Israel's
Attack On Jericho: Palestinians Remain Without Protection
By Ali Abunimah and
Arjan El Fassed
16 March 2006
The
Electronic Intifada
The Israeli attack on Jericho
and kidnap of a number of Palestinian prisoners, including the leader
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) demonstrates
once again the fiction that there is a functioning Palestinian "government"
in the occupied territories. The ease and impunity with which the occupation
forces attack Palestinians everywhere serves to remind us that these
territories remain today, as they have been since 1967, under full Israeli
military dictatorship. It is a mistake to keep referring to a "Palestinian
government," because this gives the false impression that Palestinians
under occupation are in control of their destiny. Palestinian factions
may, in the wake of the January elections, be negotiating to form a
"government," but this does not mean that this "government"
can exercise any control or protect Palestinians from the ravages of
the occupying power.
The media coverage we have
seen of the events in Jericho, especially the BBC, has been appallingly
shallow and misleading. Let us remember why Ahmad Sa'adat and other
prisoners in the Jericho jail were wanted by the occupation authorities.
Sa'adat is accused of killing Rehavam Ze'evi, the founder of the Moledet
Party and an Israeli cabinet minister. The missing contextual facts
are that the PFLP killed Ze'evi in retaliation for Israel's murder of
its leader Abu Ali Mustafa (Mustafa al-Zibri) in August 2001. Al-Zibri
was not carrying arms or fighting, but sitting at his desk when an Israeli
Apache helicopter fired a missile at him blowing him to pieces. Ze'evi
was the leading advocate in Israel for the destruction of the Palestinian
people, calling for their wholesale expulsion. The party he founded
is running on the same platform in the current Israeli election campaign
as anyone can read on its website.
In the present atmosphere,
we are being told that Hamas, which has maintained a truce for more
than 12 months, and which has declared its willingness to come to terms
with an Israel that withdraws to the 1967 border, is beyond the pale
for Europeans and Americans to talk to until it "recognizes Israel"
and "renounces violence." Why were such conditions never imposed
on Israel? How is it that a proud, boastful ethnic cleanser like Ze'evi
could sit in the Israeli cabinet with Ariel Sharon and Nobel Prize winner
Shimon Peres for years and not one of those Western officials who today
threaten the Palestinians with an end to all aid for electing Hamas
uttered not one single word? Why is it acceptable for the US Congress
to hand over billions of dollars to an Israel whose government ministers
advocate ethnic cleansing? How is it that instead of demanding the arrest
of the murderers of Abu Ali Mustafa and thousands of other Palestinians,
Britain and the US collude with Israel to commit new crimes under international
law?
Ahmad Sa'adat was arrested
on 15 January 2002 by the Palestinian General Intelligence Service.
He was being held at the PA's headquarters in Ramallah. In May 2002,
Sa'adat and six other detainees were transferred to Jericho as part
of the U.S.-brokered agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority
that ended a 34-day Israeli military siege on Arafat's headquarters
in Ramallah. A force of US and British guards would oversee their captivity.
Their role was simply to monitor the terms of the Ramallah agreement
to report any non-compliance. The Ramallah Agreement states that any
changes in the status of the detainees should be agreed between Israel
and the Palestinian Authority. Unlawful apprehension of a suspect by
state agents, including US and British security agents acting in the
territory of another state is not a bar to the excercise of jurisdiction.
Such apprehension would, of course, constitute a breach of international
law and the norm of non-intervention.
Sa‘adat was never formally
charged with any recognizable criminal offence or brought before a judge.
The Palestinian High Court of Justice in Gaza requested the PA to bring
evidence against him, but it failed to do so. On June 3, 2002, the High
Court ordered the immediate release of Sa'adat. The next day, the PA
decided that Sa'adat should not be released "due to Israeli threats
of assassinating Sa‘adat as there was an overt announcement of
that by Sharon’s spokesman". A few months later, Israeli
armed forces killed Sa'adat brothers at his family home in Ramallah.
Israeli soldiers went to Mohammed Sa'adat's home, opened fire and killed
him.
While there is silence about
the attacks in Jericho, there is also silence and inaction as Israel
announced that Ariel, a huge colony in the heart of the West Bank, is
to be annexed, and Israel began building a new occupation forces "police
station" east of Jerusalem, the first step in massively expanding
the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Israel, as we have seen once again,
is a rogue state which acts not only with impunity but with the active
support of western powers who promise to starve its victims while quaking
in fear at uttering a single word of criticism. The only path for those
who reject violence is to work to comprehensively isolate this wild
regime as the South African apartheid regime was in its time isolated.
Ali Abunimah and
Arjan El Fassed are co-founders of the Electronic Intifada.