In Occupied Palestine

Zionism in practice

Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property

24 hours to 8am 16 September 2009

Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG).   

Israeli Navy opens fire on fishing boats off Khan Yunis

Israeli Army home invasions and vandalism in Hebron

Israeli shelling wounds two people near Khan Yunis

Israeli F-16s terrorise Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers abduct two 17-year-olds

Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 2 refugee camps and 12 towns and villages

6 attacks – 27 raids – 2 beaten – 5 injured

13 taken prisoner – 14 detained – 79 restrictions of movement

Palestinian attacks: none

Israeli attack: Jenin – 00:30, Israeli helicopter-borne infantry shot their way indiscriminately round the area between the towns of Kafr Ra’i and Illar.

Israeli attack – home invasions – vandalism: Hebron – 23:00, Occupation troops raided the village of Wadi Ash Shajina, and opened indiscriminate fire inside people's homes. The Israelis detonated an explosive device inside one house.

Israeli attack – economic sabotage: Khan Yunis – morning, Israeli gunboats opened intensive fire on Palestinian fishing boats at sea off the city.

Israeli attack – injuries: Khan Yunis – 13:00, two people were wounded and suffered serious injuries when an Israeli tank positioned on the Green Line shelled Palestinian territory in the east of the town of Khuza’a. The injured men are: Fadi Odeh Abu Mu’ammar and Muhammad Odeh Abu Mu’ammar.

Air patrols: All Gaza districts – Israeli F-16s terrorised the Gaza Strip. 

Resistance: Gaza – 13:10, a 30kg explosive device was detonated near an Israeli Army patrol in the east of Johor Ad Dik. Israeli forces responded with intensive fire on Palestinian territory.

Incursion – abductions: Qalqilya – 10:00, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the village of Izbat At Tabib and abducted two 17-year-old villagers, Al Ashqar Ahmad Mahmoud Shbeitah and Mousa Muhammad Shbeitah.

Occupation settler violence: Salfit – 08:50, Zionist militants from the settlement of Kfar Tapuah stoned passing vehicles until bringing traffic to a halt on the road connecting the Za’tara junction with the village of Yasuf.

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Treading the Borders Between Life and Death

“A 60-year history of dispossession, massacres, home demolition, extra-judicial killing of leaders, imprisonment, land grabs, and invasions keeps repeating itself. Generations of Palestinian emergency staff have been responding to these invasions and attacks by putting out the fires that Israeli bombs have ignited, picking up the pieces of broken bodies that often break families and communities, and saving the lives that Israel wants to kill – civilian or combatant. Referred to in the Palestinian community as "unknown soldiers," these courageous men and women are front line witnesses to the effects that white phosphorous, flechette shells, missiles, sniper fire and bulldozers have on the human body. As such, their witness to Israeli attacks is up close and personal and hard to refute.”

By Ewa Jasiewicz for Left Turn Magazine www.leftturn.org September 2009

    It happened at 2:30am, Wednesday, December 31 2008. Israeli helicopter gunships and warplanes had been bombing the length of the Gaza Strip. In Eastern Jabaliya, white phosphorous had been exploding over Ezbit Abid Rubbu, Al Gerem, and Jabal al Rais. Jabal Al Rais, the President's Mountain, renamed "The Mountain of Fire" because of the resistance in the area against incoming Israeli forces, was where Dr Ihab al Madhoun, 34, and Mohammad Al Hassira, 21, had driven to rescue suspected casualties. Both medics were inside their ambulance when it was struck by Israeli missile fire. Hassira, a medical volunteer, died instantly. Madhoun, suffering shrapnel injuries to the head and neck lived until mid-day the following day. Visiting him in the Kamal Odwan Hospital in Jabaliya, I saw the experienced doctor lying bandaged up, semi-conscious, with blood and brain fluid seeping from the back of his skull, writhing in pain. Hasira and just hours later, Madhoun, would join 14 other medics who lost their lives, most in the line of duty during Israel's 22-day attack. During Israel's Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 - January 2009, Israeli forces killed 16 emergency medical staff and injured 57, including at least four who needed leg and arm amputations. Thirteen of the medics killed worked for the Civil Defence Service (CDSS) – a mixture of fire fighters and front line emergency medical personnel. Eleven fire fighters were also injured, their red engines bearing bullet holes directly targeting drivers.

    On the first day of Israel's attack, Israeli warplanes destroyed half of all of the CDS's 16 offices in the Gaza Strip. In the central governorate of Diere Balah every single CDS building was reduced to rubble within five minutes of the first attack, and tens of staff members killed. Bodies continued to be pulled out of the rubble for days after the initial bombardment. In one day, 235 police officers, including CDS staff, were killed-an attack human rights lawyer Daniel Machover of UK legal firm Hickman and Rose claims should be recognised as a war crime. "It was a premeditated, pre-planned attack on civilian institutions, including the coming out parade of a police academy. These were not military targets, and as such, there is strong evidence to suggest the bombing of these was a war crime."

    The CDS had four of its eleven ambulances wrecked. With 600 trained rescuers, the service needs ten more to be working at full capacity. During Cast Lead the CDS was working at ten percent capacity, lacking basic equipment such as protective vests and powerful torches. "Despite 50 percent of our equipment being destroyed in the first day of the attacks, we answered 1300 cases and worked 24 hours a day," explained Mohammad Al Atar, Chief of the CDS in Gaza.

    The CDS has trained 50 women through the Ministry of Youth and Women's Affairs to take on some of the toughest work in Gaza. Al Atar says, "A mother cannot protect her children – a child could be shot in her arms. The Palestinian woman needs training in Civil Defence to protect her family-this is a national duty." Despite this, CDS staff has been denied uniforms for the past two years by the Israeli authorities, relying on their own thrown-together luminous orange vests and jumpers.

Not protected

    The IDF's Gaza Co-ordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) implied that the CDS rescuers were not protected under international law because they are "combat medics." However, even medics tending to combatants are still protected. "Their medics were part of the Hamas medical staff and were similar to combat medics that we have in the IDF in the sense that they are soldiers," the head of the CLA Col. Moshe Levi told The Jerusalem Post in February. Reporting for Israeli daily Ha'artez in April, Israeli journalist Amira Hass wrote of evidence of Israeli soldiers being given rules of engagement that told them to "Fire also upon rescue." Traumatic experiences for Palestinian medics are part of their work. Mohammad al Hissi, 34, a Gazan paramedic was part of a team struck by an Israeli artillery shell in Sudaneya in March 2002. His colleague and chief medic Sa'ed Shalai was killed, joining four other senior medics killed in the West Bank and Gaza in less than a week. Hissi, pierced all over his body with shrapnel, was brought into the emergency room with virtually no pulse. "It's a miracle I survived," he told me, driving his Red Crescent ambulance through the now liberated if besieged streets of Khan Yunis. Colleagues called him a living martyr for months afterwards. "But I couldn't work for about year after the attack. I just couldn't bring myself to go out into the field again. I took on desk work, taking calls. Then when I healed, I got brave again and returned."

    Gazan medics crave relief, decompression, a break from their horrific experiences. One of Gaza's longest serving Red Crescent medics, Ali Khalil, aged 47, was part of the team which brought the body of infant Shahed Abu Halima from the ravaged northern district of Atatara during a brief respite in Israel's attack. Medics had been denied entry to the area for days. Despite co-ordination with the Red Cross, ambulances had been repeatedly fired upon, forcing medics to turn back empty-handed. Ali found Shahed lying on the main sandy road to Atatara. "At first I thought it was a doll," he said. She was red, bloated and her legs were missing-she had been half eaten by dogs. "I see her in my sleep," says Ali. "I have nightmares about it. We need a rest; we need help. I think some counseling would help all of us." Attacks on medics are not limited to invasions. Ali's ambulance was shot at in April whilst trying to collect two injured Islamic Jihad fighters at the border area of Ezbit Abid Rubbu in Eastern Jabaliya. The two were unable to move but were still alive when Ali tried to reach them. Unfortunately he was forced to turn back, and when he finally returned a few hours later the casualties were dead, their bodies pumped full of bullets by Israeli snipers.

"Co-ordination"
    "I have only one co-ordination", says Mahmoud Abu Speitan, Director of the Amul Hospital Red Crescent Training Institute and veteran paramedic from Khan Younis. "Ashahadu Là ilaha illal-Làh, Muhammadun rasþlula-Làh," (I testify that there is no god but God and Mohammad is his messenger) – a blessing commonly declared by Muslims when expecting to die. "This is what I say when I get inside my ambulance."

    "Co-ordination" – Tanseek in Arabic – refers to permission from the Israeli Occupation, organised through the International Committee for the Red Cross, to enter areas to collect the dead and injured. During Israel's attacks in December and January "co-ordination" was only granted in some cases after four days – as was the case of the Samouni family, which saw over 30 people from the same family killed when homes they were sheltering in were shelled by the Israeli army. Medics from the Tel Al Howa station close to Al Quds Hospital – which was later bombed by an F16, shelled by tanks and gutted with white phosphorous – had to walk for over a kilometre dragging a donkey cart on foot because Israeli forces banned them from taking either an ambulance or a donkey. The medics said they could not forget the white parched mouths of the child survivors they found clinging to the bodies of their parents. They dragged the injured, limp and jostling around, on the back of the carts as Israeli soldiers looked on.

    Articles 14-24 of the Fourth Geneva Convention afford special protection to medical and humanitarian staff. The Convention guarantees respect for the freedom of movement of medical personnel, and ensures they be granted all necessary material facilities to perform their duties, including removal of victims, and attending to and transferring injured and sick civilians. Care of and access to the sick and injured are also enshrined in Article 17, which states that "the parties to the conflict shall endeavour to conclude local agreements for the removal from besieged or encircled areas, of wounded, sick, infirm, and aged persons, and for the passage of ministers of all religions, medical personnel and medical equipment on their way to such areas." According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), perhaps hundreds of those killed could have survived if emergency services had been able to access them promptly – the access denied to them can be defined as a deliberate violation of the Geneva Conventions and therefore a war crime. Throughout Israel's war on Gaza, basic, essential medical supplies and equipment including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were in short supply. After nearly two years of a hermetic siege, even basics like gauze, electric blood pressure monitors, spare parts, and petrol were scarce. Ministry of Health (MOH) teams in the north lacked walkie-talkies, relying instead on co-ordination through other services, and trusting their hearing to follow the sounds of falling bombs. The MOH ambulances in Jabaliya ran out of petrol in the final days of the attack. Concerned residents joined together to bring canisters of fuel to their operating base at Kamal Odwan Hospital and an entire convoy from the north swung into the headquarters of the United Nations in Gaza City to literally beg the UN to let them fill up. Protective vests were limited to around four per station, meaning team members had to take turns wearing them. Perhaps, if the much admired paramedic Arafa Abdel Deim had had the luck to wear his on a run to rescue five shelled casualties, he would have survived the direct flechette shell that hit his ambulance. He died of massive blood loss. The vests the medics use – primarily in the hands of the Red Crescent, the Palestinian arm of the International Red Cross – are inadequate for the quick lifting of casualties. Made of two heavy plates of steel, they weigh down on the person like a knight's armour. Ambulance crews with the CDS lacked high voltage searchlights – essential equipment for night-work. Every second spent searching fruitlessly means a second closer to a potential re-hit by Israeli forces or a second closer to a casualty turning into a fatality. Medics ended up using tiny cube-lights, shining a thin hazy beam stretching just a few feet in front of them.

Unity and solidarity

    In April of this year, medics from the CDS, MOH, Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, Red Crescent, and Military Services met together to establish an organising committee for an "International Campaign of Solidarity with Palestinian Emergency Workers." The group of over 50 gathered together to speak in a common voice, despite Israel's attempts to divide them into categories of "legitimate" and "illegitimate" or "combat medics." The aims of the nascent campaign are to mobilise the international community to react to Israeli violations of international law; to stop attacks on emergency staff; to build advocacy for the observance of international law; and to organise the twinning of ambulance stations in Gaza with others around the world. The campaign also aims to secure badly needed equipment, engage in staff exchanges, and build a louder, more public and unified voice for Palestinian rescuers internationally.  According to the MOH, 100 rescuers have been killed in the past nine years-an average of one per month. To date, there has been no political cost or accountability for Israel's targeting of Palestinian rescuers. We need to turn the spotlight on the occupation's targeting of medical professionals – the front line in civilian resistance to Israel's policy of massacre, collective punishment and community devastation. Making it too politically costly for Israel to keep killing rescuers is imperative to saving lives.

    Solidarity campaigning for Palestinian human rights has been active since the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel on stolen and ethnically cleansed Palestinian land. A 60-year history of dispossession, massacres, home demolition, extra-judicial killing of leaders, imprisonment, land grabs, and invasions keeps repeating itself. Generations of Palestinian emergency staff have been responding to these invasions and attacks by putting out the fires that Israeli bombs have ignited, picking up the pieces of broken bodies that often break families and communities, and saving the lives that Israel wants to kill – civilian or combatant. Referred to in the Palestinian community as "unknown soldiers," these courageous men and women are front line witnesses to the effects that white phosphorous, flechette shells, missiles, sniper fire and bulldozers have on the human body. As such, their witness to Israeli attacks is up close and personal and hard to refute.

    Medical services fulfill a strategic aim of keeping Palestinian communities together, and defending their survival on their land. They have rescued 40,000 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces since the eruption of the second intifada alone. Supporting them is key to resisting Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing and massacre. "When we put on our uniforms, we are life-savers, it doesn't matter who we support, which Palestinian side, we have to save lives, even those of Israeli soldiers-that's our job, it's the promise we make," explains Abu Issam, a senior Paramedic with Jabaliya's Red Crescent Society.

    Following Israel's massacres in January 2009, the number of applicants for rescuer and ambulance driver training in Gaza soared. Many Gazans were traumatized by hearing friends and family members calling local radio and television stations begging for ambulances to collect their bleeding loved ones. The rage over those who could have lived if Israel had not attacked those trying to save them has turned into a practical resistance of young men and women being prepared to sacrifice their own lives in the service of preserving the lives of others. We need to support this resistance and defend these rescuers as a clear form of "solidarity triage" in the midst of the intensifying attacks on Palestinian communities and their land.

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For more info on the nascent Gaza campaign see www.defendtherescuers.wordpress.com

Ewa Jasiewicz is a solidarity activist, union organiser and journalist. She volunteered with emergency services in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. She is currently a Gaza-based Co-ordinator for the Free Gaza Movement www.FreeGaza.org

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Mazin Qumsiyeh's Human Rights Newsletter

In today’s digest:

1. a 1918 statement on the Palestine-Zionist conflict by President Woodrow Wilson that remains valid today,

2. a very important action call about the just released UN report on Israeli war crimes (please act),

3. a news item on Palestinian citizens of Israel calling for a general strike on Oct 1st, and

4. we commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila (my review of a book on the subject included).

A 1918 statement by the President of the US that remains valid

    “The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or political relationship, rests upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned, and not upon the basis of the material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery. If that principle is to rule, and so the wishes of Palestine’s population are to be decisive as to what is to be done with Palestine, then it is to be remembered that the non-Jewish population of Palestine – nearly nine-tenths of the whole – are emphatically against the entire Zionist programme. The tables show that there was no one thing upon which the population of Palestine were more agreed upon than this. To subject a people so minded to unlimited Jewish immigration, and to steady financial and social pressure to surrender the land, would be a gross violation of the principle just quoted, and of the People’s rights, though it is kept within the forms of law.” (President Woodrow Wilson speech on Independence Day July 4, 1918, text in Tannous, Izzat. 1988. The Palestinians: Eyewitness History of Palestine Under British Mandate. I.G.T. Company, New York, p. 72.)

VERY IMPORTANT ACTION ITEM: UN Investigation should result in criminal charges! Maximum publicity and lobbying efforts needed. Many of us had seen Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem’s report that 773 of the 1387 Palestinians killed in Gaza last winter were civilians including over 300 children (use of white phosphorous and other weapons in civilian areas is also widely reported by B’Tselem and other human rights groups). Thirteen Israelis (10 soldiers, three civilians) were also killed during the same “Operation Cast Lead”. Now an independent UN Commission led by respected war crimes investigator Justice Richard Goldstone (Jewish from South Africa) reported in 575 pages (38 opages executive summary up front) details of what it described as gross violations of human rights and war crimes.

    Using very harsh language for Israeli actions. The Israeli government is mobilizing its spin machine and going into hyperdrive to try to prevent its officers from being brought before the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Let us all write to/call President Obama (Tel 202-456-1111 and/or http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/) and all world politicians to demand that indeed Israeli war criminals are brought to justice. And let us use this report to start legal proceedings in different countries against Israeli politicians because there is clear evidence as the Commission puts it that “there are serious doubts about the willingness of Israel to carry out genuine investigations in an impartial, independent, prompt and effective way as required by international law. The Mission is also of the view that the Israeli system overall presents inherently discriminatory features that make the pursuit of justice for Palestinian victims very difficult.”. “The Mission then makes recommendations to a number of United Nations bodies, Israel, responsible Palestinian authorities and the international community, in the areas of: (i) Accountability for serious violations of International Humanitarian Law; (b) Reparations; (c) Serious violations of human rights law; (d) The blockade and reconstruction; (e) The use of weapons and military procedures; (f) The protection of human rights organisations and defenders; (g) Follow up to the Mission’s recommendations. The recommendations are detailed in Chapter XXX.” The full report: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf

Israel’s Arab Citizens Call General Strike By Jonathan Cook

    The increasingly harsh political climate in Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government has prompted the leadership of the country’s 1.3 million Arab citizens to call the first general strike in several years. The one-day stoppage is due to take place on October 1, a date heavy with symbolism because it marks the anniversary of another general strike, in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, when 13 Arab demonstrators were shot dead by Israeli police. The Arab leadership said it was responding to a string of what it called "racist" government measures that cast the Arab minority, a fifth of the population, as enemies of the state. http://www.counterpunch.org/cook09092009.html

We commemorate the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in honour of the hundreds of men, women and children killed by death squads armed, trained, financed, and instructed by the Israeli colonial masters. For a good background, I suggest people buy the book Sabra and Shatila: September 1982 by Bayan Nuwayhed Al-Hout, 2004, Pluto Press. Below is my 2005 review of the book that summarises its amazing accomplishment. For other background on the massacre and Sharon's responsibility, visit http://www.indictsharon.net/

Sabra and Shatila: September 1982 Bayan Nuwayhed Al-Hout, 2004, Pluto Press, London and Ann Arbor, MI, 462 pp., 36 photographjs, 5 maps Book Review published in the Holy Land Studies Journal, Spring 2005 by Mazin Qumsiyeh

    It would be correct but rather reductionist to state that this remarkable book is the most comprehensive and thorough documentation of the events of the massacres at Sabra and Shatila. The mark of a good book is that it leaves the reader changed and this volume does that. Upon first hearing about this book, my first and incorrect inclination was that perhaps I do not need to read it. Many of us Palestinians assume we know the suffering of our people over the past six decades, we have seen it and we have lived it. This thought quickly evaporated after flipping through the first few pages of this book and then it was hard to put it down.

    It is appropriate that this edition came out in English after its initial publication in Arabic. Knowingly or unknowingly, many in the Western world lend their name and their tax money to support atrocities like the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Would it help those taxpayers see what is being done with their tax money and US diplomatic support? Would it help bring people to a better understanding of the "situation"? More importantly would it bring us closer to see the victims of this particular massacre as people and not mere numbers? Having lived in the US for many years I wanted to look at this English version from that perspective. I also wanted to compare it to other books that relate personal testimonies of survivors of atrocities.

    Those murdered in Sabra and Shatila are not around to tell us their stories so we are left with the survivors, those relatives and friends and acquaintances who witnessed the event and/or came to pick the bodies and the pieces of their shattered lives. Telling their stories is not easy. A writer or editor of such a compilation has the heavy responsibility (and duty) to his or her subjects to let them tell the story with as little interference as possible. It is not easy to craft careful and neutral questions that allow for free and open answers. It is also not easy to select from all your interviews individual accounts to include in a readable book. It is not easy to research names then cross check all references and resources to ensure presenting a picture that is as close as possible to the reality of what happened. All this and more are achieved in this book.

    The first part of this book consists of six chapters that relay the statements and testimonies of the families and witnesses. The first two chapters cover the place and time and events leading up to the massacre including the encirclement of the camps by the Israeli army. Chapters 3-5 cover chronologically the events of September 16-18; the horrific 40-hour period in which nearly 2000 men, women, and children were systematically massacred or abducted and "disappeared". Chapter 6 covers testimonies covering the search for victims following the massacre. Forty-six actual testimonies were selected and included in these six chapters out of total direct testimonies gathered on 430 victims (about half Palestinian, 28% Lebanese, and the remainder belonging to other nationalities).

    The second part of this book summarises the research (including field study) conducted by the author into the massacre. Chapter 7 reviews results of the detailed field study conducted in 1984.
Chapter 8 analyses the issue of the number of victims killed. The chilling method used by Israeli governments to minimise the casualties (in the Kahan report) is analysed in detail. In one part, the author recounts what the historian Toynbee once said in debate with Yaacov Herzog in 1961. Hetzog lashed out at Toynbee for mentioning the Nazi atrocities in talking about the massacre of Palestinians in Deir Yassin in 1948. Herzog’s contention was that the deaths of a few hundred Palestinians could never be even discussed in relation to the horror on Nazi atrocities. Toynbee’s answer was that "Every increase in numbers produces an increase in suffering but it is impossible to be wicked or criminal more than 100%." . . . the most astonishing fact is that no authority (Israeli, Lebanese, or Palestinian) took it upon itself to compile a list of the victims. As such, the list compiled by this author must remain the most complete such list to date.

    There are four appendices to the work. Appendix 1 contains 28 tables related to the field study. Appendix 2 provides the most comprehensive listing of names of those known killed (906 names) or abducted and missing (484 names). Given that only a handful of the missing were ever found, over 1300 human beings lost their lives with this tragedy.

    The book ends with a series of remarkable photographs. Most are ones I have never seen before and I am sure other readers will find equally transforming. Most books place such photos in the Middle of the book or close to the beginning. A photograph it is said is worth a thousand words. But a photograph can elicit all sorts of emotions that then detract from the importance of reading the text itself. In this case, the placement of the photos at the end was the right decision and I urge readers to read this text in the order it is presented. For me, this was particularly powerful. I, as a reader was able to read the testimonies and review the facts and figures taking time to draw the relevant lessons learned before I saw at the end a series of pictures of what the scene of the crime looked like. To me the most remarkable and damning evidence of Israeli culpability and the accompanying lies about the massacre are found on pages 304-317 and buttressed by pictures and maps of the Israeli command center overseeing the camp. Anyone examining this evidence and International law understands the culpability of the Israeli politicians, commanders and soldiers. They knew the camps were undefended, they knew that massacres would be committed by the 150 Phallange militias they invited in, they knew the bloody outcome would happen, and finally they watched without interfering as this unfolded over three days.

    I never met the author, Dr. Bayan Nuwayah Al-Hout, a faculty member at the Lebanese University for the past 25 years. I can only marvel at the amount of efforts over two decades that such a project demanded. It is usually something done by well-financed teams with a cadre of paid staff. For the author to have done this with very limited resources and help is truly admirable. It was once said that the sign of a good book is that when you close the last page it is like saying goodbye to a dear friend. Well in this case, it is like saying goodbye to hundreds of friends: those who died in that tragic massacre and those who survived to recount the stories and live their lives awaiting justice. If we are to honour them all then we must engage in the quest for peace with justice.

    When in a few years, a museum is built for the Nakba (catastrophe) that befell the Palestinian people, it will have a prominent place in it for Sabra and Shatila. This book will be the key resource for this. Those who care for human rights should buy it, read it, and learn the lessons from it. There is a section at the end of the book, not given a chapter status and seeming as orphaned as the Children of Sabra and Shatila, that is simply titled "Conclusion: who was responsible." For those looking for the simplified answers of assigning blame to just one person or party, they will be disappointed. For those who want to use the lessons learned from this tragedy to prevent future tragedy, the careful analysis here is a must reading. From the Lebanese militia, to the local Israeli commanders guarding the camps, to Ariel Sharon who gave the go ahead, to the Lebanese government, all share some of the guilt. But ultimately, all of us who heard the news and who took no action are responsible for the continuation of a string of atrocities against civilians. On page 324, the author quotes from the song lyrics of the Argentinean singer Alberto Cortez: "Where was the sun when anger burst at Sabra and Shatila? Where was I? At what party, careless, when I red the news? And where were you – you so eager to defend the oppressed – when the massacre happened? Where is the pride of men? Where were you my friend with the sleeping conscience?.."

    The road between the atrocities of Sabra and Shatila runs rather short to those of Jenin, Nablus and Rafah of today and to our suppressed humanity. Such books can be our tour guides.

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Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, is author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle http://qumsiyeh.org

HumanRights newsletter http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/mailman/listinfo/humanrights

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