Trampled under Israel's foot

By Khaled Amayreh
This week Israeli occupation troops and trigger-happy Jewish settlers committed some of the most gruesome crimes against Palestinian civilians since the shocking murder of 12-year-old Mohamed Al-Dorra in Gaza in early October.
Last Friday, undercover Israeli soldiers disguised as Arabs penetrated the Palestinian Authority-controlled parts of Hebron through the Harat Al-Sheikh neighbourhood. There the soldiers chased and opened fire on a group of local children who were strolling outside the Ali-Baqa'a Mosque just following the afternoon prayer.
All of the children fled, except a single 14-year-old, identified as Ahmed Qawasmi, who for some unexplained reason was unable to follow his friends. The terrifying story of what happened to Qawasmi is best told by Ashraf Julani, a neighbour who witnessed the incident from beginning to end.
"While I was sitting on the balcony of my home in Harat Al-Sheikh, I heard, then I saw an Israeli soldier chasing Mohamed. The soldier captured the child, dragged him to the ground and pressed his boot against Ahmed's neck. I then saw the soldier shoot the child in the forehead while four other soldiers stood shooting eastward in the alley leading to the Ali Baqa'a Mosque."
Dr Mohamed Dweiq of the Ahli Hospital in Hebron, a neuro-surgeon, confirmed that Qawasmi was shot at point-blank range. The bullet penetrated the victim's forehead, damaged part of the skull and lodged in his brain. Mohamed Qawasmi died Monday morning at the Ahli Hospital where he had lain clinically dead since he was admitted Friday afternoon.
Another child in Hebron, Sami Jaber, 12, is still fighting for his life at a Jerusalem hospital, having been shot in the chest and the stomach, by a gun-wielding settler from the settlement of Kiryat Arba'a, who is a member of the settlement's municipal council.
The incident took place last Saturday when a band of skull cap-wearing, machine-gun-wielding settlers stormed the twice-demolished and twice rebuilt home of Atta Jaber, Sami's father, in the Baqa'a neighbourhood in Hebron, for the purpose of seizing the home and expelling the Arab family.
The trigger-happy settlers, who had brought furniture, an Israeli flag and religious books, immediately opened fire on the terrified Jaber family without any prior warning, seriously injuring little Sami.
Later, the settlers claimed they were only shooting into the air and that they couldn't be held responsible for the life-threatening injuries sustained by Sami.
A shocked and grieving Atta Jaber scoffed at the settlers' claim, saying, "I didn't know that my little child had wings, nor that he could fly."
Following the incident, the settlers, in full view of Israeli soldiers, moved about the Baqa'a neighbourhood with impunity, attacking homes and terrorising unarmed and unprotected Palestinian civilians who, ironically, completely depend on the Israeli army for protection from the rampaging settlers.
On Sunday, undercover Israeli soldiers, deployed throughout the Arab town of Beit Jala, stopped and captured the 24-year-old Mahmoud Youssef Al-Maghrebi, a resident of the Dheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem.
According to eyewitnesses, the soldiers hand-cuffed him, shackled his ankles and then bludgeoned him with a metal object all over his body, before firing a single bullet into the back of his head.
Two days earlier, a 40-year-old Palestinian man, Hassan Shahin, was hacked to death outside the Jerusalem hospital where he worked. Israeli police said they had no knowledge of the incident.
The bloodiest crime the Israeli army committed this week was the grisly murder of four Palestinian conscripts along with a passerby, near the village of Jalkamus near Jenin last Friday shortly before sunset.
According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli army fired several mortar shells at the conscripts' tent, where they were about to sit down for Iftar, the daily meal at which the fast is broken. One of the shells landed right in the middle of the tent, instantly killing all those who had gathered. Their mutilated bodies, were scattered over a 50-metre radius.
Speaking nonchalantly about the killing, a spokesman for the Israeli army said that the four were clearly engaged in hostile action against the Israeli army. "We saw four armed men and because of their distance from us, we shot tank shells at them."
The Palestinian governor of Jenin, Munzer Al-Sharif, described the killing as gruesome. "They were about to break their fast at sunset, and the criminals fired tank shells at them, which blew their bodies to bits. It is an indescribably evil crime."
The killing of the four conscripts, along with six other Palestinians, apparently came in retaliation for the killing of two Israeli soldiers and a settler by Palestinian assailants earlier that same day.
This suggests that the Israeli army and, indeed, those settlers who form paramilitary squads, have come to view all Palestinians, young and old, combatant and non-combatant, as legitimate targets, especially if, and when, Israeli soldiers and settlers are killed.
Such behaviour was unhesitatingly praised by the Israeli army commander in Hebron last week. He said, "When Jews are killed, Palestinians must likewise be killed. There will not be a day when there are only Jewish funerals."
Worse still, it is expected that Israel's bloody repression will increase in the coming weeks, given Ehud Barak's seemingly desperate efforts to outmanoeuvre his former and current opponent Benyamin Netanyahu.
Barak seems to believe that the most effective way to woo the Israeli public, which clearly leans to the right, is by shedding more Palestinian blood, thus proving that he is tough enough and deserves another chance as prime minister.
So far, the Israeli army and settlers have killed 312 Palestinians -- 50 of whom are children -- and injured upwards of 13,000, 20 per cent of whom will be handicapped for life. The question now, is how many more Palestinians will have to be killed and maimed before the scramble for the office of Israel's prime minister is over?
Related stories:
Iftar under fire 7 -13 December 2000
Blowing in the wind 7 -13 December 2000
Waning expectations 7 -13 December 2000
Barak's last throw of the dice 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000
No holds barred 23 - 29 November 2000
The cost of weakness 16 - 22 November 2000
Crushing the Intifada -- phase two 16 - 22 November 2000
See Intifada in focus 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
Intifada special 19 - 25 October 2000
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