“We've become barbarians!”
A former Israeli cabinet minister and founder of Meretz party has blasted the current state of affairs in Israel saying: “ Israeli Jews effectively have became barbarians in the year 2000”. Shulamit Aloni, former Minister of Education, was quoted by the Israeli newspaper Yedeot Ahranot Wednesday January 1st. as saying the year 2000 was "the worst in Israel's history." "The year 2000 was the worst in the state's history, not because of problems related to security, economy and corruption; it was the year of moral degeneration during which we became an apartheid state, it was the year in which the government's legal advisor began burying the democratic system." Aloni blasted the Israeli government for adopting discriminatory actions against Israel's growing Arab community. "In the year 2000, Israel sought to negate the rights of the Arab community, they censored a film on Jenin, they closed down an Arab newspaper and they barred an Arab political party from taking part in the elections." Aloni argued that the year 2000 was the "worst ever from the moral view point." "We transformed ourselves into barbarians; we turned 3.5 million human beings into hostages, we turned every town and village into a detention camp; we destroy ancient buildings dating back 800 years in order to build a park. we allowed an officer to decide to destroy an entire neighborhood with a mere hand signal."
By the way, such a reasonable voice amid the ongoing holocausts against our brothers and sisters in the occupied territories make us, at least temporarily, optimistic that there once would be a party to negotiate with as to restart the in coma peace talks on the basis of what has been reached to and realized. Mrs. Aloni has for long been in support of coexistence, harmony and joint living where no side is the aggressor. Personally, I still keep by heart and mind her famous statement on September 24th, 1992, as the then minister of Education in Rabin’s coalition, she said by that time : “ The Golan Heights should be returned to Syria in implementation for International Laws” and that Israel “ committed a mistake when it encouraged settlement constructions in the Golan”. Hopefully, the soon to be held elections in Israel is to witness supporters and voters for a government with less nos, hopefully none of the Israeli famed nos, but with more voices of reason so that, Arabs Initiative of peace would be responded to positively as to rid this region from its chronic epidemics. The news leaks from inside Israel, however, indicate the opposite, hence Mr. Sharon is conferring with the military hawks in his cabinet as to " provoke a near-term Middle East war" to get reelected on January 28, 2003!
Meantime, an Israeli Human rights group said Israel is holding 1,007 Palestinians in indefinite detention, without charges or trial. B'tselem said on January 1st, 2003, that Israel is violating international law by using so-called administrative detentions on a wide scale, arbitrarily and in cases where there are only slight suspicions against people. "It is not directed at a small group of people risking the security of Israel," said B'tselem researcher Yael Stein. "It is widespread." An Israeli occupation spokesman confirmed that 1,007 Palestinians were being held without trial but had no immediate comment on the practice. Jawad Imawi, a lawyer for the Palestinian human rights group LAW, said Israeli military courts have rejected several petitions to free clients. "The problem is there is no evidence. The prisoner knows nothing of why he's there," Imawi said. Detention orders can easily be renewed every six months, making the terms indefinite.
According to different media sources, among various torture schemes adopted by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians is a so-called "toss" game whereby they force Palestinians to choose their own type of torture. Speaking to Islam On line Tuesday, December 17, Youssef, a 22-year-old Palestinian, recalled that he was on his way back HOME to Al-Khalil (Hebron) when he ran into four Israeli soldiers. "They held me at gun-point, ordered me to take off my shirt and searched me to the nose," he recalled. "They dragged me ten meters away and told me I have to choose my own torture through a toss by picking a paper out of eight pieces of paper put in a small pot," said Youssef. "I chose one of the eight papers and it had a "hand breaking" phrase. One of them [Israeli occupation soldiers] grabbed me while the three others broke my right hand with the rear of their rifles. They then beat me up until I was unconscious and I was taken to hospital. "I later learned from other boys how they too were forced to choose one of the torture methods which varied from breaking a right hand, a left hand, a head, a hand and a leg, both legs, a tooth, a nose or simply a shot with a bullet," he asserted. Omar, a 30-year-old Palestinian taxi driver, said he was driving with seven passengers when four Israeli soldiers stopped him on the way, ordered them out and searched the car. "Although they did not find anything, they took me to a pot which had four pieces of paper with writing varying from breaking car glass, to blowing the tires, to taking the car keys to confiscating the vehicle altogether," he recalled. "I chose the easiest of the four tough choices and they broke the car glass and then let me go," he asserted. On other torture methods the Israeli forces use against Palestinian civilians, Mohammad said he witnessed Israeli soldiers torturing Palestinians near the new barbed wires in downtown Al-Khalil. "I saw them removing the teeth of Palestinian youths and hitting one child with the rear of their rifles," said Mohammad, asserting that the Palestinians were taken to hospital. Rami, a 27-year-old Palestinian who was also a victim of Israeli torture, recalls: "I was going to wok in Al-Khalil industrial zone and on the road Israeli patrol soldiers stopped me and beat me until I couldn’t stand on my feet. "After that four soldiers stripped me and threw me into cold water of industrial waste. "They finally ordered me to run HOME without allowing me to put my clothes on," Rami concluded.
Earlier, according to a report by Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily newspaper, translated by Hear Palestine News Service, Israeli occupation soldiers forced on December 27th, 2002 in Nablus City, a Palestinian child, who carries US nationality, to sit on the floor and to tie a head band that carries the sign of 'Al-Aqsa Brigades' and then taking pictures of him. The mother of the child Ahmad Abdel Haq (14 years old) from the Al-Jabal Al-Shamali area in Nablus said that occupation soldiers raided their HOME after blowing up the front door when her son was alone at HOME. She said that the occupiers started destroying the house and all their belongings before discovering the child Ahmad. They then started beating him up brutally, despite his pleas and attempts to explain to them that he has an American passport with the number '701372809' and that he was born in California, USA. She said that one of the occupation captains forced her son to sit down and placed behind him a Palestinian flag and 2 M-16 machineguns as well as a number of hand grenades and a gun on the table in front of him and then gave him a piece of paper and another M-16 machinegun and forced him to read a suicide bomber's will. After this was finished, he was forced to act as if he was praying on the floor. The mother said that the soldiers placed their machineguns to her son's head threatening to kill him if he told any media channels what happened to him, and then they threw him on the stairs, which resulted in head injuries. The mother added that all this was photographed with a still camera. She said that she informed the American consulate of the incident which she described as "racist", and expressed fear that these photographs may be used against her son or against the Palestinian people in general. The mother confirmed that following the attack, her son suffers from a state of hysteria and fear and that she is going to have to take him to psychiatrist as a result of the horror story which he lived at the hands of the soldiers!
By
Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim