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1- Radio interview with Anne Gwynn
2- THREATS OF ENFORCED MASS EXPULSION by AMIRA HASS
3- Child forced to dress as a suicide bomber and filmed by Lawsociety
4- MIDD NIGHT VICTIM by Neda
5- Israeli Army Invades Old City of Nablus / Palestinian ISM Activist Detained
and Beaten at Qalqilia Checkpoint By Michael - ISM Media Office
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1-Radio interview with Anne Gwynn, shot while talking to Flashpoints producer
(his voice mail) in Nablus

direct audio link: http://flashpoints.net/realaudio/fp20030219AnneGwynn.ram
audio download: http://flashpoints.net/realaudio/fp20030219AnneGwynn.ra
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2- THREATS OF ENFORCED MASS EXPULSION

Israel: a new Palestinian diaspora
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The repugnant idea of the 'transfer' of the Palestinians - meaning their total expulsion - now appeals to many Israelis. The Israeli army and some settlers are already organising 'mini-transfers' in the West Bank, and any serious new threat to Israel (for example, missile attacks from Iraq at war) could precipitate the brutally enforced expulsion of millions.
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A EUROPEAN diplomat spotted a road sign in Israel's Jordan Valley in December, showing that the road had been renamed Gandhi, which was the nickname of General Rehavam Zeevi, founder of the far-right Moledet (Homeland) party. Zeevi, who had publicly called for Palestinians to be "transferred" to Arab countries, was killed in 2001 by a gunman from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Was the sign an example of cynicism or just a joke in bad taste? It stood just before the road cuts east to the Allenby Bridge linking Israel and Jordan, indicating the way Zeevi's "transferees" might have to take.

Just before his assassination, and soon after another Palestinian suicide attack, Zeevi said in a radio broadcast that the only solution to Israel's problems was the "approved transfer" of its Arab population. He clearly felt he then had the necessary support to deliver this unambiguous message, although he had been obliged to keep it secret for years.

The real problem is that Israelis do not view the suicide bombings as part of the Palestinian struggle to end Israel's occupation, nor do they see them as revenge for the aggressive tactics of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). (According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, military action has caused more than 2,000 Palestinian casualties, at least 1,500 of them civilian.) Israelis see the attacks as proof that the Palestinians are determined to destroy the state of Israel, and to kill Jews because they are Jews. In this climate the expulsion of the Palestinians is touted as a security measure, a humane response to an intractable problem. The Israeli authorities are doing nothing to check the momentum of such plans.

Which populations will be "transferred" remains deliberately unclear: Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? Those in the refugee camps? Or all Palestinians between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river, including Israel's Arab citizens?

Limor Lavnat, the Israeli education minister, legitimised the debate when she ordered schools to observe the anniversary of Zeevi's death. Anti-Arab slogans appeared across the country: "No Arabs, no attacks";"Transfer equals Peace"; "Palestine is Jordan". One poll found that 20% of Israeli Jews would consider voting for the extreme-right Kach party if it were legally permitted to field candidates. (Kach was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1973: in the early 1980s it won one seat in parliament, getting just 1.5% of the vote. Kahane was barred from standing for election in 1988 and the party was banned after the February 1994 massacre in Hebron.)

Some 73% of those who live in the Jewish settlements, euphemistically known as development towns (1), believe that Israel should encourage its Arab population to leave. This rises to 76% among Jews from the former Soviet Union and to 87% among religious Jews.

With the assistance of foreign recruitment firms that publish job ads in Arab newspapers, Moledet activists have been encouraging Palestinian workers to find work abroad - to demonstrate that Palestinian emigration is somehow legal, feasible and humane. They acknowledge, though, that "transferring" hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily would be impossible: an operation of that magnitude would have to be compulsory. Professor Arieh Eldad, the IDF's former chief medical officer, is the second candidate on Moledet's electoral list. Eldad makes a distinction between voluntary and approved transfers: the first category assumes that all Palestinians would agree to emigrate, even though Eldad acknowledges that it is unlikely that any fellah would leave his land of his own accord. He also believes that any approved transfer would require international support, which Moledet actively seeks.

Some rightwingers would go even further: they see a link between "transfer" and the intifada. Effi Eitam, who heads Mafdal, the National Religious party, would like to see Israel exert sovereignty over all territories between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean. A Palestinian state would be established in Jordan and the Sinai. The Palestinians would then have to choose their status: either "enlightened" residents of Greater Israel or "obscure" citizens of a Palestinian state. "I wouldn't use the term transfer," Eitam explains. "I don't see it as a political option, nor do I find it morally acceptable." Yet he describes war as a game with different rules (2).

Although Eitam, a former brigadier general, claims not to seek a military confrontation, he believes when war breaks out, "many Arab citizens will not stay here". He also draws parallels between Israel's war of independence and the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians in 1948-1949.

Zvi Katzover, mayor of the Kiryat Arba settlement outside Hebron, is more upfront. He is one of
the founders of Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful), spearhead of the settlers' movement. In
an interview after the Israeli military assault on Hebron, which left 12 Israeli soldiers and three
Palestinians dead, Katzover said: "When the big war begins and the Arabs run away from here, sooner or later we'll be back in the [Hebron] houses" (3). He was referring to homes inhabited by Jews before the 1929 massacre of Jewish residents in Hebron.

Most Israelis still view those who back expulsion as a tiny minority with unrealistic and immoral
objectives. Newspaper columnists and writers of letters to papers condemn the proponents of
"transfer", although more and more Israelis approve their efforts. Likud and most other rightwing parties avoided the issue during the election campaign. But given this minority's attempts to stir up public opinion, one wonders if Israel's political and military leaders have planned for the worst-case scenarios. Are Israel's democratic forces powerful enough to stop the scheme before it is too late?

All Palestinians, whether Israeli Arabs or those in the West Bank or Gaza, remember the 1948
expulsion and unceasingly vow: "This time we won't let them drive us out." The Palestinians
are well aware of the danger, though their legal expertise and their links to the international
community on both sides of the Green Line separating Israel from the occupied territories
provide some protection.

Before the 28 January elections the rightwing-majority central election committee sought to
disqualify the list of candidates submitted by the National Democratic Assembly (NDA), an
Arab party, together with two individuals: the NDA leader, Azmi Bishara, and Ahmad Tibi, of the Ta'al party (Arab Movement for Renewal). The attorney-general, Elyakim Rubinstein, who
denounced Bishara for advocating the destruction of the Israeli state and for supporting terrorism, also tried to ban Kach's former leader, Baruch Marzel, who ran for the far-right Herut (Freedom) party. Herut has toned down its statements on expulsion, though it refuses to condemn those who promote "voluntary transfer" by offering the Palestinians work abroad.

The Israeli left organised rallies to fight the proposed ban affecting Arab legislators. These were sparsely attended even though the civic rights of 20% of Israel's Arab population - the NDA's supporters - were at stake. The supreme court finally stepped in, ruling on 9 January that the NDA could put forward candidates. Demo cracy in Israelwas boosted and a mass Palestinian boycott of the elections averted.

Israel's attorney-general has come out against the "transfer" scheme but has refused to take action against its proponents. This prompted a Labour member of the Knesset to call for an official investigation into "voluntary" emigration, noting that Israel's anti-racist legislation prohibits any distinction between voluntary and compulsory "transfer". Young Labour activists have joined in a campaign to stamp out racist slogans, launched by Courage to Refuse, a group of soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories (4). Some Labour party veterans resent the refuseniks, branding them anti-Zionist traitors.

Others on the left who oppose the refuseniks' efforts are loath to see the Israeli army controlled
by the right, and by hardline Jewish settlers all too ready to make "transfer" a reality when the
time comes. Several surveys indicate that the number of Jews from the former USSR in Israeli
combat units has risen significantly, as has t he proportion of religious rightwingers in the upper echelons of the military. Both groups are avid supporters of "transfer".

The presence of military pacifists in the occupied territories has not prevented "mini-transfers".
Faced with non-stop harassment from their 500 Jewish neighbours and a round-the-clock military curfew designed to protect settlers, many Palestinians have moved out of the ancient city of Hebron. In the northern West Bank 180 Palestinian villagers in Yanun were forced to abandon their homes and relocate after increased harassment from the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Itamar. Other expulsions have taken place because of the construction of Israel's infamous wall (5). Though such "mini-transfers" have come to the attention of the Israeli public and resulted in demonstrations, the loss of land and homes over the past two years has left the Palestinians feeling dispossessed.

"Internal closure" has meant 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and 1 million Gaza residents confined to their towns and villages. The IDF, still trying to quell the violent uprising that broke out in September 2000, has prohibited the Palestinians (except for a few special permit-holders) from using primary roads, leaving their villages or travelling to larger centres. Palestinian towns are hemmed in by roadblocks, fences, iron gates, mounds, tanks and military vehicles. This has hindered movement, but has done little to stop those who enter Israel to carry out attacks. To avoid the checkpoints many Palestinians have moved to the cities to work. Anyone travelling in Israeli-only sections might get the impression that the expulsion has already happened: the roads, Palestinian villages, lands and orchards, are deserted.

Tormented by the fear of more attacks, Israelis still reject the notion that internal closure is a form of collective punishment, which only leads to increased support for the suicide bombers. Senior military officers describe the policy as reversible and say it will be discontinued when the Palestinians finally renounce terrorism. Meanwhile losure dovetails nicely with the "definitive agreement" espoused by the same rightwing parties that have dodged the issue of transfer. Russian Jewish supporters of Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home), currently allied with Moledet, have proposed creating isolated prison-like enclaves with no territorial contiguity. The size of the enclaves is the only thing that separates this plan from the Palestinian state envisioned by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

Some fear that military intervention in Iraq by the United States might create a climate that could lead to the mass expulsion of Palestinians, especially if Baghdad attacks Israel with chemical weapons or if the Palestinians show support for Saddam Hussein. Should either of these happen, things could rapidly get out of control. But to achieve its objectives, the US needs stability in the Middle East, and mass expulsions would have the opposite effect.

Others worry that a Palestinian group will carry out a lethal mega-attack. A senior officer, sounding fearful, expressed doubt that the army would or could stand in the way of local initiatives to expel the residents of Palestinian villages thought to be harbouring terrorists. To illustrate this he recalled how the Israeli authorities and the IDF refused to take action against Jewish settlers who had forcibly prevented Palestinians from harvesting their olive crops.

Yet those Palestinians who send their young to Israel on bombing missions or to launch a possible mega-attack do not seem to understand that such actions could lead to mass expulsion. In extreme circumstances a majority of the Israeli public and many Western nations might look favourably on extreme countermeasures. Palestinian and Jewish fundamentalists have expressed similar beliefs that a great war may be the only way to change history.

Over the past two years the Jordanian government has tightened regulations on West Bank and Gaza residents who enter its territory. Jordan envisages huge influxes of Palestinians fleeing the miseries of Israeli occupation, and other dire scenarios. Its fears are understandable: as the daily Ha'aretz reported on 28 November, Sharon has offered no assurances that Israel will not expel the Palestinians to Jordan, on the grounds that such a suggestion is offensive. This prompted Jordan's prime minister, Ali Abu al-Ragheb, to point out the Israel-Jordan peace treaty prohibits expulsions of any kind. But the proponents of "transfer" take a dim view of treaties.

Until now Israelis and the international community have not shown much interest in the "mini-transfers" and other relocations within the occupied territories. But opposing such illegal and dangerous practices is extremely necessary, since the threat of mass expulsion is all too real. Recent developments in Israel are disturbing: fundamentalist and apocalyptic beliefs are on the rise, moral considerations have disappeared from politics and the IDF has devised new forms of oppression. With international passivity and the absence of Palestinian leaders capable of guiding the resistance to the occupation, these are discouraging signs.

Translated by Luke Sandford
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3- Child forced to dress as a suicide bomber and filmed

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

On December 25 last year, ‘Abd al-Haq Ramzi (14), an American citizen, was studying in his family home in Nablus, alone. At around 3pm, the doorbell rang. Ramzi looked through the window to see who was at the door. He saw an Israeli soldier, and became afraid. He didn’t answer the door. The soldier began banging violently on the door, and so Ramzi then opened it.

The soldier told Ramzi not to be afraid, and began looking through the home. He told Ramzi not to lock the door. Later on, another seven soldiers entered, one of them masked.
The masked soldier asked the child if he was ‘Abd al-Haq Ramzi. Ramzi answered in the affirmative. He was then blindfolded, handcuffed and forced on the ground. The house was then searched.

The soldiers returned and took off Ramzi’s blindfold. They forced him to sit on a couch, hung up on the wall behind him a Palestinian flag, took the caches out of their weapons and also put them behind him. Another soldier bought forward a table and put hand bombs on it. Another soldier put a pistol on the table, gave him an M16 to hold after taking out its cache, and put a Qur’an in his left hand. He was then forced to pretend to pray. The soldiers gave him a paper and told him to pretend he was reading.

Ramzi was then given a bandanna with the al-Aqsa Martyrs insignia (a militia connected to Fatah). A soldier told him to repeat everything he had done on camera. Ramzi noticed that another soldier had a video camera.

After being beaten again, blindfolded, handcuffed, Ramzi was taken to the entrance of his home, where a soldier threatened to kill him and his family if he told anybody what happened. He was then taken in a patrol car, driven around and thrown out again.

LAW’s lawyer Mahmoud Jabarin is following up this incident. LAW is demanding to know why a child was put under such psychological and physical abuse and distress; what the soldiers’ intentions were in forcing the child to dress as a suicide bomber; why the soldiers were allowed to act with such impunity; and shall demand disciplinary measures be taken against the soldiers involved.
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LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a
non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is affiliate to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, PO Box 20873, Jerusalem, tel. +972-2-5833530, fax. +972-2- 5833317, law@lawsociety.org, www.lawsociety.org.
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4- MIDD NIGHT VICTIM

Beit Sahour
19 February, 2003

It could happen very simply to any girl of us, and without any consideration to any international law or any humanitarian sense, one girl of my classmates was arrested while she was drowning in her innocent's dreams, and has not any single political relation, in the middle of the night a tremendous number of Israeli soldiers, tanks and all kinds of weapons swept over Fida's house. FIda' which her mother died many years ago and living with her old father, were arrested in justification that she is planning to a suicide bombing, they searched the house and made upside down while there is nothing to find accept some canned food which kept for war,
Fida and her old father were blind folded in a very windy night and it was raining very hard, they didn't allow her to take any jacket or blanket, they didn't take care about anything and treated her like animals, she couldn't hold on all that awful things that happens to her and her old father, after they put her in Jail with other two girls with same reasons, they brought her one female soldier to deal and investigate, but it didn't work and they couldn't communicate despite there is many soldiers that speaks Arabic but they attended to bother them as much as they can do, FIda' already got flue and sick physically beside to the nightmare they brought to her , and simply after one day they let them go and tell her that they mixed up with other Fida' ..they think.
And this could happen to any Palestinian girl , and we are supposed to take it easy.
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5-Israeli Army Invades Old City of Nablus / Palestinian ISM Activist Detained
and Beaten at Qalqilia Checkpoint

Nablus

At 2.30 yesterday morning Israeli soldiers, supported by tanks, stormed into several houses on the outskirts of the Ras al-EIn suburb, using them as firing positions and terrorising their occupants before moving onto new houses, in their rolling invasion of the suburb.

At 4 am they occupied the Jamal Abed el-Nasser School on the boundary Ras al-Ein and the Old City and immediately began turning it into a base by bringing in sandbags and provisions. Throughout the day the school was used as an interrogation centre for Palestinians who were rounded up in house to house searches.

The school is in a very old part of Nablus and adjoins some of the city's Roman era tunnels (Nablus is the world's second oldest city), which the Israelis claim have been used by wanted men to escape Israeli snatch squads. Throughout its fifty-five year war against Palestine the state of Israel has systematically destroyed buildings, historical sites and artifacts of cultural or historical significance to the Palestinian people and the people of Nablus fear that the Israelis will use this claim as an excuse to blow up the tunnels as part of this campaign.

By 7.45 the Israeli Army moved on from Ras al-Ein to begin its invasion of the Old City in the same systematic manner, with soldiers moving into houses and apartment buildings, which they used as snipers' posts, while tanks and armoured personnel carriers were stationed on the main streets and intersections. When the Army had consolidated their hold on the Old City, squads of soldiers then began systematic house to house and store to store searches. Because the ship-owners had immediately closed their stores and gone home when the invasion of the Old City commenced, the stores were shut and barred and so the soldier used explosives, machine gun fire and sledgehammers to force their way in before ransacking the stores.

The Army reported that they destroyed one bomb factory in the operation but the Old City is only a very small part of Nablus and ISM activists based in Nablus diligently searched every store that the soldiers had ransacked and found only ruined merchandise. This is consistent with the pattern of Israeli attacks on Nablus this past year where security objectives are often cited to disguise attacks on economic and cultural targets (when F-16 fighters bombed two historic soap factories last April the military claimed that they were bomb factories).

Throughout the day ISM activists worked with Palestinian UPMRC (first aid) volunteers to rescue the wounded and escort people back to their homes by shielding them from sniper and tank fire. At one point one of the UPMRC volunteers was taken hostage but released later.

In the morning, when a Palestinian ambulance driver and an independent international activist tried to reach the house of a pregnant woman who had gone into labour, they were fired upon the Israeli soldiers so that the ambulance driver was hit in the hand and the activist wounded in the leg by shrapnel (the ambulance driver was fluent in Hebrew and had announced his mission to the soldiers and was clearly identifiable by his uniform). They were then joined by six ISM activists (from Sweden, Ireland, Switzerland, the US and the UK), the woman's husband, a nurse and four UPMRC volunteers who returned with them to the alleyway in which the house was situated.

The ISM activists went in front protecting the Palestinians with their bodies. As soon as the four soldiers, who had previously fired upon the ambulance driver and the independent activist, saw them they aimed their M-16s at them and ordered them to go back. The party of unarmed Palestinians and international peace activists advanced slowly towards them as the four soldiers were joined by four others.

Step by step the group advanced down the alley as the soldiers' orders to stop became more and more menacing. One soldier aimed sighted his sniper rifle on them, illuminating them with its laser.

When they had advanced 50 metres down the alley and were only 30 metres from the soldiers the ambulance driver (who has survived many attacks by Israeli troops as part of his work) warned them to go no further or the soldiers would shoot them. At this point Anne and Susan (from the US and the UK), who had been at the front of the group, went slowly forward trying to calm the soldiers by explaining to them their mission.

When they got within ten metres the soldiers screamed at them to go back so Susan began to inch her way forward alone until the doctor, who had come alone by another route, came upon the soldiers from the rear.

After a few moments of confusion, the doctor was able to negotiate permission for the
woman's husband to come forward to show the doctor the woman's house. When the man's came forward the soldiers made him take off his jacket and lift up his shirt before allowing him to show the doctor to the house from which they fetched his wife and 3 year old son to take them to the hospital.

Last night the Old City and Ras al-Ein are still occupied by Israeli troops who seem to have moved into stay. The ISM estimates that 7 houses and the Jamal Abed el-Nasser School are being occupied by soldiers. More than twenty stores and an unknown number of houses have been ransacked during the operation and one car crushed by a tank. Throughout the day explosions were heard throughout the old city. These are believed to due to the creation be "rat-holes", which the soldiers blast in the walls of adjoining houses when passing between them.

Nablus hospitals report that two people were killed (a fifteen year old boy and a 32 year
old man) and 21 injured.

Qalqilia

Also yesterday Osama Qashoo, a Palestinian ISM activist was detained at the DCO checkpoint at the entrance to Qalqilia. The alleged reason for his detention was to check his ID card.

When, after an hour of waiting Osama asked the soldiers where his card was, three soldiers set upon him.

"Don't speak!" they shouted at him as they punched him in the chest and neck. "Just shut up and stay here or we'll keep you here till midnight."

Then they made him stand to attention and stare in a certain direction.

After two hours of this, Osama again asked for his ID and the soldiers punched him in the face then shot close to his leg, threatening to shoot him in the leg if he spoke again. Then one soldier crushed his ID card and threw it in the mud.

"Pick up your card and fuck off to Qalqilia," he was told.

Rather than grovel through the mud for his card, Osama started off to Qalquilia without it (a Palestinian caught without his ID card by the Israelis is automatically imprisoned) but then changed his mind and went back to the checkpoint where another soldier, who had recovered the card, told him that he could have it back but would not be able to leave Qalqilia.

Over the past few months the Israeli army has been hastily building a "Security Fence"(the Apartheid Wall) around Qalquilia, cutting the people of the predominantly agricultural town off from its surrounding villages and their farmlands, which are being expropriated by Jewish settlers. The wall is still under construction but already the only legal way to enter or leave the town is through the DCO Checkpoint.

When Osama had finished his errand in Qalqilia he was forced to return to the ISM headquarters at Tulkarem via an illegal and very dangerous route through the rubble of some buildings on the outskirts of Qalqilia that the Israeli's have destroyed to create clear fields of fire between the wall's security towers and the town. Soldiers patrolling this area are known to shoot on sight anyone attempting to cross this it.