Hal Womack 3-dan
2006-06-19 21:16:03 UTC
Israel Lobby Watch
Former Dutch Ambassador Calls for Sanctions if Israel Refuses to Comply
with International Law
Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada, 19 June 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some weeks ago I heard Jan Wijenberg, a retired Dutch Ambassador, speak
about what the International Community could do to break with its
complicity to the ongoing violations of international law and human
rights by the Israeli regime. Wijenberg served over a decade as an
ambassador for the Dutch government in Jemen, Tanzania and Saudi
Arabia. He regularly writes to Dutch ministers and politicians to
remind them of the responsibility of the international community, and
specifically of the Dutch Government and the European Union, to hold
Israel accountable to international law. His views are expressed in
this article.
Israel is the problem
Quite often is spoken about the conflict in the Middle East between the
Palestinians and Israel. If we look at the situation more closely we
can observe something different. The media in Israel provide a platform
for unpunished, insane calls for murdering peoples and a nation. An
example is offered by Professor Arnon Sofer talking about Palestinians
living in closed-off Gaza, "...those people will become even bigger
animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist
Islam... So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill
and kill. All day, every day. If we don't kill we will cease to
exist....."1
In 2005 Ehud Barak stated on Dutch television2 that - in a secret and
illegal retaliatory campaign against the Palestinian hostage takers at
the Munich Olympic Winter Games - he personally had murdered thirteen
innocent citizens. According to Barak this would teach the world not to
fool around with Israel. Barak was and is not prosecuted for
premeditated murder and could achieve the position of the country's
prime minister.
Among the settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories are
opportunists and extremely violent Israeli's who aim to occupy East
Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Palestinians must be
driven out of these territories by all means possible, including
murder. The government of Israel supports the settlers in full while
they lay there hands on Palestinian property and act out their violence
on Palestinians.
The annexation of East Jerusalem by Ehud Olmert while he was the mayor
of West-Jerusalem can according to the Fourth Geneva Convention be
interpreted as a war crime. After the last elections in Israel Ehud
Olmert's Kadima party won the vote and he is now the Prime Minister of
Israel.
Israeli policies are driven by the Zionist ideal of creating a Jewish
state, including the Palestinian territories. Israel is aiming
systematically at destroying the identity of the Palestinian people.
The so called "conflict in the Middle East" between Palestinians and
Israel does not exist. Zionist Israel is the problem.
Rogue state
Israel is the world's sole remaining occupying colonial power. It
systematically sabotages all international efforts to end the
occupation. In its capacity of occupying power Israel violates numerous
obligations emanating from Security Council Resolutions and the Geneva
Conventions. It also breaches the provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
The USA applies a doctrine and the US-administration labels selected
countries as 'Rogue states'. These countries possess weapons of mass
destruction illegally, suppress large populations, torture, keep people
in detention on a large scale and commit murder outside their national
borders. Israel has adopted as a strategy the execution of land and
water grabs, the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure (including
in education and health), the carrying out of extraterritorial
executions, torture, and collective punishments and keeping thousands
of Palestinians imprisoned indefinitely without charge or prosecution.
On the basis of the definition by the USA, Israel has ever since its
establishment been a monumental Rogue state and a highly active member
of the Axis of Evil.
Letter to Dutch ministers
In February Wijenberg wrote to the ministers Bot, van Ardenne-van der
Hoeven and Nicolaï, ministers of Foreign Affairs, Development
Co-operation and State Secretary of European Affairs respectively. He
reminded them that according to article 90 of the Dutch Constitution
"The government nurtures the development of the international order of
law". So many previous Dutch governments violated this article when it
concerns the Middle East. With referral to the Advisory Opinion of the
International Court of Justice of 9 July 2004 Wijenberg calls upon the
Dutch ministers to show the world that they are serious about
international law, justice and democracy. A copy of the letter was sent
to the prime minister Balkenende and the minister of Justice Donner. In
his view the United States and the European Union - including the
Netherlands - have for too long condoned Israels disrespect for
international law.
In its response the ministry of Foreign Affairs replies that the Dutch
government is actively engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Israel.
Wijenberg questions this policy. ""Since when do we politely ask
notorious violaters of international law to stop their daily
terrorisation of the Palestinian civilians, with assassinations in
broad daylight and theft of property, houses, land and water? Why
aren't the harshest peaceful means used to fight this?"
Call for sanctions
In the view of Wijenberg the European Union and the Netherlands have
become an instrument of Israels foreign policy by ignoring its own core
values values and respect for international law and human rights.
Europe can play a key role in achieving lasting peace for Israel and
its neighbours. If Israel refuses to show respect for international
law, heavy sanctions against Israel should be installed.
Adri Nieuwhof is an independent consultant and human rights advocate
from the Netherlands.
Endnotes
[1] The Jerusalem Post, Up Front weekend supplement (21 May 2004)
[2] NOVA (15 December 2005)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©2000-2006 electronicIntifada.net unless otherwise noted. Content may
represent personal view of author. This page was printed from the
Electronic Intifada website at electronicIntifada.net. You may freely
e-mail, print out, copy, and redistribute this page for informational
purposes on a non-commercial basis. To republish content credited to
the Electronic Intifada in online or print publications, please get in
touch via electronicIntifada.net/contact
Courtesy cross-post by Hal Womack 3-dan
=========================================================
JAZKO Notes:
1.) Picture of a pretty little red-haired Palestinian Arab girl:
Loading Image...
Her name was Akaber Zaid. On X1 1998 she was born to Ikram and Abdel
Rahman Zaid (b.1975) in a hospital in Nazareth [Show maps of hospital's
location within Nazareth and N's loc within Palestine aka Israel] and
had an Israeli birth certificate. Her mother is also an Israeli Arab.
Akaber was the Y1 of six children in her family. Her sisters and
brothers names are....So far, they are still alive. This [show new
photo, with credit] is a picture of the Zaid family in front of their
home on Z1, X2 days after the Jews' murder of Akaber. _Paterfamilias_
Zaid drives a commercial van in the West Bank, when possible.
2.) Below follows the Israeli Jewish writer Gideon Levy's original
account of Akaber's murder on St.Patrick's Day (U.S.) by one of the
many units of the Israeli secret police (funded more than three decades
by the U.S.Government); his story appeared first (?) in Alexander
Cockburn's Website COUNTERPUNCH* :
* http://www.counterpunch.org/
March 27, 2006
The Shooting of Little Akaber
Are We Done Killing Children, Yet?
By GIDEON LEVY
A bullet in the head from a distance of a few meters, fired suddenly
and without warning shots aimed at the wheels, which the Israel Defense
Forces claims there were. This is the way undercover soldiers from the
Border Police killed Akaber Zaid, an eight-and-a-half year-old, who was
on her way to the doctor, according to her uncle, who was with her and
was also wounded.
Little Akaber was going to the doctor and he did indeed see her, but
there was no longer a reason for him to do so. She had been on the way
to have him remove stitches from her chin, but instead arrived dead at
the same doctor's office, with her head smashed and her skull gaping.
Soldiers from the Border Police's undercover unit, known by the Hebrew
acronym Yamas, shot at her uncle's taxi at close range as he was
parking the vehicle next to the doctor's office. All the soldiers'
claims, as presented to the media by the IDF, to the effect that they
had shot at the taxi's wheels in accordance with the "regulations for
arresting a suspect," were nothing but lies, says the girl's uncle, who
was sitting next to her.
The car was sprayed from the right and from behind with bullets, which
entered through its windows. The shots were fired from just a few
meters away, the uncle stresses, in the light of a street lamp.
We saw the taxi this week: All its wheels are intact. However, those
who carried out the "investigations" on behalf of the IDF and the
Border Police did not even bother to examine the vehicle, or to
question the man who had driven it. He was also wounded and is
hospitalized.
We also took testimony from him and could not find a single fact on the
ground that contradicts what he reports: The undercover soldiers shot
at the girl from two directions, from nearby and, the uncle says,
without warning. No soldier with a gun, certainly not an expert
sharpshooter from the Yamas, would aim at close range at wheels and hit
someone in the head instead.
Down the road, hundreds of meters from the shooting, are the remaining
signs of the destruction wreaked by the Border Police. Not one wanted
man was detained, but a five-story apartment block was badly damaged
and there are wrecks of cars that were completely crushed, one after
the other, still standing in the street.
Why did the undercover soldiers shoot at a young girl? How could they
dare claim they aimed at the wheels? Why did they have to shoot at
innocent people in a taxi in the first place? Why did they wreak such
havoc? Why did they crush vehicles that were the last source of income
for their owners? What is the difference between this action on the
soldiers' part and a terrorist attack? And why are these questions not
being asked?
The father did not accompany his daughter to Dr. Samara. He said he
could not bear to see the doctor removing the stitches from her little
chin. Akaber was a second-grade pupil from the village of Al-Yamoun,
northwest of Jenin. In her picture from kindergarten, she can be seen
wearing a square black graduation cap, like those worn by university
graduates and people receiving doctorates. That is the custom in the
Al-Yamoun kindergarten: The children who excel are photographed with
the special hat. That is how she will remain in the collective
consciousness of that town, whose sons once worked in Israel.
Akaber is not the first girl they are burying. How many children were
killed in Al-Yamoun in the past few years? The school principal, who
came to pay his condolences to the family, begins to list them, one by
one, but stops suddenly and asks: "Why should I count them? Are we
finished having our children killed?"
The father enters the mourners' room in the local council building, his
eyes red with crying. Abdel Rahman Zaid, 31, the father of six, drives
a commercial van that travels in the West Bank, when possible. About
three weeks ago, Akaber fell on the stairs in her house and hurt her
chin. Last Friday it was time to remove the stitches.
When Abdel Rahman returned from work, he asked his brother Kamal--a
27-year-old taxi driver, whom he calls Hamoudi--to go with Akaber to
the doctor's house on the hill, where he has his office. It was Friday
night, the last night of her life. His brother took the girl and she
sat beside him in the passenger seat. The father stresses that the
taxi's windows were transparent; there were no curtains covering them
or hiding the passengers. Any soldier could see the occupants, any
soldier from the Yamas could see that there was a small girl with a
braid sitting there.
The two left for the doctor's and soon reached his street. From his bed
in the government hospital in Jenin, his wounded hand in a bandage,
Kamal relates that after parking, he suddenly noticed some soldiers to
the right of the car. It is a narrow road and they were standing barely
a few meters away. He says they began firing immediately, from the
right and from behind. Only after that did he hear shouting in Hebrew,
which he does not speak. Little Akaber was already lying on the seat
with her head smashed.
Kamal lifted her up in his arms; the soldiers instructed him to leave
her on the road. Thus, they remained on the road--the dead girl and her
wounded uncle.
The Yamas soldiers ordered him to stand, to lift up his shirt and then
to sit back down. They continued to shoot in the air, Kamal says. A
neighbor took the girl to the doctor who was expecting her. From there
she was taken to the hospital in Jenin where her death was confirmed.
The uncle's arm was bandaged on the spot and he was taken by military
Jeep for interrogation. He says the soldiers beat him. There was a dog
in the vehicle, who sniffed him, and a soldier called Raslan who, he
says, hit him in the head when he spoke Arabic. Kamal took three
bullets in the arm and leg. He says seven bullets hit the girl, three
of them in her head.
The yellow Renault taxi tells the story: Its wheels are intact, but its
body is riddled with bullet holes. The back window is shattered, and
there are bullet holes in the back head rest and in its sides. There
are blood stains everywhere, the blood of the dead girl and her wounded
uncle. All this time, they hid her death from her father. Abdel Rahman
had heard the shots--the doctor's office is not far from their
house--but he never thought of his daughter somehow, only of his
brother. He went to the doctor's office and there they told him that
Akaber had been wounded. The doctor injected him with a sedative, and
he says he did not wake up until morning. Only when he awoke and went
home, at about 5 A.M., did his other brother break the bad news. His
wife already knew: She heard the news on an Arabic-language TV station.
Through his tears, the father wants to tell us something: The girl's
mother, Ikram, was born in Israel. Akaber was also Israeli. She was
born in a Nazareth hospital and has an Israeli birth certificate. She
was buried in the Al-Yamoun cemetery on Saturday morning.
The IDF Spokesman: "On March 17, while a special forces unit of the
Border Police was engaged in arresting wanted men in the village of
Al-Yamoun, northwest of Jenin, the unit surrounded an area in which
there was a suspicion that wanted men were hiding. During the
operation, the force saw a taxi that seemed suspicious approaching the
area and began the procedure of arresting a suspect. When it failed to
heed the soldiers' calls, they opened fire in the direction of the
taxi."
Does anyone think the uncle would not have heeded the calls to stop if
indeed the soldiers had called out? The man was taking his little niece
to the doctor. The army announced merely that "the IDF regrets harming
the Palestinian girl and is conducting a comprehensive examination of
the circumstances of the event."
The scene of the destruction: A Palestinian bulldozer removed the
wreckage next to the Zaid family's house on Sunday. A five-story
building, which the soldiers suspected was housing wanted men, has been
partially destroyed. The family members are now covering the huge holes
in it with gray bricks, and its elegant columns are in danger of
collapsing. In the yard below are the other wrecked cars: a yellow
Mercedes taxi, a white Subaru, and another few pieces of metal that
were once cars.
Mohammed Zaid, who owns one of the apartments, emerges from the debris:
"This is the Jewish army--this is the bad Jewish army," shouts his
uncle who is with him. Mohammed recalls that at about seven on Friday
night, he saw another group of soldiers outside his grocery shop. They
demanded that he tell all the residents to leave the building.
There are five large families--families of a lawyer, a doctor, an
engineer, a teacher--living in the five stories. All the tenants went
out into the street and had to wait there until morning--dozens of
children, women and men--until the soldiers finished their work.
Mohammed says that the women and children acted as a barrier between
the area where people were shooting at the soldiers, from one house,
and the area where the Border Police was returning fire. When the
building had been evacuated, they sent Mohammed to turn the lights on
in all the rooms to see if someone was still there.
An IDF bulldozer was ready to tear the structure down. Mohammed says he
suggested the soldiers accompany him to see that no one was left
inside, but they shut him up, saying, "We know what work we have to
do."
Around midnight, the bulldozer started tearing things down. The house
across the street was also damaged.
Mohammed says he asked an officer: "Does Israeli law permit you to do
this?" The officer said, according to Mohammed: "Go and complain at the
UN."
Mohammed's brother, a dentist, whose clinic was completely destroyed,
tried to tell an officer that he was a doctor "for humans," and the
officer replied: "Shut up."
Mohammed was taken for interrogation at the Salem facility and was
released only on Saturday at noon. He says he told his interrogator:
"On TV, you say you are a democracy." The interrogator replied:
"Democracy is only for the TV."
Mohammed, a teacher, says: "I always tell my pupils that we like peace.
What will I tell them now? That this is what peace looks like?"
We go to the top of the hill where Akaber was killed. A sign points the
way to Dr. Samara's clinic. Someone has placed a row of little stones
on the road where the taxi stood, to mark where the little body was.
The bloodstains have not yet been wiped away.
Gideon Levy writes for Ha'aretz ("_The Land_", sort of like the NEW
YORK TIMES of tiny Israel --HW). Here's his picture:
Loading Image...
A handsome & worthy Jew, eh what? Such a paradox that he for so long
has occupied a high position @ the leading voice of the genociderals.
See also:
http://www.israelshamir.net/
http://www.nkusa.org/index.cfm
=======================================
APPENDIX
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['06/06/19 09:38 PDT]
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Former Dutch Ambassador Calls for Sanctions if Israel Refuses to Comply
with International Law
Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada, 19 June 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some weeks ago I heard Jan Wijenberg, a retired Dutch Ambassador, speak
about what the International Community could do to break with its
complicity to the ongoing violations of international law and human
rights by the Israeli regime. Wijenberg served over a decade as an
ambassador for the Dutch government in Jemen, Tanzania and Saudi
Arabia. He regularly writes to Dutch ministers and politicians to
remind them of the responsibility of the international community, and
specifically of the Dutch Government and the European Union, to hold
Israel accountable to international law. His views are expressed in
this article.
Israel is the problem
Quite often is spoken about the conflict in the Middle East between the
Palestinians and Israel. If we look at the situation more closely we
can observe something different. The media in Israel provide a platform
for unpunished, insane calls for murdering peoples and a nation. An
example is offered by Professor Arnon Sofer talking about Palestinians
living in closed-off Gaza, "...those people will become even bigger
animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist
Islam... So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill
and kill. All day, every day. If we don't kill we will cease to
exist....."1
In 2005 Ehud Barak stated on Dutch television2 that - in a secret and
illegal retaliatory campaign against the Palestinian hostage takers at
the Munich Olympic Winter Games - he personally had murdered thirteen
innocent citizens. According to Barak this would teach the world not to
fool around with Israel. Barak was and is not prosecuted for
premeditated murder and could achieve the position of the country's
prime minister.
Among the settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories are
opportunists and extremely violent Israeli's who aim to occupy East
Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Palestinians must be
driven out of these territories by all means possible, including
murder. The government of Israel supports the settlers in full while
they lay there hands on Palestinian property and act out their violence
on Palestinians.
The annexation of East Jerusalem by Ehud Olmert while he was the mayor
of West-Jerusalem can according to the Fourth Geneva Convention be
interpreted as a war crime. After the last elections in Israel Ehud
Olmert's Kadima party won the vote and he is now the Prime Minister of
Israel.
Israeli policies are driven by the Zionist ideal of creating a Jewish
state, including the Palestinian territories. Israel is aiming
systematically at destroying the identity of the Palestinian people.
The so called "conflict in the Middle East" between Palestinians and
Israel does not exist. Zionist Israel is the problem.
Rogue state
Israel is the world's sole remaining occupying colonial power. It
systematically sabotages all international efforts to end the
occupation. In its capacity of occupying power Israel violates numerous
obligations emanating from Security Council Resolutions and the Geneva
Conventions. It also breaches the provisions of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
The USA applies a doctrine and the US-administration labels selected
countries as 'Rogue states'. These countries possess weapons of mass
destruction illegally, suppress large populations, torture, keep people
in detention on a large scale and commit murder outside their national
borders. Israel has adopted as a strategy the execution of land and
water grabs, the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure (including
in education and health), the carrying out of extraterritorial
executions, torture, and collective punishments and keeping thousands
of Palestinians imprisoned indefinitely without charge or prosecution.
On the basis of the definition by the USA, Israel has ever since its
establishment been a monumental Rogue state and a highly active member
of the Axis of Evil.
Letter to Dutch ministers
In February Wijenberg wrote to the ministers Bot, van Ardenne-van der
Hoeven and Nicolaï, ministers of Foreign Affairs, Development
Co-operation and State Secretary of European Affairs respectively. He
reminded them that according to article 90 of the Dutch Constitution
"The government nurtures the development of the international order of
law". So many previous Dutch governments violated this article when it
concerns the Middle East. With referral to the Advisory Opinion of the
International Court of Justice of 9 July 2004 Wijenberg calls upon the
Dutch ministers to show the world that they are serious about
international law, justice and democracy. A copy of the letter was sent
to the prime minister Balkenende and the minister of Justice Donner. In
his view the United States and the European Union - including the
Netherlands - have for too long condoned Israels disrespect for
international law.
In its response the ministry of Foreign Affairs replies that the Dutch
government is actively engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Israel.
Wijenberg questions this policy. ""Since when do we politely ask
notorious violaters of international law to stop their daily
terrorisation of the Palestinian civilians, with assassinations in
broad daylight and theft of property, houses, land and water? Why
aren't the harshest peaceful means used to fight this?"
Call for sanctions
In the view of Wijenberg the European Union and the Netherlands have
become an instrument of Israels foreign policy by ignoring its own core
values values and respect for international law and human rights.
Europe can play a key role in achieving lasting peace for Israel and
its neighbours. If Israel refuses to show respect for international
law, heavy sanctions against Israel should be installed.
Adri Nieuwhof is an independent consultant and human rights advocate
from the Netherlands.
Endnotes
[1] The Jerusalem Post, Up Front weekend supplement (21 May 2004)
[2] NOVA (15 December 2005)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©2000-2006 electronicIntifada.net unless otherwise noted. Content may
represent personal view of author. This page was printed from the
Electronic Intifada website at electronicIntifada.net. You may freely
e-mail, print out, copy, and redistribute this page for informational
purposes on a non-commercial basis. To republish content credited to
the Electronic Intifada in online or print publications, please get in
touch via electronicIntifada.net/contact
Courtesy cross-post by Hal Womack 3-dan
=========================================================
JAZKO Notes:
1.) Picture of a pretty little red-haired Palestinian Arab girl:
Loading Image...
Her name was Akaber Zaid. On X1 1998 she was born to Ikram and Abdel
Rahman Zaid (b.1975) in a hospital in Nazareth [Show maps of hospital's
location within Nazareth and N's loc within Palestine aka Israel] and
had an Israeli birth certificate. Her mother is also an Israeli Arab.
Akaber was the Y1 of six children in her family. Her sisters and
brothers names are....So far, they are still alive. This [show new
photo, with credit] is a picture of the Zaid family in front of their
home on Z1, X2 days after the Jews' murder of Akaber. _Paterfamilias_
Zaid drives a commercial van in the West Bank, when possible.
2.) Below follows the Israeli Jewish writer Gideon Levy's original
account of Akaber's murder on St.Patrick's Day (U.S.) by one of the
many units of the Israeli secret police (funded more than three decades
by the U.S.Government); his story appeared first (?) in Alexander
Cockburn's Website COUNTERPUNCH* :
* http://www.counterpunch.org/
March 27, 2006
The Shooting of Little Akaber
Are We Done Killing Children, Yet?
By GIDEON LEVY
A bullet in the head from a distance of a few meters, fired suddenly
and without warning shots aimed at the wheels, which the Israel Defense
Forces claims there were. This is the way undercover soldiers from the
Border Police killed Akaber Zaid, an eight-and-a-half year-old, who was
on her way to the doctor, according to her uncle, who was with her and
was also wounded.
Little Akaber was going to the doctor and he did indeed see her, but
there was no longer a reason for him to do so. She had been on the way
to have him remove stitches from her chin, but instead arrived dead at
the same doctor's office, with her head smashed and her skull gaping.
Soldiers from the Border Police's undercover unit, known by the Hebrew
acronym Yamas, shot at her uncle's taxi at close range as he was
parking the vehicle next to the doctor's office. All the soldiers'
claims, as presented to the media by the IDF, to the effect that they
had shot at the taxi's wheels in accordance with the "regulations for
arresting a suspect," were nothing but lies, says the girl's uncle, who
was sitting next to her.
The car was sprayed from the right and from behind with bullets, which
entered through its windows. The shots were fired from just a few
meters away, the uncle stresses, in the light of a street lamp.
We saw the taxi this week: All its wheels are intact. However, those
who carried out the "investigations" on behalf of the IDF and the
Border Police did not even bother to examine the vehicle, or to
question the man who had driven it. He was also wounded and is
hospitalized.
We also took testimony from him and could not find a single fact on the
ground that contradicts what he reports: The undercover soldiers shot
at the girl from two directions, from nearby and, the uncle says,
without warning. No soldier with a gun, certainly not an expert
sharpshooter from the Yamas, would aim at close range at wheels and hit
someone in the head instead.
Down the road, hundreds of meters from the shooting, are the remaining
signs of the destruction wreaked by the Border Police. Not one wanted
man was detained, but a five-story apartment block was badly damaged
and there are wrecks of cars that were completely crushed, one after
the other, still standing in the street.
Why did the undercover soldiers shoot at a young girl? How could they
dare claim they aimed at the wheels? Why did they have to shoot at
innocent people in a taxi in the first place? Why did they wreak such
havoc? Why did they crush vehicles that were the last source of income
for their owners? What is the difference between this action on the
soldiers' part and a terrorist attack? And why are these questions not
being asked?
The father did not accompany his daughter to Dr. Samara. He said he
could not bear to see the doctor removing the stitches from her little
chin. Akaber was a second-grade pupil from the village of Al-Yamoun,
northwest of Jenin. In her picture from kindergarten, she can be seen
wearing a square black graduation cap, like those worn by university
graduates and people receiving doctorates. That is the custom in the
Al-Yamoun kindergarten: The children who excel are photographed with
the special hat. That is how she will remain in the collective
consciousness of that town, whose sons once worked in Israel.
Akaber is not the first girl they are burying. How many children were
killed in Al-Yamoun in the past few years? The school principal, who
came to pay his condolences to the family, begins to list them, one by
one, but stops suddenly and asks: "Why should I count them? Are we
finished having our children killed?"
The father enters the mourners' room in the local council building, his
eyes red with crying. Abdel Rahman Zaid, 31, the father of six, drives
a commercial van that travels in the West Bank, when possible. About
three weeks ago, Akaber fell on the stairs in her house and hurt her
chin. Last Friday it was time to remove the stitches.
When Abdel Rahman returned from work, he asked his brother Kamal--a
27-year-old taxi driver, whom he calls Hamoudi--to go with Akaber to
the doctor's house on the hill, where he has his office. It was Friday
night, the last night of her life. His brother took the girl and she
sat beside him in the passenger seat. The father stresses that the
taxi's windows were transparent; there were no curtains covering them
or hiding the passengers. Any soldier could see the occupants, any
soldier from the Yamas could see that there was a small girl with a
braid sitting there.
The two left for the doctor's and soon reached his street. From his bed
in the government hospital in Jenin, his wounded hand in a bandage,
Kamal relates that after parking, he suddenly noticed some soldiers to
the right of the car. It is a narrow road and they were standing barely
a few meters away. He says they began firing immediately, from the
right and from behind. Only after that did he hear shouting in Hebrew,
which he does not speak. Little Akaber was already lying on the seat
with her head smashed.
Kamal lifted her up in his arms; the soldiers instructed him to leave
her on the road. Thus, they remained on the road--the dead girl and her
wounded uncle.
The Yamas soldiers ordered him to stand, to lift up his shirt and then
to sit back down. They continued to shoot in the air, Kamal says. A
neighbor took the girl to the doctor who was expecting her. From there
she was taken to the hospital in Jenin where her death was confirmed.
The uncle's arm was bandaged on the spot and he was taken by military
Jeep for interrogation. He says the soldiers beat him. There was a dog
in the vehicle, who sniffed him, and a soldier called Raslan who, he
says, hit him in the head when he spoke Arabic. Kamal took three
bullets in the arm and leg. He says seven bullets hit the girl, three
of them in her head.
The yellow Renault taxi tells the story: Its wheels are intact, but its
body is riddled with bullet holes. The back window is shattered, and
there are bullet holes in the back head rest and in its sides. There
are blood stains everywhere, the blood of the dead girl and her wounded
uncle. All this time, they hid her death from her father. Abdel Rahman
had heard the shots--the doctor's office is not far from their
house--but he never thought of his daughter somehow, only of his
brother. He went to the doctor's office and there they told him that
Akaber had been wounded. The doctor injected him with a sedative, and
he says he did not wake up until morning. Only when he awoke and went
home, at about 5 A.M., did his other brother break the bad news. His
wife already knew: She heard the news on an Arabic-language TV station.
Through his tears, the father wants to tell us something: The girl's
mother, Ikram, was born in Israel. Akaber was also Israeli. She was
born in a Nazareth hospital and has an Israeli birth certificate. She
was buried in the Al-Yamoun cemetery on Saturday morning.
The IDF Spokesman: "On March 17, while a special forces unit of the
Border Police was engaged in arresting wanted men in the village of
Al-Yamoun, northwest of Jenin, the unit surrounded an area in which
there was a suspicion that wanted men were hiding. During the
operation, the force saw a taxi that seemed suspicious approaching the
area and began the procedure of arresting a suspect. When it failed to
heed the soldiers' calls, they opened fire in the direction of the
taxi."
Does anyone think the uncle would not have heeded the calls to stop if
indeed the soldiers had called out? The man was taking his little niece
to the doctor. The army announced merely that "the IDF regrets harming
the Palestinian girl and is conducting a comprehensive examination of
the circumstances of the event."
The scene of the destruction: A Palestinian bulldozer removed the
wreckage next to the Zaid family's house on Sunday. A five-story
building, which the soldiers suspected was housing wanted men, has been
partially destroyed. The family members are now covering the huge holes
in it with gray bricks, and its elegant columns are in danger of
collapsing. In the yard below are the other wrecked cars: a yellow
Mercedes taxi, a white Subaru, and another few pieces of metal that
were once cars.
Mohammed Zaid, who owns one of the apartments, emerges from the debris:
"This is the Jewish army--this is the bad Jewish army," shouts his
uncle who is with him. Mohammed recalls that at about seven on Friday
night, he saw another group of soldiers outside his grocery shop. They
demanded that he tell all the residents to leave the building.
There are five large families--families of a lawyer, a doctor, an
engineer, a teacher--living in the five stories. All the tenants went
out into the street and had to wait there until morning--dozens of
children, women and men--until the soldiers finished their work.
Mohammed says that the women and children acted as a barrier between
the area where people were shooting at the soldiers, from one house,
and the area where the Border Police was returning fire. When the
building had been evacuated, they sent Mohammed to turn the lights on
in all the rooms to see if someone was still there.
An IDF bulldozer was ready to tear the structure down. Mohammed says he
suggested the soldiers accompany him to see that no one was left
inside, but they shut him up, saying, "We know what work we have to
do."
Around midnight, the bulldozer started tearing things down. The house
across the street was also damaged.
Mohammed says he asked an officer: "Does Israeli law permit you to do
this?" The officer said, according to Mohammed: "Go and complain at the
UN."
Mohammed's brother, a dentist, whose clinic was completely destroyed,
tried to tell an officer that he was a doctor "for humans," and the
officer replied: "Shut up."
Mohammed was taken for interrogation at the Salem facility and was
released only on Saturday at noon. He says he told his interrogator:
"On TV, you say you are a democracy." The interrogator replied:
"Democracy is only for the TV."
Mohammed, a teacher, says: "I always tell my pupils that we like peace.
What will I tell them now? That this is what peace looks like?"
We go to the top of the hill where Akaber was killed. A sign points the
way to Dr. Samara's clinic. Someone has placed a row of little stones
on the road where the taxi stood, to mark where the little body was.
The bloodstains have not yet been wiped away.
From an old elections poster, Yasser Arafat's picture looks down on
this makeshift memorial to Akaber.Gideon Levy writes for Ha'aretz ("_The Land_", sort of like the NEW
YORK TIMES of tiny Israel --HW). Here's his picture:
Loading Image...
A handsome & worthy Jew, eh what? Such a paradox that he for so long
has occupied a high position @ the leading voice of the genociderals.
See also:
http://www.israelshamir.net/
http://www.nkusa.org/index.cfm
=======================================
APPENDIX
Why did the Google Image Page drop its pix of Akaber Zaid?
['06/06/19 09:38 PDT]
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