DAYS OF ANGER
Protests against the provocative visit by war criminal Ariel Sharon to the Haram as-Sharif are continuing today. The events have shown that there can be no co-existence with occupation. Clashes between Palestinian civilians and Israeli occupation forces have been reported all over occupied Palestine.
On Thursday, at least 24 Palestinians were injured during protests against Sharon's provocative visit. On Friday, shortly after the Muslim prayers, Israeli occupation forces opened fire at Palestinian civilians at the Aqsa Mosque Compound. At least 9 Palestinians have been martyred and hundreds injured. The clashes in Jerusalem were not only at the compound but also at the Suwana street and around the Muqasad hospital. Ambulances were moving the wounded from various locations in Jerusalem. Israeli occupation forces have been shooting live ammunition and rubber coated metal bullets from various places.
Friday afternoon violence erupted in various cities cross the occupied lands, as word of the Israeli-perpetrated carnage at the Haram al Sharif spread throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. Palestinian sources said hundreds of Palestinians in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus took the streets and began hurling stones at Israeli occupation forces manning roadblocks and checkpoints outside the above-mentioned Palestinian towns. In Nablus, the occupying forces left Qabr Yusuf and escaped.
A Palestinian source said: "Nobody prepared the clashes...people are against the situation in general and the Sulta [Authority] wants to use it because they worry about any reactions of the people against themselves. This is the best opportunity for the Sulta [Authority] to use it for its own interest. The Sulta is using the clashes to get back its popularity."
Today, a three-day general strike was called for to mourn the martyrs. Clashes have been reported in Jerusalem (Jabal al-Mukaber), Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, Tqu'a, Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Jenin, Tulkarem. In Gaza clashes were reported at several places, the most violent in Deir al-Balah. In today's clashes, scores of Palestinians were injured by live ammunition and rubber coated metal bullets.
The clashes come at a period when Palestinians not only commemorate the martyrs of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, which was orchestrated by Ariel Sharon, Minister of Defense at the time, but also the 10th anniversary of the massacre at the al-Aqsa mosque in which 18 Palestinians were killed and 150 others were injured and the fourth anniversary of the Tunnel clashes in September 1996 when Israeli occupation forces shot and killed 65 Palestinians and injured 1600 in various Palestinian cities.
Sharon's visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque is extremely offensive to the Palestinian people. Ariel Sharon has been direct and indirect involved in a number of massacres, killings and deportations of Palestinians. On 14 October 1953, an Israeli unit, under the command of Sharon attacked the village of Qibya. Sixty-six men, women and children were murdered. The Israeli government acknowledged responsibility for this massacre.
On September 16, 1982 Ariel Sharon allowed Phalangist troops to enter the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon, even though the same troops had previously engaged in massacres of Palestinians living in Lebanon. The killing at the refugee camps went on for three days. During nighttime Phalangist operations, Sharon's troops fired illumination rounds so the Phalangists could continue their bloody work. Israeli troops, under the command of Sharon, blocked the exits of the camps to prevent the refugees from escaping and supplied the Phalangists with at least one bulldozer, which was used to cover bodies with rubble.
Ariel Sharon was implicated by the official Israeli Commission of Inquiry into the massacre (the so-called Kahan Commission) for his role in the massacre committed in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. Under the principles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Sharon is a war criminal, responsible for the massacre of more than 2,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
The Israeli government is responsible for Sharon's provocative visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque and the ensuing results that led to the injury of 24 Palestinians. Moreover, the actions of Ariel Sharon should be seen in the light of his past and present. One must not overlook the extent to which his participation in massacres directed against Palestinian civilians creates a most disturbing pattern. Sharon is liable for his role in aiding, abetting and committing the perpetration of massacres and should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hanthala Palestine condemns the Israeli attack on the lives of Palestinian civilians. It particular condemns the use of lethal and excessive force by the Israeli occupation forces. Hanthala Palestine calls on the international community to take up their legal obligation and end the occupation and comply Israel to international law and human rights.
Hanthala Palestine calls for the restoration of the national cause and rejects all attempts tp create alternatives to the right to return, to self-determination, and to full compliance with international law and respect for human rights. These alternative plans deny the Palestinian people's rights and these plans include autonomy, Campd David, and Oslo.
More than thirty years of coercion, persecution, oppression, and attempts to liquidate identity and the Palestinian people's national cause have created generations of freedom and return.
Hanthala calls for international protection for the Palestinian masses from the crimes of the Israeli occupation to pave the way to end the occupation and achieve the people's right to freedom and return.
Hanthala calls upon every person to carry out the following:
1. Write a letter or send a fax to Israeli PM Ehud Barak and voice your protest over the premeditated massacre at the Haram as Sharif and for allowing provocation and killings to happen. Voice your concern about the use of excessive lethal force by the Israeli occupation forces. Additionally, demand that the Israeli government prosecutes convicted war criminals such as Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres, and Amos Yaron.
2. Contact your local media and write the true course of events and monitor bias in the media. For a list of media contacts
3. Contact your government or local representatives and call upon their legal and moral obligation to adhere to its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and as a member state of the United Nations to implement all relevant UN resolutions and to sanction the Israeli administration for not complying with international law and respect for human rights. For a list of governmental contacts
4. Contact our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Lebanon who have been on hungerstrike for education. Write a letter of solidarity to palrefchildren@mail.com and tell them that you protest UNRWA's lack of services in education, a basic human right. UNRWA has an obligation to provide these services until Palestinian refugees are allowed back home.
5. Protest in front of the Israeli embassy in your country against the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation and in particular by war criminal Ariel Sharon. To check the nearest Israeli embassy in your country/state
On this day we commemorate all martyrs, in particular those who were killed in September 2000, 1996 and 1982, and salute our brothers and sisters in the towns, villages, and camps in occupied Palestine and in exile, in particular the Palestinian students in Lebanon.
On this day we send a message to the Palestinian Authority saying that no one, including the Palestinian Authority, can legitimately renounce any of the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The strong drive and unbroke will of the Palestinian people that Palestinian refugees should be free to seek their right to return, regardless of what the Palestinian Authority acquiesces to. The Palestinian Authority should be aware that whilst it might constitute political authority within parts of occupied Palestine, it has no remit whatsoever to speak for the Palestinian people as a whole.
On this day of anger we salute all Palestinian prisoners. We condemn the excessive use of force by the occupation forces and call upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to hold Israel accountable for grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Hanthala Palestine
30 September 2000