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JORDANIAN ARMY ATTACKS DEMONSTRATORS
ISRAELI SNIPER "DEATH SQUADS" RAIN TERROR
ISRAELIS "SEAL" PALESTINIANS IN
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 10/06/00:
Repression has always been a hallmark of the Hashemite
regime in Amman. Installed by the British in the 1920s - it is a
regime that has always marched to the drumbeat of the Western countries
that financed it, armed it, and kept it in power. Secret agreements
between King Abdullah and the Zionist movement made it possible for a Jewish
State to become reality a few decades later. And the current King,
as his father before him, has been working very closely with the Americans
and Israelis to bring about the "apartheid peace" which would further divide
and control the Palestinians and thus at the same time help keep the Hashemite
clan on the throne across the river in Amman. Those interested in
the detailed early history of all this can refer to COLLUSION ACROSS THE
JORDAN by Prof. Avi Schlaim, even though since writing the book there has
also been some collusion between the author and his subjects.
Reports keep coming in that Barak's promises to "restrain"
his army were little more than public relations ploys for the cameras.
The Palestinian areas have been "sealed", at least until Monday.
What this essentially means is that Palestinians are kept on their "reservations"
even more than usual. Jerusalem has been closed to Palestinians trying
to get there for Friday prays. And from Deheishe camp near Bethehem
comes a report that Israeli snipers -- essentially high-tech "death squads"
-- are even more active than usual.
The more detailed eyewitness report that follows is from
Amman. While our approach and terminology differ from that of the
author we believe it vitally important to let dedicated and thoughtful
people present their views in their own words through their own experiences.
In this case what is happening in Amman and other Arab capitals is a very
important part of the overall "peace process", and this article is particularly
insightful. For past articles about Jordan and the Hashemites use
the MER search capability at http://www.MiddleEast.Org/merx.htm.
ISRAELI SNIPERS TARGET RANDOMLY
(Deheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem - by Muna Hamzeh-Muhaisen - 5
Oct):
Israeli snipers stationed in an uninhabited 7-storey building
near the Beit Jala Tunnel shot two Palestinians from Dheisheh as they were
standing by the side of the road. No other people were around and
nothing was hapenning in the area. Neither young Palestinian was armed.
Mustafa Farajeh, 22, was shot twice in the chest with high-velocity
bullets and in the right arm. He died of his wounds. His photo on TV -
broadcast just now - is really horrific. His arm is cut wide open and you
can see the bone and it is all charred. One of the bullets in his chest
is quite wide.
The other person shot is...Akram Shafout,21, and he is in critical
condition with a shot in the chest.
Bethlehem TV is broadcasting warnings to residents of the Bethlehem
area to stay away from the Rachel Tomb area and away from all areas in
the district where there is close contact with Israelis. The reason is
that Israeli army snipers and Israeli undercover units have heavily spread
on numerous rooftops...apparently ready to kill
more people tonight. Some local correspondents have been predicting
a bad day for Bethlehem today, with one radio reporter saying this morning
that the Israelis will commit a massacre in Bethlehem tonight following
the shooting death of one Israeli soldier in Beit Sahour a few nights ago,
plus the injury of nine soldiers during armed clashes in Beit Sahour a
few days ago and in Bethlehem last night. Young guys are walking
around the camp with loudspeakers announcing the death of Mustafa Fararjeh.
Hundreds of people are at the Beit Jala Government Hospital waiting to
hear news of Akram Shafout's condition. And just now on Bethlehem TV, armed
clashes just erupted in Beit Sahour.
ARAB REGIME OPPRESSION REARS ITS UGLY HEAD
By Ibrahim Alloush
AMMAN 10/05/00:
This evening in Amman I witnessed Jordanian security forces intercept
and savagely attack demonstrators headed for the Zionist embassy
in al
Rabiyeh. Tear gas was used by anti-riot police, and the
demonstrators
responded with stones. Several women were clubbed ferociously
on the
face. Security was swinging clubs indiscriminantly at the
demonstrators who scattered then regrouped at a distance and
started
chanting: "Why? Why are you protecting the Zionists? Why?"
Several thousand demonstrators departed from the compound of the
Union
of Professional Associations in Amman towards the Zionist Embassy
after
getting frustrated with the tendency of opposition leaders to
just
talk, talk, and the talk some more about the crimes being committed
by
Zionists in Palestine. At the end of the rally, a well-known
Jordanian
Islamic opposition figure announced from behind the microphone
that the
rally was all there is to the protest, as if to dissociate himself
from
the crowd that was breaking out of the compound towards the enemy's
embassy.
Throughout the boring speeches, including one by a former prime
minister, the audience was steadily growing restless. A
Myriad of
groups would interrupt the speeches with chanting calling for
an
immediate closure of the Zionist embassy in al Rabiyeh, Amman.
They
would say: "No embassy, no ambassadors! Al Rabiyeh needs
to be
liberated, from Zionist filth!".
Then these groups got together and broke out towards the street.
Most
of the rest of the attendants of the rally followed. Few
hundreds
turned into few thousands and people passing by started joining.
The
chants indicated that the protesters were rank and file Islamists,
nationalists, leftists, and others who were disillusioned with
the
flimsiness of the official opposition. There were also
supporters of
Hamas, Fateh, and everything else one can imagine.
As the demonstration tried to turn right towards the al Rabiyeh,
where
the enemy embassy is located, it was blocked by the security
apparatus
at each turn. Hence, the demonstration kept going down
the road until
the road ended and there was no choice but to turn either right
or
left. At that point the demonstrators formed an arrowhead
and flew
like a magic carpet through the blocks and the chain that security
had
formed. Two or three hundred just ran up across the block
to the
dismay of the forces of oppression. Maybe less than two
minutes later,
before the rest of the demonstration had had the chance to team
up with
the two or three hundred in the front, massive reinforcements
in
armored vehicles sped ahead of the demonstrators, intercepted
them at
the front, blocked them from the rest of the demonstration at
the back,
then turned on them like junkyard dogs. Only a trickle
from the body
of the demonstration managed to get through.
With the exception of Laith Shubeilat there was not a single opposition
leader in the fray. In fact, his wife was clubbed on the
face.
Members of a leftist student group who were carrying a huge red
flag
with two photos of Ernesto Che Guevara in the middle were beaten
savagely. Supporters of Hamas were chanting Allahu Akbar
(God is
Greater!). One of them was screaming at the security because
they were
beating up a pregnant housewife who had joined the demonstration.
They
responded by turning on him.
In fact, I did not see the pregnant woman getting beaten, because
one
can hardly see everything when one is thrashed sideways on the
sidewalk, but I did see the man screaming at security for beating
the
pregnant woman, and I did see several people limping, including
many
women and children, and helped carry one of the wounded outside
the
area. To be fair though, while the wounded man I clasped
was still
sitting on the ground holding his head, an officer came for us
again,
swaying a club. But when people screamed: "A wounded man,
a wounded
man.", the officer simply stepped over us to go for somebody
else. In
the meantime, several veiled women who were cornered in the entrance
of
a building were screaming and protesting their heads off.
One of the
bizarre things that happened while this was going on was how
a petite
woman demonstrator started eating a piece of chocolate when one
of the
security hound dogs came for her. He raised his club, but
she said
very calmly: "Look, I have a very low blood-sugar level, and
if you
beat me now, I might faint..". Dumfounded, he left her
alone, and so
she strolled back slowly in the midst of the battlefield towards
safety.
In short, Jordanian security forces are oppressing Jordanians
and
Palestinians violently when they do more than talk, or more than
walk
in the designated areas already agreed upon with opposition leaders
aspiring for a ministerial position or an important government
post.
Yesterday, a demonstration of about one thousand few hundred departed
from the University of Jordan towards the Zionist embassy.
That one
was also intercepted, blocked, and diverted at the Athletic City
Circle. Also yesterday, groups of about one hundred and
fifty middle
schoolers managed to make it to the Zionist embassy just close
enough
to hurl a few good stones at it. Those kids were savagely
assaulted.
Several of them were hospitalized for wounds and broken bones,
especially in the arms they used to hurl the stones. Those
among them
checked into hospitals are: Mayce Shawaheen, Raja'ee Shawaheen,
Muhammad Omar, Sahhel Soueiffan, Ali Beni Hani, Oulla Al'a Eddin,
Jawad
El Moussa, Noor Eddin Hassan, Mohammad Abou Hudaib, Mohammad
Ssyakhi,
and Mohammad Friej. All in all, these add up to just eleven
young
heroes to shame Arab leaders.
The saga was repeated earlier today too as a group of High Schoolers
and University students tried to sneak it to the Zionist Embassy,
but
actually could not. Those were just clubbed on the arms
and the legs.
A participant in that demo was holding her left elbow as she
came to
the evening rally (that turned later into a spontaneous demo),
and by
the time that was finished, she was also limping. In that
state, she
joined the few hundred who went back to the Union of Professional
Associations to chant protests against the all-bark-no-bite,
lame-tame,
wishy-washy, and yellow-mellow speakers at the rally held there
earlier, but those 'nice guys' already gone home! The wounded
man I
had helped refused to go to the hospital choosing instead to
dizzily
join the aforementioned protest.
The way I see it, there are two mighty barriers between Zionists
and
the Arab masses: one is the Arab regimes, and two is the second
defense
line made up of opportunistic opposition leaders and intellectuals
who
spew out great anti-Zionist rhetoric, but who take the wrong
stand on
the issues, abort mass-movements, and cut secret deals behind
the
scenes, all in the name of flexibility, "realism", and whatever.
To annihilate the Zionists, which can be easily done if we can
bypass
the two barriers delineated above, we need to find ways to bypass
Arab
regimes and the opportunists among us.. which can also be done,
even
though not necessarily as easily. [Just in case I'm misunderstood,
note that 'bypass' is not necessarily the same thing as breaking
things
down.]
* The author can be reached at Ibrahim@MiddleEast.Org
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