Israel gloats over the assassination of Hamas leader Al-Rantisi while the Palestinians mourn the loss of their martyr, reports Khaled Amayreh Twenty-five days after assassinating Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Israel has assassinated the Palestinian Islamic resistance group's new leader, Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi. On 17 April, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired several missiles at Al-Rantisi's car, instantly killing his driver and an aide, and critically injuring the 57-year-old Islamist political leader. Less than half an hour later, Al-Rantisi succumbed to his fatal injury at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Visibly pleased, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described the assassination operation as "good news for Israel and the Jewish people". Other Israeli officials from the extreme right to the centre-left congratulated each other on the killing. Even the usually more subtle Labour Party Shimon Peres joined the gleeful chorus, declaring that Al-Rantisi's blood had to be spilled in retribution for Hamas's resistance attacks on Israeli targets. As soon as word of the assassination got out, tens of thousands of angry Palestinians took to the streets to protest the killing. And the following day, on 18 April, as many as 200,000 Gazans converged at the Shuhada -- or martyrs' -- cemetery to attend Al-Rantisi's burial and funeral. The massive turnout bore witness to the Islamic movement's popularity. Hamas, which has not retaliated for Yassin's murder for unknown reasons, has vowed to retaliate for "both crimes". "I assure you that the response is coming. Remember that we waited 50 days after the murder of Yahya Ayyash [the head of Hamas' military wing who was killed by undercover Israeli agents in 1996]," said Khaled Mashaal while addressing thousands of supporters at the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus. Hamas declared defiantly that the murder of Al-Rantisi will not weaken the movement. "Our movement doesn't revolve around one man, however important he may be," declared Hamas's politburo chief Khaled Mashaal. Another Islamic leader based in the West Bank declared that Al-Rantisi's martyrdom will give Hamas and the Islamic umma (community) a new birth. "Hamas and its hundreds of thousands of supporters and tens of millions of sympathisers around the world will not be shaken by this assassination. In our way of thinking, the martyrdom of one leader is viewed as a new birth for Hamas and the entire Islamic umma," said Abu Mohamed, a prominent Hamas official in Al- Khalil region. The Islamic leader, who asked that he be identified only by his nom de guerre, rejected suggestions that Hamas should rethink its strategy and resistance tactics. "If we don't offer the sacrifices required for freedom, we will be forced to pay ten- fold in terms of subjugation and humiliation." The Palestinian Authority (PA) strongly condemned the murder of Al-Rantisi, describing it as a "monumental terrorist crime that couldn't have been committed without American acquiescence and blessing". Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei declared that "Sharon couldn't have embarked on this nefarious crime without American encouragement." PA Chairman Yasser Arafat made similar statements, accusing the Bush administration of playing the role of "accomplice" in Israel's daily crimes against the Palestinians. Apart from issuing strong condemnations of the assassination, there was little the PA leadership could do in reaction to the murder. However, the PA did ask its representative to the United Nations Nasser Al-Kidwa to request that the UN Security Council condemn the assassination. Al-Kidwa, like other Palestinian and Arab officials, sharply criticised the council's failure to condemn the previous assassination by Israel of hundreds of Palestinians, including prominent political leaders, which they stressed encouraged Israel to carry out more killings. However, given America's "special relationship" with Israel, it is a foregone conclusion that the Bush administration, which effectively supported the assassination, will veto any resolution denouncing or even censuring Israel. The assassination of Al-Rantisi came very shortly after Sharon's visit to the US last week, during which the Israeli leader succeeded in extracting "unprecedented concessions" from Bush. These concessions included decisions on some of the most crucial final-status issues, including the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their native hometowns and villages. Departing from precedents set by six presidential predecessors, Bush assured Sharon in a formal letter that Israel could retain at least some of the settlements in the West Bank in the determination of any final-status decisions with regards to the future of the Palestinians. Furthermore, the American president scrapped the Palestinian right of return, assuring Sharon that the refugees would only be able to return to a dwarfed Palestinian state tailored by Israel. Bush's pledges to Sharon, which coincided with the visits to Washington of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan, infuriated the Palestinians like never before. Arafat labelled Bush's statements "a new Balfour Declaration", alluding to the infamous British declaration of 1917 which promised Palestine to Zionists as their "national homeland". "This is another Balfour Declaration. It will blow up the peace process from its foundations. It will tear up all peace efforts to smithereens," said Arafat. Likewise, Qurei denounced Bush, saying he has no right to give Israel what does not belong to him. "This is like someone giving a part of Texas to the Chinese," said a sombre and grim-faced Qurei. Other Palestinian officials labelled Bush as "another Bin Laden". "We don't have only one Bin Laden, we have two: Osama Bin Laden and George [W] Bush," said PA Deputy Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. He accused Bush of introducing "destructive and blind religious extremism" into American foreign policy in the region. "I don't believe he said what he said because of election considerations. Bush is an avowed Christian Zionist and his ideas and beliefs can be viewed as the Christian equivalent of Bin Laden's ideas." As seen by most Palestinians, including the PA, Bush's statements amounted to formally issuing the death certificate for the peace process, including Bush's own roadmap plan. "Bush was the author of the roadmap, and now we see he has killed it with his own hands," said PA official Saeb Ereikat. "This is a very strange situation indeed." The killing of Al-Rantisi, coupled with the mounting rage and indignation over Bush's unqualified support for Sharon's territorial expansionist designs in the West Bank, seems to ensure that violence, tension and bloodshed will persist in Palestine at least until November, when Americans go to the polls to either oust Bush from the White House or renew his term for another four years. International Response to the Bush Declaration on the Palestinian Right to Return
