LOTTERY

Wednesday January 22, 2003 10:50

by Dave

PALESTINE MONITOR REPORT: PALESTINIANS FORCED TO CHOOSE METHOD OF THEIR "PUNISHMENT" IN BIZARRE "LOTTERY" GAME

On the 12th of January, Firas al-Sarfandi, 23, was stopped by Israeli soldiers on his way home to the Jalazone refugee camp. Witnesses reported that soldiers stopped Firas at around 5:00 pm, presented him with some papers, forced him to choose one and then proceeded to beat him for approximately half an hour. The soldiers then left him lying on the ground, unconscious and covered in blood.

Medical sources in the Sheikh Zayed hospital in Ramallah, say Firas suffered from a fractured femur as well as bruises and wounds all over his body.

This is not the first time such "lottery" acts have been carried out. A few weeks ago reports came out of Hebron concerning the then new and bizarre form of cruelty inflicted upon Palestinians detained by Israeli soldiers. A number of Palestinian youths reported on the Voice of Palestine Radio station, and other media, that Israeli soldiers stopped them, and then forced them to choose from various pieces of paper. Written on the paper were body parts; the soldiers would then break whichever body part the youth had chosen.

Apparently the soldiers then changed their mind, and offered the youths choices between nose, leg or arm. They chose their noses, and so they were broken One youth said, "I was taken from inside my shop in Bab al-Zawiya to a settlement, then they forced me to choose a paper, and then they broke my shoulder and beat me with their machine guns."

Palestinian newspapers reported that Hussein Shyoukhi, a lawyer investigating Israeli soldiers participation in the "lottery," said the choices "vary from a spit in the face and eating soap, to pulling out teeth and breaking bones."

Victims of earlier incidents include Said Baker Al-Zary, 22, from Hebron, who ended up with a broken arm as well as sixth grader Waseem Al Sha'rawi, also from Hebron, who was stopped by soldiers when he left his home to buy a few things at the local shop. The soldiers stopped him, forced him to choose a piece of paper and his finger was broken. In another incident in Hebron, Israeli soldiers stopped Wael Suleiman, 22, in the industrial area, and beat him until he agreed to choose a piece of paper. "Hitting and burning the car" was written - so two of the soldiers hit him, while the two others set fire to the car.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the president of UPMRC, said "Israeli soldiers have always acted with a great deal of impunity in the occupied towns and cities, and now we see them sinking to new depths. This torturous form of a lottery reflects that the soldiers know no one will investigate their behaviour, nor will they be punished for it. Basically they have been given a licence to act however they want, and to terrorize further a captive civilian population.”

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Death Under Curfew - Bethlehem

by Katharine Maycock

Thu Jan 23, 2003 00:44

What do you do if you go into labour and you can't get to hospital? How do you keep your children entertained all day long in the house? How do you make your bread last? How do you get to a cash machine so that if the shops
do open you can buy food? What do you do, if a family member becomes sick? How do you take your dog for a walk ? At what point do you call an ambulance and risk being stopped or shot at because of Israeli fears that you may be
part of a terrorist plot?

Since September 2002 UNICEF says some
250,000 children have been unable to reach their schools. 60-80% the population live on less than US $2 a day and movement is virtually impossible between towns and villages of the West Bank which according to the Bethlehem-based research group Badil, is divided into 64 islands of and, surrounded by 46 permanent checkpoints and 126 roadblocks.

The future of the Palestinian people is grave. The more Israel clamps down in the Palestinian Territories, the more of a breeding ground they become for terror. There were no suicide bombings before the Oslo peace process.They are a new phenomenon which emerged as Israel has exerted more and more control over Palestinian lives whilst appearing to offer them more freedom
under the Oslo negotiations. The Palestinians I have spoken to feel completely impotent in determining their future. Despair is at an all time low. The terror they experience on a daily basis has been lost in the rhetoric of the global 'war on terror'.

A Process of Dehumanization

by M. Junaid Alam - Counterpunch

Thu Jan 23, 2003 00:09

by M. Junaid Alam

Massacre, theft, torture, destruction, and ethnic cleansing: the Palestinian native is well aware of his history-not an ancient history recalled through myths and symbols, but a sharp, painful history reinforced decade upon decade, day upon day, hour upon hour. It is not the history of the comforting textbook held in one's hand, but of the dagger thrust into one's side. The Palestinian cannot-no, dare not-forget it, not if he wishes to stay alive at any rate. For if he fails to remember that his home may come crashing over his head at the whim of a bulldozer, that his crops may burn at the arrival of a settler, that his life may be ended at the command of a soldier, he is all but finished.

Further Examples of Life Under Israeli Illegal Occupation

by Against injustice

Wed Jan 22, 2003 23:54

peterlvt at hotmail dot com

This is only one example of the brutality of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Two thousand Palestinians have been killed (and 500 Israelis)since September 2000. Many were innocent men,
women and children. Children have been shot dead for throwing stones at Israeli armoured vehicles.Homes have been demolished by the hundreds, often with little or no warning. Long, long,curfews have been imposed and innocent people shot dead for breaking the curfews, even for emergencies. Roads have been blocked to Palestians, even those urgently needing to get to hospitals. Schools and universities have been closed, denying young people of their right to education.Collective punishment, though illegal, has been brutally carried out.

Below is just of several daily reports of life under the Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

Killings, curfews and invasions continue
15 November – 22 November 2002

Israeli forces were out in full force in the last week, killing 19 Palestinian in Nablus, Jenin, Hebron and Tulkarem. Further attacks against Palestinians are expected as the Israeli military plans retaliations against civilians for this week’s attack against the occupying army and illegal Israeli settlers in Hebron and the bombing blast in West Jerusalem.

Salma Mahmoud Sharhab, 21, from Nablus, was killed on Saturday when Israeli forces shelled and fired randomly at civilian homes just east of Nablus city.

According to eyewitnesses, Salma went to the roof of her house to hang her laundry to dry when tanks approached on her street. The minute she saw the tanks she tried to escape by running to the stairs. Before she could get to the stairs, she was shot in the chest.

On Tuesday, five Palestinians were killed and 11 injured -- five of them children -- when Israeli forces suddenly invaded south eastern Tulkarem and started shooting at residents.

The attacks occurred just after the meal breaking the daily Ramadan fast, when many people were strolling in the streets, as it was the first time in 30 days that the curfew had been lifted in the city.

On Wednesday, Amer Salman al-Qudsi, 13, was killed when he was shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers. He had been throwing stones at Israeli tanks on his way back from school, after finding the school had been closed due to the Israeli curfew.

Strict curfew is currently being imposed throughout the West Bank, with tanks in the centers of Jenin, Hebron, Tulkarem and Bethlehem, and Israeli forces shooting at civilians randomly.

Imagine the outcry if any other so called 'western styled democracy' acted in this way!

tricky bricky says;

by tricky bricky

Wed Jan 22, 2003 14:01

Níl luibh nó leigheas in aghaidh an bhás.

shalom = saleem = siochan = peace.

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Comments (4 of 4)