state in 1948. Second, Jerusalem was captured in 1967 with the Six Day War and, in 1980, was declared the "eternal capital" of Israel. The third, and only condition still to be met, is rebuilding the Temple of Solomon (Sulayman), which was destroyed 19 centuries ago. All that remains of it is the Wailing Wall.
Today, however, there are two Muslim places of worship on this site : the Masjid al-Aqsa and Qubbet as-Sakhrah. In order for radical Jews to rebuild the Temple, both of these religious sites would have to be destroyed. The largest obstacle to this is the global Muslim community, particularly the Palestinians. As long as they exist, radical Israelis cannot destroy these two sites. Thus the real reason for the clashes that recently turned the streets bloody once again can be found in this Zionist dream.
As we emphasized earlier, however, Jerusalem is just as important for Muslims and Christians. For this reason, this city, which is holy to all Jews, Christians, and Muslims, cannot be placed entirely in Zionist hands. The only solution to this seemingly intractable problem is to find a way for the area's Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live together in peace and security. Throughout history, only Islamic administrations have managed to do this successfully, and thus only Muslims will be able to do it in the future. Israel, with its attitude of contempt toward Muslims and Christians, can bring only terror and disorder to Jerusalem and its surroundings.
Likewise, all negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials have been undone by the Jerusalem issue. Ever since Israel was established in 1948, various solutions have been suggested for Jerusalem: declaring a neutral and free Jerusalem, joint Israeli-Jordanian sovereignty, a government consisting of representatives of all religions, granting land rights to Palestinians and air and underground rights to Israel, and many similar proposals. Israel, however, rejected all of them and eventually annexed Jerusalem by force and declared it the "eternal capital" of Israel. As long as Israel refuses to abandon its longstanding policy of violence, withdraw from the Occupied Territories, or compromise with the Palestinians, the future status of Jerusalem and all other related problems cannot be solved.
The Zionists' greatest dream is to destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa and rebuild Solomon's Temple, of which only one wall remains standing.The picture on the adjacent page depicts a representation of Solomon's palace.
During the Ottoman Empire's centuries-long rule, members of the three great religions lived together peacefully in Palestine. It is possible to achieve such a peace today.
Attacks on the Masjid al-Aqsa
As reported above, the site of the Masjid al-Aqsa has special significance for all Jews, but especially so for Zionists. For this reason, Zionists have fought for a pure Jerusalem and have worked to "purify" it of Christian and Muslim elements. According to many fanatical Jews, the Masjid al-Aqsa should be destroyed at once. While virtually all Zionists agree with this view, some base themselves upon political reaons while others use religious reasons. Whatever the reason, there is one inescapable fact: Zionists consider the existence of the Masjid al-Aqsa a large obstacle to their vision for the future.
The attacks orchestrated by radical Jews resulted in both property damage and death. Pictured below are restoration efforts undertaken following the partial burning of the Masjid al-Aqsa by Zionists in 1967.
Given this reality, in the recent past radical Zionists have made many attempts to destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa. In fact, some groups are devoted entirely to this mission. Since 1967, these groups have attacked the Masjid al-Aqsa more than 100 times and, in the course of these attacks, have killed many Muslims during their ritual prayers.
The first attack was carried out by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, a chaplain of the Israeli Armed Forces, in August 1967. Goren, who would later become chief rabbi of Israel, entered the Muslim holy site with 50 armed men under his supervision. On August 21, 1969, Zionists opened fire directly on the mosque, destroying a pulpit made of wood and ivory. The UN saw fit merely to condemn the incident, a direct attack on a Muslim place of worship.
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 10.6.01THE MASJID AL-AQSA WILL COLLAPSEThe Israeli digging beneath the Masjid al-Aqsa is going full speed ahead.
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 15.5.01THE MASJID AL-AQSA IN DANGER
According to Zionist ideology, the site of the Masjid al-Aqsa has special significance. Many fanatical Jews believe that this mosque must be destroyed at once. The evacuations done at its foundation were designed to bring about the mosque's "natural" collapse.
On March 3, 1971, followers of radical leader Gershon Solomon also took aim at Haram ash-Sharif. Although they retreated after a gun battle with Palestinian security forces, they were undeterred and launched a similar attack 3 years later. The ensuing battle was put down crudely by Israeli units. Then, in 1980, approximately 300 members of the radical terrorist group Gush Emunim took up heavy arms and attacked the mosque. Two years later, an Israeli carrying an American passport made his way into the mosque with an M-16 assault rifle and opened fire on the Muslims praying there. Following this tragic event, in which two Palestinians died and many more were wounded, no one asked how an armed man could have gotten through the "barricade" formed around the mosque by Israeli soldiers. The assailant was tried and held for a short time, all the while boasting that he had "completed his duty." That same year, a pupil of the infamous terrorist leader Rabbi Meir Kahane attacked the mosque with dynamite.
ISRAELI BARRICADE BEFORE THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE
A Palestinian boy prays in front of a line of soldiers preventing Muslim worshippers under the age of 45 to attend Friday prayers in the Masjid al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's old walled city Friday Nov. 10, 2000. Police banned Muslim men under the age of 45 from entering the mosque compound to discourage rioting after the services. (Top) The Masjid al-Aqsa has taken center stage in the clashes occurring between Israelis and Palestinians. New clashes occur every day, for Israeli security forces have established an ever-increasing presence in the area.
The tales of such attacks do not end here. On March 10, 1983, members of Gush Emunim scaled the walls of Haram ash-Sharif and tried to set off explosives. These terrorists were taken into custody and released several months later. Shortly after this attack, a group of radical Jewish terrorists armed with numerous explosive devices, including dozens of grenades, dynamite, and 12 mortar shells, tried to blow up the Masjid al-Aqsa. Then, in 1996, a new Zionist plan directed at the mosque came to light. Having failed to achieve their goals with armed attacks, the Zionists attempted to destroy the mosque from below, and began digging a large tunnel beneath it. Their excuse for the digging was "historical research."
The incidents listed here are just a few examples of how the radical Zionists are targeting the Masjid al-Aqsa for destruction. The Palestinian people have shouldered the responsibility of protecting these holy sites and Jerusalem itself on behalf of the world's Muslims, and it is they who have personally endured these attacks. Thus their reaction to Sharon's scandalous visit, performed as a mere power ploy, is very important. The violence that Sharon started by violating Muslim holy land with a guard of 1,200 soldiers shows no sign of abating. Figures demonstrate plainly the heights to which this violence, pioneered by Sharon and continuing under his leadership, has reached.
Intifada, which means "uprising" in Arabic, is the name of the struggle waged by a handful of Palestinians, armed only with stones, against one of the world's best-equipped armies - and one that answers thrown stones with bullets, rockets, and missiles. In fact, it seldom hesitates to take aim at those who have not even thrown stones, and has managed to kill dozens of children in a ruthless manner.
The first Intifada entered the political landscape in 1987, begun by Palestinian youths reacting to the killing of six Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers. Lasting until 1993, it met with a very severe Israeli response and, according to the principle that "violence begets violence," the Middle East again descended into chaos. Throughout this period, the world's attention was drawn by cases of children whose skulls were cracked and arms were broken by Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian people, from the very youngest to the very oldest, opposed the Israeli military's violence and oppression with whatever stones they could find. In response, Israeli soldiers largely forsook their weapons in favor of beating, arm-breaking, and hitting the Palestinians' stomachs and heads with rifle butts. By 1989, 13,000 Palestinian children were being held in Israeli jails.
Whatever the excuse, resorting to violence never solves the problem. And yet, certain important truths must be kept in mind when considering the land in which the Intifada occurred. First of all, as corroborated by UN decrees, Israeli soldiers are occupying forces that, in compliance with international law, should be withdrawn. If, despite this, Israel demands that its presence on these lands be accepted, the way to show it cannot be to murder innocent people. As all people with common sense must agree, if it is wrong for Palestinians to resort to violence, than it is just as wrong for Israeli soldiers to kill them. Every country has a right to defend and protect itself, but what has happened in Palestine goes far beyond self-defense.
Occupying Israeli forces respond to the rocks and slingshots of Palestinian teens with automatic weapons and real bullets. For this reason, at least several Palestinians die every day.
During the Intifada years, an incident occurred in the Christian village of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. The incident, witnessed by resident Norman Finkelstein, is just one of many examples belying the assertion that the military's interventions are motivated by self-defense:
Once at Jalazoun refugee camp, children were burning tires when a car pulled up. "The doors swung open, and four men (either settlers or the army in plainclothes) jumped out, shooting with abandon in every direction. The boy beside me was shot in the back, the bullet exiting from his navel... Next day the Jerusalem Post reported that the army had fired in self-defense."94
The Palestinian people's Intifada, waged with stones and clubs against one of the world's most advanced armies, succeeded in drawing international attention to this region. The images substantiating Israeli soldiers' murdering of school-age children demonstrate once again the occupying government's policy of terror. This period lasted until the Oslo Accords in 1993, when Israel and the PLO sat down at the negotiating table. At these meetings, Israel recognized Yasser Arafat for the first time as the Palestinians' official representative.
After the first Intifada culminated in a peace agreement, people waited patiently for peace and security to return to Palestinian territories. This waiting lasted until September 2000, when Ariel Sharon, known as "The Butcher of Lebanon," made a provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa along with tens of Israeli police. This event lit the fuse of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
In order to stop the bloodshed in Palestine, both sides will have to give up violence. And in order to achieve a permanent peace, Israel must end its occupation and completely withdraw from the Occupied Territories. Palestinians must be granted the right to establish an independent nation-state on their own land.
The unending pain and suffering of the Palestinians only increased with the al-Aqsa Intifada. Today, there are daily news reports of children and teens dying in the Palestinian territories. From its beginning in September 2000 until December 2001, 936 Palestinians died (figures provided by Palestinian Health Organization).95 Throughout the conflict, Israeli units subjected many civilians, including children returning home from school, to bombardment by helicopters.
Israeli soldiers use their weapons not to disarm Palestinian children, but to maim and kill them. Suleiman Abu Karsh, Palestine's deputy trade minister, expressed his people's feelings about the Intifada in an interview:
This Intifada was born of Zionist Israel's cruelty and provocation toward Palestinian people and the things that are holy to us. Because of the Palestinians' strong ties to these holy sites - principally Masjid al-Aqsa, which is the first qibla of Muslims, their mosque, and one of the central features of the Haram ash-Sharif - Israel has performed acts of cruelty.96
Many Palestinian children are being held today in Israeli jails. Children arrested in clashes are subjected to various types of torture, as described in the detailed reports of numerous human rights organizations. However, most governments ignore these reports.
In Palestine, where 70% of the population consists of young people, even children have experienced migration, exile, arrest, prison, and massacre ever since the 1948 occupation. They have been treated like second-class citizens on their own land. They have learned to survive in very difficult conditions. Consider the following facts: 29% of those who have been killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada were under the age of 16; 60% of the injured were under the age of 18; and in regions where clashes are intense, at least five children are killed every day, and at least 10 are wounded.
Chris Hedges, who served as The Times' Middle East bureau chief for many years, states how Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian children without hesitation in an interview:"I've seen kids shot in Sarajevo. I mean, snipers would shoot kids in Sarajevo. I've seen death squads kill families in Algeria or El Salvador. But I'd never seen soldiers bait or taunt kids like this and then shoot them for sport." (NPR Interview of Chris Hedges)
These Israeli soldiers, who aim at civilians and children, do not hesitate to fire even upon children playing at their schools' playgrounds. Due to the Israeli-imposed curfews, for most of the year they cannot go to school. When they can go, they are subject to Israeli attacks. One such attack occurred on March 15, 2001. While students at Ibrahimi Basic School in al-Khalil were playing during recess, Israeli soldiers fired upon them. This episode, in which six children were severely injured, is neither the first nor the last example of such cruelty.97
In The Palestine Chronicle, journalist-author Ruth Anderson describes some of the inhumane scenes of the al-Aqsa Intifada:
No one mentions the newly married young man who went off to demonstrate only to die a martyr, leaving his young bride a widow. No one mentions the Palestinian youth whose head was crushed by Israelis and whose arms were broken before he was so brutally slaughtered. No one mentions the little 8-year-old boy who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers. No one says how Jewish settlers, armed with all sorts of weapons and encouraged by Barak's government, storm Palestinian villages and uproot olive trees and murder Palestinian civilians. No one mentions the Palestinian babies who have died when their homes were bombed by air raids or who were caught in a hail of Israeli bullets while being transported to an envisioned safety. Everyone knows that babies cannot throw stones. Everyone knows but Israelis and Americans.98
The al-Aqsa Intifada Is Ariel Sharon's Handiwork
In order to understand the violence that spiraled out of control in April 2001 and turned Israel-Palestine into a bloodbath, one must remember how this latest Intifada started. The person at the center of these events was Ariel Sharon, who subsequently became - and still is - the prime minister of Israel. Sharon is well-known to Muslims as a politician who favors the use of violence. The whole world knows him for the massacres he has perpetrated against the Palestinian people, his provocative behavior, and his violent words. The largest of these massacres occurred 20 years ago at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, following Israel's June 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In this massacre, approximately 3,000 defenseless people were killed, subjected to intense torture, and burned alive. In addition, many of the corpses were burned or mutilated beyond recognition. The second name we encounter in this episode is that of Ehud Barak, at that time the commander of the Israeli forces and another future prime minister.
ZIONIST MASSACRES ALSO TARGET CHILDRENIsraeli soldiers have been ruthlessly killing Palestinian children. Below is a young Palestinian student, still wearing his backpack, the target of Israeli bullets.
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 23.5.01THEY ARE POISONING PALESTINIAN CHILDREN WITH SWEETSPalestinians claimed that the chocolates thrown from Israeli planes are poisoned.
W. REPORT, APR-MAY.93
MILLI GAZATE-Turkish Daily, 25.7.01PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN THE CROSS-HAIRS
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 2.5.01THEIR CRIME WAS SITTING AT HOME
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 21.7.01THE LATEST VICTIM IS A THREE-MONTH BABY
W. REPORT, JAN-FEB.99 According to Zionist ideology, there should be no foreign element whatsoever on the "promised lands." Hence there is no objection to killing children or even babies in their cribs. In Rachel Marshall's article "Sowing Dragonseed: Israel's Torment of Children Under Occupation" in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, she describes the torment endured by Palestinian children.
The Muslim world has never forgotten this massacre or the other ones orchestrated by the Israeli military over the last 50 years. For this reason, Sharon's provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa was far more significant than one made by any other Israeli politician. Sharon and his Likud Party were following a strict policy of not withdrawing from the Occupied Territories, expanding settlements, and refusing to discuss the final status of Jerusalem. Today, the world agrees on one fact: Sharon endorses violence and wastes no opportunity to encourage or practice it himself.
The massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps carried out under Sharon's directives were neither his first nor his last. Sharon has not changed in all these years, and as soon as he became prime minister he picked up where he had left off. Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa sparked the second Intifada.(Right) AKSIYON-Turkish Magazine, 14.10.01
The latest spiral of violence began when Sharon, under the guard of 1,200 police, entered the Masjid al-Aqsa, a site holy to Muslims. Everyone, including Israeli leaders and the Israeli people, agrees that Sharon's entering this holy site, an act normally forbidden to non-Muslims, was a provocation designed to strain the already tense environment and rekindle the conflict. He clearly succeeded. Its timing was just as important as the location for, on the previous day, Ehud Barak had announced that Jerusalem might be divided in two and that it was possible to compromise with the Palestinians. For Sharon, who violently criticized any concessions and refused to debate the issue of Jerusalem, this was all the reason he needed to make his fateful visit.
Following Sharon's visit, the Palestinian territories were once again plunged into chaos.
However, one could expect from Sharon, a deeply religious Jew, to be much more humane and peaceful. Sharon's policy seems to be one case in the line of Revisionist Zionism, a movement that was formulated by the proto-fascist Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky's ideology was surely not a religious one, but a Social Darwinist, militant doctrine inspired by Nazism and Mussolini's fascism. After the formation of the State of Israel, Jabotinsky's legacy found haven in the right-wing Herut Party and, over time, developed a religious tone. Herut evolved into Likud in the following decades and became Israel's most powerful political party. However, the party's religious rhetoric, like other cases of ultra-right wing political agendas, is deceptive. One very obvious example of this is the huge gap between Likud's militancy and the peaceful message of the Torah. "Thou shall not kill" says the Old Testament,which is therefore very opposed to the radical Likudniks' zeal to depopulate Palestinian lands. We hope that both Ariel Sharon and his likes may return to the true ideals of Judaism and try to build a nation that will be "a light onto nations," as proposed by the Torah.
Is The Real Goal To Destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa
In order to understand the importance of the Masjid al-Aqsa and of Jerusalem and its environs to the Israelis, it is necessary to look at this region through Zionist eyes. Radical politicized Jewish belief asserts that the period beginning with Zionism will continue with the coming of the Messiah. To realize this goal, however, radical Jews believe that three important events must occur. First, an independent Israel must be established in the Holy Land and its Jewish population must increase. The migration of Jews to the Holy Land has been systematically realized by Zionist leaders since the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition, Israel became an independent nation-state in 1948. Second, Jerusalem was captured in 1967 with the Six Day War and, in 1980, was declared the "eternal capital" of Israel. The third, and only condition still to be met, is rebuilding the Temple of Solomon (Sulayman), which was destroyed 19 centuries ago. All that remains of it is the Wailing Wall.
Today, however, there are two Muslim places of worship on this site : the Masjid al-Aqsa and Qubbet as-Sakhrah. In order for radical Jews to rebuild the Temple, both of these religious sites would have to be destroyed. The largest obstacle to this is the global Muslim community, particularly the Palestinians. As long as they exist, radical Israelis cannot destroy these two sites. Thus the real reason for the clashes that recently turned the streets bloody once again can be found in this Zionist dream.
As we emphasized earlier, however, Jerusalem is just as important for Muslims and Christians. For this reason, this city, which is holy to all Jews, Christians, and Muslims, cannot be placed entirely in Zionist hands. The only solution to this seemingly intractable problem is to find a way for the area's Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live together in peace and security. Throughout history, only Islamic administrations have managed to do this successfully, and thus only Muslims will be able to do it in the future. Israel, with its attitude of contempt toward Muslims and Christians, can bring only terror and disorder to Jerusalem and its surroundings.
Likewise, all negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials have been undone by the Jerusalem issue. Ever since Israel was established in 1948, various solutions have been suggested for Jerusalem: declaring a neutral and free Jerusalem, joint Israeli-Jordanian sovereignty, a government consisting of representatives of all religions, granting land rights to Palestinians and air and underground rights to Israel, and many similar proposals. Israel, however, rejected all of them and eventually annexed Jerusalem by force and declared it the "eternal capital" of Israel. As long as Israel refuses to abandon its longstanding policy of violence, withdraw from the Occupied Territories, or compromise with the Palestinians, the future status of Jerusalem and all other related problems cannot be solved.
The Zionists' greatest dream is to destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa and rebuild Solomon's Temple, of which only one wall remains standing.The picture on the adjacent page depicts a representation of Solomon's palace.
During the Ottoman Empire's centuries-long rule, members of the three great religions lived together peacefully in Palestine. It is possible to achieve such a peace today.
Attacks on the Masjid al-Aqsa
As reported above, the site of the Masjid al-Aqsa has special significance for all Jews, but especially so for Zionists. For this reason, Zionists have fought for a pure Jerusalem and have worked to "purify" it of Christian and Muslim elements. According to many fanatical Jews, the Masjid al-Aqsa should be destroyed at once. While virtually all Zionists agree with this view, some base themselves upon political reaons while others use religious reasons. Whatever the reason, there is one inescapable fact: Zionists consider the existence of the Masjid al-Aqsa a large obstacle to their vision for the future.
The attacks orchestrated by radical Jews resulted in both property damage and death. Pictured below are restoration efforts undertaken following the partial burning of the Masjid al-Aqsa by Zionists in 1967.
Given this reality, in the recent past radical Zionists have made many attempts to destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa. In fact, some groups are devoted entirely to this mission. Since 1967, these groups have attacked the Masjid al-Aqsa more than 100 times and, in the course of these attacks, have killed many Muslims during their ritual prayers.
The first attack was carried out by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, a chaplain of the Israeli Armed Forces, in August 1967. Goren, who would later become chief rabbi of Israel, entered the Muslim holy site with 50 armed men under his supervision. On August 21, 1969, Zionists opened fire directly on the mosque, destroying a pulpit made of wood and ivory. The UN saw fit merely to condemn the incident, a direct attack on a Muslim place of worship.
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 10.6.01THE MASJID AL-AQSA WILL COLLAPSEThe Israeli digging beneath the Masjid al-Aqsa is going full speed ahead.
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 15.5.01THE MASJID AL-AQSA IN DANGER
According to Zionist ideology, the site of the Masjid al-Aqsa has special significance. Many fanatical Jews believe that this mosque must be destroyed at once. The evacuations done at its foundation were designed to bring about the mosque's "natural" collapse.
On March 3, 1971, followers of radical leader Gershon Solomon also took aim at Haram ash-Sharif. Although they retreated after a gun battle with Palestinian security forces, they were undeterred and launched a similar attack 3 years later. The ensuing battle was put down crudely by Israeli units. Then, in 1980, approximately 300 members of the radical terrorist group Gush Emunim took up heavy arms and attacked the mosque. Two years later, an Israeli carrying an American passport made his way into the mosque with an M-16 assault rifle and opened fire on the Muslims praying there. Following this tragic event, in which two Palestinians died and many more were wounded, no one asked how an armed man could have gotten through the "barricade" formed around the mosque by Israeli soldiers. The assailant was tried and held for a short time, all the while boasting that he had "completed his duty." That same year, a pupil of the infamous terrorist leader Rabbi Meir Kahane attacked the mosque with dynamite.
ISRAELI BARRICADE BEFORE THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE
A Palestinian boy prays in front of a line of soldiers preventing Muslim worshippers under the age of 45 to attend Friday prayers in the Masjid al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's old walled city Friday Nov. 10, 2000. Police banned Muslim men under the age of 45 from entering the mosque compound to discourage rioting after the services. (Top) The Masjid al-Aqsa has taken center stage in the clashes occurring between Israelis and Palestinians. New clashes occur every day, for Israeli security forces have established an ever-increasing presence in the area.
The tales of such attacks do not end here. On March 10, 1983, members of Gush Emunim scaled the walls of Haram ash-Sharif and tried to set off explosives. These terrorists were taken into custody and released several months later. Shortly after this attack, a group of radical Jewish terrorists armed with numerous explosive devices, including dozens of grenades, dynamite, and 12 mortar shells, tried to blow up the Masjid al-Aqsa. Then, in 1996, a new Zionist plan directed at the mosque came to light. Having failed to achieve their goals with armed attacks, the Zionists attempted to destroy the mosque from below, and began digging a large tunnel beneath it. Their excuse for the digging was "historical research."
The incidents listed here are just a few examples of how the radical Zionists are targeting the Masjid al-Aqsa for destruction. The Palestinian people have shouldered the responsibility of protecting these holy sites and Jerusalem itself on behalf of the world's Muslims, and it is they who have personally endured these attacks. Thus their reaction to Sharon's scandalous visit, performed as a mere power ploy, is very important. The violence that Sharon started by violating Muslim holy land with a guard of 1,200 soldiers shows no sign of abating. Figures demonstrate plainly the heights to which this violence, pioneered by Sharon and continuing under his leadership, has reached.
The al-Aqsa Intifada in Figures
Ever since the first day of this second Intifada, Israeli soldiers have answered the rock-throwing Palestinians with helicopter gunships, tanks, and advanced weapons. So far, more than 1,000 civilians have lost their lives, and almost 20,000 have been wounded. (Since the Intifada was still in full swing at the time of publication, these figures continue to rise.) Palestinian houses and gardens are still being destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, the Palestinian economy has suffered huge losses, and the people have become 50% poorer. Meanwhile, they have been restricted even more by the cement blocks, new settlements, and highways built for these settlements.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's answer to all of these inhumane situations is quite interesting in the extent to which it reflects the Israeli government's attitude:
Don't ask me how the clashes in Gaza and the West Bank and the other districts are going to die down. We can legitimately use any means at our disposal against the Palestinian mobs. I don't care how many Palestinians have died. The only thing I care about is the security of my people.99
WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THIS ANGER? Trained in the Zionist philosophy, Israeli soldiers have been turned into ruthless individuals, bereft of mercy, compassion, love, and tolerance. This explains why Israeli soldiers show contempt and coldness, even as they kill innocent people.
The comments of Eitan, a general in the Israeli army, are even more striking:
We don't regret anything that we've done. We're ready to do anything for the safety of our soldiers and our people. Our soldiers have been given the order to fire on the Palestinian protesters. We must drive fear into their hearts by firing at their chests and heads.100
God commands justice and doing good and giving to relatives. And He forbids indecency and doing wrong and tyranny. He warns you so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Qur'an, 41:34)
Another important announcement was made by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, considered one of the "learned men" of the right-wing Shas Party, a partner in Sharon's national unity coalition.Yosef said: "It is forbidden to be merciful to them, you must give them missiles, with relish - annihilate them. Evil ones, damnable ones."101
September 2000-March 2002
Age Distribution of Those Killed Number
Number
%
Under 15
151
11.7
16-18
138
10.7
19-29
656
51.0
30-39
171
13.4
40-49
68
5.3
Over 50
73
5.7
Wound sites
Number
%
Head and neck (Including 10 people shot from behind)
330
25.7
Chest (Including 24 people shot from behind)
240
18.6
Stomach
62
4.8
General entire body
499
38.8
Arm
8
7.2
These figures, covering the period between September 2000 and March 2002, were prepared by the Palestine HDIP Institute using data obtained by organizations active in the area, such as the UN and the Red Cross. (www.hdlp.org)
Figures show that Israeli soldiers have carried out this order scrupulously. According to a Palestinian Health Organization report, 23% of the more than 1,000 people killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada were not even 18 years old. Even more important, however, is that 84% of those who died had not participated in any clashes or demonstrations; 33% of those injured in the West Bank were shot with real bullets; and 65% of these injuries occurred in the upper part of the body. Of those wounded in the Gaza Strip, 37% of all injuries were from real bullets and 60% of those injuries were above the waist. The total number of wounded approached 20,000 people. Of these, 2,000 suffered permanent disabilities. Moreover, hospitals that treat wounded Palestinians are frequent targets of attacks as well. A total of 1,850 people, 50% of them children, have been arrested; 900 of them are still in Israeli prisons.
THERE IS ONLY ONE GOAL: TO KILLChildren targeted by Israeli bullets, and a mother whose 6-month-old baby was shot by Israeli soldiers as she carried it in her arms. When Israeli authorities are asked about the cause of this violence, their answer is always the same: "We are retaliating for attacks made against us." But how could these children and babies have attacked Israeli soldiers, and with what weapons? How could these children, shot in the most critical places, have possibly harmed Israeli soldiers armed with automatic weapons?
A total of 4,000 buildings sustained heavy damage, while 6,584 homes were partially destroyed. Of these homes, 580 were completely demolished. The buildings damaged included 30 mosques, 12 churches, and 134 water storage units. As for schools, 66 were rendered completely unusable and 275 more were heavily damaged. Seven of these damaged schools have become Israeli military warehouses. In addition, 30 other schools were burned by Israeli soldiers, causing $400,000 worth of damage. During the first 2 months of the al-Aqsa Intifada, 132 students were shot and killed as they returned home from school.102
All of these figures show one thing: The Israeli government is practicing a conscious and systematic policy of destruction toward the Palestinian people. The common excuse of "for security reasons" given by the authorities is nothing but a lie. These figures show that Israeli soldiers are using their weapons not to disarm or neutralize for security purposes, but to kill and maim. Most of those who have been crippled or killed were shot in the chest, head, and back. It must be obvious that a soldier cannot neutralize anyone by shooting him or her in the head or chest, or in the back while he or she is running away.
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 22.5.01IF BOMBINGS EVERY DAY ARE NOT WAR, THEN WHAT ARE THEY?
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 11.6.01ISRAELI TANKS SPREAD DEATH
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 12.7.01ETHNIC CLEANSING IN PALESTINEArab Union spokesman Ashravi accused Israel of intending to eliminate the Palestinians.
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 7.7.01ISRAEL A RACIST STATE
AKIT-Turkish Daily, 17.7.01ATTACK ON AL-KHALILThe Israeli forces of occupation entered al-Khalil with tanks and attacked Palestinian police stations. Nine people were injured in the incidents, which were said to be wider-ranging than the attack on Thursday.
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 19.7.01BOMBS RAIN DOWN ON PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 19.5.01ISRAEL IGNORES THE CEASEFIREUsing the explosion in Tel Aviv as a pretext, Israel is stepping up the conflict in the region. As the Palestinian administration unilaterally declared a ceasefire, Israeli planes flew over Lebanon and two Palestinians were killed by Jewish settlers.
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 15.5.01A TREACHEROUS ATTACK BY ISRAELIsareli troops killed Palestinian police officers in their sleep. Israeli helicopters also carried out a rocket attack close to Arafat's headquarters. Ever since the first day of the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel has followed a pro-violence policy. Even on days when a bilateral ceasefire has been announced, the Israeli army continues to bombard the Palestinian people.
Results of a Gallup poll conducted during one of the al-Aqsa Intifada's most violent periods, and which appeared in the October 2000 issue of the Israeli magazine Ma'ariv, show that the Israeli people support this aggressive policy. While Israelis may categorize themselves as hawks, pigeons, and doves, this poll reveals a very important fact: For most Israelis, violence has become an ordinary part of life. According to the survey, only 7% of Israelis think that the military has used excessive force. The other 93% think that the army's reactions are appropriate, or even that they should be stricter. Some 60% of all respondents believe that the Palestinians should abandon the Holy Land completely.103 Eprahim Sneh, at that time the Israeli defense minister, had this to say when the cruel murder of two unarmed women raised the question of whether Israeli soldiers were using excessive force: "We are playing on this ground with our rules, and no one is immune from punishment."104
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 6.7.01ISRAEL FEARS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MASSACRES
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 19.9.00ISRAEL ON A MAN-HUNT
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 20.5.01ANGER AT MASSACRE
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 15.5.01ISRAEL SPARKS OFF VIOLENCE
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 25.5.01ISRAELI TANKS IN GAZA
LOS ANGELES TIMES, 29.7.01
MIDDLE EAST, 7.01
IMPACT, 7.01
NEW YORK TIMES, 30.7.01
W. REPORT, 1.96
Announcing a ceasefire or a new round of peace negotiations changes nothing in Palestine, because Israel has been waging an ideology-based war on the Palestinian people. As long as it does not give up its Zionist mentality, the blood, tears, and horror will continue. Clashes in Palestine are described in various media reports above.
THE NEWS TRIBUNE, 14.8.01
CRESCENT INT. 1-15.11.01
An article in The News Tribune, entitled "Israel Strikes West Bank," discusses one of the Israeli army's frequent incursions into Palestine territory. Palestine administrative offices take more than their share of these assaults. The Herald Tribune article, "Israeli Police Seize Palestinian Offices," reports on one such episode.
I. HERALD TRIBUNE, 11-12.8.01
SEATTLE POST, 6.9.01
The Seattle Post discusses how Israel targets Palestinian police stations in its piece "Israeli missiles batter Palestinian security post in Gaza." Crescent International reminds readers that Israel's aggression is continuing unabated in the article "Israel shows its true colours while the world looks elsewhere."
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 24.8.01
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 21.8.01
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20.8.01
Although The New York Times is known for its pro-Israel stance, the aggression and ruthlessness of the Israeli administration sometimes is so undeniable that even this newspaper must report on the plight of the Palestinian people. The article above reports that the Israeli army occupied Hebron within 2 hours. The article, "Palestinians' Daily Chore: A Dirty Obstacle Course," is highlighted by a photo of Palestinians waiting in line at a checkpoint to get permission to pass through. The article "Palestinian and His 2 Children in Day's Toll" explains that Palestinians are killed almost every day.
Who, then, determines the rules of this game, and how? Who are the ones who form these rules? The answers to such questions, as we have mentioned before, are buried deep in the racist Zionist ideology of Israeli leaders. According to this ideology, the world has been separated into two classes consisting of Jews and Gentiles, and all Gentiles are always potential enemies. According to racist ideology, violence and oppression are wholly appropriate.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who reignited the conflict with his provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa, shares this point of view. For example, among the incidents for which he is responsible are the murder of nearly 3,000 civilians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, and the torture and murder of hundreds of people in raids on Palestinian villages conducted by the Unit 101 force that he commanded. Sharon is also an architect of the cruelty perpetrated in Palestine today. Israeli author Uri Avnery summarizes the situation in an article describing Sharon's life and personality:
Sharon believes in the classical Jewish-Zionist premises. His world is divided between Jews and Goyim (non-Jews)… Jews are allowed to use all possible means available, otherwise the Goyim will destroy them. Universal values are nonsense. It's us against all of them, all of them against us. As a popular Israeli song goes: "All the world is against us, but we don't give a damn."105
...Let not the hatred of a people (who once) obstructed you from the Sacred Mosque lead you to transgress. Help one another in benevolence and piety, and help not one another in sin and transgression. Heed God alone;God is strict with punishment. (Qur'an, 5:2)
Another important component that determines the attitudes of Israeli leaders toward Palestinians is described by Israeli psychology professor Benjamin Beit Hallahmi:
The Israeli ethos … is one of identifying with the winners, and showing no feeling for the losers. Never identify with the weak, because you don't want to be like them. This seems to be the guiding spirit of Israeli life… An Israeli-born officer … has not been a victim under any circumstances. The only reality he knows is that of being dominant, in control, on top of other people… What has marked the experience of being an Israeli is fighting - constantly, without any hope for eventual peace. War becomes not only a way of life, but a way of viewing life… It leads to a worldview that can only be described as cutthroat: seeing the social world of relations between people and between peoples as a jungle in which only the fittest survive. The foundation of the Israeli worldview is a large dose of what is often called social Darwinism, a vision of a world divided into the rulers and the ruled, the dominators and the others.106
THERE IS CRUELTY ALL OVERThe duty of Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints is to make life difficult for Palestinians.Palestinian police stations are priority targets.Jewish children are brainwashed to believe that all Palestinians are the enemy.The occupation by Israeli forces of Orient House, considered the symbol of the Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem, and the arrest of everyone employed there increased tensions in the area. With this practice, Israel demonstrated once again that it is opposed to peace.
Another example that illustrates this Social Darwinist attitude is found in a 1975 statement made by the famous Israeli leader Yitzhak Shamir. Following the United Nations' approval of a resolution describing Zionism as a type of racism, Shamir revealed how he viewed not only the Palestinian people, but all of the other peoples of the world as well:
It is unacceptable that nations made up of people who have only just come down from the trees should take themselves for world leaders... How can such primitive beings have an opinion of their own?107
Menachem Begin, a terrorist responsible for many bloody incidents in the 1940s, later become one of Israel's most important political leaders, not to mention its prime minister. He went even further than Shamir, finding the gall to define the Palestinians as "two-legged animals."
Israel has transformed all of these statements, as well as the cruel events that have played out in Palestine over the last 50 years, into a sort of holy terror. Clearly, Israel is following a systematic policy of destroying the Palestinians. Every type of terrorist incident, from economic embargo to opening new Jewish settlements, from murdering children in the streets to torturing Palestinians in prison, are all planned stages of an entire people's destruction.
This plan has had a role in every strategic development in this area since World War I. The Zionists brought their racist dream to reality by redefining it and thus exploited the Jews' religious hopes of redemption. This caused them to immigrate in droves to the area, and finally forming an independent nation-state on stolen land. This is why Israeli leaders defy the world by saying: "The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are lands promised to the Jews by God; we will not leave the places we have entered." Most of Israel's leaders are committed to such Zionist concepts as the "promised land" and the "chosen people." The commitment that Israelis have to such religious concepts do not stem from a sincere devotion to God, but from the connections they have made between their racist and fascist ideology and some distorted interpretations of the Old Testament. In other words, the sacred religion of Judaism has been used to achieve the goals of Zionism, a wordly ideology. If they were sincere in their religious beliefs, they would have abandoned the brutality and torture outlined in this book, for as the anti-Zionist rabbi Dovid Weiss has once said: "The Jewish people are commanded by Almighty God to live in peace with all peoples and nations on the face of the globe."108
Waging a Struggle Consistent with The Qur'an's Ethics
While criticizing the Israeli ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, another topic that should be addressed is how Palestinians and other Muslims should react to this terror.
All Muslims should live according to the ethics God revealed in the Qur'an. However fair and just Muslims are in their everyday life, their business affairs, or in their personal relationships, they must demonstrate the same values during times of war, while defending themselves, or even while being driven from their lands. They must still put themselves in God's hands, obey God's laws, and adhere strictly to His instructions.
The word "Islam" has the same meaning as the word "peace" in Arabic. The Qur'an calls people to the ethics of Islam, through which the world can be made a haven for peace and tolerance. God commands us to rule justly and without discriminating among people, to preserve people's rights, oppose cruelty, support the oppressed in the face of cruelty, and help those in need. This justice requires each Muslim to protect the rights of both parties, evaluate events objectively, and think without bias. It requires justice, honesty, mercy, and compassion.
As the Qur'an states: "O you who believe! Show integrity for the sake of God, bearing witness with justice. Do not let hatred for a people incite you into not being just. Be just, for that is closer to heedfulness. Have fear of God. God is aware of what you do." (Qur'an, 5:8), true Muslims must not let their decisions or practices be tainted by such feelings as resentment, hatred, and rage. Muslims must always conduct themselves according to the Qur'an, behave with patience and restraint, and avoid exaggerated responses. As God reminds: "We will test you with a certain amount of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and life and fruits. But give good news to the steadfast." (Qur'an, 2:155). Thus, given that this life on Earth is merely a trial, we must never forget that God tests His believers with war, attack, oppression, and all manner of difficulties. The most important thing is for Muslims to respond to such trials in a manner that pleases God and always to behave in accord with Islamic teachings and principles.
Thus the Palestinians must remember, as they respond to Israeli occupation, that every difficulty they endure is really a test of their faith. In addition, they must strictly adhere to God's ethics, justice, and commands not to overstep their bounds. While opposing the Israeli attacks, oppression, and unjust practices, they must follow only those opposition methods described in the Qur'an. The result of such a struggle is most certainly salvation, for "God only did this for it to be good news for you and so that your hearts might be set at rest by it. And victory is not except from God, the Exalted in Might, the Wise." (Qur'an, 3:126)
Why Attacks against Israeli Civilians Are Wrong
The verse: "God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just." (Qur'an, 60:8) describes how the Palestinians must behave toward civilians as they oppose the Zionist Israeli government. In the Qur'an, God forbids killing innocent people, unarmed women, children, and the elderly. The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, gave specific orders to his commanders going to war, and warned them not to harm civilians.
In the last few years, however, some Palestinians have carried out suicide bombings against civilian settlements occupied by unarmed civilians, children, women, and the elderly. These attacks have made targets of a cafeteria, a school bus, and places where teenagers hang out, and have resulted in dozens of civilian deaths. According to Israeli reports from various news agencies, suicide bombings since September 2000 have killed 30 Israeli children and injured 272 more. Out of 177 Israelis killed, 128 were civilians; out of 1,743 Israelis injured, 1,216 were civilians.109 Naturally, these attacks provoked a strong reaction throughout the world and did more harm than good to the Palestinian cause. Even those who had opposed Israel's policy of occupation for years were forced to condemn the Palestinians and withdraw their support.
Palestinians must act in accordance with the Qur'anic morality even when responding to the Israeli occupation, because God has forbidden the killing of innocents, women, children, and the elderly. He commands justice, mercy, compassion, and tolerance.
Obviously, such attacks cannot be excused. As explained above, such a method is absolutely inconsistent with Islam. When we examine the Qur'an and the Prophet's actions, we find that Islam does not support attacks against civilians. Whether during the conquest of Mecca or during other wars, the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, carefully protected the rights of innocent and unarmed people and prevented them from being harmed. He reminded Muslims of this on various occasions by telling them: "Set out for war in the name of God and for the sake of God. Do not lay hands on the old verging on death, on women, children and babies. Do good, for God loves the virtuous and the pious."110 Another reminder is:
"Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman."111
"Do not kill the monks in monasteries"112 or "Do not kill the people who are sitting in places of worship."113
As shown in the hadiths, Muslims must struggle in conformity with the Qur'an. In other words, their struggle must be just, tolerant, and free of extremism. Indeed, God encourages moderation: "God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just" (Qur'an, 2:190). Muslims should oppose both tyranny and barbarism, and the unnecessary use of violence. Another verse reports that they must always be on the side of peace and compromise:
If they incline to peace, you too incline to it and put your trust in God. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Qur'an, 8:61)
MILLIYET-TurkishDaily, 3.12.01BLOODSHED IN ISRAEL
GOZCU-Turkish Daily, 3.2.02SUICIDE BOMB HORROR IN JERUSALEM
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 28.1.02JERUSALEM ROCKED BY NEW SUICIDE ATTACK Just as Muslims condemn the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, so do they condemn the killing of innocent Israeli civilians.
The subject of Israel and the Jews must be evaluated in the light of these basic principles. Muslims who live in accordance with the Qur'an also must have an unbiased view of the Jews.
As emphasized earlier, Jews believe in God's Oneness and follow a religion God revealed through His messengers. Moreover, the Qur'an refers to them as People of the Book. They embrace many values, based on God's revelation, as well as the concepts of sin, haram (prohibited) and halal (allowed). In the Qur'an, one can see that there was a friendly relationship between Muslims and the People of the Book. For this reason, if one of the People of the Book cooks some food, Muslims can eat it and vice-versa, and Muslim men can marry their women. These commands show that warm neighborly and even family ties can be established among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and that they can accept each other's invitations. Another verse calls for the two groups to unite, based upon a common word for belief (Qur'an, 3:64).
For these reasons, Muslim communities historically have behaved moderately and tolerantly toward the People of the Book. This situation is especially evident in the Ottoman Empire, which accepted the Jews exiled by Catholic Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and allowed them to live peacefully in the empire.
Justice and moderation also should be shown toward followers of non-monotheistic faiths and toward those with no faith at all, both of which are far more distant to Muslims. The Qur'an demands that a distinction be made among those who do not believe, those who do not recognize God and religion, and those who are enemies of religion. Those who do not show hostility must be treated with kindness:
God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just. God merely forbids you from taking as friends those who have fought you in the religion and driven you from your homes and who supported your expulsion. Any who take them as friends are wrongdoers. (Qur'an, 60:8-9)
Simply put, Muslims who are sincere in their religion, obey God, and respect the Qur'an can neither nurture animosity toward Jews just because of their religion and beliefs, nor treat them with hostility just because they are Jews. Likewise, Muslims cannot accuse all Israeli civilians just because their governement follows a policy of occupation and oppression. (Indeed, there are many Israelis who oppose the occupation.) Thus, it is necessary to avoid fanaticism while struggling against Zionist Israel and to oppose all of its unjust practices and violence with the justice and moderation required by the Qur'an's moral values.
Islam Forbids Suicide
When discussing attacks on Israeli citizens, the Islamic view of suicide also must be examined. Some people are gravely misinformed about Islam, believing that this religion of peace permits suicide bombings; nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Islam forbids a Muslim from taking his or her life, just as it forbids taking somebody else's life. God explicitly condemns suicide: "do not kill yourselves" (Qur'an, 4:29), regardless of the reason. The Prophet also told his Companions that suicide leads one to eternal damnation:
Whoever purposely throws himself from a mountain and kills himself will be in the (Hell) Fire falling down into it and abiding therein perpetually forever. Whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it, he will be carrying his poison in his hand and drinking it in the (Hell) Fire, wherein he will abide eternally forever. Whoever kills himself with an iron weapon will be carrying that weapon in his hand and stabbing his abdomen with it in the (Hell) Fire, wherein he will abide eternally forever.114
As explained in the hadith, committing suicide and engaging in suicide bombings - not to mention killing innocent people thereby - violates the Qur'an's ethics. Every Muslim should condemn these incidents, which cast a pall upon the Palestinians' just cause.
It must not be forgotten that those who compel Palestinian youths to engage in such unjust and irrational behavior are also pulling Israeli and Palestinian youths into an endless cycle of bloodshed and retribution. These ongoing suicide bombings destroy these young people's futures and that of the land itself. The young people who strap on explosives and detonate them among civilians are being destroyed on a road that will never lead to success. This practice harms innocent people on both sides, and is making the current conflict even more hopeless. In order for both peoples to have a future, this ongoing violence must be stopped immediately.
In an article published in the February 3, 2002 edition of The New York Times, PLO leader Yasser Arafat strongly condemned these attacks, stating that no attack on civilians, whatever the excuse, will be tolerated:
But first, let me be very clear. I condemn the attacks carried out by terrorist groups against Israeli civilians. These groups do not represent the Palestinian people or their legitimate aspirations for freedom… The Palestinian vision of peace is an independent and viable Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, living as an equal neighbor alongside Israel with peace and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples… But no degree of oppression and no level of desperation can ever justify the killing of innocent civilians. I condemn terrorism. I condemn the killing of innocent civilians, whether they are Israeli, American or Palestinian; whether they are killed by Palestinian extremists, Israeli settlers, or by Israeli government… Despite the brutal repression of Palestinians over the last four decades, I believe when Israel sees Palestinians as equals, and not as a subjugated people upon whom it can impose its will, such a vision can come true. Indeed it must.115
Islamic Scholars' Interpretations of the Subject
On the subject of suicide attacks aimed at Israeli civilian targets, the views of various Islamic scholars are further proof that these attacks are indefensible. Heading the list of these scholars is Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, the grand imam at the famous Al-Ahzar University. Tantawi's views are greatly respected in all the Islamic world, and when asked what he thought about the suicide attacks, he replied:
I am against those who say that attacking women, children, or any other civilians is permitted, just because the children may grow up to serve in the army. This is ridiculous, ugly talk that is totally rejected. And it totally contradicts the recommendations of the Prophet. Aggression against honest people is completely prohibited by Islamic law.116
STAR, 11.3.02 1) ISRAEL KEEPS UP THE PRESSURE WITH ROCKET ATTACK ON CAMPS. 45 PALESTINIANS DIE.2) 11 YOUNG ISRAELIS KILLED AS A RESULT OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN A CAFE THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY. Violence and cruelty, whomever they are directed against, must be condemned. Palestine should be a place where people of all ethnicities and religions can live in peace and security. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians should be allowed to suffer and weep. The most sensible way to stop the bloodshed is to form an alliance among those who support peace.
In another address, Tantawi stated that bombers who detonate explosives among civilians are not fighting a true war. Another man of religion who expresses similar views is Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh. His words "(it) is a form of suicide, and therefore condemned," are an expression of the fact that such attacks are incompatible with Islam.
Dr. Zaki Badawi, dean of London's Muslim College, is another of those scholars who declare suicide attacks to be incompatible with Islam. Dr. Badawi has stated that although the conditions the Palestinian people find themselves in are unacceptable, it is still not permissible to attack civilian targets in the face of this cruelty:
I personally think they are wrong in their understanding of Islam and I think that it is terrible to commit a crime against innocent people because this is against Muslim law.117
The fact that attacking civilians is totally incompatible with Islamic values has been reiterated many times by a great many Muslim clergymen. One fatwa (formal legal opinion), issued on September 27, 2001, and signed by a large number of men of religion, contained the following expression, "In the eyes of Islam, those who engaged in the terrorist attacks committed the crime of 'hirabah'." Some of the men of religion who signed the fatwa are:
Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Grand Islamic Scholar and Chairman of the Sunnah and Sira Council, Qatar
Judge Tariq al-Bishri, First Deputy President of the Council of preachers, Egypt
Dr. Muhammad s. al-Awa, Professor of Islamic Law and Shari'a, Egypt
Dr. Haytham al-Khayyat, Islamic scholar, Syria
Shaykh Fahmi Houaydi, Islamic scholar, Egypt
Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, Chairman, North America High Council
The Solution Is the Implementation of Qur'anic Ethics
As we emphasized in the previous section, the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation must be totally consistent with the Qur'an's values. Any mode of struggle outside of this value system - for example, the guerilla tactics envisaged by communist ideology - is not correct and cannot succeed. For this reason, the current situation must be evaluated sensibly and realistically, and a new strategy consistent with Qur'anic values must be devised.
The two groups are battling on an unequal footing. The Israeli military has a strong technological infrastructure and is one of the most advanced and powerful in the world. Their air force gives them immense advantage over the Palestinians, for it allows them to bomb the Palestinian territories without incurring any losses whatsoever. Palestine, on the other hand, does not have a regular, organized army. Its existing security forces lack technology and military equipment. Without an air force, the Palestinians are virtually helpless in the face of Israeli bombings runs. A handful of teenagers and children armed with nothing but clubs and rocks constitutes the thrust of the Palestinian offensive. It is likely that such an unequal struggle will end in Israel's favor. Thus the Palestinian struggle can succeed only if the armed struggle is transferred to the ideological sphere and with the support of a powerful education campaign. For this, the Palestinians need a strong team of educated and cultured individuals who are aware of legal, diplomatic, and international policies, and who conduct themselves according to the ethics of the Qur'an.
Jews and Muslims believe in the same God. God commands all people to treat each other with love and peace. Only if people practice the morality prescribed in the Qur'an can permanent peace prevail in the region.
Of course there are a great many highly cultured, open-minded intellectuals among the Palestinian people. The important thing is the work these intellectuals will engage in to raise the consciousness of the young, turn them in the right direction and defend the Palestinian cause before the people of the world. This work could play an important role in raising the Palestinians' awareness of true Islamic ethics, raising the level of education, and helping them to explain their just cause to the world. At present a very different picture of the justified Palestinian struggle is being presented to the world, a picture totally at variance with the truth. The Palestinian cause is suffering serious damage on account of the irrational attacks, incompatible with Islamic values, being carried out by a few fanatics or subversive groups who oppose peace with violence. In the same way that this harm is expressed by many intellectuals, it is also described by commentators in various countries, including Turkey. The daily Zaman writer Kerim Balci, who lives in Palestine, drew attention to this in one of his articles:
Not only are the suicide attacks a violation of fundamental Islamic values, they also damage the Palestinian cause. Not just me, but rational thinking Palestinians say the same thing … The Palestinian cause is a problem of the whole Islamic world. Those at the head of this movement cannot act in the light of their own personal interests, out of a desire for revenge and a concern over honor and pride. The militants who kill innocent Jewish children in Palestine may well believe they are serving Islam. Yet all their actions do is to make things much more difficult for those people who are trying to repair the damage done to the Muslim image all over the world … It is blatantly evident that attacks of this kind benefit Israel much more than Palestine.118
God commands you to return to their owners the things you hold on trust and, when you judge between people, to judge with justice. How excellent is what God exhorts you to do! God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Qur'an, 4:58)
There are even those Palestinians who, ignorant of the true Qur'anic morality, may participate in these provocations without realizing the nature of what they are doing. The good intentions of young people who want to contribute to the Palestinian cause and are willing to sacrifice themselves are being exploited. And, because the method pursued is incompatible with the values of the Qur'an, success is never achieved.
Given this, a great education force must be mobilized and spread among all Palestinians, particularly the young ones, to stamp out this ignorance and fanaticism and to teach them the true values of the Qur'an. Schools, universities, and mass education campaigns can help to raise their awareness and will be the greatest possible contribution to their cause. We say this because when these people recognize the true Islam described in the Qur'an, when they learn that Islam is a religion of peace and reconciliation, when they comprehend world politics with the consciousness brought by the Qur'an, they will understand that suicide bombings and killing innocent people in cafeterias or on buses are not only wrong, but are not a solution. It is far easier to reach a solution through tolerance and reconciliation, rational policies, a worldwide diplomatic initiative, and an intellectual struggle that is consistent with the Qur'an's moral values.
The many wars of the twentieth century, as well as the numerous incidents that have inaugurated the twenty-first century, clearly show that violence cannot undo violence, and that brutality cannot undo brutality. The only way to stop violence is for the virtues of the Qur'an's ethics - humility, tolerance, reconciliation, and rationality - to prevail upon people's thoughts and actions, and on the entire world.
Conclusion
What we wish for, along with all rational and fair people, is the immediate establishment of a state of peace and security in Palestine that will satisfy both sides. But such a peace, if it denies the rights of an innocent people and condemns them to a life of hunger and destitution, would be one-sided indeed. More importantly, such a peace would be illusory, because it would not create content and security; on the contrary, it would engender strife and chaos. An environment that satisifies both sides will prevail only if the proposed peace plan ensures the complete preservation of justice, equality, and human rights.
A demonstration in which a coffin represents every Israeli and Palestinian citizen killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada shows once again the brutality of this war. People continued to die even as this demonstration was taking place. The old woman sitting on the bench in this photograph has just learned that several of her relatives have been killed. During several historical periods, Jews, Christians, and Musims have lived together peacefully in Palestine. It is possible to achieve such a peace again.Everyone should be able to stroll in safety and peace on the streets of the Holy Lands.
The requirements for such a peace are that Israel withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967; that East Jerusalem be made an open city for all communities, but under Palestinian control; that the Palestinian Authority be recognized as an independent government; and that the Palestinians driven from their lands be given the right to return. In fact, UN Resolutions 242 and 338 call for these conditions to be met. With the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinians agreed to concede 78% of their land to the Israeli government. Their demands now consist of trying to continue their rights to exist on the remaining 22%. Although both sides agreed that an independent Palestinian state would be formed by 1999, subsequent developments have resulted in an even more oppressive Israeli policy. Israel continues to violate UN decrees by building new settlements, driving Palestinians out of areas where they live, and restricting their freedom of movement. The mentality of both Israeli and Palestinian radicals will have to change before a permanent peace can be realized.
Clearly, the current Israeli administration cannot provide peace, because at its heart is a racist ideology that regards Palestinians as "two-legged animals." Extremist Palestinian groups that endorse violence constitute another important obstacle. In this predicament, people with conscience and common sense must emerge from both sides and work together with the support of all people who support justice, equality, and peace. Only then will Palestine become a land in which people of every race and religion can live together in peace and harmony.
The web page of American Rabbi Michael Learner's Tikkun magazine. Rabbi Learner insists that events in Palestine must not be left to the initiative of radicals on either side.
The people who can bring peace to land of Palestine and then to the whole Middle East are the ones that understand that all people, regardless of race, are equal servants of God, and must be able to judge people and nations only according to their moral values. These are sincere, God-fearing people, because this is the attitude God commands. The core of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is love and brotherhood. This alliance of people who believe in God and preserve His boundaries will bring peace and stability not only to Palestine, but to many other troubled areas in the world as well.
ISRAEL MUST WITHDRAW FROM THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES During the 1967 War, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This occupation continues. Two basic conditions for peace in the Middle East are that Israel withdraw from the Occupied Territories and that the Palestinians regain their lands. With the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority agreed to take only 22% of its historical land and gave the remaining 78% to Israel. Somehow Israel continues its presence on Palestinian lands and continues to open new settlements there.
And there are reasons for hope for this. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of Jews and Christians engaged in promoting peace in the Middle East. For example, Rabbi Michael Learner, editor of the American magazine Tikkun, is a famous religious leader known for his moderate views. He argues that the Israeli occupation is unethical, keeps the Palestinians suppressed, and damages the Jewish faith. He believes that bringing peace to the Middle East would be quite simple if events were taken out of the control of radical groups and determined by the collaboration of moderates. Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks criticizes Israeli policies and urges moderation. Rabbis for Human Rights, a pro-peace initiative, propagates the true ideals of Judaism, such as compassion and generosity.
Some members of the Christian clergy are working for peace in the Middle East, particularly among those living in Jerusalem. For example, Patriarch Michel Sabbah said in a Bethlehem speech on December 31, 2001, that "peace means justice to the Palestinians, justice is end of the occupation. And end of the occupation and justice are security for Israelis,"119 and criticized Ariel Sharon for resorting to violence.
This situation places a great responsibility upon Muslims as well, who must approach this subject with common sense and a sense of justice. Many verses emphasize the importance of justice, for the Qur'an commands Muslims to treat even their enemies fairly, as we read in: "... Let not the hatred of a people (who once) obstructed you from the Sacred Mosque lead you to transgress..." (Qur'an, 5:2), God demands that they behave justly even toward the idolators against whom they are fighting. The command is repeated in another verse:
O you who believe, show integrity for the sake of God, bearing witness with justice. Do not let hatred for a people incite you into not being just. Be just, for that is closer to heedfulness. Have fear of God. God is aware of what you do. (Qur'an, 5:8)
The only way for peace to come to the Middle East is to have administrations that act according to the principles described in the Qur'an and Torah, on the Muslim and Jewish sides, respectively. Such administrations should be able to create a model for people of all races and religions to live together, rather than to take over the land and try to drive away its inhabitants. In short, it must act as guardians of the land. Palestine territories are broad enough for Muslims, Jews, and Christians to live together, and the lands are fertile enough for all of them to live comfortably. For any one party to claim an exclusive right to Palestine not only contradicts the facts of history, but also leads to continuous strife and war, as recent history has shown. In this land, which is considered sacred to members of the three monotheistic religions, everyone should be able to worship as they please: Jews in their synagogues, Muslims in their mosques, and Christians in their churches. They should be able to observe and pass down their traditions, as well as to create a common life together based upon mutual respect. Material resources should be dedicated to schools, universities, and hospitals, rather than to weapons and bombs.
Ever since the first day of this second Intifada, Israeli soldiers have answered the rock-throwing Palestinians with helicopter gunships, tanks, and advanced weapons. So far, more than 1,000 civilians have lost their lives, and almost 20,000 have been wounded. (Since the Intifada was still in full swing at the time of publication, these figures continue to rise.) Palestinian houses and gardens are still being destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, the Palestinian economy has suffered huge losses, and the people have become 50% poorer. Meanwhile, they have been restricted even more by the cement blocks, new settlements, and highways built for these settlements.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's answer to all of these inhumane situations is quite interesting in the extent to which it reflects the Israeli government's attitude:
Don't ask me how the clashes in Gaza and the West Bank and the other districts are going to die down. We can legitimately use any means at our disposal against the Palestinian mobs. I don't care how many Palestinians have died. The only thing I care about is the security of my people.99
WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THIS ANGER? Trained in the Zionist philosophy, Israeli soldiers have been turned into ruthless individuals, bereft of mercy, compassion, love, and tolerance. This explains why Israeli soldiers show contempt and coldness, even as they kill innocent people.
The comments of Eitan, a general in the Israeli army, are even more striking:
We don't regret anything that we've done. We're ready to do anything for the safety of our soldiers and our people. Our soldiers have been given the order to fire on the Palestinian protesters. We must drive fear into their hearts by firing at their chests and heads.100
God commands justice and doing good and giving to relatives. And He forbids indecency and doing wrong and tyranny. He warns you so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Qur'an, 41:34)
Another important announcement was made by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, considered one of the "learned men" of the right-wing Shas Party, a partner in Sharon's national unity coalition.Yosef said: "It is forbidden to be merciful to them, you must give them missiles, with relish - annihilate them. Evil ones, damnable ones."101
September 2000-March 2002
Age Distribution of Those Killed Number
Number
%
Under 15
151
11.7
16-18
138
10.7
19-29
656
51.0
30-39
171
13.4
40-49
68
5.3
Over 50
73
5.7
Wound sites
Number
%
Head and neck (Including 10 people shot from behind)
330
25.7
Chest (Including 24 people shot from behind)
240
18.6
Stomach
62
4.8
General entire body
499
38.8
Arm
8
7.2
These figures, covering the period between September 2000 and March 2002, were prepared by the Palestine HDIP Institute using data obtained by organizations active in the area, such as the UN and the Red Cross. (www.hdlp.org)
Figures show that Israeli soldiers have carried out this order scrupulously. According to a Palestinian Health Organization report, 23% of the more than 1,000 people killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada were not even 18 years old. Even more important, however, is that 84% of those who died had not participated in any clashes or demonstrations; 33% of those injured in the West Bank were shot with real bullets; and 65% of these injuries occurred in the upper part of the body. Of those wounded in the Gaza Strip, 37% of all injuries were from real bullets and 60% of those injuries were above the waist. The total number of wounded approached 20,000 people. Of these, 2,000 suffered permanent disabilities. Moreover, hospitals that treat wounded Palestinians are frequent targets of attacks as well. A total of 1,850 people, 50% of them children, have been arrested; 900 of them are still in Israeli prisons.
THERE IS ONLY ONE GOAL: TO KILLChildren targeted by Israeli bullets, and a mother whose 6-month-old baby was shot by Israeli soldiers as she carried it in her arms. When Israeli authorities are asked about the cause of this violence, their answer is always the same: "We are retaliating for attacks made against us." But how could these children and babies have attacked Israeli soldiers, and with what weapons? How could these children, shot in the most critical places, have possibly harmed Israeli soldiers armed with automatic weapons?
A total of 4,000 buildings sustained heavy damage, while 6,584 homes were partially destroyed. Of these homes, 580 were completely demolished. The buildings damaged included 30 mosques, 12 churches, and 134 water storage units. As for schools, 66 were rendered completely unusable and 275 more were heavily damaged. Seven of these damaged schools have become Israeli military warehouses. In addition, 30 other schools were burned by Israeli soldiers, causing $400,000 worth of damage. During the first 2 months of the al-Aqsa Intifada, 132 students were shot and killed as they returned home from school.102
All of these figures show one thing: The Israeli government is practicing a conscious and systematic policy of destruction toward the Palestinian people. The common excuse of "for security reasons" given by the authorities is nothing but a lie. These figures show that Israeli soldiers are using their weapons not to disarm or neutralize for security purposes, but to kill and maim. Most of those who have been crippled or killed were shot in the chest, head, and back. It must be obvious that a soldier cannot neutralize anyone by shooting him or her in the head or chest, or in the back while he or she is running away.
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 22.5.01IF BOMBINGS EVERY DAY ARE NOT WAR, THEN WHAT ARE THEY?
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 11.6.01ISRAELI TANKS SPREAD DEATH
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 12.7.01ETHNIC CLEANSING IN PALESTINEArab Union spokesman Ashravi accused Israel of intending to eliminate the Palestinians.
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 7.7.01ISRAEL A RACIST STATE
AKIT-Turkish Daily, 17.7.01ATTACK ON AL-KHALILThe Israeli forces of occupation entered al-Khalil with tanks and attacked Palestinian police stations. Nine people were injured in the incidents, which were said to be wider-ranging than the attack on Thursday.
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 19.7.01BOMBS RAIN DOWN ON PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 19.5.01ISRAEL IGNORES THE CEASEFIREUsing the explosion in Tel Aviv as a pretext, Israel is stepping up the conflict in the region. As the Palestinian administration unilaterally declared a ceasefire, Israeli planes flew over Lebanon and two Palestinians were killed by Jewish settlers.
YENI MESAJ-Turkish Daily, 15.5.01A TREACHEROUS ATTACK BY ISRAELIsareli troops killed Palestinian police officers in their sleep. Israeli helicopters also carried out a rocket attack close to Arafat's headquarters. Ever since the first day of the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel has followed a pro-violence policy. Even on days when a bilateral ceasefire has been announced, the Israeli army continues to bombard the Palestinian people.
Results of a Gallup poll conducted during one of the al-Aqsa Intifada's most violent periods, and which appeared in the October 2000 issue of the Israeli magazine Ma'ariv, show that the Israeli people support this aggressive policy. While Israelis may categorize themselves as hawks, pigeons, and doves, this poll reveals a very important fact: For most Israelis, violence has become an ordinary part of life. According to the survey, only 7% of Israelis think that the military has used excessive force. The other 93% think that the army's reactions are appropriate, or even that they should be stricter. Some 60% of all respondents believe that the Palestinians should abandon the Holy Land completely.103 Eprahim Sneh, at that time the Israeli defense minister, had this to say when the cruel murder of two unarmed women raised the question of whether Israeli soldiers were using excessive force: "We are playing on this ground with our rules, and no one is immune from punishment."104
MILLI GAZETE-Turkish Daily, 6.7.01ISRAEL FEARS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MASSACRES
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 19.9.00ISRAEL ON A MAN-HUNT
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 20.5.01ANGER AT MASSACRE
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 15.5.01ISRAEL SPARKS OFF VIOLENCE
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 25.5.01ISRAELI TANKS IN GAZA
LOS ANGELES TIMES, 29.7.01
MIDDLE EAST, 7.01
IMPACT, 7.01
NEW YORK TIMES, 30.7.01
W. REPORT, 1.96
Announcing a ceasefire or a new round of peace negotiations changes nothing in Palestine, because Israel has been waging an ideology-based war on the Palestinian people. As long as it does not give up its Zionist mentality, the blood, tears, and horror will continue. Clashes in Palestine are described in various media reports above.
THE NEWS TRIBUNE, 14.8.01
CRESCENT INT. 1-15.11.01
An article in The News Tribune, entitled "Israel Strikes West Bank," discusses one of the Israeli army's frequent incursions into Palestine territory. Palestine administrative offices take more than their share of these assaults. The Herald Tribune article, "Israeli Police Seize Palestinian Offices," reports on one such episode.
I. HERALD TRIBUNE, 11-12.8.01
SEATTLE POST, 6.9.01
The Seattle Post discusses how Israel targets Palestinian police stations in its piece "Israeli missiles batter Palestinian security post in Gaza." Crescent International reminds readers that Israel's aggression is continuing unabated in the article "Israel shows its true colours while the world looks elsewhere."
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 24.8.01
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 21.8.01
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20.8.01
Although The New York Times is known for its pro-Israel stance, the aggression and ruthlessness of the Israeli administration sometimes is so undeniable that even this newspaper must report on the plight of the Palestinian people. The article above reports that the Israeli army occupied Hebron within 2 hours. The article, "Palestinians' Daily Chore: A Dirty Obstacle Course," is highlighted by a photo of Palestinians waiting in line at a checkpoint to get permission to pass through. The article "Palestinian and His 2 Children in Day's Toll" explains that Palestinians are killed almost every day.
Who, then, determines the rules of this game, and how? Who are the ones who form these rules? The answers to such questions, as we have mentioned before, are buried deep in the racist Zionist ideology of Israeli leaders. According to this ideology, the world has been separated into two classes consisting of Jews and Gentiles, and all Gentiles are always potential enemies. According to racist ideology, violence and oppression are wholly appropriate.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who reignited the conflict with his provocative visit to the Masjid al-Aqsa, shares this point of view. For example, among the incidents for which he is responsible are the murder of nearly 3,000 civilians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, and the torture and murder of hundreds of people in raids on Palestinian villages conducted by the Unit 101 force that he commanded. Sharon is also an architect of the cruelty perpetrated in Palestine today. Israeli author Uri Avnery summarizes the situation in an article describing Sharon's life and personality:
Sharon believes in the classical Jewish-Zionist premises. His world is divided between Jews and Goyim (non-Jews)… Jews are allowed to use all possible means available, otherwise the Goyim will destroy them. Universal values are nonsense. It's us against all of them, all of them against us. As a popular Israeli song goes: "All the world is against us, but we don't give a damn."105
...Let not the hatred of a people (who once) obstructed you from the Sacred Mosque lead you to transgress. Help one another in benevolence and piety, and help not one another in sin and transgression. Heed God alone;God is strict with punishment. (Qur'an, 5:2)
Another important component that determines the attitudes of Israeli leaders toward Palestinians is described by Israeli psychology professor Benjamin Beit Hallahmi:
The Israeli ethos … is one of identifying with the winners, and showing no feeling for the losers. Never identify with the weak, because you don't want to be like them. This seems to be the guiding spirit of Israeli life… An Israeli-born officer … has not been a victim under any circumstances. The only reality he knows is that of being dominant, in control, on top of other people… What has marked the experience of being an Israeli is fighting - constantly, without any hope for eventual peace. War becomes not only a way of life, but a way of viewing life… It leads to a worldview that can only be described as cutthroat: seeing the social world of relations between people and between peoples as a jungle in which only the fittest survive. The foundation of the Israeli worldview is a large dose of what is often called social Darwinism, a vision of a world divided into the rulers and the ruled, the dominators and the others.106
THERE IS CRUELTY ALL OVERThe duty of Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints is to make life difficult for Palestinians.Palestinian police stations are priority targets.Jewish children are brainwashed to believe that all Palestinians are the enemy.The occupation by Israeli forces of Orient House, considered the symbol of the Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem, and the arrest of everyone employed there increased tensions in the area. With this practice, Israel demonstrated once again that it is opposed to peace.
Another example that illustrates this Social Darwinist attitude is found in a 1975 statement made by the famous Israeli leader Yitzhak Shamir. Following the United Nations' approval of a resolution describing Zionism as a type of racism, Shamir revealed how he viewed not only the Palestinian people, but all of the other peoples of the world as well:
It is unacceptable that nations made up of people who have only just come down from the trees should take themselves for world leaders... How can such primitive beings have an opinion of their own?107
Menachem Begin, a terrorist responsible for many bloody incidents in the 1940s, later become one of Israel's most important political leaders, not to mention its prime minister. He went even further than Shamir, finding the gall to define the Palestinians as "two-legged animals."
Israel has transformed all of these statements, as well as the cruel events that have played out in Palestine over the last 50 years, into a sort of holy terror. Clearly, Israel is following a systematic policy of destroying the Palestinians. Every type of terrorist incident, from economic embargo to opening new Jewish settlements, from murdering children in the streets to torturing Palestinians in prison, are all planned stages of an entire people's destruction.
This plan has had a role in every strategic development in this area since World War I. The Zionists brought their racist dream to reality by redefining it and thus exploited the Jews' religious hopes of redemption. This caused them to immigrate in droves to the area, and finally forming an independent nation-state on stolen land. This is why Israeli leaders defy the world by saying: "The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are lands promised to the Jews by God; we will not leave the places we have entered." Most of Israel's leaders are committed to such Zionist concepts as the "promised land" and the "chosen people." The commitment that Israelis have to such religious concepts do not stem from a sincere devotion to God, but from the connections they have made between their racist and fascist ideology and some distorted interpretations of the Old Testament. In other words, the sacred religion of Judaism has been used to achieve the goals of Zionism, a wordly ideology. If they were sincere in their religious beliefs, they would have abandoned the brutality and torture outlined in this book, for as the anti-Zionist rabbi Dovid Weiss has once said: "The Jewish people are commanded by Almighty God to live in peace with all peoples and nations on the face of the globe."108
Waging a Struggle Consistent with The Qur'an's Ethics
While criticizing the Israeli ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, another topic that should be addressed is how Palestinians and other Muslims should react to this terror.
All Muslims should live according to the ethics God revealed in the Qur'an. However fair and just Muslims are in their everyday life, their business affairs, or in their personal relationships, they must demonstrate the same values during times of war, while defending themselves, or even while being driven from their lands. They must still put themselves in God's hands, obey God's laws, and adhere strictly to His instructions.
The word "Islam" has the same meaning as the word "peace" in Arabic. The Qur'an calls people to the ethics of Islam, through which the world can be made a haven for peace and tolerance. God commands us to rule justly and without discriminating among people, to preserve people's rights, oppose cruelty, support the oppressed in the face of cruelty, and help those in need. This justice requires each Muslim to protect the rights of both parties, evaluate events objectively, and think without bias. It requires justice, honesty, mercy, and compassion.
As the Qur'an states: "O you who believe! Show integrity for the sake of God, bearing witness with justice. Do not let hatred for a people incite you into not being just. Be just, for that is closer to heedfulness. Have fear of God. God is aware of what you do." (Qur'an, 5:8), true Muslims must not let their decisions or practices be tainted by such feelings as resentment, hatred, and rage. Muslims must always conduct themselves according to the Qur'an, behave with patience and restraint, and avoid exaggerated responses. As God reminds: "We will test you with a certain amount of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and life and fruits. But give good news to the steadfast." (Qur'an, 2:155). Thus, given that this life on Earth is merely a trial, we must never forget that God tests His believers with war, attack, oppression, and all manner of difficulties. The most important thing is for Muslims to respond to such trials in a manner that pleases God and always to behave in accord with Islamic teachings and principles.
Thus the Palestinians must remember, as they respond to Israeli occupation, that every difficulty they endure is really a test of their faith. In addition, they must strictly adhere to God's ethics, justice, and commands not to overstep their bounds. While opposing the Israeli attacks, oppression, and unjust practices, they must follow only those opposition methods described in the Qur'an. The result of such a struggle is most certainly salvation, for "God only did this for it to be good news for you and so that your hearts might be set at rest by it. And victory is not except from God, the Exalted in Might, the Wise." (Qur'an, 3:126)
Why Attacks against Israeli Civilians Are Wrong
The verse: "God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just." (Qur'an, 60:8) describes how the Palestinians must behave toward civilians as they oppose the Zionist Israeli government. In the Qur'an, God forbids killing innocent people, unarmed women, children, and the elderly. The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, gave specific orders to his commanders going to war, and warned them not to harm civilians.
In the last few years, however, some Palestinians have carried out suicide bombings against civilian settlements occupied by unarmed civilians, children, women, and the elderly. These attacks have made targets of a cafeteria, a school bus, and places where teenagers hang out, and have resulted in dozens of civilian deaths. According to Israeli reports from various news agencies, suicide bombings since September 2000 have killed 30 Israeli children and injured 272 more. Out of 177 Israelis killed, 128 were civilians; out of 1,743 Israelis injured, 1,216 were civilians.109 Naturally, these attacks provoked a strong reaction throughout the world and did more harm than good to the Palestinian cause. Even those who had opposed Israel's policy of occupation for years were forced to condemn the Palestinians and withdraw their support.
Palestinians must act in accordance with the Qur'anic morality even when responding to the Israeli occupation, because God has forbidden the killing of innocents, women, children, and the elderly. He commands justice, mercy, compassion, and tolerance.
Obviously, such attacks cannot be excused. As explained above, such a method is absolutely inconsistent with Islam. When we examine the Qur'an and the Prophet's actions, we find that Islam does not support attacks against civilians. Whether during the conquest of Mecca or during other wars, the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, carefully protected the rights of innocent and unarmed people and prevented them from being harmed. He reminded Muslims of this on various occasions by telling them: "Set out for war in the name of God and for the sake of God. Do not lay hands on the old verging on death, on women, children and babies. Do good, for God loves the virtuous and the pious."110 Another reminder is:
"Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman."111
"Do not kill the monks in monasteries"112 or "Do not kill the people who are sitting in places of worship."113
As shown in the hadiths, Muslims must struggle in conformity with the Qur'an. In other words, their struggle must be just, tolerant, and free of extremism. Indeed, God encourages moderation: "God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just" (Qur'an, 2:190). Muslims should oppose both tyranny and barbarism, and the unnecessary use of violence. Another verse reports that they must always be on the side of peace and compromise:
If they incline to peace, you too incline to it and put your trust in God. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Qur'an, 8:61)
MILLIYET-TurkishDaily, 3.12.01BLOODSHED IN ISRAEL
GOZCU-Turkish Daily, 3.2.02SUICIDE BOMB HORROR IN JERUSALEM
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 28.1.02JERUSALEM ROCKED BY NEW SUICIDE ATTACK Just as Muslims condemn the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, so do they condemn the killing of innocent Israeli civilians.
The subject of Israel and the Jews must be evaluated in the light of these basic principles. Muslims who live in accordance with the Qur'an also must have an unbiased view of the Jews.
As emphasized earlier, Jews believe in God's Oneness and follow a religion God revealed through His messengers. Moreover, the Qur'an refers to them as People of the Book. They embrace many values, based on God's revelation, as well as the concepts of sin, haram (prohibited) and halal (allowed). In the Qur'an, one can see that there was a friendly relationship between Muslims and the People of the Book. For this reason, if one of the People of the Book cooks some food, Muslims can eat it and vice-versa, and Muslim men can marry their women. These commands show that warm neighborly and even family ties can be established among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and that they can accept each other's invitations. Another verse calls for the two groups to unite, based upon a common word for belief (Qur'an, 3:64).
For these reasons, Muslim communities historically have behaved moderately and tolerantly toward the People of the Book. This situation is especially evident in the Ottoman Empire, which accepted the Jews exiled by Catholic Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and allowed them to live peacefully in the empire.
Justice and moderation also should be shown toward followers of non-monotheistic faiths and toward those with no faith at all, both of which are far more distant to Muslims. The Qur'an demands that a distinction be made among those who do not believe, those who do not recognize God and religion, and those who are enemies of religion. Those who do not show hostility must be treated with kindness:
God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just toward them. God loves those who are just. God merely forbids you from taking as friends those who have fought you in the religion and driven you from your homes and who supported your expulsion. Any who take them as friends are wrongdoers. (Qur'an, 60:8-9)
Simply put, Muslims who are sincere in their religion, obey God, and respect the Qur'an can neither nurture animosity toward Jews just because of their religion and beliefs, nor treat them with hostility just because they are Jews. Likewise, Muslims cannot accuse all Israeli civilians just because their governement follows a policy of occupation and oppression. (Indeed, there are many Israelis who oppose the occupation.) Thus, it is necessary to avoid fanaticism while struggling against Zionist Israel and to oppose all of its unjust practices and violence with the justice and moderation required by the Qur'an's moral values.
Islam Forbids Suicide
When discussing attacks on Israeli citizens, the Islamic view of suicide also must be examined. Some people are gravely misinformed about Islam, believing that this religion of peace permits suicide bombings; nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Islam forbids a Muslim from taking his or her life, just as it forbids taking somebody else's life. God explicitly condemns suicide: "do not kill yourselves" (Qur'an, 4:29), regardless of the reason. The Prophet also told his Companions that suicide leads one to eternal damnation:
Whoever purposely throws himself from a mountain and kills himself will be in the (Hell) Fire falling down into it and abiding therein perpetually forever. Whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it, he will be carrying his poison in his hand and drinking it in the (Hell) Fire, wherein he will abide eternally forever. Whoever kills himself with an iron weapon will be carrying that weapon in his hand and stabbing his abdomen with it in the (Hell) Fire, wherein he will abide eternally forever.114
As explained in the hadith, committing suicide and engaging in suicide bombings - not to mention killing innocent people thereby - violates the Qur'an's ethics. Every Muslim should condemn these incidents, which cast a pall upon the Palestinians' just cause.
It must not be forgotten that those who compel Palestinian youths to engage in such unjust and irrational behavior are also pulling Israeli and Palestinian youths into an endless cycle of bloodshed and retribution. These ongoing suicide bombings destroy these young people's futures and that of the land itself. The young people who strap on explosives and detonate them among civilians are being destroyed on a road that will never lead to success. This practice harms innocent people on both sides, and is making the current conflict even more hopeless. In order for both peoples to have a future, this ongoing violence must be stopped immediately.
In an article published in the February 3, 2002 edition of The New York Times, PLO leader Yasser Arafat strongly condemned these attacks, stating that no attack on civilians, whatever the excuse, will be tolerated:
But first, let me be very clear. I condemn the attacks carried out by terrorist groups against Israeli civilians. These groups do not represent the Palestinian people or their legitimate aspirations for freedom… The Palestinian vision of peace is an independent and viable Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, living as an equal neighbor alongside Israel with peace and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples… But no degree of oppression and no level of desperation can ever justify the killing of innocent civilians. I condemn terrorism. I condemn the killing of innocent civilians, whether they are Israeli, American or Palestinian; whether they are killed by Palestinian extremists, Israeli settlers, or by Israeli government… Despite the brutal repression of Palestinians over the last four decades, I believe when Israel sees Palestinians as equals, and not as a subjugated people upon whom it can impose its will, such a vision can come true. Indeed it must.115
Islamic Scholars' Interpretations of the Subject
On the subject of suicide attacks aimed at Israeli civilian targets, the views of various Islamic scholars are further proof that these attacks are indefensible. Heading the list of these scholars is Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, the grand imam at the famous Al-Ahzar University. Tantawi's views are greatly respected in all the Islamic world, and when asked what he thought about the suicide attacks, he replied:
I am against those who say that attacking women, children, or any other civilians is permitted, just because the children may grow up to serve in the army. This is ridiculous, ugly talk that is totally rejected. And it totally contradicts the recommendations of the Prophet. Aggression against honest people is completely prohibited by Islamic law.116
STAR, 11.3.02 1) ISRAEL KEEPS UP THE PRESSURE WITH ROCKET ATTACK ON CAMPS. 45 PALESTINIANS DIE.2) 11 YOUNG ISRAELIS KILLED AS A RESULT OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN A CAFE THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY. Violence and cruelty, whomever they are directed against, must be condemned. Palestine should be a place where people of all ethnicities and religions can live in peace and security. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians should be allowed to suffer and weep. The most sensible way to stop the bloodshed is to form an alliance among those who support peace.
In another address, Tantawi stated that bombers who detonate explosives among civilians are not fighting a true war. Another man of religion who expresses similar views is Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh. His words "(it) is a form of suicide, and therefore condemned," are an expression of the fact that such attacks are incompatible with Islam.
Dr. Zaki Badawi, dean of London's Muslim College, is another of those scholars who declare suicide attacks to be incompatible with Islam. Dr. Badawi has stated that although the conditions the Palestinian people find themselves in are unacceptable, it is still not permissible to attack civilian targets in the face of this cruelty:
I personally think they are wrong in their understanding of Islam and I think that it is terrible to commit a crime against innocent people because this is against Muslim law.117
The fact that attacking civilians is totally incompatible with Islamic values has been reiterated many times by a great many Muslim clergymen. One fatwa (formal legal opinion), issued on September 27, 2001, and signed by a large number of men of religion, contained the following expression, "In the eyes of Islam, those who engaged in the terrorist attacks committed the crime of 'hirabah'." Some of the men of religion who signed the fatwa are:
Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Grand Islamic Scholar and Chairman of the Sunnah and Sira Council, Qatar
Judge Tariq al-Bishri, First Deputy President of the Council of preachers, Egypt
Dr. Muhammad s. al-Awa, Professor of Islamic Law and Shari'a, Egypt
Dr. Haytham al-Khayyat, Islamic scholar, Syria
Shaykh Fahmi Houaydi, Islamic scholar, Egypt
Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, Chairman, North America High Council
The Solution Is the Implementation of Qur'anic Ethics
As we emphasized in the previous section, the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation must be totally consistent with the Qur'an's values. Any mode of struggle outside of this value system - for example, the guerilla tactics envisaged by communist ideology - is not correct and cannot succeed. For this reason, the current situation must be evaluated sensibly and realistically, and a new strategy consistent with Qur'anic values must be devised.
The two groups are battling on an unequal footing. The Israeli military has a strong technological infrastructure and is one of the most advanced and powerful in the world. Their air force gives them immense advantage over the Palestinians, for it allows them to bomb the Palestinian territories without incurring any losses whatsoever. Palestine, on the other hand, does not have a regular, organized army. Its existing security forces lack technology and military equipment. Without an air force, the Palestinians are virtually helpless in the face of Israeli bombings runs. A handful of teenagers and children armed with nothing but clubs and rocks constitutes the thrust of the Palestinian offensive. It is likely that such an unequal struggle will end in Israel's favor. Thus the Palestinian struggle can succeed only if the armed struggle is transferred to the ideological sphere and with the support of a powerful education campaign. For this, the Palestinians need a strong team of educated and cultured individuals who are aware of legal, diplomatic, and international policies, and who conduct themselves according to the ethics of the Qur'an.
Jews and Muslims believe in the same God. God commands all people to treat each other with love and peace. Only if people practice the morality prescribed in the Qur'an can permanent peace prevail in the region.
Of course there are a great many highly cultured, open-minded intellectuals among the Palestinian people. The important thing is the work these intellectuals will engage in to raise the consciousness of the young, turn them in the right direction and defend the Palestinian cause before the people of the world. This work could play an important role in raising the Palestinians' awareness of true Islamic ethics, raising the level of education, and helping them to explain their just cause to the world. At present a very different picture of the justified Palestinian struggle is being presented to the world, a picture totally at variance with the truth. The Palestinian cause is suffering serious damage on account of the irrational attacks, incompatible with Islamic values, being carried out by a few fanatics or subversive groups who oppose peace with violence. In the same way that this harm is expressed by many intellectuals, it is also described by commentators in various countries, including Turkey. The daily Zaman writer Kerim Balci, who lives in Palestine, drew attention to this in one of his articles:
Not only are the suicide attacks a violation of fundamental Islamic values, they also damage the Palestinian cause. Not just me, but rational thinking Palestinians say the same thing … The Palestinian cause is a problem of the whole Islamic world. Those at the head of this movement cannot act in the light of their own personal interests, out of a desire for revenge and a concern over honor and pride. The militants who kill innocent Jewish children in Palestine may well believe they are serving Islam. Yet all their actions do is to make things much more difficult for those people who are trying to repair the damage done to the Muslim image all over the world … It is blatantly evident that attacks of this kind benefit Israel much more than Palestine.118
God commands you to return to their owners the things you hold on trust and, when you judge between people, to judge with justice. How excellent is what God exhorts you to do! God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Qur'an, 4:58)
There are even those Palestinians who, ignorant of the true Qur'anic morality, may participate in these provocations without realizing the nature of what they are doing. The good intentions of young people who want to contribute to the Palestinian cause and are willing to sacrifice themselves are being exploited. And, because the method pursued is incompatible with the values of the Qur'an, success is never achieved.
Given this, a great education force must be mobilized and spread among all Palestinians, particularly the young ones, to stamp out this ignorance and fanaticism and to teach them the true values of the Qur'an. Schools, universities, and mass education campaigns can help to raise their awareness and will be the greatest possible contribution to their cause. We say this because when these people recognize the true Islam described in the Qur'an, when they learn that Islam is a religion of peace and reconciliation, when they comprehend world politics with the consciousness brought by the Qur'an, they will understand that suicide bombings and killing innocent people in cafeterias or on buses are not only wrong, but are not a solution. It is far easier to reach a solution through tolerance and reconciliation, rational policies, a worldwide diplomatic initiative, and an intellectual struggle that is consistent with the Qur'an's moral values.
The many wars of the twentieth century, as well as the numerous incidents that have inaugurated the twenty-first century, clearly show that violence cannot undo violence, and that brutality cannot undo brutality. The only way to stop violence is for the virtues of the Qur'an's ethics - humility, tolerance, reconciliation, and rationality - to prevail upon people's thoughts and actions, and on the entire world.
Conclusion
What we wish for, along with all rational and fair people, is the immediate establishment of a state of peace and security in Palestine that will satisfy both sides. But such a peace, if it denies the rights of an innocent people and condemns them to a life of hunger and destitution, would be one-sided indeed. More importantly, such a peace would be illusory, because it would not create content and security; on the contrary, it would engender strife and chaos. An environment that satisifies both sides will prevail only if the proposed peace plan ensures the complete preservation of justice, equality, and human rights.
A demonstration in which a coffin represents every Israeli and Palestinian citizen killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada shows once again the brutality of this war. People continued to die even as this demonstration was taking place. The old woman sitting on the bench in this photograph has just learned that several of her relatives have been killed. During several historical periods, Jews, Christians, and Musims have lived together peacefully in Palestine. It is possible to achieve such a peace again.Everyone should be able to stroll in safety and peace on the streets of the Holy Lands.
The requirements for such a peace are that Israel withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967; that East Jerusalem be made an open city for all communities, but under Palestinian control; that the Palestinian Authority be recognized as an independent government; and that the Palestinians driven from their lands be given the right to return. In fact, UN Resolutions 242 and 338 call for these conditions to be met. With the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinians agreed to concede 78% of their land to the Israeli government. Their demands now consist of trying to continue their rights to exist on the remaining 22%. Although both sides agreed that an independent Palestinian state would be formed by 1999, subsequent developments have resulted in an even more oppressive Israeli policy. Israel continues to violate UN decrees by building new settlements, driving Palestinians out of areas where they live, and restricting their freedom of movement. The mentality of both Israeli and Palestinian radicals will have to change before a permanent peace can be realized.
Clearly, the current Israeli administration cannot provide peace, because at its heart is a racist ideology that regards Palestinians as "two-legged animals." Extremist Palestinian groups that endorse violence constitute another important obstacle. In this predicament, people with conscience and common sense must emerge from both sides and work together with the support of all people who support justice, equality, and peace. Only then will Palestine become a land in which people of every race and religion can live together in peace and harmony.
The web page of American Rabbi Michael Learner's Tikkun magazine. Rabbi Learner insists that events in Palestine must not be left to the initiative of radicals on either side.
The people who can bring peace to land of Palestine and then to the whole Middle East are the ones that understand that all people, regardless of race, are equal servants of God, and must be able to judge people and nations only according to their moral values. These are sincere, God-fearing people, because this is the attitude God commands. The core of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is love and brotherhood. This alliance of people who believe in God and preserve His boundaries will bring peace and stability not only to Palestine, but to many other troubled areas in the world as well.
ISRAEL MUST WITHDRAW FROM THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES During the 1967 War, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This occupation continues. Two basic conditions for peace in the Middle East are that Israel withdraw from the Occupied Territories and that the Palestinians regain their lands. With the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority agreed to take only 22% of its historical land and gave the remaining 78% to Israel. Somehow Israel continues its presence on Palestinian lands and continues to open new settlements there.
And there are reasons for hope for this. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of Jews and Christians engaged in promoting peace in the Middle East. For example, Rabbi Michael Learner, editor of the American magazine Tikkun, is a famous religious leader known for his moderate views. He argues that the Israeli occupation is unethical, keeps the Palestinians suppressed, and damages the Jewish faith. He believes that bringing peace to the Middle East would be quite simple if events were taken out of the control of radical groups and determined by the collaboration of moderates. Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks criticizes Israeli policies and urges moderation. Rabbis for Human Rights, a pro-peace initiative, propagates the true ideals of Judaism, such as compassion and generosity.
Some members of the Christian clergy are working for peace in the Middle East, particularly among those living in Jerusalem. For example, Patriarch Michel Sabbah said in a Bethlehem speech on December 31, 2001, that "peace means justice to the Palestinians, justice is end of the occupation. And end of the occupation and justice are security for Israelis,"119 and criticized Ariel Sharon for resorting to violence.
This situation places a great responsibility upon Muslims as well, who must approach this subject with common sense and a sense of justice. Many verses emphasize the importance of justice, for the Qur'an commands Muslims to treat even their enemies fairly, as we read in: "... Let not the hatred of a people (who once) obstructed you from the Sacred Mosque lead you to transgress..." (Qur'an, 5:2), God demands that they behave justly even toward the idolators against whom they are fighting. The command is repeated in another verse:
O you who believe, show integrity for the sake of God, bearing witness with justice. Do not let hatred for a people incite you into not being just. Be just, for that is closer to heedfulness. Have fear of God. God is aware of what you do. (Qur'an, 5:8)
The only way for peace to come to the Middle East is to have administrations that act according to the principles described in the Qur'an and Torah, on the Muslim and Jewish sides, respectively. Such administrations should be able to create a model for people of all races and religions to live together, rather than to take over the land and try to drive away its inhabitants. In short, it must act as guardians of the land. Palestine territories are broad enough for Muslims, Jews, and Christians to live together, and the lands are fertile enough for all of them to live comfortably. For any one party to claim an exclusive right to Palestine not only contradicts the facts of history, but also leads to continuous strife and war, as recent history has shown. In this land, which is considered sacred to members of the three monotheistic religions, everyone should be able to worship as they please: Jews in their synagogues, Muslims in their mosques, and Christians in their churches. They should be able to observe and pass down their traditions, as well as to create a common life together based upon mutual respect. Material resources should be dedicated to schools, universities, and hospitals, rather than to weapons and bombs.
THE ISRAEL'S PEACE GAME
The Oslo Accords signed in 1993 started a new page in Middle Eastern history. PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, in the presence of US President Bill Clinton, posed for journalists, shook hands, and brought Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to fruition with a concrete agreement. By signing the Oslo Accords, the two sides recognized each other for the first time in history and made the first bilateral agreement.
After signing this agreement, the idea that peace might finally be possible began to take hold throughout the world. It was widely accepted that the Arab-Israeli dispute finally would be resolved permanently, and that peace would bring welfare and happiness to the Middle East. Shimon Peres, the second-in-command in Israel, wrote a book entitled The New Middle East, which described the happy scene in question. It promptly became a bestseller. Israel's appearance of "waging peace" seemed to have convinced almost everyone.
However, our book The New Masonic Order, first published in February 1996, described how this appearance did not reflect reality, how Israel's peace was really a "phony peace." We explained that by negotiating with the PLO, Israel merely wanted to exacerbate the conflict between it and Hamas, that Israel really had no intention of withdrawing from the Occupied Territories, and that it was merely using peace as a "tactical maneuver." (See Harun Yahya, The New Masonic Order, Istanbul, 1996, pp. 508-520.)
Peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine have never yielded results, because Israel will not compromise.
The 6 years following the publication of this book have proved this view correct. The entire world now understands that the "peaceful Israel" of the mid-1990s was not realistic, and that Israel has continued its politics of occupation. The phony peace process initiated by Israel to end the Intifada only led to another one when Israel continued its oppressive and aggressive policies. After all of the fake peace scenarios, the election of Ariel Sharon, "The Butcher of Lebanon," as prime minister demonstrated that the Zionists had decided to continue their policy of occupation and cruelty rather than peace. This reality was sufficiently clear proof that Israel's peace offer was not genuine.
Without a doubt, the replacement of peace by renewed conflict is a deplorable turn of events. What we hope for, of course, is the assurance of peace and security in the Middle East. But it must be a just peace. Israel wants to impose an unfair peace that does not entail withdrawing from the Occupied Territories and that compels Muslims to accept the status quo. The reason for this is the Zionist ideology, from which many Israelis have been unwilling to free themselves.
The conditions that are necessary for a just peace in Palestine include the following: Israel must withdraw from the Occupied Territories, refugees must be allowed to return to their homes, Palestinians being held in Israeli jails must be tried by due process, and the final status of Jerusalem must be determined. Israel continues to insist upon its own views on all of these issues and refuses to make concessions. The reason is Zionist ideology.
As long as Israel does not abandon Zionism, it will remain unconcerned with human rights and justice. For this reason, all of its plans for Palestinians will be unjust. For Zionist Israel, "peace" means nothing more than a "strategic ceasefire" within a larger war. When we go back and take a look at the period beginning with the 1993 Peace Accords, we find this fact confirmed.
The Origin of the Israel-PLO Peace
The long history of conflict between Israel and Palestine is known to everyone. Ever since the turn of the twentieth century, the Middle East has been the scene of clashes between indigenous Muslim and Christian Arabs and Jews, the vast majority of whom had not been born in Palestine. After the establishment of Israel in 1948, these clashes turned into outright wars. By 1967, there had been four major wars and one permanent state of war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. After 1967, organizations working to liberate Palestine also began to make their presence felt.
The Palestinian resistance appeared in force when Israel occupied all Palestinian land in 1967. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a resistance movement formed by unifying several groups, increased its activities substantially during the 1970s. Until the 1980s, it played the leading role in the Palestinian people's struggle. The rise of Islamic movements during the 1980s had a grave impact upon this organization, which had survived largely through the support of leftists, socialist Arab governments, and the Soviet Union. Islamic groups, particularly those organizing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, became the standard-bearers of the Intifada in 1987 and led this uprising. By the 1990s, their strength rivaled that of the PLO. There is no doubt that this development led Israel to change tactics, to deal with this new Islamic movement unifying under a common identity, rather than with the PLO, which had lost the material support of the now-defunct Soviet bloc, and with it most of its power.
Israel decided to make a strategic change, rather than deal with these two threats at the same time. The most clever thing to do was to recognize the PLO as the official representative of the Palestinian cause, and then play the PLO card against the other Palestinian forces. Of course this meant that Israel would have to put a temporary halt to its years-long policy of aggression, if only just for show. This is the context in which Israel and the PLO began the peace process during the early 1990s.
The "Peace for War" Theory
Retreating in order to make a more powerful move later is one of the more refined political strategies. Israel knows how to apply such a "strategic withdrawal" when necessary. One example occurred 3 years after it signed the Camp David Accords with Egypt. Israeli units invaded Lebanon in the summer of 1982, under the orders of Camp David signatory Menachem Begin, shocking those who had believed in the fairy tale of the Middle East peace process. The massacres that occurred in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps once again demonstrated what Israel really meant by peace. These events proved that Israel had not signed the Camp David Accords because it wanted peace in the Middle East; rather, it had merely sought to remove an obstacle (Egypt) so that it could concentrate on more important goals.
Three years after the Camp David agreement between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left) and Israeli President Menachem Begin (right), Lebanon was invaded.
So the 1992 peace process was just another "strategic withdrawal," a camouflaged post-modern war tactic. This did not escape the notice of those experts and intellectuals who were following the peace process closely. Edward Said, one of these experts, warned the PLO near the beginning of the peace talks that they had forgotten that they were dealing with a "nation of Talmudists." (Talmudist: strongly bound to the Talmud, the Jewish Holy Book.) According to Said, the Israelis could be preparing a trap behind every word and every comma of these peace talks.120
I.SOCIALIST REVIEW, 6-7.01An interview with famous Middle East expert Edward Said in International Socialist Review carries the banner "What They Want Is My Silence."
Israel's leaders and governments have changed frequently, but the occupations, attacks, and bombardments have continued uninterrupted. (from left to right) Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon.
With their first peace offer, which promised Palestinians the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Israeli government was planning to put down the Palestinian resistance. This plan was really a trap. Likewise, the regions put under Palestinian control by the Oslo Accords amounted to about 22% of all Palestinian lands. Moreover, by putting the Gaza Strip, a stronghold of the Islamic movement, under Palestinian control, Israel freed itself of the need to deal with these resistance groups. Under the agreement, Palestinian security forces would have to deal with such resistance groups directly. Israel lost nothing in the bargain - on the contrary, it proved to be a most profitable transaction. In fact, the agreements that followed Oslo helped Israel "cleanse" Jerusalem of Christians and Muslims.
It was certainly no coincidence that settlement construction near Jerusalem picked up speed immediately after signing the Oslo Accords. These developments were simply the result of an expertly devised strategy, each step of which had been carefully thought out in advance.
SUPERFICIAL ATTEMPTS AT COMPROMISE: THE MITCHELL REPORT
George Mitchell, head of the Mitchell Commission.
Tension in the Middle East reached the breaking point with the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada, which led international circles to attempt new peace initiatives. The Mitchell Report, the one that gathered the most attention and was presented by a delegation led by former Senator George Mitchell, examined the problem at the source and presented its suggestions. Its main goal was to determine the basic reasons for the Israeli-Palestinian tensions and to suggest how to prevent such conflict in the future. Although the report was no less than 8 months in the making, it did not produce the desired result. Just like so many other earlier Middle East peace initiatives, the Mitchell Report was an artificial stopgap measure, rather than a genuine attempt at lasting peace.
Of course the Mitchell Report contained material intended to please both sides. Where it was most sorely lacking, however, was in its failure to address the real problem and its lack of sincere suggestions or sanctions. While stating that Israel had used excessive violence, it also accused Yasser Arafat of sabotaging the Oslo Accords and failed to identify the real criminal and the real victim. Committee members, insisting that they were not a court of law, did not mention the continuing Israeli terror or the recent massacres. When the report is analyzed in detail, it is clear that when the committee members said that they "would not judge anyone," what they really meant was that they "would not reach any firm decision against Israel." Middle East expert Daniel Pipes explains the report's "supposedly" neutral attitude by saying: "Had the Mitchell committee been asked to assess the outbreak of World War II, it would likely have regretted Hitler's crossing of the Polish border but balanced this with tsk-tsking about "provocative" statements coming from Warsaw."1
Before the report had even been published, the commentary of a senior Israeli official published in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz provided important clues as to whether it would really result in a just peace. This official reported that the report would probably accuse the Palestinians of sabotaging the peace negotiations and the Israelis ofpracticing excessive violence and continuing to open new settlement areas. But even more important was his remark that "[Israel] will be able to deal with the general complaints - like criticism of settlements or the use of force - … but will have a more difficult time dealing with any operative recommendations the report makes. This could include a call for an international observer force along the lines of the International Presence in Hebron."2 Another Israeli official caused a stir with these comments:
We insist the commission stick to its mandate … that means clarifying the facts and not going beyond that. We will not let the report turn into a platform for the conflict to be internationalized with posting international observers.3
When the report was released, it contained no "specific directives," just as Israel had desired. By making only general criticisms, the report conformed completely to Israel's wishes. Indeed, despite the passage of time since the report's publication, the fact that Israeli tanks continue to pound Palestinian territory demonstrates just how successful the report has been in bringing peace to the region.
The only way to ensure a permanent peace is to adopt a truly unbiased attitude and to protect the rights of the wronged party, no matter what the conditions. In terms of Palestine, it is quite obvious which party has been wronged and needs to have its rights protected. Before everything else, Israel must withdraw from the Occupied Territories and return to the Palestinians all of the rights that it has denied them. This fact is often brought to the agenda by Israelis who demand peace. Here is the announcement of the "Now Peace" movement:
Right now we find ourselves in the middle of a Palestinian independence war. This ruthless and unnecessary war began because of Israel's 1967 forced occupation of Palestinian lands, the suppression of two million people through this occupation, and Israel's desire to continue this occupation. There can only be one end to this war: the withdrawal of Israel form the occupied territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. The end of the occupation and the raids could usher in a period of peace in this region."4
As long as these conditions are not met, all of the peace negotiations and suggestions for compromise will fail to reach their target. As long as Israel does not forsake violence, diplomatic efforts will mean nothing. After all, in Palestine the sounds of cannons, tanks, and missiles carry farther than those of diplomacy.
Ariel Sharon Prepares for War
A news report obtained from the well-known defense strategy magazine Jane's Defense Weekly in the latter part of July 2001 demonstrated once again just how Sharon was planning to bring peace to Palestinian territories. According to this report, the Israeli military was preparing a war plan that would involve 30,000 troops, F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft, intense bombing, and heavy artillery. The goal of the operation would be to eliminate the possibility that Palestinian forces could ever assemble again.
The most interesting part of the plan was how it was to be brought to life, as reported by CBS News. The Israeli government had devised a plan worthy of its ideology and its past: The war was to be set off by a suicide bombing against a heavily populated Jewish area. Such a plan is interesting in that it shows Israel's willingness to disregard the lives of its own people, if necessary, to achieve its Zionist goals. This information was reported by CBS:
The report says the Israeli invasion plan would be launched after another suicide bomb attack which causes a large number of deaths, like the one at a Tel Aviv disco last month.5
With this report, and Sharon's rise to power, it was expected that regional tension would increase dramatically, and that Israel would withdraw from the peace process completely and increase its use of force. By electing "The Butcher of Lebanon" as their leader, the Zionists gave the first signals that such a war was coming. The Palestinian side had expected such a situation. With Sharon in power, the possibility that an all-out war will break out is a possibility that must not be ignored.
While this war might be a partial operation aimed at the PLO, it could turn into a regional war, dragging in neighboring countries. Of course, the world will not see the real face of this war, but, as always, only the face that it wants the world to see. An article in The Independent reads:
I suppose it's the same old story. The Israelis only want peace. The unruly, riotous, murderous Palestinians - totally to blame for 95 of their own deaths - understand only violence. That's what Israeli's military spokesman said last night. Force, he said, "will be the only language they understand". Which is about as near to a declaration of war as you can get.6
1- Daniel Pipes, Mitchell Report Missed It, The Washington Times, 30 May 20012- Aluf Benn, Israel Braces for Mitchell Report, Ha'aretz, 24 April 20013- Aluf Benn, Israel Braces for Mitchell Report, Ha'aretz, 24 April 20014- Yeni Safak Turkish Daily, 25 May 20015- CBS, 12 July 20016- The Independent, 13 October 2001
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 22.7.01WAR AT THE GATES
MILLIYET-Turkish Daily. 14.7.01ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION PLAN
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 19.5.01ISRAEL NOW ATTACKING WITH F-16S
AKSAM-Turkish Daily, 30.3.01WAR AT THE GATES
How Fair Was Oslo?
As we reported earlier, the 1993 Oslo Accords were greeted with enthusiasm by the Western media and by some groups who wanted peace in the Middle East. However, the years following that event have not justified their enthusiasm. The Western media followed a pro-Israel stance on the issue of peace, just as it had on so many other issues. The Palestinians were accused of not supporting peace, even though some of their demands were justified, and portrayed as callously rejecting the opportunity Israel was offering them to achieve "statehood."
But the facts were otherwise, for Israel did not offer them what they deserved. In reality, Israel offered Palestine hush-money not to stand in its way.
First, and most importantly, the land that Israel agreed to give the Palestinians parcels of land that amounted to less than 22% of true Palestinian territory, were surrounded by Israeli soldiers, and were separated from each other by roads that only Jews could use. Another detail that must not be forgotten is that the land was barren desert land. Moreover, the borders, airspace, and groundwater of the "independent Palestinian state" were to be under Israeli control.
Some circles regarded Israel's division of Palestinian areas into three main regions (i.e., A, B, and C) as a significant concession. According to this example, though, while one Jerusalem street would be placed under the control of Palestinian police, the next street over would be controlled by Israeli soldiers. As a result, Israelis would be able cross over to this street, thus bringing the Israeli military into Palestinian territory, just as it does today in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank whenever it wants. One cannot speak of a sovereign Palestinian state in such a situation.
Israel's suggestion of putting part of Jerusalem under Palestinian control also was nothing but a hoax. As with many of its other concerns, Israel is only interested in manipulating Palestinians to its own benefit. Robert Fisk mentions this fact in one of his articles:
And the Palestinian Authority knows all too well what "control" would mean in Jerusalem. While Arafat's men collected garbage, supplied the traffic cops and kept their own people in order, the Israelis would continue to hold sovereign power over all Jerusalem.121
Aside from this, the Oslo Accords did not give the Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes and land due to the Israeli terror of 1948 the right to return. It is impossible to solve the Palestine problem without allowing the refugees to return.
In conclusion, the "peaceful Israel" façade that began in the 1990s and revealed its falsity in 2000 clearly does not reflect the real truth. As long as Israel views Jerusalem and all Palestinian land as its own property, perceives Palestinians as "two-legged animals," and regards the world through the biased lense of Social Darwinism, it cannot bring peace to the Middle East.
The True Road to Peace
The question of how peace, one that is fair and just, can be brought to the Middle East can be answered by looking at history.
As discussed earlier, the only administration that ever enabled Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live together in peace and security in Palestine was an Islamic administration: that of the Ottoman Empire. The reason for this is that true Islamic ideals do not harbor any brutal ideologies like Zionism or the one that caused the Crusades. A true follower of Islam would not look at the world through the prism of Social Darwinism, as Zionists do. Also Islam teaches believers that any anger that they might harbor toward a community should not drag them into injustice. Moreover, Islam regards Jews and Christians as the People of the Book and respects their right to live, worship, and own property.
For this reason, strengthening the Middle Eastern as well as the global Muslim community will bring peace and security not only to the Islamic world, but to other nations and people of other faiths as well. Throughout history, fair and just Muslim administrations have earned the consent of non-Muslims, and will do so in the future as well. Muslims will never abandon Jerusalem or accept this holy city as the "Eternal Capital of Israel." The most sensible solution, then, is for East Jerusalem to be administered by a Palestinian governing body, but under the direction of a board in which members of all three religions are equally represented, as a disarmed and free city. Of course, these administrators must live and practice the ethics of their respective religions. In such a Jerusalem, Christians and Jews would be free, as well as Muslims. This plan holds the key to the real salvation of Palestine and the Middle East.
The environment of peace, justice, and tolerance experienced during the centuries of Ottoman rule is the best example of this. Since the end of Ottoman rule in the area, and despite the various regimes and policies that have been attempted, the Middle East has not experienced any peace and stability.
The above map's colored areas show the farthest reaches of the Ottoman Empire. For 600 years, the Ottoman Empire brought order to three continents and provided an example to all world governments with its justice, tolerance, and compassion.
TRACES OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Bâb es Silsileh Fountain, 943/1536
Golden Gate, 944/1537
Damascus Gate 944/1537
Damascus Gate
Bab el Cedid, 944/1537
David's Tower The Ottoman Empire brought civilization to every country that it conquered, building new masterpieces and repairing old ones.
This map shows Palestine during the Ottoman period. Investments made in Palestine during this period improved the quality of life in the region considerably. The Ottoman experience of peacefully bringing together people of many ethnicities and religions on this soil is a very important example.
AFTERWORD
The facts that we have examined here reveal that Israel's basic goal is to besiege the Palestinians in every possible way and to make their lives unbearable so that they will abandon their struggle for their land and go somewhere else. Israeli leaders such as Ben Gurion, Begin, Shamir, Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon have all followed the same ideology: aggressive and invasive Zionism. The greatest obstacle to realizing the Zionist dream is the Palestinian people.
The drive to realize this dream has resulted in a great genocide that has been ongoing in Palestine for half a century and has sentenced a people to destruction. They have lost everything: their homes, gardens, and land. And a new nation-state, one whose ideology is based upon terror and anarchy, was built upon their former land. Where Palestinian homes and farms once existed, there are now Israeli factories, buildings, hotels, and shopping malls. But the Israeli state has not stopped there, for as history shows, it still refuses to leave the Palestinians in peace on the lands to which they have been exiled.
The Palestinians, unable to meet even their basic and essential needs, are subjected to constant torture and inhumane treatment. Besieged economically, they are given no opportunity to stand on their own two feet. In areas where fishing is the main source of income, fishing has been forbidden; in areas where fruit exports are the main source of employment, exports are restricted. As a result, Palestinians have no choice but to work as half-slaves for minimum wage in Israeli factories.
God commands justice, doing good, and giving to relatives. He forbids indecency, doing wrong, and tyranny. He warns you so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Qur'an, 16:90)
Young people with no weapons but rocks and slingshots meet with live gunfire in response to their rocks. Most of the injured are shot in the head, chest, and back. Moreover, Israeli soldiers follow a ruthless policy of destruction toward the entire civilian population. For example, a father returning home with a loaf of bread is shot for no reason in front of his children and pregnant wife. Women working in the fields are fired upon by helicopters, but no reason is ever offered. Children returning from school are fired on by Israeli tanks and lose their lives as a result. Most of the people die from their injuries, because Israeli soldiers either will not allow an ambulance to reach the injured person or to reach the hospital.
It is the responsibility of all people of conscience to ensure that both Israeli and Palestinian children can look forward to a life full of peace and hope.
News of casualties comes continually from Palestine. While you read these lines, another Palestinian child might be getting shot; more innocent women, children, and elderly may be losing their lives. In such a situation, no true Muslim can merely stand and watch all that is happening and ask: "What can I possibly do?" No person of conscience can possibly justify remaining insensitive to such a terrible human tragedy. Indeed, every Muslim must make an effort to say "stop!" to this cruelty within the context of his or her own environment.
Not only in Palestine, but throughout the world, the greatest service that can be offered to help oppressed Muslims is to oppose the belligerent, racist, fascist, and social Darwinistic ideologies that underpin this cruelty and brutality.
While Muslims all over the world are kept "under fire" by the oppression and torture of anti-Islamic forces, those who are not have certain responsibilities: to bring the voice of these oppressed Muslims to the world, expose the oppressive centers of power, attack the ideological roots of these forces, continue to strengthen and spread Islam, and neutralize all anti-Islamic propaganda through an intellectual struggle. Every Muslim who is killed, wounded, and tyrannized in Palestine should remind us of these duties once again. When Muslims fulfill these duties, all anti-Islamic ideologies and systems will completely collapse, for in accordance with God's word: "Say: 'Truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Falsehood is always bound to vanish'" (Qur'an, 17:81). As justice prevails, the disappearance of false systems is inevitable.
In order to ensure a bright future for Israeli and Palestinian children, they must be raised in a peaceful and secure environment, and kept far from clashes and conflict. All children are entitled to a beautiful and bright future.
The facts that we have examined here reveal that Israel's basic goal is to besiege the Palestinians in every possible way and to make their lives unbearable so that they will abandon their struggle for their land and go somewhere else. Israeli leaders such as Ben Gurion, Begin, Shamir, Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon have all followed the same ideology: aggressive and invasive Zionism. The greatest obstacle to realizing the Zionist dream is the Palestinian people.
The drive to realize this dream has resulted in a great genocide that has been ongoing in Palestine for half a century and has sentenced a people to destruction. They have lost everything: their homes, gardens, and land. And a new nation-state, one whose ideology is based upon terror and anarchy, was built upon their former land. Where Palestinian homes and farms once existed, there are now Israeli factories, buildings, hotels, and shopping malls. But the Israeli state has not stopped there, for as history shows, it still refuses to leave the Palestinians in peace on the lands to which they have been exiled.
The Palestinians, unable to meet even their basic and essential needs, are subjected to constant torture and inhumane treatment. Besieged economically, they are given no opportunity to stand on their own two feet. In areas where fishing is the main source of income, fishing has been forbidden; in areas where fruit exports are the main source of employment, exports are restricted. As a result, Palestinians have no choice but to work as half-slaves for minimum wage in Israeli factories.
God commands justice, doing good, and giving to relatives. He forbids indecency, doing wrong, and tyranny. He warns you so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Qur'an, 16:90)
Young people with no weapons but rocks and slingshots meet with live gunfire in response to their rocks. Most of the injured are shot in the head, chest, and back. Moreover, Israeli soldiers follow a ruthless policy of destruction toward the entire civilian population. For example, a father returning home with a loaf of bread is shot for no reason in front of his children and pregnant wife. Women working in the fields are fired upon by helicopters, but no reason is ever offered. Children returning from school are fired on by Israeli tanks and lose their lives as a result. Most of the people die from their injuries, because Israeli soldiers either will not allow an ambulance to reach the injured person or to reach the hospital.
It is the responsibility of all people of conscience to ensure that both Israeli and Palestinian children can look forward to a life full of peace and hope.
News of casualties comes continually from Palestine. While you read these lines, another Palestinian child might be getting shot; more innocent women, children, and elderly may be losing their lives. In such a situation, no true Muslim can merely stand and watch all that is happening and ask: "What can I possibly do?" No person of conscience can possibly justify remaining insensitive to such a terrible human tragedy. Indeed, every Muslim must make an effort to say "stop!" to this cruelty within the context of his or her own environment.
Not only in Palestine, but throughout the world, the greatest service that can be offered to help oppressed Muslims is to oppose the belligerent, racist, fascist, and social Darwinistic ideologies that underpin this cruelty and brutality.
While Muslims all over the world are kept "under fire" by the oppression and torture of anti-Islamic forces, those who are not have certain responsibilities: to bring the voice of these oppressed Muslims to the world, expose the oppressive centers of power, attack the ideological roots of these forces, continue to strengthen and spread Islam, and neutralize all anti-Islamic propaganda through an intellectual struggle. Every Muslim who is killed, wounded, and tyrannized in Palestine should remind us of these duties once again. When Muslims fulfill these duties, all anti-Islamic ideologies and systems will completely collapse, for in accordance with God's word: "Say: 'Truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Falsehood is always bound to vanish'" (Qur'an, 17:81). As justice prevails, the disappearance of false systems is inevitable.
In order to ensure a bright future for Israeli and Palestinian children, they must be raised in a peaceful and secure environment, and kept far from clashes and conflict. All children are entitled to a beautiful and bright future.
APPENDIX:
ISRAEL'S LATEST ATTACKS
As preparations for this book were beginning, Palestine was experiencing the first months of the al-Aqsa Intifida. From the very first day of this new Intifada, the Israeli administration responded forcefully to Palestinian street demonstrations. In the meantime, however, the clashes in the region have become even more intense. In response to the suicide bombings carried out by some radical Palestinian groups, Israel has stepped up the pressure on the Occupied Territories. Israeli operations carried out on land, sea, and air have been aimed primarily at Palestinian civilians. The al-Aqsa Intifada's most violent days may have been erupting just as the year 2002 began.
In this latest operation, which the authorities describe as the largest in the Occupied Territories in the last 20 years, the Israeli army sent approximately 20,000 troops. With this deployment, considered the harbinger of a great massacre, the Israeli army began to capture Palestinian-occupied areas one at a time. This operation was actually foreshadowed months earlier. As we discussed in the earlier section "Ariel Sharon Prepares for War," foreign media sources had been expecting such an occupation. Stories leaked from the Israeli government also indicated that Israel was preparing for a great war.
Once the occupation began, scenes reminiscent of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon began to appear. The same things happened in every captured refugee camp and neighborhood. First, the distant sounds of tanks and weapons-fire were heard, and then the generators supplying electricity were hit, plunging the area into darkness and cutting it off from the outside world. Before long, F-16s arrived to support the tanks. All of this was just the first step of a much broader seige.
The entire world reacted strongly when these Israeli soldiers posed for this photograph, which shows them stepping on the body of a Palestine man they had just killed.
The scenes were those of an outright war zone. Israeli tanks entered such Palestinian-administered cities as Gaza, Ramallah, Nablus, and Tulkarem, destroying everything in their path; F-16s rained down bombs upon the people living in the refugee camps. PLO leader Yasser Arafat could not leave his official residence - in other words, he was placed under house arrest. During just one day of such attacks, 40 people were killed. The Israeli army shot at hospitals, ambulances, and schools, including a school for the blind established by the UN. Foreign journalists at the scene reported that those wounded during these raids could not be taken to the hospital because Israeli tanks surrounded the hospitals and prevented any ambulances from coming in or out. In addition to this, thousands of people were taken into custody without a valid reason, and dozens of them were sent to prison. In quite a few refugee camps, all males between the ages of 14 and 60 were taken away for questioning. Some of them, after being held for 2 days with their hands tied and eyes blindfolded, were later arrested. In the Dheisheh camp, for example, 600 men were forced into custody; 70 of them were arrested without any formal charges. Images of these blindfolded civilians awaiting interrogation that made it into the press showed just one of the arbitrary practices implemented by the Israeli army.
Israeli soldiers pull a Palestinian man out of his vehicle and frisk him. The unarmed man is then handcuffed, laid on the ground, stripped, and then brutally executed. A Palestinian can be killed by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the street, even though he has surrendered.In its most recent operation against Palestine, Israel sent 20,000 soldiers to the region. Tanks surrounded Palestinian cities and crushed everything that crossed their paths.
The press reported quite a few other ruthless practices during Israel's occupation: Israeli soldiers' posing for a photograph while stepping on the body of a Palestinian they had just killed, beating and killing a Palestinian man in the middle of the street despite his surrender, Israeli tanks smashing and destroying ambulances parked by the side of the road, and Palestinians being blown up with rockets. Moreover, the accompanying terror often was directed at children, a usual target. Israel's policy of violence toward children was rightly attacked not only by Palestinians, but by the whole world, including Israeli citizens. The famous Israeli author Gideon Levy, a staunch critic of Israel's policies in the Occupied Territories, criticized it sharply and asked the Israeli public:
AKSAM-Turkish Daily, 22.1.02TULKAREM UNDER OCCUPATION
STAR-Turkish Daily, 28.2.02ISRAEL INITIATES WORST ATTACK
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 5.12.01ISRAEL HITS A BUILDING 30 METERS FROM ARAFAT
HURRIYET-Turkish Daily, 13.3.02NAZI TREATMENTPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat accuses the Israelis of "behaving like Nazýs" by stamping numbers on the arms of Palestinian detainees.
YENI SAFAK-Turkish Daily, 29.3.02FEAR OF MASSACRE IN RAMALLAHIsrael is preparing for a wide-scale occupation of Ramallah, the political center of the Palestinian administration.
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily, 5.3.02PALESTINIAN CAMPS RAZED TO THE GROUND
With its most recent operation, Israel has reoccupied virtually all Palestinian territory. This occupation has witnessed several large massacres, and hundreds of innocent people lost their lives in the brief span of 10 days.
Did anyone order the soldiers to shoot at these children's heads, or did the soldiers act on their own initiative? Does it make any difference? Can such incidents still be called anomalous? Or has this become the norm - shooting to kill at stone-throwers, be they children or adults? And this is another thing that we don't consider a war crime? And does anyone in the IDF care that its soldiers are behaving this way?122
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 21.2.02SHARON GETS TOUGHIsrael has responded to Palestinian militants' attacks at military checkpoints with attacks by land, sea and air. Sharon is forced into a corner as 15 Palestinians die.
ORTADOGU-Turkish Daily, 5.3.02WARCRIES FROM ISRAELAttacking civilian refugee camps, Israel is determined to turn Palestine into a slaughterhouse. As the Israeli minister of justice said, "They will beg for a ceasefire," the mayor of Jerusalem called the people to war.
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 11.3.02SHARON DECLARES WAR
Adam Shapiro, an American human rights supporter who lives in Ramallah, describes his thoughts about Israeli soldiers serving in the Occupied Territories:
Occupation is based on dehumanization. That is how soldiers are able to do what they do - they are taught and encouraged not to see the Palestinians as humans. I do not believe that Israeli soldiers are inherently evil, but I do believe that when they are serving … they leave their own humanity behind… When Israel finally understands that the occupation is the root cause of the conflict here, and acts accordingly to remove it and allow the Palestinians to live in freedom, the words we need to use to explain and understand our world will once again have meaning. Until then, "human" will remain a word with meaning but without application…123
On the tenth day of the occupation, the Israeli army announced that it had killed 200 Palestinians. This report in The Independent describes how 30 people lost their lives in a single camp within a span of 48 hours, and how the camp was strafed by Israeli helicopter gunships.Peter Beaumont, Palestine correspondent for The Observer, reported from Ramallah: "I saw the bodies, killed by a shot to the head" (above). What all the Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers had in common was close-range bullet wounds to the head, and the correspondent from The Observer emphasized this point. In the American publication The Palestine Chronicle, Jennifer Loewenstein discusses the horror occurring in Ramallah in her article: "Pogrom in Ramallah: Isn't Israeli 'Democracy' Wonderful?" The piece explains that some bodies had as many as 16 bullet holes, that most were found lying face down on the floor, and that their weapons were confiscated. Moreover, Israeli soldiers continued to target children, including a 10-year-old boy who was shot and killed as he played near the Rafah border because "he was playing too close to the border."
Israel's policy of violence gave rise to even more violence. Some radical Palestinian groups accelerated their suicide bombings aimed at Israeli civilians. When confronted with this development, Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government decided not to follow a measured and composed policy, but considered it necessary to increase further the level of oppression and violence. In a press statement, Sharon said:
"We must cause them losses, casualties, so that they understand they will gain nothing... We must hit them, and hit them again and again, until they understand." What about the holding out the prospect of a political solution, the prime minister was asked. Now, he replied, was not the time for political prospects, only for military prospects.124 Likud Party member Meir Sheetrit, in a statement to Parliament, said that he supported the violence practiced by the Israeli army in the Occupied Territories, insisting that he would support any military action "designed to get the Palestinians to scream for a cease-fire."125 This technique accomplished nothing, though, but pushing events into a vicious cycle of violence. As we discussed before, the events in Palestine prove once again that these problems can never be solved by violence.
According to figures released by the UN, during the course of this Israeli operation, 1,620 houses sustained heavy damage, as well as 14 public buildings, including some schools. In Jenin, of the 2,500 buildings that house the 14,000 Palestinians there, 550 were damaged. Six were only slightly damaged, 541 were damaged in varying amounts, and three were completely destroyed. In Balata, of 3,700 buildings that house 20,000 people, 670 sustained damage. Of these, 10 were completely destroyed and 14 heavily damaged. In Nur Al Shams, 100 of the 1,500 homes in which 8,000 people live were damaged, three of them being destroyed. In Tulkarem, 300 of the 2,900 buildings that house the 16,000 people were damaged; nine of these were completely destroyed and 30 heavily damaged. The total financial losses were about 3.5 million dollars.126
The famous Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz criticized the Israeli government's violence in this piece entitled "More force brings more resistance."The Economist states that events in the Middle East have turned from clashes into an outright war. It addresses this subject in the piece "From Intifada to War."The Israeli operation was reported by the Washington Post under the headline "Mideast Fighting Intensifies; both Sides Vow More."
This period, which saw Israel sharply criticized by the UN and the European Union, ended with the necessary first step of the United States sending a negotiator to intervene in the crisis. Israel tanks began withdrawing from the Palestinian territories, leaving behind a devastated area, and the two sides entered security negotiations.
Saudi Arabian Prince Abdullah.
During this brief withdrawal, one significant attempt made to ensure peace came in the form of a peace plan published by Saudi Prince Abdullah in The New York Times. According to this plan, in exchange for Israel's retreating to its pre-1967 borders (in accordance with UN resolutions), Arab nations would normalize relations with Israel. This proposal was received positively by most Palestinians. However, radicalism on both sides blocked its implementation.
And so withdrawing the tanks only bought the Israeli army more time. Within a couple of days, a new and more comprehensive occupation began. This time, the targets were the West Bank and especially Ramallah, the site of Arafat's headquarters. The resulting operation placed Arafat's headquarters under siege, almost confining him to a single room, while causing great harm to the Palestinian civilian population. The Israeli military did not stop at merely occupying Ramallah, but seized all of the West Bank's cities one by one. Electricity was cut off, and the ensuing blackouts disrupted the water supply. The areas were placed under strict curfew, and the people began to face starvation as their food supplies dwindled. While sick and elderly people and children tried to continue their lives under these brutal conditions, virtually all males between the ages of 14 and 50 were taken captive by Israeli soldiers. As soldiers took over buildings belonging to the Palestinian security forces, even those security officers who surrendered readily were shot in the head and killed. In order to cut off the Palestinians from the rest of the world, Israel quickly declared the occupied areas a "closed zone" so that the world would not hear about the cruelty being inflicted upon the Palestinians.
HURRIYET-Turkish Daily, 30.3.02ARAFAT CONFINED TO HIS ROOM
CUMHURIYET-Turkish Daily, 30.3.02ARAFAT: THEY WILL KILL MEWith his headquarters surrounded and under fire from Israel, the Palestinian leader says he is ready to be martyred.
Despite these efforts, television stations around the world transmitted images of the horror prevailing in Palestine. Among the history-making moments were images of Palestinians shot point-blank in the head, bound and blindfolded captives being dragged off to the unknown, a world leader addressing the world by candlelight, dark and deserted Palestinian streets, hospitals that had incurred the wrath of Israeli soldiers, nuns and monks shot by Israeli tanks, and NGO members trying to form a "human shield" for the innocent Palestinian people. When the morgues at Ramallah's hospitals were full, they started to put two bodies into units intended for one. Then news came of mass graves being created for those who had been murdered. Places such as Tulkarem, Bethlehem, and Qalqilya had become sites of bloodbaths in the full sense of the word. In Bethlehem, believed to be the town where Jesus was born, many Palestinians desperately sought shelter in churches, but to no avail. This was no obstacle for the Israel army, as news reports soon appeared of shots being fired at churches and even members of the Christian clergy being killed.
Sometimes the only way for Palestine men to save themselves is to surrender - although they generally have committed no crime. But even this does not always work. The picture above shows Palestinians who were killed with shots to the head in spite of their surrender.
A further indication of this inhumane occupation's ruthlessness is how journalists and members of NGOs active in the area were treated. While the Israeli government forcibly removed some of the journalists trying to report on these events, others remained virtual hostages inside, and some of those who remained behind even lost their lives. An even stricter policy was followed with the NGO workers: Some were arrested for "violating" Israeli law, while others were attacked with tear gas. Aid organizations were not allowed to do anything. In just one example, UN officials who tried to bring food and medicine inside were not only denied access, but were attacked with tear gas.
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 2.4.02ISRAEL PERPETRATES MASSACREUp to 30 Palestinian security officials trying to surrender were killed.
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 2.4.02THE RAMALLAH DEATH CAMPAs Israel broadens its operation to other cities of the West Bank, reports are coming out of Ramallah of massacres and mass detentions. There is evidence that many Palestinian police officers have been massacred.
At this moment, the massacres and violence continue unabated. In order for the bloodshed to stop, to ensure that no more lives are lost and that both sides have a bright and peaceful future, Israel must end this occupation at once and enter bilateral negotiations. But as we indicated earlier, the only way for peace to be established, for security to prevail, and for animosity to subside is for a substantial change in the collective mindset to occur. This change can occur if the parties involved adopt a moderate, tolerant, and compromising attitude - that is, if they follow the moral values that God decrees in the Qur'an.
HOLY SITES ALSO UNDER FIRE FROM ISRAELI FORCES
One incident that drew the world's criticism during the Israeli army's most recent occupation was its targeting of Christian holy places. Israel maintained that Palestinian terrorists had occupied the churches and taken the clergy hostage. Yet information obtained at the scene, including communications with clergy located at these churches, shows that this assertion is not true. A BBC report entitled "Bethlehem Siege Sparks Church Fury" reported this information. According to the report, Roman Catholic Church spokesman Father David Jaeger, an Israeli citizen, harshly criticized the Israeli attack and asserted that "Israel had broken its international obligations." Father Jaeger says that there is proof that churches and other holy sites were targeted by Israeli bullets. Father Amjad Sabbara of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, meanwhile, says that the people seeking refuge there were unarmed and consisted mostly of women, children, and elderly people trying to escape from Israeli tanks. A news item on the web site Islamonline reported that some Palestinians were seriously wounded by the shots fired on the church, but could not be treated because Israeli forces would not allow ambulances into the area.
BBC NEWS
STAR-Turkish Daily, 5.4.02MOSQUES AND CHURCHES IGNOREDIsraeli troops have gone mad.
SABAH-Turkish Daily, 5.4.02CHURCH IN CROSSFIRE
THE ENTIRE WORLD CONDEMNS ISRAEL
Israel's blatant violations of human rights during the most recent occupation, its humiliation of an entire community, and its cruel and ruthless practices have drawn criticism from many countries and groups, including international organizations such as the UN and the European Union. Beyond the official condemnations made by many governments, protests were organized in various countries involving thousands, even tens of thousands, of participants to condemn the Israeli operation. One circle condemning the operation was a group of French Jewish intellectuals, who published a column in the April 7, 2002, issue of Le Monde titled "Israel's Support Is Not In Our Names." They further urged Israel to comply with UN resolutions and withdraw from the Occupied Territories, and argued that the current Israeli policy has dragged the Middle East into disaster. Another anti-Israel demonstration was staged in Australia, where 10,000 people condemned Israel's violent policies in Palestine.
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 7.4.02THE WORLD MAKES ITS REACTION TO THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE CLEAR WITH HUGE MEETINGS.
AN OPERATION ON PALESTINIAN SOIL
The images above were taken from a program aired on Israeli television. Despite the government's censoring of all broadcasts from the Occupied Territories, this station managed to slip this broadcast of an Israeli operation through the blackout. First Israeli soldiers ring the doorbell of this Palestinian home to conduct a search. Before the woman can get the door open, the soldiers blow the door open with explosives, seriously injuring her. Then the soldiers enter the house, refusing the man's pleas for an ambulance to come for his wife. Their young daughter watches tearfully as her mother dies in the house. The soldiers trash the house, even knocking out several walls…
ATTACKING THE REHABILITATION CENTER OF THE BLIND
During the most recent Israeli attack, schools established by the UN for Palestinian children were heavily damaged. The al-Nour Center for the Rehabilitation of the Blind, founded and run by the UN and the only school for blind children in Gaza, was bombed on March 5, 2002. The news report above quotes eyewitnesses to the incident. An announcement by the Palestinian Ministry of Education states that 435 children were shot dead between September 2000 and March 2002, 150 of them school-age children, and that 2,404 children were wounded.
A Massacre Occurred in Jenin
The civilian population was targeted by the Israeli army once again in Jenin.
As news reports from the region confirm, Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, conducted in the name of defeating terror, resulted in another massacre of Palestinian civilians. The operation was waged not for defensive purposes, as indicated by the name, but for destructive ones. The entire operation was characterized by brutality throughout Ramallah, Nablus, and Bethlehem, for Israeli soldiers targeted civilians rather than armed parties, and killed women and children who were not combatants. An Israeli soldier involved in the operation told the BBC:
Take this for an example. There is a village where we have intelligence that someone is planning a terrorist attack. We surround the village and move in, but there is a 17-year-old shepherd in a field on the edge of the village.… Do I arrest him, blindfold him, tie his hands? Do I tell him to get inside quick? ...We are trained to fight armies and soldiers, and yet we have to deal with people in this situation... The most terrible thing is to go into houses and see that they are just regular families. The children with their wide frightened eyes, I find very difficult. We all have kids at home.127
The violent events that began during the final days of March 2002 went down in history as the culmination of a brutal seige and massacre. What the Western media referred to as "The Second Massacre of Sabra and Shatilla" was the raid organized against the Jenin refugee camp. This refugee camp had been set up for Palestinians driven off their land in 1948. During this latest operation, Israeli forces besieged this camp, home to about 15,000 people, just as it had the other Palestinian cities and camps. But what happened next was unique in one important regard: Jenin was not simply surrounded - it suffered one of the most comprehensive massacres of recent years.
ZAMAN-Turkish Daily, 9.4.02ISRAEL IS PREPARING TO TEAR DOWN THE JENIN REFUGEE CAMP
TURKIYE-Turkish Daily,10.4.02ADMISSION OF MASSACREIsraeli Foreign Minister Peres: "Yes, we carried out a massacre at Jenin"
RADIKAL-Turkish Daily, 13.4.02ISRAEL DIGS MASS GRAVES THE JENIN MASSACRE IS BURIEDSaying that "there appear to be hundreds of dead in Janin," Israel has announced that the bodies of "terrorists" will be buried separately from ordinary "civilians." According to the Palestinians and aid organisations, the aim is to cover up the massacre.
Once the camp was surrounded by Israeli tanks, it was bombarded continuously by rockets fired from helicopter gunships. Bulldozers razed houses and tanks fired at anything that moved, while nearly all of the men were rounded up and taken away. Those who had not been struck by rockets were trapped under the wreckage of their homes, and those who were still alive beneath the rubble were killed by Israeli soldiers. Israel's refusal to allow ambulances into the camp, in direct violation of UN decrees, drove the death toll even higher. Subsequent news reports from the area showed that many women and children had bled to death, often screaming in pain, because ambulances and doctors had not been permitted inside.
Even after Israel announced that the siege had ended, it still refused to allow journalists, doctors, and officials from human rights organizations into the camp. Israel announced that casualty figures would be collected by the Israeli army and that the bodies would be buried in a mass grave on the Jordanian border. This was clear evidence that Israel wanted to conceal this latest massacre from the world. In fact, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres admitted that the Israeli army had committed a massacre while speaking to the Israeli Knesset:
When the world sees the pictures of what we have done there, it will do us immense damage. However many wanted men we kill in the refugee camp, and however much of the terror infrastructure we expose and destroy there, there is still no justification for causing such great destruction.128
The witnesses quoted in the report in the daily The Independent headed "Israel buries the bodies, but cannot hide the evidence" described how the roads were full of bodies, including those of children, that bodies had been buried underneath houses demolished by Israeli bulldozers, and that others had been loaded onto lorries and taken away.
In a news report entitled "Israeli Army Accused of Atrocities" The Los Angeles Times reports that it is impossible to give the exact number, but that hundreds of innocent civilians are presumed dead. The report characterizes the Jenin massacre as one of the worst acts of brutality on Palestinian soil since 1967.
A New York Times report containing statements from people who had experienced the savagery at Jenin described how one Palestinian woman had lost her father, son and husband, and quoted her sobbing, "There are many bodies, many bodies, under the stones, under the sand!"
After a while, the world began to hear about the scale of the massacre from Palestinians who managed to send word from inside the camp and from those few journalists who made it into the camp and managed to escape with some images. Despite Israel's attempts to destroy all the evidence, Palestinians succeeded in reporting on what happened by copying hand-written notes about their experiences. In the early days of the siege, The Times newspaper reported on events in Jenin in an article dated April 9, 2002, entitled "Children Scream for Water":
Hamid's last image of Jenin Refugee Camp was a city of the dead. The 14-year old student, who surrendered to Israeli forces on Saturday night after witnessing 30 hours of bombardment, shakes slightly as he describes the apocalyptic scene. Piles of corpses were moved aside by bulldozers. Houses lay in smoldering ruins. Children screamed for water; some were forced to drink sewage.
Hamid is wearing new trousers, bought by sympathetic Palestinians, because he was stripped to his underpants by Israeli soldiers after he had surrendered to them… Three people were killed by rockets inside the house where he was taking refuge.
"But the most terrible thing was seeing Israeli soldiers take eight men and line them up and kill them," he said, describing in detail the procedure and the injuries the men sustained. After that, Hamid, his twin Ahmed and his older brother Khadir made a white flag and waved it from a window. They had no other way out.
The brothers were stripped, handcuffed tightly behind their backs and blindfolded. They were then taken with a group of about 100 Palestinian men to Salem Military Barracks inside Israel, where they say they were beaten and offered money to act as Israeli spies. After 48 hours of interrogation ... the men were taken to a village nearby without shoes and told to walk back to the West Bank... Ahmed was kicked badly in his back and kidneys and lies on a mattress writhing in pain. Khadir has a black eye and some bruises, but the brothers will live.
Others, however, were not so lucky. Inside the mosque some of the men who surrendered on Saturday talk of being used as human shields by the soldiers… Khalid Mustafa Mohammed … lies on a bloody mattress face down, and his back is wrapped in bandages.
Khalid has two broken ribs and has internal bleeding and lies semi-comatose, muttering in pain. The only health care worker in town, an exhausted dentist, Dr Farouk al Ahmed … "We fear there will be a massacre," Dr Farouk said. One witness noted that "the women and children were being separated from the men, and being taken away to a nearby forest."
The real fear is not for the refugees who have escaped, but [for] those left behind. The memories of Sabra and Shatila refugee camps being leveled are still not so distant.129
Jenin Mayor Walid Abu Muweis, for that matter, said that words could not describe what he had seen and experienced: "The things that I witnessed with my own eyes can't even be put into words. How can a human being commit such brutality? I don't understand it." Muweis, who says that what occurred in Jenin was much much more horrifying than what occurred 54 years ago in Deir Yassin, explained what he saw in a piece appearing in the magazine Palestine Monitor:
I saw children's bodies protruding from the rubble. I saw decomposing bodies of people in their 60s and 70s lying in the streets. This is only in the small area of the camp we were permitted to enter… This colossal crime will remain a stigma of shame on the civilized world which remained silent as hundreds of defenseless men, women and children were being mercilessly slaughtered by the most barbaric army in the world.130
As Abu Muweis noted, the events in Jenin will constitute a shameful page in human history. The horrible scenes that appeared later in the press testify to this. For example, the first massacre scenes from Jenin were described as follows in The New York Times:
Residents of the camp said many civilians were killed. Two bodies were seen here today … both charred beyond recognition. One was male… Part of a sneaker remained on the right foot. The left foot and hand were cinders. A woman dressed in black wailed over the body, as flies buzzed in air rotten with the stench of untended death… The other body, a few doors away, was buried beneath a crushed wall. Only the blackened, featureless face was visible. A child's cleated sneaker … lay nearby. In both cases, no weapons were seen…131
THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF JENIN MASSACREIsraeli soldiers prevented journalists from entering Jenin to hide the massacre, but these photographs are enough to show the scope of this historic massacre.
Justin Higgler of The Independent newspaper excoriates the world's turning a blind eye to this overt massacre in his article "The Camp That Became a Slaughterhouse":
For nine days, Jenin camp became a slaughterhouse. Fifteen thousand Palestinians lived in a square kilometre in the camp, a packed warren of narrow lanes. Thousands of terrified civilians, women and children, cowered inside their homes while the Israeli helicopters rained down rockets on them and tanks fired shells into the camp.
The wounded were left to die. The Israeli army refused to allow ambulances in to treat them, which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. The Red Cross has publicly said people have died because Israel blocked the ambulances… The Israeli authorities may be able to hide the evidence, but they cannot silence the stories that have been pouring out of those who managed to escape the carnage in the camp… Munir Washashi bled to death over several hours after a helicopter round came through the wall of his home. When an ambulance came for him, Israeli soldiers shot at it. Munir's mother, Maryam, ran into the street screaming for help for her son and was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers.132
These reports were obtained despite Israel's attempts to prohibit all communication with Jenin. After the siege is lifted, the world encountered more evidence of atrocities. The only way to make sure that no more tragedies such as Jenin will occur in the future, and to stop the tears and pain on both sides, is to end the violence completely. Indeed, for this to be possible, certain Palestinian groups will have to abandon their practice of targeting innocent Israeli citizens. This is, after all, a violation of Islamic ethics. But Israel also must abandon its goal of destroying the Palestinians and fulfill all of its UN obligations.
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