[Nettime-bold] FWD: An appeal from Neta Golan from within the compound

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gush Shalom" <adam@gush-shalom.org
To: "List" <info@gush-shalom.org
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2002 12:42 PM
Subject: [GushShalomPress] An appeal from Neta Golan from within the
compound

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

[The following article comes from Arafat's compound and was written by
Israeli human
shield activist Neta Golan, together with the journalist Ian Urbina. It is
a most powerfull
appeal for international intervention. We found it on
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/;
it was published yesterday by Merip (Middle East Research and Information
Project).]

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An Israeli View from Arafat's Compound Saturday, April 06 2002 @ 06:51 PM
GMT
By Neta Golan and Ian Urbina
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It is not Israeli actions which have surprised the international peace
observers currently
holed up within Arafat's presidential compound. It is the inaction of the
international
community that most shocks us. Inside the pock-marked building surrounded
by Israeli
tanks and snipers, there is one question on everyone's mind: how many
international laws
does Israel need to break before the UN demands a full and immediate
withdrawal?

The list of violations is reaching unprecedented levels, even for a
conflict with a long
history of ugly behavior on both sides. International law absolutely
forbids the building of
the settlements, but 34 new settlements have been constructed in this year
alone.
Collective punishment is illegal. But Israel has now escalated from
interrupting food
shipments to completely shutting off water to the Palestinian city of
Ramallah,
endangering the lives of 120,000 people. The shelling of innocuous
Palestinian civilian
structures such as power plants, schools, and sewage facilities, is
occuring at an alarming
rate. Unarmed civilians are being killed practically on a daily basis.

There are also growing reports of Israeli troops raiding hospitals and
firing on ambulances
and journalists. These are grave breaches of international convention. The
recent
experience of American newspaper correspondent, Anthony Shadid, is hardly
uncommon.
First, he was shot while in a zone under full Israeli control. The area
was quiet and there
was no crossfire in which to be caught. Shadid was wearing the required
signs on his back
and front indicating that he was with the official press as he walked away
from an interview
in our building. Soon after Shadid arrived to the hospital, Israeli troops
raided it with
machine guns drawn. He was subsequently transferred for further medical
treatment, and
his ambulance came under fire by Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint.

Israel is making a mockery of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the founding
legal document
of international human rights law, and by its tacit acceptance, the UN is
severely eroding
its credibility in the region and beyond.

Those of us inside the presidential compound need help desperately. But
not half as much
as those on the outside who are facing the full brunt of the mass
round-ups and house-to-
house raids. The situation can not deteriorate much further. Medical
supplies have run
out. Food is scarce.

Pressure from abroad is essential, even when only on a person-by-person
basis. Boycotts
and letter writing work. The presence of international "human shields"
throughout the
Occupied Territories has been very important in limiting the
indiscriminate nature of Israeli
military actions. But nothing short of a UN demand for a full withdrawal
to the 1967 UN
recognized borders will succeed in restoring calm and opening the way for
peace
negotiations. Only then can there be discussion of the status of Jerusalem
and the
Palestinian refugees. Simply pulling the troops out of the recently
invaded regions will not
suffice.

It is not just the Palestinians and foreigners within the compound who
have been calling
for a full withdrawal. Even sectors within the Israeli military have put
forward this option as
the only chance for peace and security for the Israeli people. In a formal
"Letter of Refusal"
to Sharon, several hundred Israeli soldiers, most with combat experience,
advocated a full
withdrawal and have stated their unwillingness to serve in the West Bank
or Gaza Strip.

But Sharon does not want to listen. And in the meantime we in the compound
are left, not
without fear, wondering whether the international community will allow the
permanent
expansion of the already illegal occupation and the exile if not
assasination of the
Palestinian leader.

Neta Golan, an Israeli, is among the 40 international peace observers
occupying Arafat's
besieged office. Ian Urbina is Associate Editor of Middle East Report, a
foreign policy
magazine in Washington DC. This article was first published by the Middle
East Research
and Information Project (MERIP)

----
NB: Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
     For Hebrew   http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
     For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
     French available at request.

Also on the site:
     photo's - of action or otherwise informative

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