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Since Tuesday, 26
February, the Israeli occupation army has been carrying out a campaign
of murder and terror in much of the northern part of the West Bank,
which has so far claimed the lives of at least three Palestinians and
caused incalculable damage to private and public property including the
civilian infrastructure.
In Jenin,
undercover Israeli soldiers murdered three Palestinians under the
pretext that they were affiliated with one of the resistance groups, as
if such an affiliation warranted an instant extrajudicial execution.
And in Nablus, the
capital of northern Palestine, thousands of crack soldiers, backed by
over a hundred military vehicles, including Armored Personnel Carriers,
have been rampaging through the city, terrorizing the local population
and vandalizing their property.
Some locals have
been speaking of soldiers breaking into homes, terrorizing civilians and
vandalizing furniture.
At least one
Palestinian youth was critically injured Wednesday when trigger-happy
Israeli occupation soldiers opened live munitions on youngsters hurling
stones on armored Israeli vehicles.
Eyewitnesses said
the boys at no point posed a real risk to the safety of the rampaging
soldiers.
Earlier, nearly a
dozen youths were lightly to moderately injured by rubber-coated bullets
and live munitions fired by Israeli snipers stationed on strategic
rooftops.
On Tuesday, the
invading forces appeared to have left the city, only to return a few
hours later when they resumed their repressive measures, including
raiding and breaking into homes and institutions. According to
eyewitness and local officials, Israeli soldiers used explosives to
blast their way into closed buildings, causing substantial damage.
“They are behaving
like cowboys in the wild old west,” said a Nablus journalist. “We can
call them the Gestapo of our time.”
The tactical
withdrawal, followed by a return in full force a few hours later, is a
familiar trick used extensively during the heydays of the intifada.
It is also a
sinister form of psychological warfare which is primarily meant to
undermine the moral of a civilian population eager to have a respite
from days or weeks of Nazi-like repression and humiliation.
Another goal is
apparently to trick potential freedom fighters into resurfacing from
their hideouts in order to assassinate them. Palestinian resistance
fighters and intifada activists have learned the lesson the hard way and
are unlikely to fall into the trap.
Local leaders In
Nablus on Wednesday described the latest terrorist incursion as a
“total failure” since the operation, code named “Hot Winter,” failed to
achieve its main declared goal, namely the arrest of liquidation of a
number of resistance leaders.
Israeli Defense
Minister Amir Peretz, who has been the subject of criticism, even
ridicule, by much of the Israeli media and the Ashkenazi
establishment, apparently wanted to dispel doubts about his ability to
lead the “war against terror.” Terror is the term Israel uses in
reference to Palestinian resistance to the Zionist occupation and
colonization of the Palestinian homeland.
There are other
political and psychological reasons behind the latest rampage in Nablus.
The Israeli government of Ehud Olmert, probably the most disingenuous
and dishonest prime minister in Israel’s history, seems determined to
frustrate Palestinian efforts to form a government of national unity.
This government,
Olmert calculates, would undermine Israel’s hasbara efforts especially
in Europe, since the new government would enable the Palestinians to
speak in one voice, which Israel doesn’t’ want and doesn’t like.
Olmert realizes
well that a united Palestinian front is an asset for the Palestinian
struggle and the overall Palestinian cause. Hence, he is trying to
disrupt the ongoing reconciliation efforts, by creating distractions,
in the hope that the realization of the government can be postponed if
not thwarted completely.
More to the point,
there is no doubt that the Israeli military establishment, dominated by
Talmudic-minded officers, is hell bent on disrupting normal life among
Palestinians as much as possible as a way to break the collective will
of the Palestinian people to withstand Israeli repression and keep up
the fight for freedom and justice.
There might be an
additional reason for the ongoing incursion in Nablus. The Israeli
army along with the Shin Beth seems determined to prevent Palestinian
resistance groups in the West Bank from developing makeshift rockets of
the Qassam variety.
Needless to say,
any Palestinian success in this regard would enable the resistance to
attack Israeli settlements and other vital targets, thus neutralizing
the military effect of the apartheid wall.
Needless to say,
Israel views this prospect as a red line, given the contiguity of
Israeli and Palestinian population centers. |
