Here is a translation of the Reinhart article Eldad posted - MM(WARNING: 7 pages long)The First Year: Slow Ethnic Cleansing - Tanya Reinhart (orig. Hebrew: http://www.hagada.org.il/hagada/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3172 )The Policy of Injuries In order to understand the full extent of the Israeli
crimes that are being committed in the process of
suppressing the Palestinian uprising it is necessary
to examine also the injuries, and not only the rising
number of fatalities. Let us examine first what happened
in the first weeks of the present uprising, since this is
also the way things were subsequently, to varying
degrees.[i] On Friday, November 3rd, CNN reported a 'relative calm'
in the territories. By afternoon that day there were
276 people injured[ii], and by the final count "Up to
452 Palestinians were hurt on Friday across the
territories, according to the Red Crescent".[iii] On
Saturday, November 4th, as the the media covers in great
length of Barak's "plea to Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat to return to the negotiating table and stop the
Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed for the sake of peace",[iv]
"another 153 were treated for injuries sustained in
clashes with Israeli troops",[v] including "5 school
children from Sa'ir (near Hebron) who are in extremely
critical condition".[vi] More than 7000 Palestinians are reported injured so far.
Several Palestinian medical sources report that an
alarming number of them are injured in the head or
legs (knees), with carefully aimed shots, and,
increasingly, live ammunition.[vii] Many will not
recover, or will be disabled for life. This pattern of injuries cannot be accidental. Dan
Ephron, Boston Globe correspondent in Jerusalem reported
on the findings of the Physicians for Human Rights
delegation: "American doctors who examined Israel's
use of force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have
concluded that Israeli soldiers appeared to be
deliberately targeting the heads and legs of
Palestinian protestors, even in non-life-threatening
situations."[viii] Medical School doctors in the
delegation explained that law enforcement officials
worldwide are trained to aim at the chest in dangerous
situations (since it is the largest target), and the
fact that Palestinians were hit in the head and legs
suggests that there was no life-threatening situation,
soldiers had ample time, and were deliberately trying
to harm unarmed people. In fact, the Israelis are not even trying to conceal
their shooting strategies. Interviews like the following
can be easily found in the Israeli media: Nahshon battalion ready for urban warfare By Arieh O'Sullivan JERUSALEM (October 27) - "I shot two people... in their
knees. It's supposed to break their bones and neutralize
them but not kill them," says Sgt. Raz, a sharpshooter
from the Nahshon battalion. "How did I feel? ...Well actually, I felt pretty satisfied
with myself," the 20-year-old soldier confides. "I felt
I could do what I was trained to do, and it gave me a
lot of self-confidence to think that if we get into
a real war situation I'd be able to defend my comrades
and myself."[ix] A common practice is shooting a rubber coated metal
bullet straight in the eye - a little game of well
trained soldiers, which requires maximum precision.
Reports on eye injuries keep coming daily. "On October 11,
El Mizan Diagnostic Hospital in Hebron reported treating
11 Palestinians for eye injuries, including 3 children.
El Nasir Ophthalmic Hospital in Gaza has treated 16 people
for eye injuries, including 13 children. Nine of them
lost one of their eyes".[x] "From 29 September to
25 October 2000, Jerusalem's St. John Eye Hospital
has treated 50 patients for eye-injuries".[xi] Stray bullets do not hit so many people precisely in the
eye head, or knee. The Israeli army prepared carefully
for the present events: "Established just over a year
ago specifically to deal with unrest in the West Bank...
The IDF has trained four battalions for low-intensity conflict, and Nahshon is the one specializing
in urban warfare. Its troops train in mock Palestinian
villages constructed in two IDF bases."[xii] Specially trained Israeli units, then, aim, shoot and
hit the target in a calculated manner: Cripple, but
keep the statistics of dead low. This is reported openly
(and quite proudly) in the Israeli media. The same
Jerusalem Post article explains that "the overall IDF
strategy is to deprive the Palestinians of the massive
number of casualties the army maintains Palestinians want
in order to win world support and consolidate their fight
for independence.'We are very much trying not to kill
them...' says Lt.-Col. Yoram Loredo, commander and founder
of the Nahshon battalion."[xiii] The reason is clear enough: Massive numbers of dead
Palestinians every day cannot go unnoticed even by the
most cooperative Western media and governments. Barak
was explicit about this. "The prime minister said that,
were there not 140 Palestinian casualties at this point,
but rather 400 or 1,000, this... would perhaps damage
Israel a great deal."[xiv] With a stable average of five
casualties a day, they believe that Israel can continue
'undamaged' for many more months. In a world so used to
horrors, many feel that 180 dead in a month is sad and
upsetting, but it is not yet an atrocity that the world
should unite to stop. The 'injured' are hardly reported;
they 'do not count' in the dry statistics of tragedy. Injuring Palestinians was and remains a consistent Israeli
policy (by May 2001 two hundred eye injuries were treated
in the St. John Eye Hospital alone).[xv] There are
countless reports on the hopeless condition of many of
the injured, and there are also detailed reports about
medical needs that cannot be fulfilled. "For Gaza's
population of 1 million, of whom 3,000 have been seriously
injured in the intifadah, there are only two professionally trained
rehabilitation specialists. Hundreds go without proper
rehabilitation, not only because of inadequate facilities,
but also because Israeli blockades around Gaza and
the West Bank often cut off patients from health
care." [xvi] By December 2001 25,000 injured Palestinians were
reported, many of them blind and disabled. Their
fate is a slow death, far from the camera's eye.
Some of them will die because there are no hospitals
to treat them, others will die because they cannot
survive in their community that is afflicted with
hunger and destruction of infrastructure. Israel's systematic policy of injuring Palestinians
cannot be explained as self-defence or as a spontaneous
response to terrorism. It is an act of ethnic cleansing
- a process in which one ethnic group is removed from
territories that another is interested in ruling.
In a place that attracts as much international attention
as Israel/Palestine, ethnic cleansing cannot be carried
out by a sudden act of mass slaughter or mass expulsion
from the territory. Therefore there is a consistent
process, the goal of which is slowly and gradually to
compel people to die or to escape. Destruction of Palestinian Society Between October 2000 and December 2001, besides countless
details about daily violence and cruelty, a clear picture
emerged of a systematic effort to break Palestinian
society and to destroy its infrastructures. A precise
and painful summary of this tendency could be found in
the words of Taher Masri, a Jordan politician of
Palestinian origin, in an interview with Newsweek in
December 2001. Masri explained that Israel is working
on three levels. On the first level Israel's goal is
"is to destroy the economic infrastructure of the
Palestinian territories, which are largely agricultural
and, formerly, touristic. During Israeli incursions into
Bethlehem earlier this year, for instance, troops
systematically trashed newly built tourist hotels."
As part of this strategy they also uprooted olive and
citrus trees in large agricultural areas. On the second
level the goal is "to destroy the Palestinian
Authority's systems, the police and the security
agencies. Just as Sharon is demanding that Arafat
strike at Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, Israel
itself has destroyed 80% of the police stations in
recent months . Sharon sets up serious restrictions on
the ability of the Palestinian Authority to dispatch
police reinforcements from one area to another." On
the third level "Sharon is eliminating-liquidating-the
Palestinian leadership. He is hitting the third rank now,
but he will move up to the first. Without leadership,
without your economic lifeblood, without security tools
for the PA, the people will be ready to leave the
country." [xvii] Over the course of four decades of occupation an absolute
dependence on Israel has been imposed on the Palestinian
economy. The Oslo accords deepened this dependency and
gave it a quasi-legal status, on the model of the
"Bantustans" in South Africa. The economic agreement
between Israel and the Palestinians eloquently sets out
"regulated passage of workers" between the two sides,
"without compromising the right of either side from
time to time to define the extent of the entry of workers
into its territory and the conditions of their entry."
To put it in more flexible terms, the meaning of the
text is that this absolute control enjoyed by Israel
allowed Israel to impose a complete economic boycott
on the Territories since the beginning of the uprising:
to prevent Palestinians from crossing into Israel, and
to deny them commercial opportunities. The economic situation of the Palestinians in the
occupied territories, which deteriorated seriously
during the Oslo years,[xviii] reached the level of
disaster during the months of the new uprising. The
siege that Israel imposed jailed the Palestinians in
their towns and caused them a serious loss in employment
and income. According to the findings of Miftah (The
Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global
Dialogue and Democracy),[xix] in December 2001, the
rate of unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
reached 57%. This statistic includes not only those
who lost their work-places in Israel, but also those
who could not go to work because of closure and
checkpoints, and those whose places of work were
destroyed or closed.[xx] Agriculture - which as Masri mentioned is a main
source of income - sustained and continues to sustain
serious damage. The economic siege that Israel imposed
on the Territories does not allow any exports. As in
the labour market, here too the Territories are
dependent on Israel in everything related to the
sale of products, whether they sell them to Israel
itself or whether they market them abroad (according
to the Oslo Accords the Palestinians are not authorized
to send exports abroad directly; only through Israeli
companies). A document that the IDF prepared at the
beginning of the uprising indicates, among other
economic measures that would be taken against the
Palestinian Authority, If violence had not erupted, the Palestinian Authority
would have constituted Israel's main source of
agricultural products during the next year. Given
the current situation, not only will that produce not
be sold to Israel, but even the normal quantities will
not be exported to Israel which will import this produce
from other countries, in order to meet demand.[xxi] But now it is not a matter of export but mere survival.
Israel does not spare the land any more than it spares
the people. Miftah reports that in December 2001 the
number of olive trees that were uprooted from Palestinian
lands reached 112,900, and 3,669,000 square metres of
agricultural lands were destroyed. In addition to all
this, in many places farmers cannot get out to work their
fields because of the military siege that Israel has
imposed. 53% of the Palestinians live below the poverty line,
that is, less than two dollars a day. The proud and
sophisticated Palestinian society has been pushed into
indigence. Below is one of many reports published in
the British newspaper The Guardian: Before the intifada began last September, the number of
Palestinians lining up for food sacks from the UN Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA) was relatively small, restricted to a few cases
of hardship. Now a substantial majority queue for aid .
an UNRWA official in Jerusalem, said that food sacks
were being distributed to about 217,000 families
throughout the West Bank and Gaza. But shortage of
funds, despite an international appeal, means such
deliveries are restricted to three-month intervals .
The food parcels are modest: comprising flour,
lentils, sugar, cooking oil, dried milk, rice and 150
shekels (about £25). But with many Palestinians
unable to cross the blockade and travel to work, the
handouts are a form of subsistence. At Jalazun, north of Ramallah on the West Bank, the
arrival of the UN vehicles also brings noisy confusion.
With flour clouding the air, the sweating aid workers
pass sack after sack from the back of lorries to the men,
women and children waiting below. It is a scene that the Palestinian Authority should
welcome as a useful piece of propaganda. But press
coverage of the convoys is discouraged because the
recipients often feel humiliated: their attitude is
that food aid is something for poor African countries,
not for Palestinians. . Among the women lining up was
mother of six Nuriddin Kharoub, 46, who admitted feeling
humiliated. "I am embarrassed. It is like begging,"
she says. "Who wants to be like a beggar?"[xxii] Israel blocked the passage of supplies to the occupied
territories, thereby accelerating the Palestinians'
economic collapse. At the beginning of November 2000 the
Independent reported that: "More than 900 truckloads
for Palestinian territories, are stuck at the Israeli
ports of Haifa and Ashdod. So are 1,000 new and used
cars. At the same time, Israel is delaying the monthly
transfer of about $30m in tax revenue paid by Palestinian
workers or importers. . The Israelis do not deny wielding
the economic weapon. "We are not trying to starve them
out," said a government spokesman, "but we are using
any means to convince the Palestinians to stop the
violence. There is a struggle going on, Palestinians
versus Israelis, and Israel is entitled to take every
measure to defend itself."[xxiii] This stance was
confirmed in the IDF report that was quoted above,
wrapped in language appropriate for Israel's
struggle against terrorism, which -
it should be recalled - had not yet begun when
the report was drafted: Furthermore, huge quantities
of goods intended for the Palestinian Authority remain
undelivered in the Israeli port of Ashdod. This is a result of the Palestinian demand that its security
personnel be allowed through the Karni Passage into
Israel, to take delivery of the goods, without
undergoing any form of security check. Israel cannot allow such hazardous entry into its border,
which would increase the risk of terror attacks on
Israeli civilians, especially when it is known that
Palestinian officials are involved in arms smuggling. Therefore the goods remain where they
are.[xxiv] This policy too has become worse with time.
In December 2001 Amira Hass reported that
"It's difficult to grasp all the information that
comes from these besieged places. The lack of
medical supplies, such as oxygen tanks, is a daily,
desperate routine in the hospitals. Cooking gas and
fuel and even drinking water routinely run out.
Suppliers have difficulties bringing in fresh
food."[xxv]
(Translated from Hebrew by Mark Marshall)
[i] This section is excerpted from my article
"Don't say you didn't know", Yediot Ahronot,
14 November 2000 [English version:
http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/DontSayYouDidntKnow.html - trans]. [ii] LAW Report, 3 Nov. 2000 http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref1 [iii] Haaretz, 5 Nov. 2000[iv] AP, 5 Nov. 2000[v] Haaretz, 5 Nov. 2000[vi] Addameer - Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association, Report, 4 Nov. 2000 http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref1 [vii] Dr. Jumana Odeh, Director, Palestinian Happy Child Center, 24 Oct. 2000 report http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref3 ; LAW, 2 Nov. 2000 report http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref4 [viii] Dan Ephron, Boston Globe, 4 Nov. 2000[ix] Arieh O'Sullivan, Jerusalem Post, 27 Oct. 2000 http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref5 [x] LAW Report, 19 Oct. 2000 http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref6 [xi] LAW Report, 2 Nov. 2000 http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref6 [xii] Arieh O'Sullivan, Jerusalem Post, 27 Oct. 2000 http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/political/ref5 [xiii] ibid[xiv] Jerusalem Post, 30 Oct. 2000[xv] Charles M. Sennott, Boston Globe, 3 May 2001 http://www.amputee-online.com/amputation/may01/ [xvi] ibid [xvii] Masri, who is from one of the most wealthy and influential families in Nablus, is a senior figure in Jordanian politics. The interview with him was conducted by Christopher Dickey, Newsweek Web Exclusive, 7 Dec. 2000 http://www.palestinecampaign.org/archives.asp?xid=470 [xviii] See Sarah Roy, "Decline and Disfigurement: The Palestinian Economy After Oslo", in the book The New Intifada[xix] Intifada Update no. 31, human and material losses that Israel caused the Palestinians during the Intifada, from 28 September 2000 to 24 December 2001. www.miftah.org . Contradictory findings are often presented regarding Palestinian human and material losses. I use the statistics of Miftah because they are usually the most conservative ones. Miftah: "Total loss of income of Palestinian workers who worked in Israel in the past: 3.6 million dollars a day. Actual losses: the gross national product declined between September and March by 1.5 billion dollars. The decline in per capita income: 47 per cent."[xx] ibid[xxi] "The Economic Price Paid by the Palestinians as a Result of the Violence in the Territories", a background document prepared by the Operations Directorate, IDF Spokesperson and the Information and Public Relations Branch, 6 November 2000, distributed by Independent Media Review & Analysis http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=5054 .[xxii] Ewen MacAskill: "Palestinians forced to swallow pride and accept handouts," Guardian, 28 June 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,513581,00.html [xxiii] Eric Silver: "Barak tries economic war to beat the Intifada: Palestinian territories facing long-term ruin," The Independent, 7 Nov. 2000 http://www.mail-archive.com/kominform@lists.eunet.fi/msg04316.html [xxiv] "The Economic Price Paid by the Palestinians as a Result of the Violence in the Territories", a background document prepared by the Operations Directorate, IDF Spokesperson and the Information and Public Relations Branch, 6 November 2000, distributed by Independent Media Review & Analysis http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=5054 .[xxv] Amira Hass, "The hidden weapons factories," Haaretz 12 Dec. 2001 http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=105129&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y Mark MarshallToronto~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 
