BY BRIAN TAYLOR
The Israeli government's bombing of Lebanese civilians
and infrastructure, and Tel Aviv's continued acts of
aggression against Palestinians, have fueled an uptick in
resistance to Zionist rule in the region.
On August 18 pro-Israeli militiamen bombed Sidon, Lebanon's largest city, killing at least 10 civilians, including one infant. The next morning, Hezbollah rebels who are fighting to end the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, together with outraged Lebanese soldiers who generally remain neutral, returned fire launching 80 Katyusha missiles at Israeli territory. Forty-five Katyushas actually landed in Israel causing minor scrapes to a few civilians, only one of whom, according to the August 20 New York Times, could be considered "slightly wounded." The rockets were fired in such a way, according to Timor Goksel, political advisor to the United Nations "peacekeeping mission" in the area, to minimize loss of life.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while attempting to distance himself from Tel Aviv's fatal bombing, warned Hezbollah that Tel Aviv would launch retaliatory strikes if any more shelling occurred. He claimed that his government was not responsible for the attack and that the South Lebanon Army, which occupies a nine-mile-deep piece of Lebanon along the Israeli border, is an independent unit. But the Israeli government pays, trains, arms, and directs the approximately 2,500-strong unit, created to supposedly thwart guerrilla infiltration into Israel.
On August 20 Israeli warplanes waged an aerial assault on Sidon wounding at least four civilians and knocking out power lines that provide electricity to its 80,000 residents.
The latest bombings, initiated by the Israeli government, are a swift departure from April 1996 agreements to not attack civilians after Tel Aviv orchestrated a 17-day military offensive in southern Lebanon, killing 200 people, most of them civilians. Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri condemned the most recent assault saying, "The ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon shows that this state does not want peace.
Sanctions against Palestinians
Tel Aviv imposed sanctions on Palestinians shutting the
borders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and refused to pay
$40 million dollars in wages and taxes owed to Palestinian
workers and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied
territories. The sanctions against the Palestinian Authority
were allegedly levied for lack of cooperation with the
Israeli regime in cracking down on Palestinian liberation
groups after the July 30 bombing of an Israeli produce
market that killed 16 people, including the two Palestinians
carrying the bombs. A CIA official has been called in to
investigate the bombing with Palestinian Authority
agreement.
The taxes and other funds are used by the Palestinian Authority to pay 78,000 government workers, many of whom have not been paid since the embargo went into effect. The border closing has blocked 100,000 Palestinian workers from their jobs, bringing unemployment in that region to 70 percent. Compounding the situation, per capita annual income among Palestinians in the occupied territories has dropped from $1,700 to $1,300 in the last three years, according to UN officials. The measures taken by the Netanyahu regime also included demolishing houses owned by Palestinians, charging they were built without permits. Washington has backed the Israeli government stance, but has urged Tel Aviv to rescind economic sanctions, which immediately fueled angry protest actions by Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority cabinet approved a boycott of Israeli products as a countermeasure to the sanctions. Some $9 million worth of Israeli exports crosses into the West Bank and Gaza Strip every day.
On August 18 Tel Aviv lifted some of the sanctions and paid $12 million of the money it owes to the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu said, however, that the blockade would not be lifted until Palestinian Authority president Yasir Arafat agreed to a widespread crackdown on Arab rebels.
In response, Arafat convened a meeting of Palestinian liberation organizations in Gaza on August 20. Most Palestinian groups took part, including Hamas and Islamic Holy War, two organizations that have rejected the peace accord Arafat signed with Tel Aviv in Oslo and have organized attacks against Israeli government targets.
Participants at the National Unity Conference to Confront the Challenges condemned U.S.-Israeli government moves and vowed to step up resistance. "This is not a conference to support Oslo," said Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al- Rantisi, "but to support the stance of our people against the American and Israeli pressures on the Palestinian Authority to arrest and crack down on the Islamic movements."
On August 23 masked youth, some of them using slingshots to fling stones, charged in waves at the Israeli barricades that enclose the city of Bethlehem. Israeli troops responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, wounding four people. Palestinian police officers made little attempt to restrain the response to the blockade. "This is a popular response to the siege and starvation," said one officer. "When you blow too much air into a balloon, it pops."