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Mutatis Mutandis

As the number of deaths resulting from the Palestinian offensive on the Israeli enclave approaches one thousand, with half a dozen Palestinian civilians killed by home-made rockets fired by Kadima militants, the international community is intensifying its efforts to bring about a cease-fire.

While Palestinian military spokespersons talk of an operation going ‘exactly to plan’, more reports come in of the deaths of Israeli children from bombs, rockets, and artillery, tank and gunboat fire from the Palestinian Defence Forces.  A spokesman explained that in no case did Palestinian forces open fire if they thought civilians might be present.  It was not clear where the Palestinian military thought civilians might have gone when they were attacking densely populated residential areas.

Palestinian military authorities explained that before any attacks were launched in residential districts, the area was leafleted from the air, notifying the civilian population that they had at least some hours to evacuate before their homes became a free fire zone.  Any regrettable civilian casualties would therefore be the responsibility of the militants for inciting the attack and of the residents for failing to clear the area.

Palestinian sources repeatedly claimed that Kadima terrorists were deliberately using civilians as human shields, making it impossible for their soldiers to avoid civilian casualties.  This was in direct contrast to the deliberate attempts by Kadima to target Palestinian civilians using unguided rockets, in clear violation of international law.  Some of these rockets can reach many kilometres into Palestinian territory, creating a climate of constant, insufferable fear over many months for millions of innocent Palestinian citizens.

Outside observers noted that the Palestinian attacks seem to have targeted all government offices controlled by Kadima.  Many of these, such as police stations, were naturally in the residential areas that they were intended to serve.  Attacks on synagogues, schools and other non-military targets were explained by the Palestinians as necessary to prevent Kadima rocket crews from using them as bases from which to fire at Palestine.

The Palestinian campaign had apparently been planned over the past 6 months, while the two sides observed a cease-fire but while supplies of food, medicine and fuel to Israeli civilians were cut and eventually halted.  When the UN Rapporteur for Israel complained that this constituted collective punishment of a civilian population and that the Palestinian leadership should be prosecuted for war crimes, he was held for 20 hours at Gaza International Airport before being deported without gaining access to Israel.

A number of other international agencies were critical of Palestinian actions in provoking a humanitarian crisis inside the Israeli enclave.  Apart from restricting the delivery of emergency supplies, they accused the Palestinians of preventing the evacuation of severely wounded cases for medical treatment outside the conflict zone.

Palestinian military spokespersons on the other hand claimed that they had facilitated the delivery of ample supplies and that there was no shortage of humanitarian assistance inside Israel.  The problem, they said, was that the Kadima regime was preventing this assistance from reaching the population.  There was even a claim that supplies intended for free distribution were being sold on the black market by the Israeli administration.

None of these claims could be independently verified due to a ban imposed by the Palestinian military authorities on international aide workers, observers and media representatives from gaining access to Israel.  This was despite an order from the Palestinian courts declaring such a ban illegal.

Palestinian government spokespersons, speaking barely accented English, repeatedly appeared in the international media to explain that their campaign was directed at the militants only and not at the Israeli population.  Israeli representatives, appearing on poor satellite links from inside the Israeli enclave, normally spoke, with marked accents, in terms of broad retribution and long-standing grievances that have been heard many times before.

Because of the difficulties in reporting from inside Israel, the international media presence was concentrated on Palestinian areas just outside Israel, from which plumes of smoke from built up areas and the sound of explosions could be constantly observed.  Media attention was therefore focussed on the preparations for a ground offensive, which started after many days of aerial and artillery bombardment.

Media commentary dwelt on the dangers to the heavily-armed and well-equipped Palestinian ground troops from engaging in close combat in built-up areas.  These fears appeared well-founded when a Palestinian government source revealed that 3 of their soldiers had been killed in a tragic ‘friendly fire’ incident.

Hopes for an early cease-fire were apparently being held up by the insistence from the Palestinian side, supported by their superpower ally, for a ‘sustainable’ solution.  This implies a demand that all Israeli means of retaliation must be destroyed and that Israel must never be allowed to re-arm so as to be able to defend itself.  This in turn would require strict international monitoring, under Palestinian control, of all cross-border trade and effective anti-smuggling measures.  A 12-foot high wall enclosing the entire Israeli enclave was being suggested.

It is widely believed that the cease-fire agreement, whenever it is signed, will contain no reference to the presence, illegal under international law, of Palestinian settlements on land expropriated from Israel, nor on the right to return of Israelis evicted from their lands when the state of Palestine was first created.

About author:  Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).

And if you believe any of those stories, you might believe his columns.

 

 

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