[NYTr] Meanwhile, In the West Bank...

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Ed Pearl - Dec 26, 2007


Ha'aretz - December 24, 2007

Meanwhile in the West Bank

By Gideon Levy

Don't let the quiet fool you: It is imaginary. While all eyes are on
Gaza, the impression has been created, under the aegis of a media
turning a blind eye, that the West Bank is quiet. That's where the
"good guys" are in charge, those with whom we went to Annapolis, those
who will be getting the money from the donor nations, and life there is
great, so it seems.

Well, that is not the case. The lives of the Palestinians in the West
Bank are also intolerable, blood is being shed there too. For the
Israel Defense Forces it is business as usual, with a frighteningly
quick finger on the trigger. The spirit of Annapolis and the lofty
words of the prime minister do not prevail there.

I have visited quite a few mourners' homes in the West Bank in recent
months. They were all mourning family members who had been killed for no
reason. Every week, innocent people are killed in the West Bank, and
nobody talks about them. Among the dozens of Palestinians killed
recently, not all were Qassam launchers or gang leaders from Gaza. If a
new uprising erupts in the West Bank one day, it will originate in
these mourners' homes.

The daily routine in the West Bank is also patently inhumane. The night
I spent last summer in the Jenin refugee camp brought that home to me:
The IDF enters the camp every night, and even when it does not kill, it
strikes great terror in the hearts of thousands of families, who are
the victims of anxiety. There are few Israelis who can imagine the
daily routine of West Bank residents, during the day and even more so
at night. And we have not said a word about the poverty, the roadblocks
and the home demolitions.

The story of the recent killings in the West Bank is not on our agenda,
because so far the Palestinians there have not responded with attacks in
retaliation for these deaths. But it is not certain that this quiet will
continue.

Adib Salim, paralyzed on his right side, sold lupini beans. When the IDF
conducted one of its raids on Nablus he dared to stick his head out. The
soldiers killed him. The IDF Spokesman claimed that he threatened to
shoot at the soldiers, but the paralyzed bean seller was totally
incapable of doing so.

Abdel Wazir, the 71-year-old cousin of the legendary Abu Jihad, was a
retired accountant. He spent a terrifying night in his home: for hours
the soldiers fired next to his window, while he sat with his wife on
the sofa, both of them incapacitated by fear. When the order to go
outside was heard, he left his house and was immediately shot dead.

Jihad Shaar, 19, was making his way from his village, Tekua, in order to
register for university. Soldiers killed him for an unexplained reason
with cudgel blows and kicks, while he was waiting at the bus stop. The
IDF Spokesman said that the soldiers "behaved appropriately."

Mohammed Salah was a Palestinian policeman, after years of working as a
tiler in the settlements. On duty, he stopped a suspicious Palestinian
commercial van, which had tried to avoid the Palestinian checkpoint in
Bethlehem. Salah opened the door, suspecting that the van was carrying
stolen merchandise, and the IDF undercover soldiers inside shot him to
death. The IDF Spokesman claimed that he tried to shoot at the
soldiers, but all the eyewitnesses have rejected this version out of
hand.

Firas Kaskas went for a nature hike near Ramallah, accompanied by his
brother and his brother-in-law. When they noticed a herd of gazelles
running down to the wadi, they stood to watch. The soldiers who
suddenly appeared shot him from afar, without warning. The IDF
Spokesman claimed that the soldiers thought that he was placing an
explosive device in the heart of the nature reserve.

All these people were killed by the IDF in recent weeks, for no reason.
Add to them Mohammed Askar from Saida, who was shot at close range
during riots at Ketziot Prison; Kamela Kabha of Bartaa, an elderly
woman whose son tried to rush her to the hospital in Jenin and was
delayed at the Reihan checkpoint for three hours, until she died in his
arms, and other incidents of killing, and you will get the true picture
of Israel's "peace efforts."

And we haven't even mentioned the construction in the settlements.