Jenin Massacre!
"The Palestinians must be hit and it must be very painful. We must cause them losses, victims, so that they feel the heavy price. " Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, March 2002. Sharon’s statement coincided with the timing of Arab unanimous Peace Initiative in Beirut Summit. Sharon assembled his so-called security team and deliberated every word of Arab Summit Communiqué in Beirut. The decision was taken to meet Arabs’ inclination and commitment to peace by ‘ Defensive Shield’ operation, which but added insecurity to the prevailing an all-out instability.
Sharon ordered his troops to sweep and even erase ‘ Jenin’ Camp from the map. Jenin, HOME to 13000 Palestinian Arabs of the Israeli- uprooted 1948 Arabs, came under brutal aggression for almost 16 days, April 3-18. Israeli occupation troops used every heavy means of killing including copters, missiles, rockets, tanks, machine guns, snipers. The attacking troops, under the pretext of eliminating resistance pockets, razed almost every house inside the camp and continued their house to house assault using the camp civilians as human shields. Israeli perpetrated massacres were broadcast live by some courageous journalists, who were brave enough to break the tight Israeli siege. Scores of News Media sources published different stories about Jenin and the Israeli heinous crimes against its population! Even against the dead among them, whose body parts were collected and carried to be buried away from the concerned!
In the aftermath of the massacre, the UN Security Council adopted on April 19 2002, resolution 1405, in which it called for the establishment of a fact-finding team composed of Martti Ahtisaari, Sadako Ogata and Cornelio Sommaruga. Once more, Israel, thanks to the blind US bias and support, was able to abort the international legitimacy body resolution. The United Nations , almost 4 months after the massacre, issued its version of the story, no massacre! The report, in most of its parts, accused Palestinians of claiming, short of ‘ telling lies! It is after all the jungle world of today, where might is right! It simply equated the martyred among Palestinians to the Israeli soldiers of occupation, who were brutally assaulting the Camp to cause Palestinians "losses, victims, so that they feel the heavy price. "
The UN report, however, noted that Israel continued to prevent international humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNRWA, from entering the camp to treat the wounded and to deliver emergency medicine and food aid, including for children, women and the elderly, for more than 11 days. The report added : "numerous Palestinians were killed, including some that had been buried under the rubble of bulldozed HOMEs. Some are still missing and many were wounded and seriously traumatized. It is an understatement that the entire population of the Jenin refugee camp experienced horrific suffering throughout and as a result of this Israeli military assault. The report noted that Palestinians had claimed that between 400 and 500 people had been killed, fighters and civilians together. They had also claimed a number of summary executions and the transfer of corpses to an unknown place outside the city of Jenin. The number of Palestinian fatalities, on the basis of bodies recovered to date, in Jenin and the refugee camp in this military operation can be estimated at around 55. Of those, a number were civilians, four were women and two children. The number of Palestinian fatalities could increase when the rubble is removed. Most observers share the certainty that there must be some bodies lying under the debris, if so, isn’t it a massacre!
The inflicted physical damage, as the report cited is: destruction of security buildings and infrastructure in Jenin city, destruction of security buildings of the Palestinian Authority in Jenin city, 160 buildings totally destroyed in the refugee camp, 100 buildings partially damaged. 800 families without shelter, an overall estimate of over 4,000 persons, 10 per cent of the camp totally destroyed. Considering the heavy losses inflicted upon Palestinians, isn’t this a massacre perpetrated deliberately enacting the orders of Premier Sharon? The report, seemingly unable to ignore, at least verbally, the heavy losers inflicted upon Palestinians. Palestinians, as the entire world knows do not occupy others’ territories; it is the other side, Israel, which according to the report suffered 23 fatalities in the fighting operations in Jenin. Israel, by all accounts, should be held responsible for its troops brutal and inhuman crimes of war in Jenin, as well as in many other places. The need is indeed dire for some positive changes in the right direction; a change in the UN approach and tackling of the people issues, Israeli drive into the catastrophic unknown, and in the US handling and sponsoring of today’s jungle world!
M. Abdo Al Ibrahim