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ARAB WOMEN IN MEDIA CENTER ACTIVITIES |
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ARAB WOMEN IN MEDIA - REGIONAL MEDIA CONFERENCES
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Journalist
Training Course Closing Address
HE
Eng.Nidal
al-hadid , Mayor of Amman , attended a graduation ceremoney
for a number of media professionals, this Thursday,the27th of March.the
Arab woman media center in collaboration with arab internews network ,
organized a one week basic media skills training prgramme, for a number
of media professionals from jordan, saudi arabia , and palestine .
participants from the occupied territories , unfortunately, could not
attend the training , because the israeli authorities prevented them
from doing so.
The
training introdused anumber of important topics for arab professionals
in the held media a number of prominent figures gave lectures, in topics
that varied from the art of communicating with the masses to the media
ethics.
The
arab woman media center, which is a research and media counseling
center, is the first local and regional NGO of its kind.
It
was established in 1999, with the support of her royal highness priness
basma, and after the continuous efforts and aspiration of ms . mahasen
al- Emam , the center continues
to give traning programmes to arab media professionals and aims towards
creating a socitey in which social equity , and intellectul freedom are
upheld.
The
center is locted in jabel al weibdeh on a street that was named after
it.
It reaches its members
, who exceed 160 from 13 arabic countries.
Please
find the press release that Internews sent out in
Washington |
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Arab
Women’s Media Center, Amman – Jordan, Al Abdalli, Al Ellamiatt al
Arabiatt Street. Code 11947 POB
199, Telfax +962-6-4648889, GSM 077307477, Email awmc@accessme.com.jo
Web site www.ayamm.org |
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Israeli censor bans Palestinian film on Jenin assault.
11/12/2002. ABC News Online
Israeli censor
bans Palestinian film on Jenin assault
The Israeli censorship
board banned on Tuesday a screening of the Palestinian documentary Jenin,
Jenin on the grounds it distorted the facts of an April assault on the
city's refugee camp, Israel army radio reported.
The film, produced by Palestinian actor and director Mohammed Bakri, includes
testimony from Jenin residents after the Israeli army's Defensive Wall
operation, during which the city and camp were the scenes of fierce fighting.
The operation ended with the refugee camp flattened, 52 Palestinians and 13
Israeli soldiers dead, and the Palestinians accusing Israel of a massacre.
On Tuesday, the radio quoted censors as saying: "In the disguise of
democratic truth, a propaganda film has been made which presents the
Palestinian position in a one-sided way."
Mr Bakri will appeal the decision to Israel's High Court, the report said.
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Jordanian Woman Journalist Receives
International Press Award

Mahassen Al-Emam is the first Arab journalist to be recognized
By Ghada
Elnajjar Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Mahassen Al-Emam, journalist and Founder of the Arab Women Media Center (AWMC) in
Jordan received the Knight International Press Fellowship Award in Washington
on October 8. The Award honors individuals who demonstrate journalistic
integrity and independence under difficult circumstances, and who have made
remarkable contributions to the media in their region.
Al-Emam received her award at the 5th Annual Excellence in Journalism Dinner,
organized by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), which was held
in Washington, DC. The ICFJ works with journalists from around the world to
build a strong, independent press that keeps government honest, holds
authority accountable, makes business transparent, and provides news that is
accurate.
In an interview with the Washington File on October 8, Al-Emam, who is the
first Arab journalist to receive this award, said that it is a great honor
for her to be recognized. "I was very happy that this honor was bestowed
upon me by an international entity, and that I am recognized outside my
country," she said.
A pioneer in her field, Al-Emam became the first female editor-in-chief in
1994 of Al-Bilad, a weekly Jordanian newspaper. As a member of the Jordanian
Press Association since 1979, she also had served as the first elected female
member of the association's High Committee.
"This is an accomplishment that I am very proud of," said Al-Emam,
who tries to use her position to open doors to other female journalists.
"Through the press association, I established a women's committee for
the purpose of supporting women journalists in Jordan to be more effective in
the media and to also be in continuous contact with women journalists
throughout the Arab world," she said.
Al-Emam said that during the 27 years she worked in the Jordanian press, she
tried to push the press to change from a commercial identity to a more
political one.
"Through Al-Bilad, I tried to change the tradition of the Jordanian
press, to have a more political identity, and to adopt a specific political
agenda, either with or against. However I felt that commercialization was what
really characterized the weekly publications," said Al-Emam.
As the first woman editor-in-chief, Al-Emam faced many other difficulties.
She explained that some of her male colleagues refused to accept that a woman
journalist was in charge.
"One way I tackled this, I used my skills as a mother, and tried to
convince them that we are a part of one family in the newspaper. I made the
effort to be their friend first and their boss second. This took a lot of
time, until they trusted me and felt that I was their friend. Only then did
they become more productive and more motivated," she said.
Unable to establish a political identity for the paper, and failing to
institutionalize a permanent women's committee in the Jordanian Press
Association, Al-Emam resigned from Al-Bilad and later from the press
association.
In 1999, she established the AWMC to support female journalists. The Center
serves as a training facility to women journalists, finds employment
opportunities for them, and recruits members who cannot join the Jordanian
Press Association. The membership of the AWMC, which reached 200, is not
limited to print journalism, as is the case for the press association, but it
also includes radio and television.
The Center also researches issues that pertain to women in general, such as
human rights, women's rights and countering discrimination against women in
the Arab world, while the member journalists focus on these issues in their
work.
"The Center's accomplishments in this area are many," said Al-Emam.
"We were able to change the thinking of many in regards to women. I am
still working with volunteer legal advisers on changing some of Jordan's laws
that are biased against women in the areas of retirement, salaries, and
positions," she said.
The Center also serves as a "refuge" to women journalists, said
Al-Emam. It houses three legal advisers who work on issues and problems
facing women journalists, another service that the press association does not
offer. "The fear factor is no longer there. The Center serves as a
protective umbrella with attorneys ready to defend," she explained.
Viewed as a competitor, Al-Emam and the AWMC were faced with hostility from
the beginning. "In Jordan, I paid the price as a result of this center.
Many opposed it. It was a new idea. It made the Jordanian Press Association
realize its incompetence and its inability to offer the proper services and
training for women journalists," she said.
Al-Emam even established her own weekly newspaper with an opposition agenda.
She explained, "we opposed war and we opposed the practices of many
ministers and officials." The paper, which did not attract advertising
revenue, was distributed for free "so that people can read," she
said. Al-Emam said that her project was a total financial loss, but that it
accomplished its goal of reaching a wide audience.
"I used all my savings to start this paper, and of course I did not
receive a single advertisement because it was an opposition paper.
Regardless, we had excellent circulation," she said.
"The purpose of my paper was not to make profit, but to spread
thought," she added. "I helped create an opposition movement
although it was at a very small scale. This led to the demise of the paper
when the government shut it down."
Asked if female journalists today face the same problems she faced 20 years
ago, Al-Emam said that, "although the times are different and the
problems are different, a single important problem remains, and that is the
lack of freedom and democracy; the inability to do and write about anything
you want."
A related problem, she pointed out, is limited assignments for women
journalists whose story coverage is limited to specified areas. For example,
she explained, "women are not sent to cover wars."
Al-Emam also extended her criticism to Arab satellite television. According
to Al-Emam, "they capitalize on women -- on their physical appearance,
which is unacceptable. It humiliates women in exchange for token fees."
Al-Emam expressed the wish that women would be accorded more respect in Arab
satellite television. But, she said, "One needs to look at some of the
stations to see that it is only getting worse."
She said the content of Arab satellite television is not "what we aspire
to." She said that the programs consist of commercial and vulgar shows
that humiliate women and that are repetitive and unimaginative.
Al-Emam currently writes only for Paris or London-based Arab publications,
because she says they give her the opportunity to express her views more
freely.
"I am more comfortable writing for expatriate publications. Arab
publications in the Diaspora are increasing because there is a lack of
freedom in the Arab world. Arab journalists try to find leeway of freedom
outside their countries. Arab governments should allow media to be produced
inside and not outside the Arab world, to prevent the increase of more
expatriates," Al-Emam said.
Al-Emam said that through her writing and work at the AWMC, she will continue
to spread her ideas and bring together Arab women in the media and exposure
to their issues of concern.
On October 24, the AWMC will hold its second annual conference for women in
the Arab media. "This is the most significant accomplishment for the
AWMC; that it continues to serve as a gathering center for the region's women
in the media to exchange their views, discuss their problems and find
solutions together."
"The Knight International Press Fellowship Award grants me more
exposure, but my goals will be achieved through continuous work in the
Center," concluded Al-Emam.
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The Amnesty International report on killing children during the intifada,
which was released Monday, immediately drew fire from both Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, with each accusing the report of unfairness
The IDF
responded Tuesday to the Amnesty International report, which says that 250
Palestinian children and 72 Israeli children were killed since the intifada
started, by saying that terror organizations were using children to carry out
attacks, thus endangering them.
According to the report, the majority of Palestinian children
were killed in the territories "when the IDF responded to demonstrations
and stone throwing incidents with unlawful and excessive use of lethal
force."
The IDF on Tuesday said that its soldiers were acting in line
with international and humanitarian law, and in accordance with legal and
moral norms. The IDF blamed armed organizations for the death of Palestinian
children, saying that civilians were not hurt intentionally, but rather when
combating those involved in terror activities.
The IDF rejected Amnesty's comparison between the killing of
Palestinian children by the IDF and the killing of Israeli children in terror
attacks. The army accused Amnesty of imbalance, saying that the terror
attacks were intended to hurt civilians, while IDF activities were intended
to harm terrorists.
The IDF also rejected Amnesty's claim that the army did not
investigate incidents in which children were hurt, and said that more than
200 military police investigations were launched following a military
operation which took place after Operation Defensive Shield, some of which
dealt with events in which Palestinian children were hurt.
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The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of
Global Dialogue & Democracy
Impressionistic Report
By MIFTAH
August 04, 2002
The United Nation Secretary General's
report on events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities delivered a
devastating blow to the UN's credibility. The report fails to concisely
consider the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the
Israeli forces and as a result places the blame equally on Israelis and
Palestinians. Doomed from the beginning, the shortcomings of this report come
as no surprise. Originally a commission of inquiry was established to
investigate, but Israel objected and the inquiry was reduced to a fact-finding
mission that meets the approval of Israel. However, even this did not meet
with Israel's blessings and that is how we arrived at this report, which was
produced using "available resources and information." In essence,
the UN was not allowed to send field workers to gather primary information,
but, rather, had to rely on available information from interested parties
such as the EU and the PA. Israel staunchly refused to co-operate and did not
contribute to the report!
This
report seems to ignore that it was the Palestinians who where attacked on
lands illegally occupied by Israel. The placing of blame on Palestinians who
defied the Israeli army seems to be depriving Palestinians of a right to
self-defense, as guaranteed through the Declaration of Principals.
Furthermore, the report seems to conclude that all Palestinians who take up
an armed struggle against an Israeli attack on Palestinian land are
'terrorists'. Even though the report refers to Israel's unlawful killings,
the use of human shields, disproportional use of force, arbitrary arrests,
torture and denial of medical treatment, it stops short of condemning these
acts as war crimes in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The
fact that it was Palestinian civilian areas that got attacked during the
month long Israeli operation was hardly stressed enough. Between March 29 and
April 17, the Israeli forces claimed the lives of 491 Palestinians and
wounded a further 1,447, 80% of whom were civilians. Israeli forces destroyed
2,800 refugee housing-units and 878 Palestinian homes, leaving 17,000 people
homeless. 7000 Palestinians were arrested simply for being between the ages
of 15 to 45 and they were callously treated, as they were deprived of
lavatories, food, blankets and any contact with their families for long
periods of time.
While
perhaps there was no massacre in Jenin alone, the culmination of those killed
throughout the West Bank easily justifies the use of the word massacre and in
fact even merits the term 'genocide'. The controversy surrounding the term
'massacre' seems to have diverted attention away from the fact that hundreds
of Palestinians through out the West Bank were killed during Operation
Defensive Shield. Sadly, the fact that only 52 Palestinians were killed in
Jenin has allowed the report to substantiate Israel's proclaimed innocence
and disguise Israel's innumerable international law violations.
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URGENT APEAL TO UN
By; Tahir A.M.Alwan
Amnesty
international member
MS MAHASEN AL EMAM
Greetings,
In these days we hear new drums
pumpkins sounds readiness to a new war between Iraq and USA.
I hope we imagine numbers of the
innocent victims that may be died in such bloody conflict especially between
children.
More than 1 million Iraqi child has been died since
the second gulf war –1991- till now, so that we may ask; is there intention
for more?
As an activist in human rights
and the rights of childhood I appeals you all and appeal all organizations
concerned by human and civilian rights and international peace for fast
movement to prevent anew disaster may happen and more victims between
children and civilians.
Yes we all do believe
dictatorship regime is one of the worst policies systems in the world and is
danger on the international peace.
But it is not persuasive and not
acceptable to kill may be thousands of children as proof to oust the
dictator.
We urge the United Nations and
the international society to solve this crisis peacefully and to find the
suitable way to save Iraqi innocent childhood.
I beg you the fast movement and
saying your word in this difficult time.
Sincerely yours
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Sharon’s dirty war against the refugee camps is
immoral and racist
By: Bassam Abu Sharif
Israel has begun its defensive attack against the European Union in
order to force the Europeans to be silent regarding the immoral and inhumane
actions that Israel’s regular troops are carrying out in Palestinian refugee
camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This defensive attack started with
Sharon’s comments, who accused France of adopting an anti-Semitic position,
as is the norm when someone criticizes Israel for its criminal and racist
practices against unarmed Palestinians. Israeli President Katsav followed up
the offensive by launching an attack on the European countries, accusing them
of encouraging terrorism by offering some support to Yasser Arafat.
The consecutive Israeli
governments, Labour and Likud alike, have always taken a negative stand
regarding Europe’s participation in the efforts aimed at finding a political
solution for the Middle East based on international legitimacy resolutions,
and Sharon’s government is still taking the same stand.
Despite this the European
countries were careful to use overly polite diplomacy with regard to the
Israeli government’s criminal actions, in order to keep the channels open for
a European role in the Middle East because of Europe’s major strategic
interests in the region (energy resources and markets). Now, things have gone
too far, and the European governments, faced with the public’s realization of
the enormity of the crimes against humanity that are taking place in
Palestine, can do nothing but adopt a position, albeit a timid one, critical
of the barbaric practices of the Israeli occupation forces against the
Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It is for this reason that
Israel has begun its defensive attack, in order to silence the European
voices that have begun, only recently, to criticize Israel.
As for Israel’s timing and the
increased rate of European interest, they are undoubtedly connected to the
occupation army’s attack against Palestinian refugee camps – camps crowded
with unarmed Palestinians living in huts built for them by the UNRWA fifty
years ago, after being displaced from their Palestinian homes, villages and
towns by Zionist gangs. These huts do not protect them from the cold and the
heat, so how can they protect them from shells and bullets?
It is an attack that aims at preventing
the Europeans from exposing and revealing the mass crimes being committed by
the Israeli occupation forces.
Few really know what refugee
camps are, how many there are and the number of inhabitants. For those who do
not know, and prior to talking about Sharon’s war against the Palestinian
camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, we list the following information.
These refugee camps were
established by the United Nations for the refugees who were evicted from
their towns and villages by Zionist gangs in 1948, in the areas that became
the state of Israel. It should be noted that some Palestinian families who
were evicted did not live in these camps because they were relatively well
off, and so lived in the towns of the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside the
inhabitants of these towns and villages.
The discussion here does not
include the camps located in neighboring Arab countries, it is confined to
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As time passed and the population increased,
the Palestinians added on another room or more to the room built by the
United Nations to cope with the growth rate.
Th distribution of these camps
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is as follows:
The camps in the West Bank;
twenty-five camps, which are:
Name
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Population
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1. Aqbat Jaber
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4775
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2. Ein Sultan
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2187
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3. Shu’fat
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8955
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4. Al-Amari
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7396
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5. Qalandia
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7189
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6. Deir Ammar
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2043
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7. Al-Jalazon
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8372
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8. Al-Fawwar
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6419
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9. Al-Aroub
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8470
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10. Dheisha
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9812
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11. Aida
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3895
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12. Beit Jibreen
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1727
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13. Camp number 1
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5837
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14. Askar
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12,712
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15. Balata
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19,196
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16. Toulkarem
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14,862
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17. Nour Shams
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7577
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18. Jenin
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13,367
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19. Silwad (unofficial)
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300
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20. Ein Areek (not registered
at the Relief Agency)
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300
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21. Abu Shkheidem (not
registered)
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300
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22. Birzeit (not registered)
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300
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23. Qadoura (not registered)
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1420
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24. Al-Fawwar 2
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6312
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Gaza Camps:
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1. Jabalia
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97,895
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2. Al-Shate’
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73,675
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3. Nseirat
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59,121
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4. Al-Bureij
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28,628
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5. Deir Al-Balah
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18,829
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6. Al-Maghazi
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21,311
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7. Khan Younis
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57,495
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8. Rafah
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85,988
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These are the camps Sharon is
waging his war against. It is an immoral and unethical war in every sense.
First: It is a war being
waged using fighter planes, assault helicopters, tanks and special Israeli
units trained for combat (the Golani brigade) against unarmed people living
in camps, overcrowded and full of children, women and the elderly, because
most of the young men of these camps leave in pursuit of earning a livelihood
elsewhere.
Second: The population of these
camps is a combination of those who survived the massacres that Sharon and
those like him committed at Deir Yaseen, Kufur Qasem and Qibya, and those who
survived the forceful eviction from their homes and lands in 1948. These live
alongside their children and grandchildren who inherited their displacement,
loss and miserable life, and turned into mere numbers on the Refugee Relief
agency’s identification cards, which provide them with meager food supplies
and provide them with only basic elementary and preparatory education.
This immoral war of Sharon’s is
once again sowing in the hearts of the children and grandchildren the same
seed that Sharon planted in the minds and hearts of the grandparents fifty
years ago. Sharon is once again sowing rancor, resentment and hatred.
Imagine what effect a heavily
armed Israeli soldier storming a one-room mud hut in which six children and
their mother were hiding would have. Those of you who have children, put
yourselves and your children in their place. What effect could a tank shell
exploding in that room have on the minds of the children – those children, of
course, who miraculously escaped death???
Let us read together what an
Israeli officer of the Golani Brigade (the most important professional combat
brigade in the Israeli army) said, so we may know how contemptible and
hideous Sharon’s war against the camps is. Officer Shai of the Golani Brigade
made the following comments, after he had stormed the Jenin camp based on the
orders issued to him, (according to Israeli television and Yediot Ahranot
newspaper). Officer Shai of the Golani Brigade who entered the Jenin camp
mocked the repeated official Israeli claim that they (i.e. the officers and
soldiers of the Golani Brigade) asked permission before entering any house in
the camp.
He said that it was futile to
bother with etiquette (meaning asking permission) while you are storming a
refugee camp with tanks, knocking down walls, demolishing houses and killing
young people aged 12 and 16 and old people over sixty.
Israeli television said
that the rate of criticism among commentators and political analysts for the
Israeli army’s operation in the Balata and Jenin camps has increased. Israeli
television quoted Nahom Barnee, a political analyst for the Yediot Ahranot
newspaper, as saying that the responsibility for the latest escalation falls
on the Israeli government for ignoring the positive Palestinian step of
arresting those accused of killing the extremist Israeli Minister Rehavam
Zeevi, and the continued siege on President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, which
came in response to the wishes of the extreme right.
Third: Sharon’s immoral and
barbaric war against unarmed refugees has another side that will reflect back
on Israel. He is pushing his soldiers and officers into a foul battle in
which any military professional would feel that his military honor and the
accepted rules of war that he learnt had been ground into the dust and
trampled by Sharon, and that Sharon dumped them in the open sewers of those
camps. This is Sharon’s war, against the camps and against the children and
grandchildren of those he evicted from their homes and villages fifty years
ago.
Faced with this war that
Sharon is waging against the refugee camps in thee Wet Bank and Gaza Strip,
just as he had waged it once before against the refugee camps in Lebanon
(Rashidia, Al-Bas, Burj Al-Shamali, Ein Al-Helwa and Sabra and Shatilla),
what does the world expect the Palestinians to do? Does the civilized and
democratic world accept that the Palestinian be killed while smiling at his
executioner???
No, the Palestinian will defend
himself; this is his right and duty. Sharon and the officers of his
occupation army have lost all standards of morals and humanity. They have
shelled houses inhabited by civilians, shelled ambulances and killed all the
wounded and medical teams inside them (Monday 4/3/2002, 13:00).
The anxiety and tension among
the ranks of the Israeli army as a result of the Palestinians’ steadfastness
has undoubtedly led, and will continue to lead, to a complex psychological
state that has led and will lead to more innocent blood being shed, as was
the case in Al-Amari camp on Monday 4/3/2002 at two in the afternoon. Israel
shelled a car that was believed to contain a Hamas activist. This led to the
death of his wife Mrs. Bushra Abu Quake, Mohammad Abu Quake aged 8, Aziza Abu Quake aged 16, Baraa’
Abu Quake aged 14, Arafat Imad Al-Masri aged 16 and Shaimaa’ Imad Al-Masri
aged 14.
The madness of this unjust
power will lead only to more innocent blood being shed. Revenge for these crimes
will undoubtedly follow, and so the cycle continues. He is once again
treading his terrorist path, the path of mass crimes and the killing of
civilians. He is the Sharon of Qibya, the Sharon of Sabra and Shatilla, and
now the Sharon of Balata, Jenin and Ramallah.
But he will fail as he has
always failed. The cause of the people always prevails against the arrogance
of an unjust power, assault and racism. Review history so you may recall that
all tyrants were finished forever but the people remained.
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