The occupation of Jenin
The Israeli army has withdrawn from Jenin, leaving a trail
of destruction. People the world over have been shocked by the brutality of the
invasion, including attacks on Red Cross/Crescent staff and reports of
Palestinians being buried under bulldozed buildings. KEVIN SIMPSON writes.
"IN THE SMALL refugee camp near Jenin, a group of
Palestinian fighters from all the organisations gathered for a battle of defence
that will be enshrined forever in the hearts of all Arabs. This is the
Palestinian Massada, as an Israeli officer called it, alluding to the legendary
stand of the remnants of the great Jewish rebellion against Rome in 71 AD".
"When the international media cannot be kept out any
more and the pictures of horror are published, two possible versions may emerge:
Jenin as a story of massacre, a second Sabra and Shatila; and Jenin, the
Palestinian Stalingrad, a story of immortal heroism. The second will surely
prevail". (Uri Avnery, Guardian, 16 April)
In fact, the history of the siege of Jenin refugee camp will
be a combination of both versions since this reflects what actually happened.
More than any other event, the brutal massacre that took place in a camp
covering three-quarters of a square mile and housing 15,000 refugees will come
to symbolise the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people and the horrendous
brutality they have had to face by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). If anything
was designed to implant an unshakeable determination amongst the Palestinian
people to struggle to the end for a genuinely independent state, the brutal IDF
massacre in Jenin was it.
Increasingly, the press conferences of the Bush
administration and the pathetic – and completely unbelievable – attempts by
spokespersons of Ariel Sharon’s reactionary government to justify their
actions come from a galaxy light years away from the real situation on the
ground in most cities of the Palestinian Authority.
Even the controlled diplomacy of United Nations’
representatives has slipped, as they have been unable to hide their personal
disgust at the havoc wreaked by the IDF. One envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said that
the devastation caused by Israeli shelling was ‘horrifying beyond belief’.
He added: ‘Just seeing this area, it looks like there’s been an earthquake
here and the stench of death is over many places where we are standing’.
Palestinian accounts describe the shooting in cold blood of
young Palestinian men after they had surrendered; houses crushed by army
bulldozers; the use of Palestinians as human shields for IDF soldiers (a claim
verified by Israeli soldiers); the bulldozing of twenty-five foot wide roadways
through houses; the burial of 32 bodies in a trench; and the creation of mass
graves under piles of rubble thirty feet high, as well as the removal of dead
Palestinians so that the scale of the butchery could be hidden.
Undoubtedly, the killing of thirteen IDF soldiers by a
Palestinian suicide bomber and militia fighters halfway through the occupation
led to a brutal punishment response being ordered by IDF generals. Pleas such as
those from US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, during his visit to the Middle
East, that the Israeli army should show ‘extreme restraint’ and ‘care for
civilian life’ are farcical. Just as there are no genuinely ‘smart’ bombs
which only destroy their targets, in modern warfare there can be no ‘civilian-friendly’
military ground operations.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Jenin. During this
latest invasion over 5,000 have been arrested with no information being given
about where prisoners are being held. Thousands have been injured, joining the
40,000 Palestinians who have been hospitalised during this second intifada.
Even if the thirteen IDF soldiers had not been killed, the
IDF would have used the same methods. The aim of Israel’s right-wing
government was to destroy the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority, force
the present Palestinian leadership into exile, and bombard and crush the
remaining population into submission so unilateral surrender terms could be
imposed. The fact that the Israeli government has not been able to achieve these
aims flows from the fierce resistance of the Palestinian masses and their
refusal to be cowed by military might, the mass demonstrations in the Arab world
and the worldwide opposition to the Israeli invasion of the Palestinian areas.
It had nothing to do with the numerous diplomatic initiatives set in train by
the Bush administration, the Arab leaders and various European Union governments
over the last few weeks. In fact these initiatives were a response to the
growing anger on the ground.
US diplomacy
THE VISIT BY Powell, the second most powerful figure in the
world’s only superpower, was a humiliating failure for US imperialism. It
undermined US propaganda, particularly strong after the fall of the Taliban
regime in Afghanistan, that the Bush administration could dictate how world
events unfold and achieve relatively easy military victories. All that Powell
could achieve was one statement from Yasser Arafat condemning suicide bombings
following two such attacks in Israel, and a ‘timeline’ for Israeli
withdrawal - although exact details were never made public. This could possibly
be explained by the fact that on the day of Powell’s departure from Israel,
the IDF entered two more villages on the West Bank! But these could be hardly
described as progress in a region which is teetering on the edge of a full-scale
war. Powell could not even persuade the Israeli government to give aid workers’
unhindered access to the Jenin refugee camp. The Syrian president refused to
discuss putting pressure on the Hezbollah guerrillas to stop bombarding northern
Israel during Powell’s visit there. Instead he demanded an immediate
withdrawal of IDF troops. Powell’s response was to immediately leave Syria
without calling a press conference.
Powell obviously intended to pressurise Arafat and his
co-leaders to issue a strong condemnation of suicide attacks and ‘terrorism’
in general, together with a plan of how the Palestinian Authority would deal
with such attacks and announce a ceasefire. Powell hoped that he would then be
able to convince Sharon to withdraw IDF troops and open the way to a regional
peace conference. At the end of his trip all Powell could say on the question of
a ceasefire was: ‘We could have a ceasefire declared today but what would it
mean? Ceasefire is not a relevant term at the moment’.
In return for such concessions from the Palestinian
leadership, US officials had offered the Palestinian Authority $120 million in
aid. However, even if this money was provided, it would be a tiny drop in the
ocean compared to the cost of the damage caused by the IDF invasion in the last
few weeks. According to James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, the last
eighteen months of conflict have wiped out over 50% of the Palestinian Authority’s
GDP and caused as much as $600 million of physical damage. The devastation means
that international donors would have to donate over $1.7 billion over the next
year.
While Powell repeated ritually his request for the Israeli
government to withdraw its troops several times on his trip the balance of his
comments was directed towards pushing the Palestinian leadership to fight ‘terrorism’.
As Powell commented towards the end of his trip: ‘He [Arafat] and the
Palestinian Authority can no longer equivocate. They must decide, as the rest of
the world has decided, that terror must end’. Bush went further in a speech at
the Virginia military institute where he, unsurprisingly, put the responsibility
of further progress to peace at the door of the Arab regimes: ‘The Egyptians
and Jordanians and Saudis have helped in the wider war on terrorism and they
must help confront terrorism in the Middle East’.
The attitude of US imperialism towards the present conflict
in the Middle East has undoubtedly enraged many Arab leaders mainly because they
face an increasingly uncertain future as their pro-US positions threaten to
unleash a tidal wave of anger in their countries. Such movements, they fear,
will topple them. This opposition is partially for public consumption but also
represents a genuine feeling arising from exasperation that US imperialism
constantly fails to understand the levels of anger towards its policies amongst
the Arab masses in the region. But Powell’s visit to the region and Bush’s
subsequent comments have worsened the situation. The fact that it took Powell
over a week to meander his way around Europe, North Africa, and all the
countries in the Middle East – apart from Israel and Palestine – was seen by
Arabs in the region for what it was: an attempt to give Sharon and the IDF
generals enough time to complete their military operations before arriving
there. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt refused to meet Powell during his last
visit to Egypt saying he was ‘too busy’. This was meant and taken as a
direct snub for US imperialism.
Arafat also threw diplomatic niceties out the window.
Shaking with rage at his continued incarceration by IDF troops, and following a
meeting with Powell, he said: ‘I have to ask the whole international world, I
have to ask his excellency president Bush, I have to ask the United Nations: Is
it acceptable that I cannot go outside this door?’ But this anger is nothing
compared to the mood amongst the Palestinian people following the occupation. As
an editorial in the daily Ha’aretz in Israel commented: "The new idea
circulated this week – a regional conference, apparently in June – is
insufficient even to lower the flames much less extinguish them". (18
April) Only the immediate and full withdrawal of IDF troops from all of the West
Bank and Gaza and the granting of genuine statehood for the Palestinians would
be enough to stop the drift towards war. Since the latest invasion the situation
in Israel and Palestine has changed completely. As far as Palestinian illusions
in imperialist-sponsored ‘peace agreements’, the Rubicon has been crossed
and promises will no longer suffice.
Hardening positions
THE POSITION OF the Israeli regime has also hardened. Not
only has the Israeli regime destroyed the PA infrastructure, an attempt has been
made to drive out the Palestinian leadership. But the Israeli army has also
attempted to eliminate or arrest the second and third layers of leadership in
the PA. One example of this is Marwan Barghoutti, Fatah leader on the West Bank.
It is reported that he will be tried for mass murder. The main intention of this
arrest was to further demoralise Palestinians who live on the West Bank. It is
possible, however, as some commentators have suggested, that the Israeli regime
sees this arrest as a means of opening up communications with Palestinian
leaders, such as Barghoutti, whom it believes have more influence over the
population than Arafat has. But the conditions for any agreement between the
Israeli ruling class and figures like Barghoutti would be those of abject
surrender – something which would not be accepted by the Palestinian masses.
The Israeli ruling class believes that by pummelling the
Palestinians into the ground they will be forced to accept whatever is given to
them and a new Vichy-type leadership will come to the fore. However, the Israeli
regime has been searching for a mythical Palestinian leadership like this ever
since it invaded the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. It is no surprise it has not
been able to achieve this goal – it is precisely the conditions of the
occupation that preclude any such development.
Part of the reason for the hardening of the position of the
Israeli government has been the increase in support for the Sharon government,
up from 45% to 70% in a number of opinion polls. This change in the situation is
mainly an immediate reaction to the fall in number of suicide attacks. At the
same time, however, similar numbers of Israeli Jews in other opinion polls
believe that a Palestinian state is inevitable and there will have to be some
sort of negotiations.
Another reason for the hardening of attitudes is that for
the first time there has been a conscious attempt to develop a ‘war mood’ in
Israeli society by the ruling class. Around Independence Day this reached its
height with most of the media launching a jingoistic campaign and most of the
commercial companies coming out with patriotic statements and banners outside
workplaces. This has a partial resonance with moods in the rest of Israeli
society because most Israeli Jewish families have had relatives who are
reservists called up for duty on the West Bank. It is for this reason that the
government feels confident to implement a new bill through parliament which
contains $2.7 billion worth of cuts for all departments apart from the military.
Part of this bill is the implementation of a compulsory war tax of 5% on all
those in work in Israel.
On the other hand, activists on the ground report that there
is no genuine feeling that military force will succeed in defeating suicide
bombers. And there are signs of growing opposition to the military incursions
amongst a minority within Israel. Early in April, at a demonstration of 10–15,000
in Tel Aviv with both Israeli Jews and Palestinians present, one of the main
slogans was, ‘Our government ministers are war criminals’. Leaflets were
given out by Israeli Jewish youth for a ‘Rave against the occupation’. Also,
on the military front signs of opposition are rising. One right-wing paper in
Israel reported that a helicopter pilot twice refused to fire on a house in the
West Bank village of Dura because he feared civilian casualties.
Although not reported in the Israeli or international media,
the most recent invasion by the IDF has lit the fires of Israeli Palestinian
protest once again. Reports have been circulating that in most Israeli
Palestinian villages there were demonstrations and protests which at one stage
led to the closure of one of the main roads to the north in the country.
Despite Powell’s forced optimism about the prospects for
peace, the situation in the Middle East is grim indeed. A flurry of political
activity leading up to a June regional conference might lead to a reduction in
violence. However, more suicide attacks within Israel are likely. Although the
IDF has withdrawn from cities like Jenin, they have imposed an almost
hermetically sealed curfew around the camp. This will be repeated in every West
Bank city they withdraw from over the next few weeks.
The Israeli regime is reported to be planning security
measures that will go much further than ever before. There may be moves under
way to construct a buffer zone between the West Bank and Israel, clearing any
Palestinian towns and villages that happen to be in the way. This would create a
de facto security border, designed to lock Palestinians out of Israel while
allowing the IDF and Jewish settlers free access to the West Bank. At the same
time, the regime is likely to build a network of fences, ditches and
fortifications around the settlements and their connecting roads. With barbed
wire and concrete, the 120 or more settlements scattered across the West Bank
will effectively be claimed as a permanent extension of Israel’s territory.
If such plans are carried through, the Palestinian West Bank
will become more fragmented than ever before. The Palestinians would be left
with tiny patches of land, a far worse position than even the ‘Swiss cheese’
map offered by the Israeli leadership during the peace negotiations. Even if the
Israeli regime is unable to go so far in building a military infrastructure on
the West Bank, so long as the settlements remain, it will insist on a permanent
military presence to protect them, inevitably undermining the viability of any
statelet it is prepared to concede to the Palestinians. Either way, Palestinian
reports say this would result in the expulsion of up to 400,000 Palestinians
from land they occupy now. Such a move would probably see a stepping up of
Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s northern border and a spread to a regional war
involving Syria and Lebanon. It would also see mass protests by Israeli
Palestinians and their possible expulsion from Israel, another horrific twist in
a spiral of carnage and destruction.
|