He
is always on the move, never in one place
for more than an hour. He left his
hometown of Hebron and is now residing in Ramallah. He grew and
dyed his hair, disposed of his glasses and grew a mustache
and beard. This is how E.A, one of the top
heads of Fateh's military wing, is trying
to save hi s life, after Israeli authorities tried but failed to
assassinate him back in Hebron.
"I escaped by a miracle," says E.A.,
remembering when Israeli forces opened
fire at his car. "I was hit by shrapnel and a young man near the
car was killed," he says.
"Since then I have not seen my family.
My wife had a baby girl five months ago,
but I haven't seen her," he laments. Now he communicates
with his wife through letters since his phone is tapped by
the Israelis. They raided his home in
Hebron several times and arrested his two
brothers to find out h is whereabouts.
This has become the harrowing lifestyle
of most Palestinian activists, whose names
now appear on an Israeli hit list. If they are not on the
run, they have already been killed.
Just last week, Israeli missiles turned
on Hamas leaders in Nablus. The attempt
was successful in that it killed the two targeted men - Sheikh
Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim, two of Hamas' leading
political figures.
But they were not the only ones who were
lost to the two Apache-launched missiles,
which were fired into the Hamas-affiliated research and media
center in the seven-floor building in Nablus. Fahim Dawabsheh,
the office director, two photojournalists,
who worked in local press offices and Omar
Mans our, Sheikh Mansour's personal bodyguard all died in the
blast. And finally, there were two children - brothers Ashraf
and Bilal, aged 5 and 8.
This assassination was part of an
overall policy to liquidate wanted
Palestinians, according to Ra'anan Gissen, Israeli government
spokesperson. He said that this policy would be ongoing in
order to prevent "terrorists" from
attacking Israeli cities and Israeli citizens.
"Today our forces struck a group of Hamas members, including
the head of the military wing of Hamas in
Nablus," he gloated.
He was referring to Sheikh Jamal Mansour,
who has been in charge of media activities
in Hamas in the West Bank for years. A day before his
death, he was interviewed by a local journalist about the
recent liquidation of Hamas military
leaders. He said that because of the
political nature of his work, he did not know them personally. He
did say, however, that he envied them,
because they had gone before him in their
duty towards Palestine.
Mansour had said, "We leaders must not
shed a tear because we are at the
forefront. If we cry, others will fall apart."
A deadly policy
"They want to spread fear in the Palestinian ranks," says Dr.
Mustapha Barghouti, head of the Health,
Development, Information and Policy
Institute, in reference to these assassinations. "They want to
create a problem of trust between the
Palestinian Authority and Palestinian
cadres. They want to strike at the very existence of the Authority
and make the Palestinians feel that the
Israelis are lurking behind every house,
every window."
Barghouti says this policy reflects a
certain principle, which is to make the
Palestinian Authority play into Israel's hands by arresting any
person Israel demands. If the Authority does not abide by
this, then Israel justifies breaking into
Palestinian controlled territories and
killing wanted Pa lestinians.
These are the ongoing goals behind the
policy of assassination, which Israel
justifies in the name of security, says Barghouti. "But they have
not been able to achieve this," referring to the increasing
support for the Intifada with every new
assassination.
Based on this, Barghouti says Israel's
chances of achieving its goals are
practically nil. He also said that this policy is nothing new. "We
all still remember Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad and the poet Kamil
Nasser, who were all assassinated by
Israel," he reminds. "We know that many of
Israel's leaders, s uch as [former prime ministers] Barak and
Netanyahu earned their medals for their
assassination of Palestinians."
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Nabil
Amr says that these assassinations are a
result of a political decision by the Israeli
government to achieve certain goals, which are not
security-oriented, as they claim. "We in
the Palestinian Authority are not willing to even
think of complying with thes e Israeli tactics. We are not
willing to raise the white flag."
Amr continues that there is no military
solution that can be imposed on the
Palestinians. "The only solution must be political, based on
international legitimacy, a steadfastness to the land and
political steadfastness to our position.
And we must defend ourselves in any way
possible."
He then alludes to less desirable
elements in society. He says the
Palestinians should also, "purify the Palestinian society from all
the 'elements' that allow Israelis to
infiltrate, particularly spies." This, he
says, is the appropriate response to the Israeli policy of
assassinations.
But what about international opinion
towards these assassinations? Barghouti
senses that there is a change in international public opinion
in favor of the Palestinian cause despite Israeli efforts to
bring about the opposite. "There is a
window of opportunity that is constantly
widening to expand the support and international solidarity with the
Palestinian people." He says this is particularly true since
Israel misuses its superiority in terms of
its power relationship with the United
States and its control over the international media.
However, Barghouti says that this
international response - no matter how
much on the rise- is not enough. If any other country behaved the
way Israel is behaving in the occupied
territories, he says, the international
outcry would have been much louder and we would have seen
international observer s in the region. "So the only way to
get the international community to react
and to pressure Israel is to obtain a
decision from the UN Security Council to send international
protection for the Palestinian people," he
concludes.
Following the Nablus killings, US
secretary of state Collin Powell described
the Israeli action as "excessive and provocative." This
description came one day after UN secretary general Kofi Anan
condemned the killings of six Fateh
leaders in the West Bank village of Fara'.
This former condemnation came from
Israel's top ally, the United States,
which Israelis believe is proof of a shakier position on the
American's part.
Haim Shalev, editorialist of the leading
Hebrew daily Ma'areve wrote to this effect
on August 1. In a commentary on the policy of
assassinations, Shalev wrote that "[Israel] must consider the
severe American response, which indicates
a negative change in the new American
administration and a decli ne in international support, which Israel
was able to win after the Dolphinarium
operation [which killed 21 Israelis] and
which now considers that Israel has violated the cease-fire."
Shalev adds, "The Palestinians will consider an escalation of
terror as the appropriate response to the
assassination of the two Hamas leaders in
Nablus." Then, alluding to the cons of Israel's assassination
policy, he continues, "The
Palestinian-Israeli cycle of bloodshed, which has
become system atically satanic, will lead to an increase in
the fall of new victims in an escalation
that will lead to an inevitable and
inescapable explosion."
And this is exactly what is happening.
The vows of revenge rose even louder on
the Palestinian street following the Nablus assassinations.
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas vowed that,
"the Israeli people will pay the price.
They must know that Palestinian blood is not
cheap."
Yassin called on the Ezzedin Qassam
Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, to
respond to the attack. "The Israeli government has crossed all
the red lines," he said.
But how are the other Palestinian
factions dealing with this new reality of
assassinations?
Marwan Barghouti, general secretary of
Fateh in the West Bank thinks the
Palestinian Authority should be on high alert in facing this policy
in order to provide protection for its
resistance fighters.
Barghouti himself says he was targeted
by this Israeli policy on August 4, when
two Israeli missiles struck a car driven by his bodyguard and
fellow Fateh member. The first one missed, which gave time
for those inside to jump out. When the
second one hit - totally destroying the car
- it injured M ohannad Abu Halaweh, a leading member of Force
17. Israel denies it had targeted
Barghouti, saying it had wanted to liquidate Abu
Halaweh, who they say is responsible for a number of attacks
on Israelis.
Barghouti says that although he was
targeted, he is in the same situation as
all the others. "The Palestinian Authority should provide
them [resistance fighters] with security, they should warn
them, guide them and instruct them."
He also said that targeted Palestinians
should be extra careful and vigilant. He
maintains that Fateh has warned some of its members who
they believe are targeted by Israel to take the necessary
extra security precautions.
Barghouti stressed that the Palestinian
Authority will not arrest any Palestinian
activist at the request of Israel. He added that there are
those who think that arresting them will protect them, which
is wrong and unacceptable. He says these
people can be protected through serious
security measur es, even if they are not foolproof.
"We are well aware that in this
situation, it is difficult to provide
absolute protection," he admits. "The enemy has planes, tanks and
highly-advanced weapons, which hit their target accurately
from a distance."
Dangerous and dirty
Abdel Hakim Masalmeh, spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad in
the West Bank, drew up a simple equation.
"The occupation means nothing without
collaborators." He says this phenomenon is dangerous and degrading,
a dirty sector of Palestinian society. He
thinks these collaborators must be
pursued, caught and struck with an iron fist.
He added that the Palestinian Authority
must double its efforts in arresting these
collaborators and bring them to trial since the law is
in their hands. Maslameh warned that if the Authority does
not move quickly in stopping
collaboration, the people's patience will run out
and their reaction will be violent.
On the contrary, defends head of the
Palestinian intelligence, Tawfiq Tirawi,
the security apparatuses do their jobs. He says the security
apparatuses have and are still informing Palestinian leaders
and activists of the need to take caution.
He says Sheikh Jamal was told by the
apparatuses not to hold meetings at his office or to sleep at home,
but he unfortunately did not take their advice.
"The security apparatuses cannot
possibly provide protection for every
targeted cadre," says Tirawi. "We would need an army for that." Even
this, he says, wouldn't be enough. "How can we protect him
from a missile fired from a distance or
tank shells? Protection must come from an
understanding of security from the activists themselves."
Israel has continued with is policy,
challenging the Palestinians and the
world. On August 1, just one day after the Nablus assassinations, a
cabinet meeting was held in which Israel decided to carry on
with this policy.
The statement issued from the cabinet
stipulated that Israel demands from the
international community to put pressure on the Palestinian
Authority to immediately stop "terrorism, violence and
incitement." It failed to mention the two
children, Bilal and Ashraf, who were killed
the day before, along with the "terrorists."
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 The Palestine Report & Ahmad Sublaban
by the same author:
