[1610] in peace2
credibility for the obvious
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (auyeung@alum.mit.edu)
Fri Apr 5 09:03:57 2002
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To: peace-announce@mit.edu
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From: auyeung@alum.mit.edu
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Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 06:02:12 -0800 (PST)
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The world just watches
Neta Golan IHT
Friday, April 5, 2002
http://www.iht.com/articles/53592.html
RAMALLAH, West Bank For the international peace
observers currently holed up within Yasser Arafat's
presidential compound - myself among them - it is not
Israeli actions but the inaction of the international
community that has most shocked us.
.
Inside the pock-marked building surrounded by Israeli
tanks and snipers, there is one question on everyone's
minds: How many international laws does Israel need to
break before the United Nations demands a full and
immediate Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank?
.
The list of violations is reaching unprecedented
levels, even for a conflict with a long history of ugly
behavior on both sides. Collective punishment is
illegal under international law, but Israel has now
escalated from interrupting food shipments to shutting
off water to the Palestinian city of Ramallah,
endangering the lives of 120,000 people. The shelling
of Palestinian civilian structures such as power
plants, schools and sewage facilities is occurring at
an alarming rate. Unarmed civilians are being killed
daily.
.
There are also growing reports of Israeli troops
raiding hospitals and firing on ambulances and
journalists. These are grave breaches of international
conventions.
.
Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The Boston Globe,
was shot on Sunday as he walked away from an interview
in our building. The area, under full Israeli control,
was quiet and there was no crossfire. Shadid was
wearing the required signs on his back and front
indicating that he was with the official press. Soon
after he arrived at a hospital, Israeli troops raided
it with machine guns drawn. When he was subsequently
transferred for further medical treatment, his
ambulance came under fire from Israeli soldiers manning
a checkpoint.
.
Israel is making a mockery of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, the founding document of international
human rights law, and by its tacit acceptance, the
United Nations is severely eroding its credibility in
the region and beyond.
.
Those of us inside the presidential compound need help
desperately - but not half as much as those on the
outside who are facing the full brunt of the mass
round-ups and house-to-house raids. The situation
cannot deteriorate much further. Medical supplies have
run out. Food is scarce.
.
Pressure from abroad is essential. The presence of
international "human shields" throughout the occupied
territories has been very important in limiting the
indiscriminate nature of Israeli military actions.
.
Nothing short of a UN demand for a full withdrawal to
the 1967 UN recognized borders, however, will succeed
in restoring calm and opening the way for peace
negotiations. Simply pulling the troops out of the
recently invaded regions will not suffice. In the
compound we are left wondering, not without fear,
whether the international community will allow the
permanent expansion of the already illegal occupation
and the exile if not assassination of the Palestinian
leader.
.
Neta Golan, an Israeli, is among the 40 international
peace observers occupying Yasser Arafat's besieged
office. This comment, which she wrote with Ian Urbina,
an associate editor of the Washington-based magazine
Middle East Report, was contributed to the
International Herald Tribune.
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