Four more years? Hopefully not for the Palestinians
September 28, 2004
Ariel Sharon at Al Aqsa Mosque compound, September 28, 2000.
It’s been four years, but few today found this sad anniversary worthy of mention. Since September 28, 2000, the day Ariel Sharon barged into the most sacred Muslim site of Palestine accompanied by 1,000 Israeli soldiers, Palestinians have been regularly and systematically killed (3,227 in four years, 64 this month alone) and injured (27,624). Even today, Israel killed a mentally-ill Palestinian man in Jenin.
The immediate, enraged reaction to Sharon’s provocation was dubbed the Al Aqsa intifada, an uprising by desperate Palestinians who had seen the years pass and Israel’s oppression increase, in spite of the “peace process” and agreements like Oslo which were supposed to bring them a fraction of their human and national rights but which were continuously flouted by Israel. During the years of “negotiation,” there were hardly any manifestations of Palestinian violence, a fact that Israel conveniently forgets to mention.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that “1,008 people died” in that same period because of Palestinian violence; reading the site in detail, however, reveals that this figure includes not only Israeli soldiers inside the Occupied Territories, who are legally distinguishable from unarmed civilians (as Israel likes to point out when it targets Palestinian “militants” and “terrorists”), but also includes Israelis killed outside Israel (not by Palestinians), and includes – surprise surprise –the three Americans killed in Gaza.
Still, Israeli civilians have paid a heavy price for the brutalities committed by their government, which has pushed its persecution of Palestinians to new levels. The latter are increasingly dispossessed and repressed, unable to see any hope when their society is falling apart, politically, economically and socially.
While most Anglo-Saxon media completely ignored this day and the tragic events of the last four years, Israeli media today spoke of those Israelis who have again dared to speak the truth and defy their superiors. Four Israeli military officers in an elite commando have condemned military tactics in the Palestinian territories, denouncing the “systematic harassment of the Palestinian population” which includes the widespread demolitions.
These officers knew what they risked professionally by condemning the Israeli government for its actions, but their integrity was more potent than their fear. When will the media, which technically faces no such constraints, follow suit?
