Mujtaba Ali Mujtaba Ali is a third-year
physiological science student. E-mail him at mali@media.ucla.edu.
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It has been nearly a month since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon decided to indulge in his longtime hobby of raiding refugee
camps and killing impoverished civilians.
In 1982 Sharon ordered the massacre at the Sabra and Chatilla
refugee camp in Lebanon. He got away with murder, having
escaped with nothing more than the forced resignation of his
position as defense minister ““ a slap on the wrist in light
of the magnitude of his crime.
For years, Sharon has been avoiding the war crimes indictment
imposed by the Belgian Judiciary in 1993 by questioning the
validity and jurisdiction of the Belgian court system.
The current incursion into Palestinian towns by the Israeli
“˜Defense’ Force adds yet another instance of mass
murder to Sharon’s career. Sharon was in charge of both
incursions, but this time he’ll have more difficulty escaping
prosecution than he did with the Lebanon incident.
The massive number of deaths at Jenin calls into question the
ability of the Israeli Defense Force to distinguish between
civilians and militants. There is a great amount of evidence that
indicates the Israeli Defense Force has engaged in indiscriminate
killing and unnecessary destruction at the Jenin camp.
Israeli officials have vehemently attempted to avoid
international investigation of the Jenin offensive. On Tuesday,
Israel announced that it would delay a United Nations investigation
team in commencing its survey of the camp. Sharon adviser Dore Gold
states that the U.N. inquiry would be postponed until Israel has
agreed to the team’s “terms of reference and
composition.” He insists that the team include a person with
military experience ““ tacitly indicating that someone with
such experience is better suited to vindicate Israel against
accusations of war crimes.
As with the Lebanon incident, the Israeli Defense Force plans on
burying the Jenin dead in mass graves. BBC News reported on
April 14 that the Israeli High Court rejected a petition by two
members of the Israeli cabinet to prevent army burial of those who
died in the refugee camp. The court stated that if the Palestinian
Authority does not immediately bury the dead, the army can step in
and conduct burials. An article in the popular Israeli
newspaper Ha’aretz states that the Israeli military intends
on taking those dead alleged terrorists to a “˜special
cemetery’ in Jordan Valley.Â
The article reports Israeli sources stating that the purpose of
the measure is to avoid use of the Jenin dead in Palestinian
propaganda. According to BBC news, the proposal to deny the army
burial was brought upon grounds that mass graves would “strip
dead Palestinians of any honor,” effectively reducing the
value of human life (BBC News, April 14).
This apparent refusal to regard Palestinians as human beings is
not confined to the Middle East. During a pro-Israel rally in
Washington, D.C., last Monday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz was jeered at by the crowd when he mentioned that
“innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying as
well.” (BBC News, April 18)
Enacting this mass burial legislation and creating a special
cemetery in the Jordan Valley for purported terrorists call into
question the ability of the Israeli Defense Force to distinguish
between militants and civilians both during and after combat.
This issue of classifying civilians as terrorists has been the
subject of immense controversy. The United Nations has issued
countless resolutions condemning Israel’s use of excessive
force against Palestine.
Apart from U.N. resolutions against Israeli actions ““ U.N.
authority is often disputed by pro-Israeli activists ““ some
Israeli soldiers have provided evidence confirming claims of
indiscriminate killing and useless destruction by the Israeli
Defense Force.
Since January, over 400 Israeli reserve soldiers have signed a
petition to refuse service in the Israeli military. Their
letter of intent states, “We were issued commands and
directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country,
and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the
Palestinian people.”
Many reservists who continue to serve do so with reluctance. One
Israeli reservist, Yoni, who was called on to participate in the
recent siege, expressed his concerns and doubts about Israeli
military tactics by telling BBC News, “The most terrible
thing is to go into houses and see that they are just regular
families. The children with their wide frightened eyes, I find very
difficult.”
Western journalists report the smell of rotting corpses amid the
rubble of Palestinian homes in Jenin. It is speculated that many
injured Palestinians may have bled to death, trapped under
collapsed buildings.
Despite cliché slogans, such as “a fight for our
survival,” it is apparent that Israel’s intent in its
recent offensive was to crush Palestinian morale and destroy its
civil infrastructure out of vengeance. In doing so, it has
hypocritically succeeded in employing terror as its primary tactic
to achieve a political objective.