"How to find a way of talking to Israelis after all that has happened?"
Posted by Toine van Teeffelen

Occupied Bethlehem [5/6 April 2002]--Friday morning, I go out to sniff the air in the garden. Suddenly a group of Israeli soldiers appear and ask whether I am from the University. "No, I am from Holland," I say illogically, thinking that the word "Holland" helps to keep them out of the house, our main worry. Fortunately I have only to show my passport and they continue their walk. It is strange, how a Spring morning's silence can feel so threatening.

Today, the fourth day of the occupation, the municipality announces that the soldiers will allow the people a few hours each afternoon to leave our cages. But when two o'clock, the big moment, arrives, we hear shooting. Later on there is a rumor that three persons some 100 meters further down the university road were slightly injured by shots when they left the house. Maybe the Israelis wanted, in announcing the measure, to impose their own time (there is an hour difference between Israel and the West Bank).

After an hour Jeanet and I leave home, but upon reaching the gate we observe a soldiers' patrol passing. The commander tells us to wait for another five minutes. Afterwards, a boy shouts that it is safe on the road. When we finally leave, Jara starts crying and wants us to come back. I tell her that we will be back soon and that there is no need to worry. Jeanet and I walk up the university street, and see a concentration of tanks and armoured vehicles on the university hill. Soldiers wave us to go either left or right, not straight. I shout whether we can make a turn to reach Bethlehem downtown through Bab al-Zqaaq where the Jerusalem-Hebron road meets the road to Beit Jala. Yes, that is possible, the soldiers sign.

There is a cat which slowly crosses the street in front of a tank. We follow the street to the right towards Bab al-Zqaaq, walking fast. The street asphalt is damaged by the many heavy tanks and vehicles passing by. Will the roads ever be repaired? Sand comes up through the holes in the broken asphalt, and clouds trail the cars that now hesitatingly appear on the streets. Ana bachaaf (I am afraid) whispers somebody. A group of foreign visitors pass by, carrying their luggage. Several groups of foreigners are still in the area, especially in the camps, to share the suffering of the people and perhaps to form a human shield in case of attack. We reach Cinema, opposite the taxi station. More people show up; they look bewildered as if they open their eyes after a prolonged stay in a dark room. Journalists try to interview passers by who speak the right language. I see Fuad, the director of the institute, who explains to an interviewer how every house in the central Madbasseh street received bullets or worse.

Palestinians: Hundreds in mass graves

TEL AVIV, Israel, April 12 (UPI) -- Palestinian officials charged Friday that Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and buried the bodies in mass graves in northern Israel.

Israeli officials questioned the death toll and said they were returning bodies to families after they were identified "in cooperation with the relevant sources."

Dr. Wael Qadan, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society's chief of emergency, told United Press International that he believed more than 200 people were killed in Jenin, but exact figures were not known. Red Cross spokeswoman Aleksandra Matijevic, told UPI the agency has no estimates or figures of its own.

Col. Gal Hirsh, head of operations at the Israeli army's command center, which includes the West Bank, rejected "rumors" that 500 to 600 Palestinians were killed.

A Mother's Warning, and a Fatal Shot

RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 11 -- The Palestinian most recently killed by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah was Manal Sofran. She was a housewife shot in the head on Wednesday, neighbors said, while calling her husband Sami and their four children to come in from the garden of their three-story apartment building near Chicken Street.

She leaned out from the glass-enclosed sunroom, a common feature of Palestinian houses from the 1950s and '60s. She spied five soldiers by a nearby wall, the neighbors recalled, and feared they might shoot at moving objects.

"She was right," said Tom Kay, one of the neighbors. "But she was the object, and it was clear the soldiers could see her."

Her last words were "Oh, Sami," said grieving relatives who received visitors at a wake today.

Occupied West Bank: Report #2

Birkin, a village immediately next to the one Jeff and Kathy are staying in, has just been surrounded
by Israeli Defense Force (IDF) tanks and troops. Three people from the team they have joined are
in Birkin. There are 77 families, approximately 400 people, in Birkin, that are recent refugees from
the town of Jenin. Additionally, two days ago the IDF invaded the town of Arabi and killed five people.
It has been reported in the US media that the IDF is pulling out of the areas they have thus far occupied.
From the ground, it seems obvious that this is not the case, as the IDF continues to employ a
village-by-village effort which goes unreported in mainstream media.

Last night, Jeff, Kathy, Sophia, and Brian recorded the stories of four men who had been tortured,
interrogated, and in two cases, forced to act as human shields, during the invasion and attack on Jenin.
Many are wondering if what is being referred to as the “massacre of Jenin” might have cost well over
a thousand lives.


We are reminded of the United State’s efforts to “eradicate terrorism” in Afghanistan. It would seem
that the Israelis are doing something very similar. Regarding Colin Powell’s visit to the region, Guntzel
and Kelly recall that on September 11, after the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center, Powell said,
“The people that perpetrated this barbarous act think that by killing people and destroying buildings you
can achieve a political goal. They are always wrong.”

Mr. Powell should adhere to this view now.

Meet Mr Whatever It Takes

What is a Jew with a moral conscience meant to do in these dark days of "Arik" Sharon's Palestinian putsch?

Last week my three-year-old son melted my heart by singing the Ma Nishtana for our Passover meal. The song's four questions call for an explanation of the celebration of our escape from slavery in Egypt. The rest of the evening is spent answering those questions, including the analogy of the four sons: the wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who did not even know to ask.

Should I remain silent - as Pastor Neimoller said he did - as we watch the climbing toll of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, journalists and peace activists?

Do I keep my mouth shut as we witness the amazingly disproportionate use of force by the Israeli Defence Forces against what are essentially the wrong targets?

Does anyone want to know - or would they care - that more Israelis have died in Sharon's 15 months as prime minister than all his predecessors combined back to 1982, when he, again, was responsible for a very large number of Israeli deaths?

Is it "breaking ranks" to be Jewish and to criticise Israel's terrible government now that Israel has unilaterally declared war on the Palestinian Authority? Or is standing up for what is right still seen as a positive attribute?

I know that by this paragraph, somewhere a pro-Israel lobbyist will be reaching for his or her keyboard to accuse me of being an anti-Semite, or a self-hating Jew, or a traitor. Some will reach for their telephones to deliver hate messages to my 85-year-old father - that's always an easy way to respond.

Am I to be intimidated by the pro-Israeli extreme right just because Israel is wrong?

Is "The Bulldozer" a man of peace as he says?

Nicknamed “The Bulldozer,” Israel's prime minister is a soldier-politician whose career has been dogged by persistent accusations of war crimes.
But what kind of man is Secretary of State Colin Powell trying to persuade to make peace with the Palestinians?
At 74, Sharon may be the last Israeli leader who fought for the Haganah, politely described as part of the “underground” that helped create the Jewish state in 1948.
Often overlooked is that the Haganah and its offshoots, Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang, were once considered terrorist organizations that bombed Arab bus stops, attacked Arab villages and killed quite a few Britons in fighting to end the British Mandate of Palestine.
It should also be noted that two other former prime ministers of Israel, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, were leaders of the Irgun and the Stern Gang respectively. Among the atrocities these groups were responsible for was bombing the King David Hotel and massacring 250 Arab villagers in Deir Yassin.
So it can safely be said that some of Israel's earliest patriots were no different from the Palestinians they call terrorists today.

Bulldozing Hope in the Mideast

One tragic consequence of this month's Israeli military offensive across the West Bank has been the heavy blow it inflicted on a Palestinian economy and civil society that had begun to show signs of life. If these two proud and talented peoples are ever to live side by side in peace and cooperation, one obvious prerequisite will be a Palestinian economy that generates jobs and prosperity for its people and civil institutions that can broaden debate and begin to supplant the paramilitary secular and Islamist groups that now monopolize Palestinian political activity.

Israel's long-term interest lies in nurturing Palestinian development, not demolishing it. While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's determination to strike back at terrorists is understandable, Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes, businesses and public utilities is not. Knocking down houses, destroying electricity pylons and interfering with health care, as Israeli forces have done across the West Bank, cannot be justified by any compelling military need.

The hawkish factions of Jewish lobby may be out of step with members

THE MIDDLE EAST: The lobby's focus over the years has been to prevent the US from staying Israel's hand, writes Patrick Smyth, Washington Correspondent

If Israel's army is the stuff that military legends are made of, its political lobby in the US also puts rivals in the shade, with money, manpower, and the sort of lobbying techniques that only the likes of tobacco and the gun lobby can emulate.

Its motto might be "my country right or wrong". Its focus over the years has been to campaign, overwhelmingly successfully, to prevent the US from staying Israel's hand.

That "hands off Israel" approach, however, is significantly more hawkish than the views held by the US Jewish community who, even after September 11th, back both the Oslo land-for-peace deal and US mediation between Israel and the Palestinians by three to one, according to a recent poll. And then, there's the not insignificant matter of money - Israel, despite its prosperity, is the US's largest recipient of foreign aid - $3 billion a year. The lobby makes sure no politician dares touch it.

High Court orders IDF not to remove bodies from Jenin

The High Court ordered the Israel Defense Forces not to remove the bodies of Palestinians killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee camp until a hearing is held on the matter.

The decision came in response to a petition presented by attorney Jamil Dakaur from the "Adala" organization.

A three-judge panel will discuss the issue Sunday morning.

The Court also ordered the State Prosecutor to respond to charges that the IDF buried the bodies in a huge mass grave, as Palestinian sources claimed Thursday, and if so, why.

The sources said that the army used bulldozers to cover them up, Palestinian sources said Thursday. The army vehemently denied the allegations.

Signers to the petition - which also included the "Kanon" non-profit organization, MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al-Arab Movement for Renewal) - made the request after Ha'aretz reported that the IDF intended to bury those identified by the army as terrorists in a special cemetery for fallen enemy troops in the Jordan Valley.

The IDF said that the bodies of Palestinian civilians killed in the fighting would be taken to the hospital in Jenin and later buried.

According to Tibi, removing the bodies from the city is a violation of international law and is intended to hide the truth from the public about the killing that occurred there.

Soldiers had been removing bodies since Thursday and plans were to continue to do so.

Secret UK ban on weapons for Israel

Britain has imposed a de facto arms embargo on Israel for the first time in 20 years, official sources have told the Guardian. The ban applies to military equipment that could be used in Israel's continuing operations in the Palestinian territories.
The sources insist Britain has not imposed a formal or complete ban and Whitehall officials are coy about discussing which sales have been blocked. Decisions, they say, are being taken on a case-by-case basis. However, they add that military equipment that would have been cleared before Israel's offensive against the Palestinians, is now being blocked.

One Whitehall official pointed to the government's guidelines which state that arms exports would be blocked if they were for "internal repression", affected "adversely regional stability in any significant way", or if there was a clear risk "that the intended recipient would use the proposed export aggressively against another country, or to assert by force a territorial claim".

London's undeclared policy mirrors that of Germany and is likely to be discussed today when the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, meets Tony Blair at Chequers.

One source said the shift in Britain's stance had not been made public because of deep divisions of opinion in Whitehall over the best response to developments in the Middle East. These divisions went "a long way up", said the source.

Sharon’s Contribution

My vote is that General Sharon's offensive is the stupidest campaign in recent memory. Defined here as a campaign that has: solved nothing, increased Israel's problems, intensified Palestinian hatred of Israel, estranged many Europeans and Americans, and fanned Islamic hostility. What is General Sharon up to?

What he said was that he was determined to destroy the "infrastructure" of the suicide terrorists.

Well, how do you do that?

We Americans are trying to do that to al Qaeda. This involved a war on the government of Afghanistan, a nation formally identified with terrorists it sheltered, trained, and dispatched to do their grisly work. The U.S. in effect declared war on the Taliban government and pursued that war as best it could. Having toppled Kabul, our anti-terrorist forces are now deployed here and there, doing such things as raiding a terrorist nest in Pakistan and hauling in a suspected leader.

Sharon's policy is scorched-earth. Under his command, the Israeli army has engaged not in isolating the infrastructure of the suicide terrorists. What he is engaged in is wanton damage. The New York Times's Serge Schmemann, reporting from Jerusalem, tells it in a dispatch on Thursday with a memorable lead:

The images are indelible: piles of concrete and twisted metal in the ancient casbah of Nablus, husks of savaged computers littering ministries in Ramallah, rows of storefronts sheared by passing tanks in Tulkarm, broken pipes gushing precious water, flattened cars in fields of shattered glass and garbage, electricity poles snapped like twigs, tilting walls where homes used to stand, gaping holes where rockets pierced office buildings." And he uses Sharon's missionary mandate without apparent irony: "It is safe to say that the infrastructure of life itself and of any future Palestinian state — roads, schools, electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines — has been devastated.

How's that for retaliation for the Passover massacre?

Poll sees Americans support cutting aid to Israel

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Most Americans believe the
United States should halt or reduce economic and military aid
to Israel if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not immediately
withdraw troops from Palestinian areas, according to a Time
Magazine/CNN poll released on Friday.
The poll of 1,003 adults also found most Americans back
Secretary of State Colin Powell's Mideast peace mission,
although they expect few results and consider Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat a "terrorist" and an enemy of the U.S.
The public opinion sampling was conducted on Wednesday and
Thursday, before Powell arrived in Israel on Friday, when a
suicide bomber killed six people outside a Jerusalem market.
Sharon has rejected repeated direct calls by President
George W. Bush to withdraw troops from Palestinian areas,
prompting some critics to raise the possibility of sanctions.
But the administration has made clear it has no plans to
threaten key ally Israel with a cut in its $3 billion in annual
aid. Even if it did, a strongly pro-Israel U.S. Congress likely
would oppose the move.
The Time/CNN poll found that 60 percent of Americans
favored the aid cut off if an Israeli troop withdrawal does not
take place immediately.
An even larger number -- 75 percent -- think Powell's
Mideast trip is a good idea but only 21 percent of the
respondents believe major progress toward peace will result.

Israelis shelter bloodiest battlefield from eyes of media and aid groups

THE last group of hardcore Palestinian militants surrendered in Jenin’s refugee camp yesterday, but Israeli troops continued their strenuous efforts to prevent independent witnesses entering the bloodiest battlefield of their two-week-old anti-terrorist offensive.
With Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, arriving in Jerusalem last night the soldiers blocked the United Nations, the Red Cross and the media from entering the “closed military area” where scores of Palestinians, as well as 22 Israeli soldiers, have been killed in ferocious close-quarter fighting.

Some journalists were detained. One had his press card ripped up. Footage filmed by a television cameraman was confiscated. The few pictures that did emerge from the camp showed scenes of devastation.

Refugees leaving the northern West Bank city talked of misery, horror and death inside the camp which formerly housed 13,000 residents. They spoke of “countless dead bodies” and men being executed at close range.

Israel buries the bodies, but cannot hide the evidence

Israel was trying to bury the evidence in Jenin refugee camp yesterday, but it cannot bury the terrible crime it has committed: a slaughter in which Palestinian civilians were cut down alongside the armed defenders of the camp.

Israeli tanks circled journalists menacingly as foreign reporters tried to get into the camp, cutting off their approach. But a man who had just fled the camp said he had seen Israeli soldiers burying the bodies of the dead in a mass grave.

"I saw it all with my own eyes," said the man. "I saw people bleeding to death in the streets. I saw a 10-year-old child lying dead. There was a big hole in his side and his arm had been blown away.

"I saw them burying the bodies. They started work on the grave a few days ago. I recognised some of the bodies in it. I can give you the names."

US approves Arafat-Powell meeting

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has made a statement condemning "all terrorist acts which target civilians", opening the way for a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the meeting would now go ahead on Sunday morning.

Mr Powell is expected to use the occasion to demand specific steps from Mr Arafat to combat terrorism.

But the secretary of state has also issued his own statement expressing concern at the desperate humanitarian situation faced by Palestinians in the West Bank.

Issued in Arabic, Mr Arafat's statement made special reference to Friday's suicide attack in west Jerusalem which killed six Israelis.

Israeli Army Accused of Atrocities

JENIN, West Bank -- Khadra Samara, her family and closest neighbors lived in three adjacent cinder-block houses on Rwabe Street, a relatively quiet corner of the Palestinian refugee camp here.

For 17 terrifying hours this week, she says, the 30 unarmed neighbors fled on hands and knees from one three-story home to the next, huddling together as Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and bulldozers reduced the buildings to rubble in methodical succession.

Israel's fiercest assault of its 2-week-old West Bank operation dealt systematic destruction and random death to civilians as well as fighters in this militant Palestinian stronghold, according to displaced residents of the camp and relief workers in Jenin. The battle was all but over Thursday with the surrender of dozens of Palestinians, the last holdouts among an estimated 200 fighters.

Walk in the shoes of a Palestinian American

A war is raging against Palestinians today. Even as I write, Israeli soldiers are killing hundreds of Palestinians. We hear day after day about "Palestinian targets" and "Palestinian militants" or "terrorists."

Lost in this barrage of epithets is our ability to understand and empathize with the Palestinian human beings who live this war and continue to survive the hostile military rule of 35 years.

A Native-American proverb tells us that no one can walk a day in another person's shoes without gaining a new perspective, so I invite you to walk with me for a moment and glimpse the world and the current war as a Palestinian American.

If you are a Palestinian, you are either living in a refugee camp, living under military occupation, living in a country other than your own, or some combination of the above. A Palestinian's daily existence is a struggle to move freely, to go to school, to work, to survive.

The refugee is a person whose life has been collapsed. One day he is a normal person in an orderly world, and the next day he is left with the clothes on his back and with whatever he could salvage from the man-made disaster that has suddenly engulfed his life.

Over one million of Palestine's total 3.7 million refugees continue to live in decrepit camps scattered throughout the Arab world. In these holding stations, no state or government is accountable for them.

Languishing in homelessness and abject poverty, there is an entire generation of Palestinians who were born, live and die in refugee camps. They spend their lives in this non-place and their identities are defined by being from a time that no longer exists.

CATERPILLAR HQ OCCUPIED IN UK AS ISRAELI BULLDOZERS TRY TO HIDE WAR
CRIMES

Today pro-Palestinian activists occupied the Caterpillar HQ in Desford, Leicestershire in protest at the bulldozer-building company profiteering from the murderous Israeli activity in Palestine.

Activists leafleted the 1,500 workforce and occupied the offices of the Managing Director. Leaflets were put on people's desks, on noticeboards, in magazine racks and inside machinery. Activists managed to gain access to all parts of the site, including the MD's office, other offices, warehouses, factories and car-parks. A large group of managers were confronted in their lunch-break in the staff canteen. Some supportive workers took bundles of leaflets to hand out to their colleagues.

The leaflets outlined what is going on in Palestine at the moment, and Caterpillar's involvement in the massacres and demolitions. The IDF use Caterpillar bulldozers to wreak enormous destruction in the Occupied Territories - bulldozing the homes of Palestinian people, creating roadblocks, and creating the mass graves so that the Israeli forces can hide their war crimes. It urged workers to look at independent websites and to "go slow" at work.
Two women managed to gain access to the Managing Director's office. They have both been arrested on suspicion of "Burglary" and were released after nearly 15 hours in custody, on police bail.

Whilst this action took place, reports were simultaneously coming in saying that Caterpillar bulldozers were completely destroying the refugee camp at Jenin, and were digging huge mass graves to bury the bodies of the untold number of Palestinians who have been murdered there.

Riots near Old City; Israeli Offensive Continues as Sharon Meets Powell

In Jenin, the true story is only beginning to unfold, as Israeli military forces continue to prevent press access to the refugee camp. Several international human rights activists, trying to provide medical and other humanitarian relief to the area, have tried to enter the city and the camp, only to be denied by Israeli forces.

The 20 internationals spent the night in a nearby village, where refugees from the camp and released detainees have been forced to set up a temporary camp. Reports that these individuals have been collecting paint a horrifying picture of Israeli destruction and torture.

According to this group, more than 150 Palestinian men were left naked near a village on the outskirts of Jenin after being taken away by Israeli soldiers from the camp. Nearly 600 other Palestinians were dumped near the Salem checkpoint outside of Jenin city, with no place to go given the military imposed curfew on Jenin. The detainees tell stories of being beaten and left in the cold without once being questioned.

According to one report from the internationals near Jenin, a Palestinian UNRWA employee was detained at a checkpoint for three days without food. The account reports that the right side of his face is paralyzed due to severe beating.

In another account from Jenin, a Palestinian man was taken from his home and used as a
human shield by Israeli soldiers. His back and neck are reportedly burned by cigarettes.

U.S. Is Given Papers That Israelis Assert Tie Arafat to Terror

WASHINGTON, April 11 — Israel has given the United States a cache of documents that Israeli officials say were captured in raids in the West Bank and establish that Yasir Arafat financed and oversaw terrorist attacks by Palestinian militants.

The documents were provided to Bush administration officials this week, apparently in an effort to reinforce Israel's contention that Mr. Arafat cannot be trusted and to blunt pressure from Washington for a halt to the Israeli military offensive.

The Israelis say the documents and other intelligence do more than draw a link to Mr. Arafat and his top lieutenants. They say they also show that elements of the Palestinian office of preventive security, which the United States has backed as a way to enhance the authority of moderate Palestinians and head off terrorist attacks, are also linked to suicide bombings.

A senior Israeli military official was careful not to assert that Jabril Rajoub, the leader of the office, had directed any attacks. But the official said that mortars and heavy machine guns, as well as yarmulkas and other disguises for suicide bombers, were found in his headquarters.

Palestinian officials have charged that the documents released by the Israelis are being taken out of context or are forgeries being used in an attempt to justify a military offensive in the West Bank that has drawn widespread criticism.

Bloodbath kept from the eyes of the world

AT SOME point in the next few days, when the Israelis withdraw their forces from the Jenin refugee camp, the real story of what happened there will emerge. But it became clear yesterday that the bloodshed has been on a scale notable even in the grim history of the Middle East conflict.
Early yesterday morning 13 Israeli soldiers died in an ambush in the camp’s narrow alleyways, adding to the nine already killed during more than a week of fighting in the West Bank city from which all independent observers have been barred.

Israel Radio reported that more than 150 Palestinians have also been killed. It is a measure of their ferocious resistance that even Israelis have called their stand a “Palestinian Masada”, a reference to the Dead Sea fortress where Jews held out for three years against the Romans before committing suicide in AD73.

Yesterday’s ambush inflicted the single heaviest toll on Israeli forces since the present intifada began 18 months ago, and the casualties were reserve soldiers called up barely a week ago to assist in Operation Desert Shield

Powell Puts Off Arafat Meeting

(CBS) His peacekeeping mission rocked by a terrorist bombing, Secretary of State Colin Powell has postponed a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian information minister said.

The meeting originally was to take place Saturday. Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said U.S. officials informed the Palestinians the meeting was being postponed, possibly to Sunday.

Just hours after a suicide bomber struck near a Jerusalem marketplace Friday, the White House called on Arafat to publicly denounce the terrorist act and the State Department said Powell would decide later whether to see Arafat as planned.

"He's looking at the whole situation in terms of the bombing and everything," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

PRESS RELEASE: GIPP Delegations Break Israeli Imposed Siege



2002-04-12
(April 12th, 2002): Four groups here as part of the Grassroots International Protection for Palestinians – GIPP, have today succeeded in breaking the Israeli imposed siege on the West Bank. The delegates from France, Belgium, Brazil and Iceland, including members of parliaments and other governmental officials, entered Ramallah and held a demonstration near the Palestinian Authority headquarters, where Yasser Arafat is currently imprisoned.

Other GIPP delegates who are under siege with Arafat inside the compound also took part in the demonstration, from the other side of the Israeli tanks and soldiers that surround the area.

The GIPP continues its activities and calls for people to come to Palestine in solidarity with Palestinians. Given the existing situation GIPP is the only form of international protection that Palestinians are given – and at no time has it been more necessary then now.

For more information on GIPP – visit www.pngo.net

Analysis: Powell runs into trouble

Several hours of talks in Jerusalem failed to produce agreement between the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, on how long Israel's military operations in Palestinian towns should last.

The most Mr Sharon would say was that he hoped Israel would soon conclude what he called its war on the infrastructure of terror.

Powell defended Israel's right to respond to attacks

Mr Powell said he would go on trying to reach agreement.

Shortly after their news conference, another suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem underlined the intractable nature of the conflict - even if it tended to undermine the Israeli Government's argument that its offensive was curbing Palestinian violence.

It was striking that Mr Powell did not repeat President Bush's call for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces - a demand also made by the United Nations Security Council.

Ramallah...a City in Rage

All of our hearts and eyes are on Jenin and Nablus. My best friend in Nablus got his electricity back today, after 7 days straight without it. Still no water. No telephone..only a mobile phone. He has a newborn (3 weeks old) and a 4 year old at home. In Jenin reporters gather on the Israeli checkpoint waiting to enter. Even Ben Welderman from CNN stated on the air today....we feel Israel is hiding something by not letting any of us enter. 'Us' is not only journalists. But int'l relief services, Red Cross, human rights activists, Israeli peace activists, ambulances, clean water trucks, etc, etc.

Today it was reported that the Israeli army has actually started to cover up their war crimes by bulldozing the rubble to central locations and by burying over 300 decomposing Palestinian bodies in mass graves and sewage pits. The are putting the bodies in body bags so the pictures are less disturbing once the cameras do get in and find them. Israel has actually asked the UN for more body bags, as you will read below. They ran out of body bags in Israel!!!!! Can anyone understand what this means!!!

I am receiving many messages from Israeli friends who are trying to offer help. Truth is they feel just as helpless as us under curfew, or for that matter, as an American under Bush. Here is an excerpt from one Israeli mother:

"...really all words mean nothing anymore.israel is the real loser .the ugly aggressor.just like after hitler germans were ashamed to be germans ,now israelis are going to be in the same position.no matter how many palestinians are killed israel will never succeed in justifying stealing your lands,your lives,your futures,your safety,and all they can,and then calling you terrorists because you don't take it quietly enough!how dare you resist...."

Gaza: Waiting and Not Knowing

Rafah, Gaza [11 April 2002]--There are rumors that the road between Khan Yunis and Rafah is being closed now. This would suggest that an incursion into Rafah or Khan Yunis is imminent. An employee at the Internet Cafe where I'm writing this asked me if I brought my camera (I'm currently trapped in Rafah because the north-south checkpoints in Gaza are closed). He said he hopes that I will see everything if there is an incursion here... but that meanwhile they'll just wait to welcome the invaders.

Last night there was a lot of gunfire outside the camp. People said today there had been a lot of shooting so I wasn't imagining it (every loud noise around here awakens paranoia that something is about to happen or is happening. The psychological effect of waiting and not knowing is horrible). Helicopters were scouting out the area last night and this morning, too.

Today the body of a Rafah man killed last night by IDF soldiers had to be left in the open field where he was shot. No one is allowed to go get the man and bury him. No doubt he has a contagious terrorist virus that will affect anyone within 100 meters of him.

This morning hundreds of girls from the girls' schools here demonstrated in solidarity with the people of Jenin. The streets were unpassable for a long time while they marched. It was an unexpected sight but says how politicized the people here are. I mean, these were not mostly male teen-agers and adults carrying machine guns, signs, and shouting slogans; they were schoolgirls from primary and secondary schools. The energy in the crowd far surpassed anything I've experienced in demonstrations in the US, but then I hear that's changing. I hope so.

I hear the PLO office in DC was closed down because they were late paying their rent. Oh, and that Ariel Sharon is "committed to peace".

The ability to maintain a sense of humor here is necessary for survival; or so I'm discovering.

How to cover up war crimes?

There is a growing concensus that Israel's actions suggest an intention to hide evidence of war crimes committed in Jenin refugee camp. Reports from eyewitnesses speak of horror. We're not thinking of apartheid-South Africa now, but we fear atrocities of Slobodan Milosovic.

Residents of the camp speak of bodies left in the streets and alleyways, and under the rubble of demolished homes. Israel still prevents journalists and independent monitors from the area.
Yesterday, journalists were stripped, their press cards and tapes confiscated and sent out of the area. CNN's Ben Wedeman said: 'Another problem we've experienced here in Jenin is the fact that there's almost no access. In fact, we have no access whatsoever to the refugee camp. We have been trying for quite some time and in many different ways to get inside that camp because we need to know what has happened.'

Also the BBC faced problems. Wedeman said: 'In this case, we're hearing of other reporters -- in fact, the BBC had a crew. They were given the choice: Surrender your press cards -- which is essentially your passport to cover this story -- or surrender your equipment. They chose to surrender their press cards.

The Invasion - A West Bank journal - Part III - April 3, 2002

Bethlehem - The nicest thing about the morning of April 3 was the discovery that electricity existed again. This meant working television. Television meant news. News meant information from outside the confines of the Bethlehem Star Hotel. This information meant, well, the only channel in English in my hotel
room: CNN World. So as the sunlight struggled through the dark clouds outside, and the clank of tank treads through the window reminded me of my predicament, I was treated to an interview with CBS's Dan Rather by Larry King. Larry insisted on reminding me what a remarkable journalist Dan was. Dan opted to inform me about what a warlike situation Israeli controlled Jerusalem was in. Dan noted a car that exploded at a West Jerusalem checkpoint, qualifying him as a war correspondent. Dan! Why aren't you talking about the tanks crunching their way through my neighborhood? Dan had to know, if not, I would tell him.

While I didn?t have Dan?s phone number, I was able to find CBS News? bureau number in Tel Aviv. With a few quick phone calls it was arranged. CBS News would later on interview myself and my friend about being Americans trapped by an Israeli invasion in Bethlehem. Finally, Dan would know.

In the meantime the hotel was settling into its second day of occupation. I awoke too late for breakfast, but found no shame in eating scraps of bread, cheese and olives left behind on the plates of others. Word came in that a convoy of US Embassy vehicles, slated to rescue willing foreigners still had yet to receive Israeli permission to proceed. The International Solidarity Movement members chatted to friends still stranded in Dehiesheh and other refugee camps or sat reading. The journalists still struggled to make forays towards Manger Square without being shot at by the Israelis. On the television in the lounge, Al Jezeera was interviewing one of the female hotel workers about the situation over a satellite feed. I saw the hotel lobby being broadcast internationally and back into the lobby. We looked bored. Indeed, one of the more frequent videotapings by the host of reporters and a couple amateur filmmakers seemed to be capturing the routines of those trapped in the hotel.

While settling back into the routine of card games, I observed some of the reporters talking about contacting CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Their interest was in filing a protest petition to the Israeli authorities concerning the frequency with which the Israelis were shooting at journalists. This had been evident elsewhere, as CNN's broadcasts from outside Ramallah confirmed the same thing happening to them there. Every organization represented in the hotel, from the US, UK, France, Italy, Norway and elsewhere signed on. From what I could make of the phone call they placed to Amanpour, CNN had already filed similar complaints. Only slowly did it begin to sink in that if no one knew what was happening in any of these cities, the Israelis must be hiding some horrible things.

http://electronicintifada.net/diaries/archives/00000102.shtml

Urgent Appeal to the World
Posted by Patricia Smith

Beit Hanina -- It has now been confirmed that Israeli troops have committed a massacre in Jenin. The Israeli army admits several hundred people have been killed, but Palestinians fear the numbers are much higher.

Israel is now attempting to cover up its crime by removing the bodies of the dead from the camp and burying them in the northern part of the Jordan Valley, in a secret location.

For ten days not a single journalist, nurse, doctor, international Red Cross team or observer has been able to reach the site of the massacre. No representative from UNWRA, the UN body responsible for the camp, has been permitted to visit the area, everybody denied access so they cannot see or report what has occurred.

Most of the 15,000 residents of the camp have been killed, injured or completely dispossessed of their homes and shelter. The camp has been destroyed.

Israel refused to listen to the International community when it demanded the troops withdraw from the camp; now they are trying to create a complete news blackout of the situation, so the world cannot learn what they have done there. We, members of Palestinian civil society are concerned that same events may be carried out in a different area -- as long as the army remains in the West Bank this is a real threat. We are also concerned that next, not content with a blackout on the media, Sharon will attack the organizations and Palestinian civil society institutions that are daring, and able to, speak out.

We are now, more than ever, in desperate need of an international protection force to be immediately deployed to the West Bank.

We appeal to the world to not remain silent. Sharon must be stopped. The atrocity he and his army have committed must be seen; new atrocities must be prevented. To add insult to injury, Israeli spokespeople are claiming Palestinians are hiding the bodies of the dead in order to stage a propaganda coup in the coming days. This lie is a cynical Israeli attempt to distort the truth ˆ another Israeli attempt to cover up their actions.

Asphalt Turned into Dust

Jerusalem -- Tuesday, April 9, a convoy of 14 international representatives and 9 national relief agencies were allowed to enter into Nablus to deliver needed medical supplies and food to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). The supplies will be distributed to those who are in need. The Israeli IDF has occupied Nablus for one week before the convoy entrance into the city. The press was not allowed to enter into the city to film or record the event.

The asphalt has turned into dust along the main entrance road into Nablus. The city is desolate, isolated and a ghost town. Many damaged buildings line the streets and utility poles are toppled over. The only movement outside was that of the Israeli soldiers and tanks buffing up the sand into the air along with periodic cats sitting under an olive tree. Nablus was once a lively city full of shoppers, children with smiling faces and men who were focused on their work. Now, the city is eerie and full of mourning over the deaths of their loved ones who lay rotting in the streets in the Old City area. The Nablutians minds are consumed on survival for the mere needs of bread, medicine, water and cigarettes, a contrast from only over a week ago.

However, no one from the convoy could enter into the Old City area because gun battles, tank shelling and helicopters rang into the day's air. The amount of killed or injured can only be estimated because it is unknown how many bodies lay under the rumble of the destroyed buildings. The ambulances periodically attempt to enter into the Casaba area (Old City) to deliver medical aid and remove bodies from the streets. The ambulances are shot at an "average of six times" (by the IDF) when they enter into the streets, reported a PRCS medical staff representative. I could see the frustration and concern in their eyes and the desire to get out to assist combined with the risk of getting fired upon while some of the staff was showing me the bullet holes that penetrated the ambulances.

On Tuesday the 9th of April, the same day the convoy entered into Nablus, it is reported that 1000 Old City residents were forced to leave their homes and gather at the Gamal Abdel Nasser school and then the IDF moved them to the Hawara military base. LAW reports that 12 residents were killed. Only a few have been identified, Riziq Baker, 40 and in Askar refugee camp, Hafed Sabra, 60 and Amjad-Abda, 11 were hit by artillery shell. LAW also reports that the IDF entered into the mosque in the Old City and arrested many wounded then closed the field hospital located there.

No Witnesses

Beit Hanina -- The woman from Jenin refugee camp said, “we couldn’t see what was happening so we looked through the window, we were terrified in case they shot at us.”

Another Palestinian witness said he saw “15 or so Palestinian women and children, including an old woman in a wheelchair, moving down the main street of Jenin refugee camp. An Israeli tank was behind them with the barrel focused on them, the soldiers were yelling at them in Arabic – Yalla, yalla, imshi! ("quickly, quickly, walk!") and cursed them. I think they were taking them to the Muqata'a (Governorate headquarters). Then the soldiers reversed the tank – shouted at me and told me to get away from the window or they would shoot”.

The curfew imposed on the West Bank not only means the Israeli soldiers have complete control of the streets – it also effectively means that there are no witnesses to what is occurring. The complete prevention of movement of ambulances and medical teams not only unnecessarily endangers the lives of the Palestinian sick and wounded, it also leaves the Israeli soldiers operating with impunity.

The Israeli military has also declared these invaded areas ‘closed military zones’ meaning that they are not open to journalists or foreigners. A Reporters Without Borders fact-finding missing to the area last summer noted “more than 30 journalists had been wounded by gunfire, mostly by the Israeli army, over the previous 10 months.”

Today the situation is infinitely worse with one Italian journalist recently shot dead in Ramallah by Israeli soldiers, on the 9th of April Gilles Jaques, a French TV2 reporter, was shot in the chest while reporting from Nablus; other journalists report soldiers opening fire on them at checkpoints and many journalists were shot at while in a hotel in Ramallah. This is a violent attempt by the Israeli army and government to aggressively censor foreign journalists.

Jenin: The Palestinian Masada

Tel Aviv [6 April 2002] -- Brutalization. The situation is not getting better. Reservists say that they do not understand the goals of this operation. The diminished quality of the army, and the improved military capacity of the Palestinian fighters in the Jenin refugee camp, are having a direct impact on the Palestinian population. The army's inability to take over the camp - and the growing number of casualties (6 IDF soldiers killed as of last night) - have led to an upsurge in brutalization tactics by the IDF. This should come as no surprise: As the Palestinians are closing the gap in quality of fighting, the Israeli army, which has sent elite, crack units into the camp, can only rely on its technological advantage.

The Nablus Kasbah is next in line. It is difficult to know what exactly is happening in Jenin, as no reporters are allowed in. (Shimon Peres said yesterday that "TV cameras are as powerful as artillery.") Yet some key information can be gleaned: The local commander, Brig. Gen. Eyal Shlain, said in an Israel Radio interview yesterday that the difficulty of overtaking the camp stems from the high motivation and improved capability of the Palestinian fighters, who have "learned from experience." He also admitted that there were many civilian casualties, and upon being asked whether the army called them to surrender, he said "Let's leave that for later." The results can be seen from these reports:

From Tamar Peleg, a leading attorney at the Israeli Civil Rights Association:


'I spoke to a friend…He lives in Jenin city at the foot of the hill where the refugee camp is situated. He has been watching for hours on end Apache helicopters firing missiles, fire in the camp, smoke over the camp, tanks surrounding it, more tanks, dozens of them, arriving by Haifa road. He can hear blasts and heavy machine gun fire. The camp has been completely cut off the outside world. The phones don't function…I spoke to doctor G. in the Jenin hospital…This is the only hospital that can receive the wounded and the dead from the camp. They have not received any since yesterday morning. The ambulances have not been allowed to move. A huge tank is standing in front of the hospital...The Red Cross and the Red Crescent are negotiating with the IDF the conditions under which they will be permitted to collect the wounded and the dead. I understand that IDF's condition is to identify everyone in order to be able to arrest any wounded person it chooses. In other words, the medical staff is requested to surrender the wounded.'

What is more telling, though, is the apparent shift towards mysticism in the Israeli political establishment. Here we see the most important developments. As the situation worsens, the right wing government is trying to widen its radical support base, in case the Labor Party decides to bolt the coalition. The National Religious Party has swiftly replaced its leader with Effi Eytam, a retired general with truly messianic views. His sudden arrival to the top position of the NRP is in line with his ideology. A friend who specializes in Jewish mysticism (and knows Eytam personally, I believe), has conveyed to me the following observations:

'Effi Eytam is not just a more extreme right-winger. He is one of those who live in a virtual reality superimposed on the reality most sane people inhabit. In a truthful moment he will tell you that the "greatness of soul" exhibited by the suicide bombers emanates from the Holy of Holies [Haram ash-Sharif], which they control. For him, destroying the Dome of the Rock and building a Jewish temple is not merely a religious, but also a strategic, necessity.'

Powell: talks between Israel, Palestinians must resume

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking at a brief press conference following his meetings with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government's extended security cabinet on Friday, said that eventually, both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would have to renew talks.

Powell said the United States understands Israel's need to defend itself, but added that "eventually the parties must talk, the parties must have negotiations." Powell said he did not come away from the meeting with a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal.

"I hope we can find a way to come into agreement on this
point of the duration of the operations and get back to a track that will lead to a political settlement," said Powell.

Dollar at new high against Shekel

The U.S. dollar reached a record high against the Israel shekel Friday, with the representative rate set at $1=NIS 4.799. The new rate represents a devaluation of 0.714 percent in the Israeli currency, compared with the rate set on Thursday (NIS 4.765).

Friday's devaluation stems in part from the decision by Standard and Poor's to downgrade Israel's credit rating from 'stable' to 'negative'.

"The decision reflects growing fiscal and economic pressures on Israel as a result of the continued recession and the tense security situation in the country," said an S&P credit analyst.

S&P drops Israel's outlook from `stable' to `negative'

The international credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said yesterday that it was lowering its outlook for Israel from stable to negative as a result of the continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and fiscal deficits, but Israel's credit rating remained unchanged.

S&P's ratings are extremely influential on Israel's status on world financial markets and on the interest that the government and Israeli firms pay.

S&P said the reduction to negative came despite an improved outlook for the global economy.

"Although the emerging global recovery is expected to provide some relief later this year, we rule out a substantial rebound in Israel's economic activity in 2002, due to the persistence of the highly volatile and tense security situation," said S&P's credit analyst Konrad Reuss.

So far Israel's credit rating levels have remained unaffected by the situation and remain comparatively high (around the A2 level) for long-term foreign currency and local currency debt, but Israel's economic policy makers should definitely be concerned as the statement hinted that its credit ratings could be downgraded.

Israeli, Palestinian Backers Clash During Campus Rally

Tension between Berkeley supporters of Israel and Palestine soared to alarming heights yesterday as a noon rally prompted activists to trade fiery accusations and slurs, and resulted in the takeover of Wheeler Hall.

Seventy-nine protesters were arrested during the five-hour siege of the central campus building.

The rally, organized by the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine, drew approximately 1,000 people to Sproul Plaza, where heated debates erupted spontaneously in the audience—one man could be heard denouncing an Israeli supporter as "a fucking Nazi"—and chants of "Stop the suicide bombings" rippled throughout the crowd.

At its low point, crowd members waved Israeli flags and shouted "sacrilege," "anti-Semite," "shame" and "fuck you" amid a general uproar as speaker Micah Bazant, a Jewish supporter of Palestine, invoked the kaddish—a traditional Jewish prayer of mourning—in honor of Palestinians who had been killed in the conflict.

Aiding the Enemy

Who would have imagined that anyone could turn a vacillating dictator like Yasir Arafat into a hero, while also sowing discord between Israel and its greatest ally?

Ariel Sharon has managed to do both. And by defying President Bush's appeals and using helicopters paid for with United States tax dollars to destroy Palestinian homes and lives, he is also undermining American credibility in the region.

Now there is also a growing risk of a larger war. Israel is understandably outraged by Hezbollah rocket attacks from Lebanon and is contemplating striking back — at Syria. An Israeli cabinet member said this week that Israel was seriously considering hitting Syrian targets, and acknowledged: "The magnitude of the conflict may be a huge one."

Mr. Sharon is, of course, brutally provoked by Mr. Arafat's duplicity and dalliance with terrorism, and one can't help sympathizing with his need to satisfy an Israeli electorate that understandably demands a response to bombings. Yet Mr. Arafat is such a catastrophe as a leader that it falls upon Mr. Sharon to display enough wisdom for both.

Unfortunately, Mr. Sharon has made a career of responding to Palestinian outrages by pursuing rash military solutions that ultimately harm Israel rather than bolster it.

The Number of Dead Is in Dispute, but the Destruction in Jenin Is Clear

JENIN, West Bank, April 11 — Toward dusk today, black smoke rose from the ruins of Jenin's refugee camp, a fortress of Palestinian resistance that has crumbled before overwhelming Israeli force.

No one knows how many people have died here. Israeli officials have given estimates of 100 to 200, and said that most of the dead were armed men. Palestinians estimated twice that many, and said the dead included civilians cut down by random fire.

Many people have fled, and others have been taken prisoner by Israel. Some are probably buried in the rubble.

This evening Jenin was motionless except for the Israeli armored vehicles that have taken command of the ragged streets. It was silent except for the occasional bursts of machine-gun fire or tank shells.

Gray cinder-block walls in the refugee camp were scorched black and punched through by shells. A broad boulevard that was sliced through the camp had been jaggedly paved with the remnants of smashed buildings.

From a distance, the camp's center looked as though a giant's fist had come down upon it. At the edge of the wreckage, a two-story-tall armored bulldozer trailing an enormous steel spike crunched its way through a wall.

A rumor of war: Local activists find themselves among hundreds of "internationals" who have stepped into a war zone in the West Bank. Why?

Here in Seattle, after a long and dreary winter, it is an utterly perfect, sunny spring Thursday. It is April, and I should be out in the garden or down by the lake, something to soak up the idyllic glory of Seattle's fleeting springtime.

Instead, I am on the phone talking with former Seattle resident (and Seattle Weekly editorial assistant) Kristen Schurr. Outside my window, kids are playing. Outside Kristen's, it is a war zone, and children are shot at every day.

It is life in a Palestinian refugee camp. Hers happens to be Al-Azzeh, outside Bethlehem. It's been a bad week.

"The first night I was here, just crossing the alley in front of the apartment, I was shot at," she says matter-of-factly. "They showed me how to duck and run." She's used her new skills regularly in the past few days. "Just today, I went into a little shop inside of camp; we got shot at."

During our four conversations last week, Schurr practiced the maneuver, pausing during a sentence as she scurried across some alley. There's a sniper tower in the adjacent Israeli settlement, and the Israeli army has taken over all of Bethlehem's tallest buildings. At times, as with my other conversations with people in the area, I could hear the gunshots and 18 mm shells over the phone.

Is she brave? Reckless? Stupid? Why on earth would someone choose to go into such a place? Especially now? Is it a martyr complex? An all-time bad vacation story for the grandkids?

Europe moves for trade sanctions against Israel

The European Parliament adopted a strongly worded resolution Wednesday calling for the suspension of trade relations with Israel to protest its military offensive against the Palestinians. While the resolution is non-binding, it will add pressure on European governments to consider their relations with Israel.

By a vote of 269 to 208, with 22 abstentions, the Strasbourg-based parliament representing the European Union called on the bloc to "suspend immediately" its trade and cooperation agreement with Israel.

The resolution called for an arms embargo against "Israel and Palestine" and condemned suicide bombings. But its strongest words were reserved for Israel, as it condemned the "military escalation pursued by the Sharon government" and the "oppression of the Palestinian civilian population by the Israeli army."

White House Blames Arafat, Says Sharon is Man of Peace

WASHINGTON: Following a meeting between President Bush and Congressional leaders, the White House declared that Sharon is committed to peace and that Arafat and Arab neighbors need to denounce terrorism.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer again called for all sides in the crisis to "step up to their responsibilities" and end the violence.

Fleischer said for Israel that means complying with President Bush's request last week to withdraw its troops from Palestinian areas. Prime Minister Sharon has rejected that demand, saying the United States needs to understand that Israel is in a "war of survival."

Fleischer has not said whether President Bush is disappointed by that response. Some Israeli troops are withdrawing from some areas, and Fleischer says the president believes Sharon is a man who is committed to finding peace.

As for the Palestinians, the White House spokesman said President Bush is waiting for Yasser Arafat to make public statements denouncing suicide bombings and rejecting violence as a political instrument.

Fleischer said Israel's Arab neighbors must also do more to stop the violence and reign-in anti-Israeli protestors.

Following breakfast with the president, Senate Minority Leader Republican Trent Lott said Arafat has what he called "one final opportunity" to reduce the violence or risk becoming irrelevant.

Analysis: The battle for Jenin

Accounts are emerging of what went on in the Jenin refugee camp during what is believed to have been the heaviest fighting of Israel's campaign in the West Bank.




The death toll among Palestinian civilians, fighters and Israeli soldiers has been high.

Palestinians have called on the United Nations to investigate what they claim is an Israeli massacre of Palestinians.

The camp is home to 13,000 people and, according to Israeli officials, is one of the main sources of terrorism - in Ariel Sharon's words, "a hornets' nest".

Palestinians say there were extra-judicial executions in the camp - an accusation strongly denied by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).

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" I never imagined they (Israeli soldiers) would use such brutal tactics against us "
Wijdan Abu Sunayah

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There is no independent verification of these accounts - no medical or aid workers, international agencies or journalists have been able to penetrate any distance into the camp.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, estimates that the fighting has driven 2,000 to 3,000 people from their homes, and describes the humanitarian crisis in the camp and the city as extremely serious.

Wijdan Abu Sunayah and her two children left her home in the refugee camp on Wednesday.

She is now sheltering with family in the city.

She described to BBC News Online the attack on the camp.

"There was a lot of shelling and helicopters. Then the soldiers came into the camp, but met resistance so they moved from house to house," she said.

"They weren't able to go in the street so they had to hide in houses.

"They would fire on a house, people would try to escape, some were shot some got away," she added.

Mr. Powell: You Are Not Welcome

Yet you backed his "war on terror" anyway, you let him loose in the refugee camps, killing innocents, robbing shops, burning commercial centers like the barbarian he and his army are.

By Ramzy Baroud, Editor-In-Chief

Arab are well known for their generosity. They receive their guests with open arms, go out of their way to serve them, and to make sure that their guests know that they are welcomed. It’s a well known Arab tradition that when a stranger needs a place to stay, an Arab is compelled to host him for three days before the guest is asked even about his name. But while Arabs might be the lords of generosity, they are not stupid. So, I offer my sincere apologies for breaking this great tradition: Mr. Colin Powell, I hate to say it, but you are not welcome.

You are not welcome, because you came to dance on our wounds, you waited until we bled to death, and you waited until our President was humiliated, you came to tell us to end violence against Israel while we barely got the chance to dig the mass graves in which Israel buried our best men and women.

Bethlehem diary

Here's a summary of some of the things that have been happening...

Bethlehem: refugee camps have not been invaded, but everyone nervous having heard of the major massacre in Jenin (dense refugee camp assaulted with aerial bombing and shelling, and houses bulldozed). Still a siege at the Nativity Church in Manger Square (it is definitely not a hostage situation as the media have been portraying it).

Today I walked down the town with some press people and surveyed the damage to the streets, buildings, market, and other infrastructure. Soldiers would not let us proceed to the square. The place is a mess, lots of tank damage, shell holes, broken water pipes etc.

Last two days I have been running errands on foot to and from the hospital for a family at Al Azzeh camp. They have an ill member needing blood tests and medicine etc. While the curfew is on it is almost impossible for Palesinians to get about, whereas internationals can to a limited extent. There is much less risk of us getting stopped by soldiers, and if stopped, rarely arrested.

Straw outraged by Palestinian casualties

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said today he was "deeply shocked" by the Israeli army's disclosure that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed in fighting at the refugee camp at Jenin.
Mr Straw said he had instructed Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv, Sherard Cowper-Coles, to find out the precise circumstances in which the deaths had occurred.

Jerusalem suicide bomber kills at least six

At least six people were killed today when a suicide bomber blew himself up by a bus stop in central Jerusalem. A further 84 people were wounded by the explosion.
The bomb went off at a bus stop on Jaffa road near Jerusalem's outdoor market, police said. The market has been the scene of frequent suicide bombings in the past.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade has claimed responsibility for the bombing. It is believed that the suicide bomber was a young Palestinian woman.

The explosion happened shortly after 4pm, at a time when the Mahane Yehuda market is crowded with shoppers hunting for pre-Sabbath bargains.

Jerusalem's police chief, Mickey Levy, said the bomber failed to reach the heart of the market or get onto a bus because of tight security. "Thus he exploded himself as he was trying to get on bus," he said.

Apache Helicopters and Tomatoes.

I spent the day with people from Palestinian Water Authority documenting the systematic ways in which the Israeli occupation has excavated, dug up, shot at, destroyed water systems all over the West Bank.

I’ll give you a more detailed report soon, but let’s just say it’s just heinous.

It’s important to compare what American support has been given to Israel with support for Palestine.

U.S. support has brought Apache helicopter gunships firing machine gun bullets and missiles into civilian communities. US support has given Israel F-16 and F-15 fighter jets that rain down bombs and missiles on Palestinian refugee camps. US support has meant the tank shells and bullets that have killed over 1,500 Palestinians and injured over 30,000. The US support is translated in the giant military bulldozers supplied by Caterpiller, Inc…that have demolished the Jenin Refugee Camp.

Press Release: Extra-judicial Executions in Jenin refugee camp; bodies seen in the rubble

(lAW): Reports from witnesses in Jenin refugee camp to LAW indicate that from those Palestinian fighters resisting the Israeli military assault on Jenin refugee camp, a number of those sought to surrender to Israeli forces and were summarily executed.

It has been difficult to confirm exact numbers of those executed, due to the fact that Israeli forces prevent any of the residents of the refugee camp or any independent monitors from returning or entering the refugee camp.

However, LAW has received the names of two of those fighters, who were apparently executed after their surrender: Ala' Sabagh and Mahmoud al- Hilou.

Reports indicate that other fighters remaining within the refugee camp, who have stopped their resistance, and seek to surrender, are being summarily executed.

Witnesses report that when leaving the refugee camp, they saw bodies of residents that appeared to be run over by military bulldozers and bodies within the rubble of homes and shelters that had been destroyed. They expressed their fears that they did not know whether all the bodies in the rubble were dead or injured persons.

Gaza prepares to defend itself

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Residents of the Gaza Strip stockpiled food and began armed street vigils on Tuesday to pre-are for an extension of Israel's West Bank offensive.

Grocery store shelves were emptied, bakeries ran low on flour and streets were taken over by persons keeping watch for any unwanted visitors.

Israel launched a military sweep of West Bank towns and cities on March 29.

"I would say the (Israeli) army operated in the West Bank because it represented an immediate danger for Israel," Israeli political analyst Gerald Steinberg told Reuters.

"Gaza can be easily sealed off. It is possible that Gaza has been on the agenda but it has not been a pressing priority."

Steinberg said most Palestinian suicide bombers who had killed scores of Israelis entered Israel from the West Bank.

Palestinian political analyst Ali al-Jarbawi said he believed Israel had no future ambitions in the Gaza Strip, despite the presence of some Jewish settlements which he said Israel might well be ready to give up in any final settlement.

The Gaza Strip, home to more than one million Palestinians though just 360 square km (140 square miles) in size, has become a virtual prison for its inhabitants.

AROUND THE CLOCK COVERAGE

Latest Update: Maher in Ramallah; Powell meets Sharon; Israel rejects a Vatican call; France sends emergency medical aid; Israeli army kills child in Nablus; Church in Nablus destroyed; officials say that Israel lied about leaving small villages; Details Inside ..

Editor's Note: The PalestineChronicel.com will keep you updated around the clock. This report will be regularly updated with news as they happen. Make sure to refresh the page for newer updates.

News Update: 10:00 AM GMT to 2:00 PM GMT (Friday)

-Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher arrives to Ramallah to hold talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in his besieged headquarters.

-Sharon says Israel will continue its war in the West Bank, and Powell says he understands Israel’s need to launch such war. However, he said, Israel should look beyond such response and revive the political front.

-Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that Israel was losing international support because of its incursions in the West Bank, adding that these had strengthened the authority of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "As friends of Israel we are saying: this is doing you no good, you are losing friends and supporters and understanding around the world," Straw told the BBC.

News Update: 6:00 AM GMT to 10:00 AM GMT (Friday)

Burned Corpses of Children Found in Nablus; Army says it killed hundreds in refugee camp, but refuses to call the killing a massacre; Palestinian fighter, Israeli solider killed in Gaza;

Burned Corpses of Children Found in Nablus: Several corpses of completely burned Palestinian children were found in the Yasmina neighborhood in Nablus. The children were killed when Israeli missiles hit their house. Elsewhere in Nablus, two Palestinian families were found dead under the rubble of their homes. Scores of Palestinians were killed in Nablus when Israel initiated a bloody invasion several days ago. The city is still under curfew where a humanitarian crisis is said to have left people with no food, water or medical aid.

Army says it killed hundreds in refugee camp, but refuses to call it massacre: The Israeli army says its soldiers killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians during this week's fierce attack on the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp. An army spokesman (Brigadier General Ron Kitrey) revealed the new estimate on Israeli radio Friday, sharply revising upward the army's previous estimate of some 100 Palestinians killed in the camp.

The Future of Palestine

Anyone with any connection at all to Palestine is today in a state of stunned outrage and shock. While almost a repeat of what happened in 1982, Israel's current all-out colonial assault on the Palestinian people (with George Bush's astoundingly ignorant and grotesque support) is indeed worse than Sharon's two previous mass forays in 1971 and 1982 against the Palestinian people. The political and moral climate today is a good deal cruder and reductive, the media's destructive role (which has played the part almost entirely of singling out Palestinian suicide attacks and isolating them from their context in Israel's 35-year illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories) greater in favouring the Israeli view of things, the US's power more unchallenged, the war against terrorism has more completely taken over the global agenda and, so far as the Arab environment is concerned, there is greater incoherence and fragmentation than ever before.

Fatal Delusions

JERUSALEM — Here on the quiet streets of Israel, where no one wants to visit a restaurant that is popular, where people scuttle away from anyone with a thick coat, where holy books preach brotherhood as humans call for reprisals, how can faith in the future be restored?

Only by giving up two dangerous delusions of Middle East politics. President Bush has made an excellent start in engaging the Middle East, but real peace is conceivable only if all sides tackle these delusions head on.

The first delusion concerns the rising Palestinian hopes of a universal "right of return" — in other words, the notion that all Palestinians will be able to celebrate a peace agreement by moving back to ancestral homes within Israel proper. It won't happen. Allowing a large-scale return would mean the death of Israel as a state that is both democratic and Jewish, and Israel will never commit suicide.

Life Under Siege

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Last Thursday night Jihad Abu Ajour, a young woman living down the road from me, gave birth to her first child in her home in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. The Israeli Army was refusing to allow ambulances to approach the camp. Ms. Abu Ajour's baby was not breathing properly. Hours later an ambulance finally came to take the baby to the hospital, where he died soon after. Later, under the night curfew and the threat of snipers, the two grandfathers and the father sneaked out of the camp to the nearby cemetery to bury the baby.

In its quest to stop suicide bombings in Israel, the Israeli Army invaded Bethlehem last week and has placed the entire civilian population under siege. The people here are running short of water, food and milk for the young. Those lucky enough to have stored food before the invasion now sit in crowded rooms far away from windows exposed to gunfire. Those without food wait in desperation for the Red Cross to reach them with supplies. Armored personnel carriers and soldiers patrol the streets, and shots are fired in all directions. A safe corner in the house today can be a deathbed tomorrow.

The limits of loyalty

CREDIBILITY AND authority. Those are two concepts at the core of President Bush's foreign policy, as he tries to impress on terrorists and American allies alike that the United States is not to be messed with.

But the president's tough talk proved hollow last weekend, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon blatantly defied Bush's demands for an end to Israel's offensive into Palestinian cities and refugee camps.

Sharon's defiance was especially brazen because it directly violated the terms of two recent U.N. Security Council resolutions, plus a similar council statement Sunday night, all of which demanded Israel's immediate withdrawal.

Israel announced yesterday that its troops were preparing to pull back from two West Bank cities, Qalqiliya and Tulkarem. But its troops, tanks and air force surged forward elsewhere, and Sharon emphasized that the operations will continue.

Settlers free to circulate as Palestinians confined to their homes

Hebron and the neighbouring town of Halhoul, in the south of the West Bank, await Israeli reoccupation. The Mayor of Halhoul, Mr Muhammad Milhem, observes: "We are living in a period where we cannot tell what happens the next minute. For the past seven to 10 days people have been making preparations for any emergency."+

While I sat in his office in the grand new Halhoul Municipality building, Mr Milhem telephones round to fellow mayors in the district. The mayor of Yatta "is assessing damage to homes. Three Palestine Authority offices have been destroyed," Mr Milhem says. "The mayor of Doura is negotiating with the Israeli army over the evacuation of dead and wounded. A blind university professor and political activist from the Atrash family has been assassinated in Doura," Mr Milhem states after putting down the phone.

"There have been no incidents here. These villages are far from the settlements. The Israelis want to destroy the Authority and send us a political message: 'We are here. We can come in at any time'. They want an alternative leadership. But there is no alternative to Arafat."

Jenin: 'My mother ran for help. A soldier shot her in the head'

Abdullah Washai had to watch his 17-year-old brother, Munir, slowly bleed to death. He took several hours to die. A hole had been ripped in his shoulder by a round from an Israeli helicopter.

When the boy's mother, Mariam, ran into the street screaming for help, Mr Washai says, Israeli soldiers shot her dead.

These are typical of the claims of those who have managed to escape the carnage of Jenin refugee camp, the scene of the worst fighting of Israel's onslaught in the West Bank.

The question that was facing Israel yesterday was: what will happen when the full story of what Israel has wreaked in the Jenin camp is revealed?

As the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv said in an editorial: "We can begin thinking today about the war after the war: the public relations war in the media in which Israel can be expected to be placed in the international defendant's seat, when the television screens around the world become filled with the spectacle of bodies lined up, destroyed houses and crying, distraught relatives."

Defensive Shield won't end terror, senior IDF source admits

A senior army source said yesterday that Operation Defensive Shield has caused long-range harm to the terror infrastructure in the territories, but has not undermined Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's standing. He said that the Israeli Defense Force's actions in the West Bank cities have bolstered the militant spirit among Palestinians along with their hatred for Israel. "Belief in the path of Jihad is growing stronger," he warned.

The senior officer added that in the short term, Palestinian terror organizations will try launching attacks from areas the IDF left, to prove they are able to continue their fight against the Israeli army. That is what happened in the bus bombing at the Yagur junction.

However, the officer said, a drop in the extent of terror attacks can be expected thanks to the success of the IDF in arresting or killing many known terrorists. Nonetheless, he admitted, the terror infrastructure can be expected to grow again.

Palestinian officials claim 500 killed during Israel's offensive

Palestinian officials say at least 500 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's offensive.

Israel has refuted the figure, but has conceded the Palestinian death toll is in the hundreds.

The majority of the Palestinian casualties have been inflicted since President Bush told Israel to withdraw from Palestinian towns and cities.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says he fears the death toll could exceed 500, saying many are civilians and describing the attacks in Nablus and Jenin as massacres.

In Ramallah, civilians are still being killed

RAMALLAH, West Bank The most recent Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah was Manal Sofran. She was a housewife shot in the head Wednesday, neighbors said, while calling her husband Sami and their four children to come in from the garden of her three-story apartment building near Chicken Street.

She leaned out from the glass-enclosed sunroom, a common feature of Palestinian houses from the 1950s and '60s. She spied five soldiers by a nearby wall, the neighbors said, and feared that they might shoot at moving objects.

"She was right," said Tom Kay, one of the neighbors. "But she was the object, and it was clear the soldiers could see her."

Her last words were "Oh, Sami," said grieving relatives who received visitors at a wake Thursday.

In Israelis' wake, untold destruction

JERUSALEM Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent Israeli forces into the West Bank to "uproot the infrastructure of terror." Since then, the uprooting inflicted by his tanks, bulldozers, helicopters and sappers has created a landscape of devastation from Bethlehem to Jenin.

The images are indelible: piles of concrete and twisted metal in the ancient casbah of Nablus, husks of savaged computers littering ministries in Ramallah, rows of storefronts sheared by passing tanks in Tulkarm, broken pipes gushing precious water, flattened cars in fields of shattered glass and garbage, electricity poles snapped like twigs, tilting walls where homes used to stand, gaping holes where rockets pierced office buildings.

On Wednesday, the day after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed going house to house in the crowded refugee camp of Jenin, the D-9 bulldozer was sent in instead, erasing whole stretches of tightly packed concrete houses.

IDF bulldozers buried Jenin dead, Palestinians claim

The IDF buried the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee camp in a huge mass grave and used bulldozers to cover them up, Palestinian sources said yesterday. The army vehemently denied the allegations.

The IDF intends to bury today Palestinians killed in the West Bank camp. Around 200 Palestinians are believed to have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers since the start of the operation last week, although it is unclear how many of the bodies can be buried.

Military sources said until now the IDF has not buried any of the bodies. The sources said that two infantry companies, along with members of the military rabbinate, will enter the camp today to collect the bodies. Those who can be identified as civilians will be moved to a hospital in Jenin, and then on to burial, while those identified as terrorists will be buried at a special cemetery in the Jordan Valley.

Powell Arrives in Israel on Peace Mission

Powell met with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman and said the king had offered Jordan's help in easing the suffering of Palestinians in the West Bank once a cease-fire is in place.

"People are dying, people are suffering," the king told CNN. He said he offered Powell his kingdom's support in his peace mission, which he called "a make-it or break-it trip."

Abdullah urged Powell to increase pressure on Sharon to withdraw his troops and to accept Arafat as "the legitimate leadership and elected president of the Palestinian people," according to a palace statement issued in Amman after the king's two-hour meeting with Powell.

The king urged Powell to work toward a detailed peace plan setting "specific time frames" for a Palestinian state as well as ending the violence and Israeli occupation.

Powell mission in jeopardy as Israel defies US

COLIN POWELL arrived in Jerusalem last night for the most crucial Middle East peace mission by a US Secretary of State since Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Backed by the full weight of world opinion, General Powell must broker a ceasefire after a fortnight of intensifying violence between Israelis and Palestinians that has left hundreds dead. But his chances looked ever more slim as the rift widened between the US and its closest Middle Eastern ally.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, placed himself on a direct collision course with America’s top diplomat by stating: “I have warned the Americans that the Israeli Army will not withdraw from Bethlehem, Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah until all the terrorists there have surrendered.”

Any lingering hopes that the Israelis were engaged in brinkmanship and would begin a full pullout from West Bank towns before the Secretary of State flew in were dashed when Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said that the withdrawal would take two to three weeks.

Sharon tells troops there's no yielding

JERUSALEM - Hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed eight Israelis on a bus outside Haifa, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told battle-weary troops near the West Bank city of Jenin yesterday that despite intensifying pressure from the United States and Europe, Israel would not halt its offensive until Palestinian militias were crushed.

Sharon addressed the troops at a base overlooking Jenin, scene of some of the bloodiest battles of Israel's 13-day campaign. On a tour of the ruined Jenin refugee camp, where the Israeli soldiers wildly cheered his remarks, Sharon said he had told President Bush that Israel is in a life-or-death struggle against terrorists.

If Israel yields to international pressure to withdraw from the West Bank, Sharon said, ''We will have to return. Once we finish, we are not going to stay here. But first we have to accomplish our mission

Egypt says Maher-Arafat meeting unlikely, despite Sharon's OK

In a reversal of his previous statements on the issue, Sharon said Thursday that he was acquiesing to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's request to allow his foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, to meet with Arafat in Ramallah Friday.

According to Foreign Ministry officials, the Egyptians have promised to pressure Arafat into halting terror attacks against Israel and announcing a cease-fire.

An official at the Egyptian ministry in Tel Aviv told Israel Radio, however, that Maher would not be coming to Ramallah. The official said that Egypt had been offended by Israel's original refusal to allow Maher to visit the besieged Palestinian leader.

Israel-Lebanon Border Fight Erupts

KHIAM, Lebanon (AP) - Defying calls for restraint, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired more than two dozen rockets and mortars Wednesday on Israeli outposts in one of the biggest cross-border attacks in two years.

In retaliation, Israeli warplanes repeatedly raided suspected guerrilla positions.

At least one Israeli soldier at a border post was wounded in the barrage, Israel said. Two Israeli posts could be seen taking direct hits from rockets and mortars, including a strike that sent flames and smoke from a radar monitoring station on Mt. Hermon in the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

The exchange was the latest in a series of attacks along the tense border that have coincided with Israel's offensive against Palestinian militias in the West Bank. Israel and the United States have accused guerrillas of trying to open up a new front in the conflict.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said Wednesday that Syrian and Lebanese leaders had assured him they would try to curb guerrilla attacks on Israel from Lebanon. "They will do everything they can," Annan said he was told. Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon and a supporter of Hezbollah.

Army Says It Has Arrested More Than 4,000 Palestinians

JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military said Thursday it has arrested more than 4,000 Palestinians in its two-week offensive in the West Bank - nearly double the figure announced two days earlier.
Of those taken into custody, 121 were on Israel's wanted list, the military said. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said several hundred wanted men were among those detained.

In sweeps through Palestinian towns and villages, Israeli troops have ordered teen-age boys and men to assemble in schoolyards and other outdoor areas for questioning. Others have been arrested in house-to-house searches.

The military said that 4,185 Palestinians have been arrested since the start of "Operation Defensive Shield," which was launched March 29 in response to a string of Palestinian suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

West Bank: A landscape of devastation

JERUSALEM -- Thirteen days ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent Israeli forces into the West Bank to "uproot the infrastructure of terror." Since then, the uprooting inflicted by his tanks, bulldozers, helicopters and sappers has created a landscape of devastation from Bethlehem to Jenin.

The images are indelible: piles of concrete and twisted metal in the ancient casbah of Nablus, husks of savaged computers littering ministries in Ramallah, rows of storefronts sheared by passing tanks in Tulkarem, broken pipes gushing precious water, flattened cars in fields of shattered glass and garbage, electricity poles snapped like twigs, tilting walls where homes used to stand, gaping holes where rockets pierced office buildings.

Yesterday, on the day after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed going house to house in the crowded refugee camp of Jenin, the D-9 bulldozer was sent in instead, erasing whole stretches of tightly packed concrete houses.

There is no way to assess the full extent of the latest damage to the cities and towns -- Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, Kalkilya, Nablus and Jenin -- while they remain under a tight siege, with patrols and snipers firing in the streets.

But it is safe to say that the infrastructure of life itself and of any future Palestinian state -- roads, schools, electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines -- has been devastated.

John Nichols: Many Israelis shun Sharon's madness

The theory that the Israeli government is the best or even the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East lost a good deal of credibility over the weekend as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon willfully defied the call of President Bush for withdrawal of Israeli defense forces from the Palestinian Authority "without delay."

Sharon did not merely delay, he ordered troops to aggressively extend an assault on Palestinian communities that is destroying lives, infrastructure and the prospects for an honest peace. Even after repeated calls from Bush and other U.S. officials, Sharon made a mockery of the U.S. initiative. The weekend that should have seen Israeli soldiers pulling out of the West Bank instead saw the Israeli military engage - on Sharon's orders - in the wholly unnecessary bulldozing of civilian homes in Jenin, Nablus and other Palestinian communities. Additionally, Israeli generals continued to refuse to allow ambulances to aid wounded civilians, drawing loud objections not merely from Palestinians but from Israeli human rights groups.

Bush's understanding of the Middle East is, to be sure, rudimentary. And his penchant for following the fierce anti-Palestinian line of congressional allies such as Tom DeLay is even more surely a factor in his approach to the region. But can the president really believe that he is not being played for a fool by Sharon? If that is the case, then he is not being played for a fool - he is a fool.