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The leopard cannot change its spots! On Tuesday, July 23, 2002, feelings of unbearable pain and sorrow changed the after night into a dim black time with the scenes of Sharon’s new massacre in Gaza filling the sleeping world of today with horror. The scenes of infants parts pulled out of the rubble of demolished civilian houses in a crowded Gaza compound utterly shocked me to the bone raising every piece of my gray hair! By that time, I was optimistically pondering to write an article about peace following Hamas Leader statement to bring ‘ martyrdom operations’ to an end once occupation ends. Optimistically, the world at large was encouraged over a possible positive transitional point in the interest of every human in this part of the world. Sharon, Mr. Bush’s ‘ man of peace’, who gloated over the massacre as a ‘’ great success’’, sent a further message of peace with a one-tone bomb as a token for the sleeping children of Palestine. Two of the martyrs were babies aged 18 and 2 months, five children 3-5, an 11-year old and three adults! Personally, I had a hunch, based on Sharon’s quick irrational reply to Arabs Beirut Peace Initiative, that Sharon is to answer Hamas offer with a new escalation and blitz as he always did to every peace effort! It doesn’t need genius to hunch such a draconian Sharonian message. His peace messages have been sent since the 40’s of past century against every non-Jew living neighbour. Sharon’s stained with blood hands have killed many of all, even from the Israelis themselves; he is, by all accounts responsible even for the death of his own people. The more of shed Palestinian blood is to cause ever bleeding for the Israelis! Qana’s butcher, Peres, stated in the aftermath of the massacre to Israel Army Radio: " I fear that innocent people will pay for it dearly." If so, why does repeatedly it happen? Sharon’s lack of a political agenda for peace is the root for all tension and escalation in the region. The Israeli Premier, the bulldozer’s, sinister bids as to separate and shelf every track of peace, and even the one track, is to lead the region astray once more. Actually, the Israeli bids to achieve security for the Israelis before the implementation and meeting of peace demands have utterly failed. In less than 2 years in power, Sharon’s anti-peace policy caused the death of approximately 1789 Palestinians and 587 Israelis, the majority of them are children, women and elderly! The foolish policy of Sharon as to rearrange his vision priorities as separating the one track into security, economical, and then political ones respectively, putting the cart before the horse, is responsible for the spiralling death toll. No sane can view the possibility of achieving security, economic prosperity before the realization of just and viable peace. The time is perhaps still ripe for a serious and genuine reconsideration of the past committed grave miscalculations. Arabs unanimous Peace Initiative is the opportunity as the outlet out from the ongoing vicious circle of violence and counter resistance against the occupiers. Actually, the sword rattling and violation of others air space and persistent provocation lead but to the unknown if not to a wide popular revolt against the mastermind of Qibia, Sabra and Shattila, who surely can’t escape unpunished. The world at large wants peace, the most noble of every human endeavour and every heavenly message. The achievement of this objective should be the very priority for all concerned parties. Mid-Term elections are merely individual thrust and hunger for power, which compared to the sweeping international hunger for peace and civilian life are little. One man should never be given the chance to drag this region once more to the verge of collapse, if not to utter collapse, and under no pretext! Sharon’s war against Palestinians and silly threats and provocation against others, are never part of a campaign to fight terrorism; they are but the very ‘ state organized terrorism’. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli opposition leader, Yossi Sarid wrote: ‘’ There are things that a country simply cannot do unless it wants to risk committing state-sponsored terrorism,’’ To combat terrorism is to sincerely cooperate as to save the life of civilians from the plague of terrorism and not to kill the sleeping children in the most populated tiny piece of land on earth. The international community, which almost unanimously condemned Sharon’s recent strike against Gaza civilians, is called upon to curb the ongoing anti-peace Israeli practices. On top comes the United States of America, which viewed the strike as ‘’ heavy-handed’ and as ‘ a deliberate attack on this site, knowing that innocents would be lost as a consequence of this attack,’’ The time is ripe now for a filled with carrots extended hand through an even-handed sponsorship and nudging of the in coma process of peace. A serious strict restriction on the use of US made arsenals against civilians is to help to the said effect. After all, what happened in Gaza is a crime against every international law; a heinous war crime, similar in its death toll to the innocent killed in New York Tower. The description of the Israeli massacre as a war crime came first by B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group. Israel is legally responsible for the follies committed by its leaders. The perpetrators should be prosecuted for their grave breaches and violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 148 of the Fourth Geneva states that " no contracting party shall be allowed to absolve itself or any other high contracting party of any liability incurred by itself or by any other high contracting party…’Once more, Belgium, and every free country is called upon to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention and pertain the right ‘’ under a positive obligation to seek out and prosecute individuals responsible for committing grave breaches, wherever the perpetrators be’’.
BY Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim |
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