In November 2,000 with the Israeli reaction to the Second Intifada in one of its most violent phases the sensitivity of Jews in the U.S. was at fever pitch. Any news report that appeared to contain compassion for the Palestinians became a target for concerted Jewish reaction.
After the following story was published I was pilloried for a) drawing a comparison between damage on the Israeli and on the Palestinian side b) not completing a quote by an Israeli army sergeant, a sharp shooter who said he aimed to shoot (unarmed) people in the knees to neutralize them and said he felt pretty good about it. I did not include his pathetic explanation that he was shooting these stone throwers to save fellow Israeli soldiers from being killed since I had not heard yet of an Israeli soldier killed by a stone thrower.
But the protest by the Jewish community over the incomplete quote was so strong the Chicago Tribune printed the full quote in a correction…..
TROUBLE ON THE GREENLINE
BEIT JALA, West Bank – On paper Harry Fischer was torn apart by an Israeli rocket. In reality he was killed by the belief more lethal retaliation will force the other side to give in.
This war of attrition made little sense to a man the locals knew only as “the doctor,” a man always ready to apply his medical knowledge to their ails, more often than not free of charge.
Fischer, 68, a German, died during 12 hours of sporadic raids by Israeli gunships and tanks on this Arab town between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. He died as he had lived: Running to a neighbor who had called for help.
In a rare tribute to a foreigner, a physiotherapist and paramedic, some 2,000 mourners followed his Palestinian wife Norma and their three teenage children behind the coffin Thursday to the Lutheran Church.
They buried “the doctor” in tears. He had lived among them for 20 years, refusing to leave during the bloody first intifada, the Gulf War or the current bloodshed. In a way he had become one of them.
For a few hours Fischer’s death cast the spotlight on a war of attrition. For weeks Beit Jala, an Arab town of mainly Coptic Christians and its Jewish neighbor, the suburb of Gilo near Jerusalem, served as a barometer for the escalating violence of this war.
Israel has been condemned by human rights organizations and international observers for its use of “excessive force” to deal with rioting Palestinians, particularly children.
The policy of harsh retribution prompted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to warn hard liners in his government Thursday that a bloody show of military might would not cut short or solve the spiraling conflict.
Referring to the death toll of over 200 Palestinians (against 24 Israelis) Barak told Israel Radio: “If we thought instead of 200 dead that 2000 dead would end this whole issue and that at once everything would end, then we would use much more force. But in our opinion the situation is the opposite.”
With two more Palestinians dead, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Thursday he still hoped for peace deal after meeting US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross. But Arafat insisted he wanted Russia to take a role as a mediator. Palestinians accuse Washington of taking Israel’s side.
In this battered town locals scoff at such peace efforts and claim to know that Israeli’s unprecedented 12 hour raid on their town was retaliation for Palestinian gunmen firing on Gilo during a visit by First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton. Some people at the funeral refused to speak to US media.
“Let those people who talk about peace come and spent just one night under Israeli fire here,” said Anwar Gabriele, a Canadian-Palestinian who saw a rocket slam into his new house Thursday.
Beit Jala and Gilo hover on a ridge on opposite sides of a ravine that separates them.
No one in this ancient town, once famous for its home-made olive oil, denies Palestinian militiamen do fire their rifles at Gilo.
After all, the locals argue, Palestinians are being killed, and the guns of the militia are old and barely carry to Gilo. The bullets are more token than lethal.
Gilo residents rightly dispute such arguments. The Beit Jala bullets have shattered Gilo windows and the army has erected a concrete barrier to protect residents from worse. No one has died at Gilo so far.
There are no barriers in Beit Jala where 13 people have died in the Israeli raids and dozens were wounded.
“Usually the Israelis give us a warning through helicopters circling overhead. Then everyone rushes into the basements or into cellars, the women screaming, the kids crying. But on Wednesday night we had no warning. They just fired shells,” said Henry Makhlouf, 24.
His neighbors argue they had no idea who fires at Gilo, a residential settlement built on a piece of land the locals say was taken from Beit Jala in the 1967 war.
Both sides suffer.
Across in Gilo school-teacher Yehudit Mezrachi says her charges crawl under tables when the shooting starts.
“At night families block up the windows and the kids’ attention span is slipping,” the teacher says.
In Beit Jala people cannot understand why Israel resorts to the massive nightly response when tank shells knock gaping holes into century old homes, machine gunners spray bullets Vietnam style from Israeli gunships, raking neighborhoods where families huddle in cellars and makeshift bunkers.
“We don’t know who does the shooting from here but we are punished for it,” said Jammal Saba, 28. “The Israelis turn off our electricity and our water. When their rockets ignited my house last night there was no water to put out the fire. I know what they want: They want us to kneel. But we’ll never kneel.”
The Beit Jala-Gilo battle began after a handful of militants, sneaking into town after dusk, shot into Gilo. Next day Israel responded with tank shells. The following day the Palestinians responded with more gunfire. Israel retaliated with gunship raids and more tank shells.
“Dad had taken shelter with all of us under the staircase when the raid began. Then sometime during the night we heard our neighbors, the Assaf family, cry out for help. Their house was hit and on fire,” recalled Fisher’s son, Daniel, 17.
“Dad ran out into the street. He made it only half way to the Assafs. We couldn’t even get any ambulance into the street. The Israelis were firing at it,” Daniel added.
No one here has a bad word to say against “the doctor.”
“He was a saint,” said social worker Yana Mubarak. “No one is surprised he was killed this way. He stayed in Beit Jala all through the first intifada and the Gulf War. He never left. He was always helping people, even after he retired from the hospital in Bethelehem.”
Fischer was never short of patients. According to Palestinian statistics some 7,000 Palestinians have been wounded, some maimed for life, since the intifada started. The Red Crescent reported 452 wounded last Friday alone.
International observers are beginning to doubt Israel’s claim soldiers only use live bullets in moments when their life is threatened.
A recent delegation of Physicians for Human Rights concluded in its report: “American doctors who examined Israel’s use of force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have concluded that Israeli soldiers appeared to be targeting the legs and heads of Palestinian protesters, even in non-life threatening situations.”
Last month the Jerusalem Post reported Israel had trained four battalions for urban warfare in mock-up Palestinian villages. A story by Ariel O’Sullivan quoted a Sergeant named Raz, a 20 year old sharpshooter in the Nashon battalion as saying:
“I shot two people in the knees. Its supposed to break their bones and neutralize them but not kill them. How did I feel? Well, actually I felt pretty satisfied with myself.”
Doctors have also been alarmed by the number of Palestinians, mainly young people, shot in the eye with rubber-coated metal bullets.
The Nasir Ophthalmic Hospital in Gaza reported last month it was treating 16 people, 13 of them children. Nine of them lost one eye.
Jacky Jady, the matron of the Oculist Hospital of St John in Jerusalem told the Tribune: “We have received 70 cases of all kinds of eye injuries related to the violence of the past seven weeks. We have 10 people who lost their eyes because of rubber bullets.”
Israeli commentators have argued for weeks the army’s strategy is to deprive Palestinians of the massive death toll Palestinians want in order to win world support for independence.”
The commander of the Nashon battalion, Lt-Colonel Yoram Loredo has been quoted as saying: “We are very much trying not to kill them.”
One way or the other both sides are playing with lives. (endit)
