The Ghosts of Jenin
By Michael S. Ladah
The UN Security Council approved a resolution to send a commission to
the West Bank to find out the truth about what Israel really did in Jenin. But, like
many UN Security Council resolutions, this one too was met with hostility by Israel.
With so much concern about the truth coming out, Israel has already started to manipulate
world opinion regarding the outcome of the UN mission even before it started. The
Israeli government, with the help of its apologists in the US media, has already embarked
on a public relations campaign to influence the outcome. Their first step has been
to question the ability of the UN appointed commission and throw doubts on its integrity.
The UN Secretary General has had to postpone the departure of the team twice or
more after Ariel Sharon announced that he would not cooperate with the commission.
Until the date of this writing, the United Nations and its powerful members on the UN
Security Council, including the United States, have exhibited their usual impotence in the
face of the Israeli intransigence and defiance.
Even after it completed its “operations” in Jenin, the IDF kept journalists away
from the camp for days, and did its best to hide what the world has been wondering about
it. All along the Israeli chorus of deception kept on singing “we have nothing
to hide.” Then why hide the “nothing” that Israel didn’t
have to hide? Obviously, this was a continuation of their standard practice, whereby
they would commit the crime and at the same time cry that they are the victim. It
won’t be long before Israel and its masters of deception cry out that they are
victims of anti Semitism and victims of Palestinian terror because the Palestinians are
the aggressors in Jenin. They would like the world to believe that the dispossession
of the Palestinians, the humiliation of their losing their homes and homeland and their
oppression, living as foreigners in whatever remained of their homeland under the
occupation of the Israelis for 35 years, is really the result of Palestinian aggression.
The Israelis will do their best to kill the UN mission.
While the world condemns the loss of innocent lives of civilians, the Israeli government
and their military condemn only the loss of innocent Israeli lives. They could care
less about Palestinian lives because in the minds of the Israeli public, in their courts
and in their system of apartheid, the life of a Palestinian can not be equated to the life
of an Israeli. One only need to look at the way the Israeli military treats the
Palestinian public at large, targets their children with live ammunition, targets their
women and their elderly by denying them emergency medical services and targets their men
by shooting them first then asking questions. The assassination of Palestinian
individuals is the only due process that Israel knows when it comes to Palestinian human
rights. No wonder the few Israeli reservists with conscience refuse to serve in the
Palestinian territories. We can only hope that more decent Israelis among the
reservists believe that the oppression and subjugation of a nation are not the Jewish way
and should not be the Israeli way.
The Israeli military and the Israeli reservists who committed the atrocities in Jenin and
in other Palestinian towns should not be under the illusion that they were fighting a war
against terrorists. They can not hide in the shadow of our war against terrorists
who had no legitimate grievance against our United States and our way of life. The Israeli
fight was with people whom they humiliated, dispossessed and continue to subjugate in
their daily lives through their brutal occupation of the Palestinian homeland. All
reports that surfaced after the Israeli “operation” was completed point to a
deliberate destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure and what may become elements of a
potential Palestinian state. These oppressed Palestinian people do not have a
military of their own. They do not have fighter jets, attack helicopters or tanks,
and some of them had to resort to a weapon of last resort. It was the Israeli
intransigence and oppression which pushed them to this last resort, and it is the Israelis
who are responsible for creating the fertile ground for some of the Palestinians to make
their lives a weapon.
The Israeli government, with their misinformation campaign to mislead the Israeli public
and the world with it, continues to claim that by targeting Israeli towns the Palestinians
are sending a message that they do not accept the existence of Israel. Our own war
of independence targeted every aspect of the British colonial infrastructure. The
Algerian liberation movement targeted every aspect of the French colonial administration
and did not restrict its movement to Algeria. The Israeli campaign of misinformation
would want us to believe that we did not accept the existence of England and the Algerians
did not accept the existence of France. They would want us to believe that it is not
the occupation and the other inhumanities that are driving many Palestinians into
desperation.
Israel must open the Palestinian territories for UN fact finding. It should have no
say in what truth the UN uncovers in areas that they had given back to the Palestinians
for autonomy and self control as agreed by Israel and the Palestinians, with the United
States as a peace broker, a witness and, by default, a guarantor. Those among the
Israeli military and the Israeli reservists, who committed atrocities, with their officers
and political leaders who gave the orders, should receive no immunity from prosecution
under international law. They must be brought to justice and tried as war criminals
if the UN Commission on Jenin finds that such crimes were indeed committed. The
ghosts of Jenin will not rest until the truth comes out and justice is served.
© 2002 by Michael S. Ladah. The writer is an Arab
American who lived and worked in various parts of the Middle East. He is the author
of “Quicksand, Oil and Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million Dispossessed
Palestinians.” He may be reached at
ladah@hotmail.com
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