29 feb 2008
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Israeli minister threatens "holocaust" as public demand ceasefire talks
Palestinian medics carry a wounded child after an Israeli missile destroyed the labor union headquarters in Gaza, 28 February 2008
Israeli officials began damage limitation efforts after the country’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with a “holocaust.” The comments came a day after Israeli occupation forces killed 31 Palestinians, nine of them children, one a six-month-old baby, in a series of air raids across the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for a barrage of rockets fired by resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip which killed one Israeli in the town of Sderot on Wednesday, 27 February. Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, said the rockets were in retaliation for the extrajudicial execution of five Hamas members carried out by Israel on Wednesday morning. Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians since the US-sponsored Annapolis peace summit last November. In the same period, five Israelis have been killed by Palestinians. Speaking to Israeli army radio today, Vilnai said, “the more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.” A report on the BBC News website headlined “Israel warns of Gaza ‘holocaust’ ” noted that the word “holocaust” — shoah in Hebrew — is “a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II.” |
The BBC later reported that “many of Mr. Vilnai’s colleagues have quickly distanced themselves from his comments and also tried to downplay them saying he did not mean genocide.” An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel, claimed that Vilnai used the word “in the sense of a disaster or a catastrophe, and not in the sense of a holocaust.”
The attempt to limit the damage of Vilnai’s comments is not surprising. It was recently revealed how another Israeli official, Major-General Doron Almog, narrowly escaped arrest at London’s Heathrow airport in September 2005, in connection with allegations of war crimes committed against Palestinians in the occupied territories. British police feared a gunfight if they attempted to board the El Al civilian aircraft on which Almog had arrived and on which he hid until he fled the United Kingdom back to Israel as a fugitive from justice.
Incitement to genocide is a punishable crime under the international Genocide Convention, adopted in 1948 after the Nazi holocaust.
“The 8 Stages of Genocide,” written by Greg Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, sets out a number of warning signs of an impending genocide, which include “dehumanization” of potential victim groups and preparation, whereby potential victims “are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved.” [1]
Vilnai’s holocaust threat, however much Israeli officials attempt to qualify it, fits into a consistent pattern of belligerent statements and actions by Israeli officials. Israel has attempted to isolate the population of Gaza, deliberately restricting essential supplies, such as food, medicines and energy, a policy endorsed by the Israeli high court but condemned by international officials as illegal collective punishment.
As The Electronic Intifada has previously reported, dehumanizing statements by Israeli political and religious leaders directed at Palestinians are common (see “Top Israeli rabbis advocate genocide,” The Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2007 and “Dehumanizing the Palestinians,” Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 21 September 2007)
On 28 February, Vilnai’s colleagues added their own inflammatory statements. Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit stated that Israel should “hit everything that moves” in Gaza “with weapons and ammunition,” adding, “I don’t think we have to show pity for anyone who wants to kill us.”
And today, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party said that Israel should invade Gaza to “topple the Hamas terror regime” and that Israeli forces, which now enforce the occupation of Gaza from the periphery and air, should prepare to remain in the interior of the territory “for years.”
While Israeli leaders escalate the violence and threats, some other top officials and a vast majority of the Israeli public support direct talks with Hamas to achieve a mutual ceasefire, something Hamas has repeatedly offered for months.
“Sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with
the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive
soldier Gilad Shalit,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on 27 February citing a Tel Aviv University poll. The report noted that half of Likud supporters and large majorities of Kadima and Labor party voters support such talks and only 28 percent of Israelis still oppose them.
Knesset Member Yossi Beilin, leader of the left-Zionist Meretz-Yahad party, called for an agreed ceasefire with Hamas, noting that “there have been at least two requests from Hamas, via a third party, to accept a cease-fire,” Haaretz reported on 29 February. Israel’s public security minister, Avi Dichter, visiting Sderot the previous day, criticized Israel’s military escalation, saying, “Whoever talks about entering and occupying the Gaza Strip, these are populist ideas which I don’t connect to, and in my opinion, no intelligent person does either.” And, in an interview with the American magazine Mother Jones, published on 19 February, the former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Efraim Halevy, repeated calls for Israel and the US to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas. Dismissing lurid rhetoric about the group, Halevy stated that “Hamas is not al-Qaida,” and “is not subservient to Tehran.”
The question remains as to why when the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians, some senior Israeli officials, and Hamas leaders are all talking about a ceasefire, the Israeli government refuses to accept one and the US refuses to call for one. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has blamed the escalating bloodshed entirely on Hamas, and has failed to call for a ceasefire. This echoes her support for Israel’s merciless 2006 bombardment of Lebanon which she notoriously celebrated as being “the birth pangs of a new Middle East.”
The Palestinian and Israeli populations are exhausted by the relentless bloodshed, however unequal its toll. They are paying the price of a failed policy, pushed by Washington and its local clients, which attempts to demonize, isolate and destroy any movement that resists the order that the United States seeks to impose on the region.
The attempt to limit the damage of Vilnai’s comments is not surprising. It was recently revealed how another Israeli official, Major-General Doron Almog, narrowly escaped arrest at London’s Heathrow airport in September 2005, in connection with allegations of war crimes committed against Palestinians in the occupied territories. British police feared a gunfight if they attempted to board the El Al civilian aircraft on which Almog had arrived and on which he hid until he fled the United Kingdom back to Israel as a fugitive from justice.
Incitement to genocide is a punishable crime under the international Genocide Convention, adopted in 1948 after the Nazi holocaust.
“The 8 Stages of Genocide,” written by Greg Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, sets out a number of warning signs of an impending genocide, which include “dehumanization” of potential victim groups and preparation, whereby potential victims “are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved.” [1]
Vilnai’s holocaust threat, however much Israeli officials attempt to qualify it, fits into a consistent pattern of belligerent statements and actions by Israeli officials. Israel has attempted to isolate the population of Gaza, deliberately restricting essential supplies, such as food, medicines and energy, a policy endorsed by the Israeli high court but condemned by international officials as illegal collective punishment.
As The Electronic Intifada has previously reported, dehumanizing statements by Israeli political and religious leaders directed at Palestinians are common (see “Top Israeli rabbis advocate genocide,” The Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2007 and “Dehumanizing the Palestinians,” Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 21 September 2007)
On 28 February, Vilnai’s colleagues added their own inflammatory statements. Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit stated that Israel should “hit everything that moves” in Gaza “with weapons and ammunition,” adding, “I don’t think we have to show pity for anyone who wants to kill us.”
And today, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party said that Israel should invade Gaza to “topple the Hamas terror regime” and that Israeli forces, which now enforce the occupation of Gaza from the periphery and air, should prepare to remain in the interior of the territory “for years.”
While Israeli leaders escalate the violence and threats, some other top officials and a vast majority of the Israeli public support direct talks with Hamas to achieve a mutual ceasefire, something Hamas has repeatedly offered for months.
“Sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with
the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive
soldier Gilad Shalit,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on 27 February citing a Tel Aviv University poll. The report noted that half of Likud supporters and large majorities of Kadima and Labor party voters support such talks and only 28 percent of Israelis still oppose them.
Knesset Member Yossi Beilin, leader of the left-Zionist Meretz-Yahad party, called for an agreed ceasefire with Hamas, noting that “there have been at least two requests from Hamas, via a third party, to accept a cease-fire,” Haaretz reported on 29 February. Israel’s public security minister, Avi Dichter, visiting Sderot the previous day, criticized Israel’s military escalation, saying, “Whoever talks about entering and occupying the Gaza Strip, these are populist ideas which I don’t connect to, and in my opinion, no intelligent person does either.” And, in an interview with the American magazine Mother Jones, published on 19 February, the former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Efraim Halevy, repeated calls for Israel and the US to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas. Dismissing lurid rhetoric about the group, Halevy stated that “Hamas is not al-Qaida,” and “is not subservient to Tehran.”
The question remains as to why when the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians, some senior Israeli officials, and Hamas leaders are all talking about a ceasefire, the Israeli government refuses to accept one and the US refuses to call for one. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has blamed the escalating bloodshed entirely on Hamas, and has failed to call for a ceasefire. This echoes her support for Israel’s merciless 2006 bombardment of Lebanon which she notoriously celebrated as being “the birth pangs of a new Middle East.”
The Palestinian and Israeli populations are exhausted by the relentless bloodshed, however unequal its toll. They are paying the price of a failed policy, pushed by Washington and its local clients, which attempts to demonize, isolate and destroy any movement that resists the order that the United States seeks to impose on the region.
Death toll in Gaza rises to 33 as Israel continues third day of attacks
Body of five-month-old Mohammed al-Bur'i
An elderly Palestinian woman, 72-year-old Fatima Al-Qar'awi, died on Friday afternoon from a heart attack as Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.
This brings the death toll to 33 in three days of Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Friday Palestinian medical sources announced the death of 20-year-old 'Ala' Al-burnu who died of his wounds sustained in the Israeli raid on a police station in Gaza City on Thursday.
A technician from the Gaza electricity company, 25-year-old Muhammad Shamiyya, was killed on Friday morning when a car was targeted in the centre of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry, said that Shamiyya was dead on arrival at hospital. Another Palestinian was seriously injured in the attack, Hassanain added.
Israeli warplanes also targeted the headquarters of the Palestinian Syndicate of Laborers in the Saftawi neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City, destroying it completely.
Hassanain affirmed that 19 Palestinians including a two-month old baby were injured. The baby received a gunshot to the head.
Five Palestinians were also injured in the Safawi neighborhood on Friday north of Gaza City as a result of an Israeli air raid, Hassanain said, adding that the injured were evacuated to the Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza City with moderate wounds.
Earlier, Israeli warplanes targeted a police station affiliated to the Gaza-based Hamas-led de facto government in Beit Lahia in the north shortly after they bombarded a house in Jabalia, also in the northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical sources stated that the targeted house belonged to the Darduna family behind the As-Salam mosque, injuring three people. The same area was bombarded on Thursday. Four children were killed in the attack.
On Friday, Israeli deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai threatened a "holocaust" in the Gaza Strip if Palestinian resistance groups step up their rocket fire against Israeli towns.
"The more Qassam fire intensifies, and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," he told Israeli army radio.
An elderly Palestinian woman, 72-year-old Fatima Al-Qar'awi, died on Friday afternoon from a heart attack as Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.
This brings the death toll to 33 in three days of Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Friday Palestinian medical sources announced the death of 20-year-old 'Ala' Al-burnu who died of his wounds sustained in the Israeli raid on a police station in Gaza City on Thursday.
A technician from the Gaza electricity company, 25-year-old Muhammad Shamiyya, was killed on Friday morning when a car was targeted in the centre of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry, said that Shamiyya was dead on arrival at hospital. Another Palestinian was seriously injured in the attack, Hassanain added.
Israeli warplanes also targeted the headquarters of the Palestinian Syndicate of Laborers in the Saftawi neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City, destroying it completely.
Hassanain affirmed that 19 Palestinians including a two-month old baby were injured. The baby received a gunshot to the head.
Five Palestinians were also injured in the Safawi neighborhood on Friday north of Gaza City as a result of an Israeli air raid, Hassanain said, adding that the injured were evacuated to the Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza City with moderate wounds.
Earlier, Israeli warplanes targeted a police station affiliated to the Gaza-based Hamas-led de facto government in Beit Lahia in the north shortly after they bombarded a house in Jabalia, also in the northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical sources stated that the targeted house belonged to the Darduna family behind the As-Salam mosque, injuring three people. The same area was bombarded on Thursday. Four children were killed in the attack.
On Friday, Israeli deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai threatened a "holocaust" in the Gaza Strip if Palestinian resistance groups step up their rocket fire against Israeli towns.
"The more Qassam fire intensifies, and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," he told Israeli army radio.
Egyptian girl killed by Israeli fire near Gaza border
A thirteen-year-old Egyptian girl was killed by Israeli fire near the border with the Gaza Strip, local residents said.
Egyptian residents near the borders with the Gaza Strip said that Samah Abu Jarad received a gunshot to the head while she was playing in front of her family house, about 700 meters from the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Reuters quoted Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that investigations are underway to discover the source of the gunshot that killed the girl.
Sheikh Darweesh Abu Jarad, a prominent member of the girl's family said the deadly gunshot was likely to have been fired from an Israeli monitoring tower, close to her home.
Israeli army sources also said the incident is being investigated.
Egyptian residents near the borders with the Gaza Strip said that Samah Abu Jarad received a gunshot to the head while she was playing in front of her family house, about 700 meters from the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Reuters quoted Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that investigations are underway to discover the source of the gunshot that killed the girl.
Sheikh Darweesh Abu Jarad, a prominent member of the girl's family said the deadly gunshot was likely to have been fired from an Israeli monitoring tower, close to her home.
Israeli army sources also said the incident is being investigated.
Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli jail
The death of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail was a result of medical negligence on the part of the Israeli prison service, the Waed society for the defence of prisoners and ex-prisoners claimed on Friday.
47-year-old Fadil 'Udah Shahin from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City was pronounced dead on Friday by the Israeli prison service.
The victim's wife Basima said that her husband suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and arterial embolism. He needed an operation but had been denied the treatment by the Israeli prison services, his wife said.
Shahin was arrested on 15 April 2004 and was sentenced to 8 years and 5 months. He had served four years of his sentence.
47-year-old Fadil 'Udah Shahin from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City was pronounced dead on Friday by the Israeli prison service.
The victim's wife Basima said that her husband suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and arterial embolism. He needed an operation but had been denied the treatment by the Israeli prison services, his wife said.
Shahin was arrested on 15 April 2004 and was sentenced to 8 years and 5 months. He had served four years of his sentence.
Major Israeli incursion in Gaza looming
The Israeli army has completed preparations for a major ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, Israeli sources said on Friday.
Israeli security sources affirmed that the western Negev Israeli city of Ashkelon has come under barrages of Palestinian projectiles, constituting a serious escalation in such attacks. The sources added that amongst the projectiles which landed in Ashkelon were Grad missiles, a type of Katyusha rocket, which are not homemade. These missiles are believed to have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip after the unilateral disengagement from the coastal strip.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak on Thursday consulted Israeli security heads, discussing with them the repercussions of the recent escalation in projectile fire from the Gaza Strip. Previously Ashkelon was believed to be out of the reach of homemade projectiles.
Israeli security sources affirmed that the western Negev Israeli city of Ashkelon has come under barrages of Palestinian projectiles, constituting a serious escalation in such attacks. The sources added that amongst the projectiles which landed in Ashkelon were Grad missiles, a type of Katyusha rocket, which are not homemade. These missiles are believed to have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip after the unilateral disengagement from the coastal strip.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak on Thursday consulted Israeli security heads, discussing with them the repercussions of the recent escalation in projectile fire from the Gaza Strip. Previously Ashkelon was believed to be out of the reach of homemade projectiles.
"Could they really kill a baby in his bed?"
By Khadra Hamdan
Five-month-old Muhammad Nasser Al-Bur'i was asleep in his parent's bed in the family's home when the Israeli missile aimed at the ministry of interior building in Gaza City struck on Wednesday evening. His mother had only just left the room when the tin roof collapsed and Muhammad was suffocated by the dust which filled the house as the Israeli planes shelled the nearby ministry.
A few hours before Muhammad was killed, his father took a photograph of him. This picture, a cot, a hat and a baby walker are the only reminders his parents have of their son's short life.
Five-month-old Muhammad Nasser Al-Bur'i was asleep in his parent's bed in the family's home when the Israeli missile aimed at the ministry of interior building in Gaza City struck on Wednesday evening. His mother had only just left the room when the tin roof collapsed and Muhammad was suffocated by the dust which filled the house as the Israeli planes shelled the nearby ministry.
A few hours before Muhammad was killed, his father took a photograph of him. This picture, a cot, a hat and a baby walker are the only reminders his parents have of their son's short life.
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Muhammad was Eman and Nasser Al-Bur'i's only child. They had been married for five years before their longed-for child was born.
His incredulous grandmother Um Nasser said, "Could they really kill a baby in his bed? May God give us enough patience to cope with the Zionists' oppression and the world's silence." Overcome by grief she wailed "Muhammad my baby, why did they kill you? Did you launch a missile at them? Did your innocent laughter hurt the world?" |
Israeli air strike on Beit Hanoun leaves four injured
An Israeli air strike on the Al-Farta neighborhood of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon left four Palestinians injured.
Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry told Ma'an that Beit Hanoun hospital received four people with shrapnel injuries caused by an Israeli missile.
Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry told Ma'an that Beit Hanoun hospital received four people with shrapnel injuries caused by an Israeli missile.
Gaza buries its dead
Overwhelmed with sadness and anger, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip held funeral processions of a number of victims killed in the ongoing Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip on Thursday and Friday.
The funeral of four children from the Darduna and Hammuda families, who were killed in an Israeli air raid on Jabalia on Thursday afternoon. The procession began from the Kamal Udwan hospital heading to the families' homes for a final farewell, before heading to the main mosque in the northern Gaza Strip district for prayer before burial in the eastern cemetery.
Mourners condemned the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, especially children. They called on Palestinian military groups to undertake retaliation that will "shake" the Israelis.
During the funeral, Fatah leader Abu Mahir Hillis called for national unity and resistance to end the Israeli occupation and restore Palestinian rights.
Islamic Jihad leader Khalid Al-Batsh also delivered a speech during the funeral calling on the international community to adhere to its responsibilities and "leash the Israeli aggression which kills people and destroys everything in the Gaza Strip."
In Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinians held a funeral procession for Muhammad Shamiyya, who was killed when Israeli warplanes targeted the car in which he was travelling in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
The funeral of four children from the Darduna and Hammuda families, who were killed in an Israeli air raid on Jabalia on Thursday afternoon. The procession began from the Kamal Udwan hospital heading to the families' homes for a final farewell, before heading to the main mosque in the northern Gaza Strip district for prayer before burial in the eastern cemetery.
Mourners condemned the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, especially children. They called on Palestinian military groups to undertake retaliation that will "shake" the Israelis.
During the funeral, Fatah leader Abu Mahir Hillis called for national unity and resistance to end the Israeli occupation and restore Palestinian rights.
Islamic Jihad leader Khalid Al-Batsh also delivered a speech during the funeral calling on the international community to adhere to its responsibilities and "leash the Israeli aggression which kills people and destroys everything in the Gaza Strip."
In Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinians held a funeral procession for Muhammad Shamiyya, who was killed when Israeli warplanes targeted the car in which he was travelling in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Israeli forces prevent farmers near Bethlehem from reaching their vineyards
Palestinian military groups respond to Israeli raids with barrage of homemade projectiles
Palestinian military groups respond to Israeli raids with barrage of homemade projectiles
