PMWATCH
- Feb. 20, 2002 -- As public opinion is quickly shifting against
him, as IDF soldiers begin to
refuse serving in the OT, and as the Palestinians at long
last are seriously building a non-violent
resistence movement,
Ariel Sharon is scrambling for his
dear political life and frantically trying to escalate the violence
and tip the conflict into full warfare. Today, 16 Palestinians
were brutally killed in one of the bloodiest assaults against
the Palestinians since the Intifada started 17 months ago.
And
yet, obvious as Sharon's
desperation moves may appear to anyone watching on the sidelines,
the US media continues to resist taking a strong stand against
Sharon and to call on the US administration to stand up and
tell Sharon that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Below
is an interface that will shoot off your letter to all the main
US newspapers. Please
make sure your voice is heard and tell them ENOUGH! The media
needs to take a strong stand and to support the emerging alternative
rather than allow Sharon to keep the bloodletting going.
Sharon
is done and he needs to go. He has handsomely served to illustrate
the total bankruptcy of his "iron policy against terrorism"
and so his time is up! Not that
his role in making history is over. Next stop: Brussels!
Please
mobilize and ask your friends to join in a campaign to shake
the media out of its comfortable trance. Fill
your personal information, add your comments, and then click
send.
Ahmed
Bouzid
President
Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37725-2002Feb20.html
As Attacks Intensify, Israel Shifts Policy
Road Closings Trap Up to 1 Million Palestinians
By Lee Hockstader
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, February 20, 2002; 4:00 PM
KALANDIA, West Bank, Feb. 20--Intense new violence convulsed the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip today as the Israeli military pummeled Palestinian
security forces, killing at least 16 people today in retaliation for
the slaying of six Israeli soldiers.
It was one of the bloodiest days in the nearly 17 months of fighting in
theMiddle East. Officials close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel
had decided to intensify its military campaign against Yasser Arafat's
8-year-old Palestinian Authority in the days to come.
The Israelis also seemed to be edging closer to a strike against Arafat
himself, something they have consistently pledged not to do. A missile
that an Israeli helicopter gunship fired at Arafat's headquarters in the
West Bank city of Ramallah before dawn today hit within several yards of the
Palestinian leader's office.
It is not clear how far away Arafat was at the time, but he emerged
defiant. "The tanks and missiles and the planes do not terrify us," said Arafat,
72. "The Israelis insist on avoiding the peace process but we will raise
the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem."
Ten Israelis and at least 27 Palestinians, including two suicide
bombers, have been killed in the fighting since Monday.
One new element was that at least seven of the Palestinians killed
today were troops in the Palestinian National Security service, which
previously has had little involvement in the fighting. The National Security
service, which regards itself as the Palestinians' professional army, is by far
the largest of Arafat's dozen security forces. If it were to become
involved in attacks on Israel the fighting could escalate sharply, according to
analysts on both sides.
Defying explicit appeals from the Bush administration, Israel also
imposed extraordinarily severe restrictions on Palestinian civilians, closing
virtually all major roads in the northern West Bank, where more than 1
million Palestinians live.
The new policy froze Palestinians in their cities, towns and villages
shortly before the Muslim feast of al-Adha, a major holiday that most
Palestinians spend with their families. The feast is this Friday, so
thousands of Palestinians were on the road today trying to reach their
home towns, only to be blocked at Israeli checkpoints.
"We don't know how to get home," said Nisreen Abed, 18, one of seven
young Palestinian women from a secretarial college in Ramallah who were
trying to make their way to the northern West Bank town of Nablus today. "The
feast is a special day--mothers make cookies and special meals, they tidy up the
house, we all go to see relatives."
But as the women waited near Ramallah, caught in a cloud of dust and
exhaust fumes from idling taxis, there seemed to be little prospect of reaching
their destination today. Israel halted all Palestinian traffic between
major towns in the area, and troops manning roadblocks were under orders to
stop others as well.
At the Kalandia Crossing north of Jerusalem, on the seam between
Israeli-and Palestinian-controlled territory, reporters watched Israeli
soldiers fire warning shots to halt cars driven by a Swiss development worker
and European journalists. The Israeli soldiers also blocked Palestinian
children who had passed through the checkpoint in the morning from walking home
after school.
"I asked him, 'Soldier, let me through.' But he wouldn't let me," said
Ghassan Ali, an 8-year-old Palestinian boy who lives just beyond the
Israeli checkpoint. He seemed to have no idea how he would get home.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
|
