Gaza City, Gaza Strip 10 June 2003
On Al-Jazeera George Bush is telling us, “The average Palestinian must understand that they need responsible leaders to fight off Palestinian terror attacks.”
Since no Palestinian has fought back against the illegal Israeli occupation in any way resembling violence since the “cease-fire” was called, this takes up only five minutes of the news cast.
The rest of the report is devoted to the dead and injured Palestinians lying in the street outside my office in Gaza City. The Israelis just fired seven Apache helicopter missiles into a car.
The four people inside the car, including their “target” from Hamas, Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi and his son, are injured. It’s just before noon on a Tuesday in Gaza City. The streets are crowded. A woman around 30 years of age, walking on this busy street, and a four year-old girl are dead. Dozens are injured.
Seven Apache missiles fired on Palestinian people is the Israeli idea of a cease-fire. If Hamas tries to retaliate (a difficult task against nuclear capable Israel), one can sadly be certain that only then will the international community and media consider that the “cease-fire” has been broken.
The Israeli military government has continued its policy of killing, maiming, brutalizing, and humiliating Palestinian throughout this “cease-fire”‚ and these Bush orchestrated, Road Map “negotiations.”
Targeted assassinations are illegal under international law. When the Israelis negotiated this “cease-fire”, they said they would not cease their illegal practice. This did not seem to bother Bush or the international media.
Since the current situation and both recent and long-term history have proven that in the eyes of the Israelis, all Palestinians are wanted, they can continue to kill whichever Palestinians they want. Their target today was Al-Rantisi from Hamas. They killed a little girl and a woman instead.
This is one way that the Israeli military government has gotten away with years of slaughtering Palestinians and destroying their homes with impunity, a few at a time and ready with an excuse that blames another Palestinian if Bush or the international media cares enough to ask for one.
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Kristen Ess is a political activist and freelance journalist from New York City, who has lived in the West Bank and Gaza since March 2002, where she does solidarity work and reports for Free Speech Radio news and Left Turn magazine.
