[Nettime-bold] US involvement in the Middle East

[molly hankwitz <mollybh@pop.netspace.net.au>]

Palestine Journal October 31, 2000

An excerpt...

[The following is the fourth report from a four-person delegation from the
International Action Center from their humanitarian and fact-finding
mission to Palestine during what is being called the Al Aqsa Intifada, or
uprising. The delegation aims to bring back a first-hand report documenting
the repression inflicted by the Israeli army and to bring medical supplies
for Palestinian hospitals, which have been declared a state of medical
emergency. The Emergency is caused by the dual problem of the heavy
casualties inflicted by the Israeli repression and the inability of sick
and wounded people to pass through Israeli checkpoints on their way to the
hospital. The IAC delegation includes Richard Becker, Sara Flounders, Randa
Jamal and Preston Wood.]


Question: The media in the United States, at least the corporate media, has
made it appear that with the fighting going on in Palestine there are two
sides more or less battling it out evenly. What does it look like to you
there?

IAC delegation: That's ridiculous. By today, Oct. 31, the official death
toll in a month of fighting rose to 154 Palestinians killed and 12
Israelis—that's almost 13 to one. And the bullets and shells of the
so-called Israeli Defense Force have wounded another 6,600 Palestinians.

The Israeli troops are armed to the hilt with machine guns. They are backed
up by tanks and helicopter gunships that for the past three days have been
shelling and firing rockets at Palestinian towns and cities, and firing
heavy machine guns at unarmed demonstrators. We watched Palestinian youths
today fighting tanks and troops with stones and slingshots.

The Israeli troops are basically waging a one-sided aggressive war against
an unarmed population. The gunships, by the way, are the helicopters the
Pentagon supplies Israel and calls "Apache," which is an insult to Native
people in North America. Most of the weapons come from the U.S.


mh:>)



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