Posted on 03/30/2002 5:50:11 PM PST by Pokey78
The ambulancemen were carrying the first body out of the Cairo-Amman bank in the centre of Ramallah when I came across them.
His knees were doubled up in rigor mortis. One of the legs of his green parachute jumpsuit had been burned through to the skin by a round fired at such close quarters that the muzzle flash had ignited the fabric. A gaping wound was visible in his chest - also apparently from a burst of fire from close range. What killed him, however, was the gunshot to his temple.
A few minutes later, the paramedics brought the second body, that of a young man, also in Yasser Arafat's elite guard unit, Force 17.
Someone had taken off his boots, revealing his blue socks. The wounds that he had obviously been clutching when he died were also to his upper body. But what must have killed him, like his colleague, was a shot fired at close range to his temple that had demolished the back of his head.
The third body was of an older man, in his forties, grey-haired with a moustache. Someone had pulled his parachute suit above his head to hide the wound. When the stretcher-bearers put him down, the covering was pulled back. The wound was to the head.
What happened on the third floor of the Cairo-Amman bank at midnight on Friday during Israel's occupation of the Palestinian city of Ramallah can only be surmised. But in the few minutes after Israeli soldiers stormed the Palestinian position, five men were wounded and five men were put to death by the Israelis, each with a single coup de grace administered to the head or throat.
Maher Shalabi, bureau chief of Abu Dhabi television in Ramallah, was in his office in the same building when he heard several bursts of heavy shooting on the floors below. 'I heard heavy shooting; maybe it was an exchange of fire. But I believe this was an execution.'
Hassan Asfour, a senior Palestinian negotiator, added: 'They were executed in cold blood. This is a clear example of the collective execution policy adopted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.'
According to local residents, the dead men were part of a large group of Palestinian policemen who had taken shelter in the building, which also houses the offices of the British council, when the Israeli army entered Ramallah.
The men had taken shelter in the foyer area on the third floor next to a dentist's surgery. Yesterday bullet holes spattered the walls and the floor was flecked with blood. On one wall were large splashes of blood. Elsewhere several bloody trails had been marked along the floor where someone had pulled the bodies towards the lift.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers entered the building after Palestinians opened fire from inside and threw a grenade at the force outside.
The coups des graces administered for these five men are a metaphor for what the Israeli incursion is hoping to achieve inside Ramallah. By isolating Arafat within his headquarters, Sharon hopes to decapitate the Palestinian Authority.
Yesterday, inside Arafat's compound, it was clear that, for all the claims of Ariel Sharon, Arafat was neither under threat nor under arrest. Arafat, simply, was surrounded by the Israelis.
As we approached the compound we could see the tanks and armoured personnel carriers ringing his sprawl of offices and barracks. On every side were soldiers taking positions and aiming their weapons.
Approaching closer the Israeli army tried to prevent us following a delegation from the Palestinian solidarity movement into the compound, led by José Bové, the French farmers leader and anti-globalisation protester.
In a surreal touch Bové and his colleagues had marched through the ruins of the town, even as fighting continued. With hands above their heads, and carrying palm fronds as Easter symbols of peace, they approached Arafat's compound with two columns of heavily armed Israeli infantry jogging the last few hundred metres behind.
Seeing Bové, who had marched through the town with a small group of fellow protesters bearing a tray of medicines for those still injured inside Arafat's compound, the soldiers relented and let us enter with him and approach the offices where Arafat was holed up.
Crossing a large car park we could see a three-storey block, its walls splattered with tank fire, two windows blackened by fire with sheets hanging where the occupants had tried to escape the flames.
I followed Bové to the entrance to the offices where Arafat was hiding but was grabbed from behind by an Israeli soldier and pulled away. Arafat may not be a prisoner but it is the Israelis who choose who goes to see the Palestinian chairman.
On every corner yesterday stood Israeli tanks. The devastation that these tanks have wrought inside the Palestinians' most attractive city has to be seen to be believed.
Roads have been dynamited or torn up by tanks. Buildings are burned and shattered. Everywhere there is rubble, spent ammunition and broken glass.
A little later, I met Hossam Sharkawi and Mohamed Awad, two senior officials in the Palestinian Red Crescent who I had met before.
Sharkawi, a co-ordinator for emergency services, told me the Israelis had arrested five of his drivers.
'They have them blindfolded and handcuffed. I cannot understand what the Israelis are thinking. They also used one of our ambulances today as a human shield. They sandwiched it inside a convoy.'
Sharkawi was able to reveal something of life inside Arafat's compound. 'We know there are injured inside,' he said. 'But they have been blocking ambulances entering to give treatment.' How many injured he could not say.
'All that we hear is that there may be between 50 and 100 people trapped with Arafat inside the building, without food, or water or any electricity and no telephone communication.' He shook his head and walked away.
When I heard of this, I thought that was so preposterous and , I was in shock.
But it appears that there is nothing new under the sun.
My italics did not work; sorry.
This drives me crazy.Arafat was thrown out of two countries for doing the same thing he is doing now.Why doesnt anyone remember this when writing and defending articles like this one? It just boggles the mind.One way or another it would appear things are coming to a head.I will always believe that Israel has the moral high ground and I know in my heart that the followers of Allah are wrong.The passover bombing enraged me.I want it to end now with Arafat pushing up daisys in a paupers grave and the people calling themselves Palestinians exiled to Jan Mayen Land.I dont know why this topic angers me,Im a catholic and have never stepped foot in Israel.I have however,lived in Saudi Arabia and thats where my dislike for Islam comes from I guess.Bottom line,Israel needs to end it now.
Realllyyyyy......
Some view it that way. But this is not being done in the name of religion. That is secondary. True, most Palestinians are Muslim, but some aren't, and most [80%] Israelis are Jewish. They all are doing this in the name of nationalism, and they are doing this to try to destroy Israel or to preserve it. The country, not the religion. Excepting zealots on both sides, but that isn't everyone.
Security deposit - Thank you. Bye-bye!
If they really learn their lesson it will be them who rise up and kill Arafat. They better hurry, though.
The Pali tolerance to any any ANY disagreement is zero tolerance. They better do it with a few buddies without telling anybody first.
They should sign up for a bomb belt and then go out and really help the cause blowing up Arghafat and his monster closest core club.
Now he'll have to find new sex partners for his barking an humping bouts as video taped by Chaosescu's chief of security on his visits there.
That was exactly my thought and sentiment when I read it.
Terrorist #2: "No, you first, I don't want Arafat's job, I have a family, you know."
Terrorist #3: "Hey, guys, don't look at me!"
Terrorist #4: "I vote for you, Abdul. You're like a father to me."
Terrorist #1: "Thanks, but no thanks. Clearly Muhammed is the best man for the job. He has a kevlar vest which he appropriated from an Israeli some time back."
Terrorist #2: "You can have it, it is really too small for me. I hear that Khalid is ten foot tall and bullet proof, perhaps we should ask him."
Terrorist #3: "Perhaps, except Khalid blew himself up prematurely while a week ago while on his way to a bat Mitzvah. He was not nailproof, sad to say. And he is no longer ten feet tall, but rather he is a pink streak on the road about twenty feet long."
Terrorist #4: "I know! Let's talk a GIRL into doing it for us! The west will sympathize with a woman and she could do no wrong in their eyes. Look how far Arafat got with his looks. A woman would make the west swoon. They would never drive her into a basement where she would not have access to Pamprin or Midol."
Terrorist #1: "Hey, she could even change her hair color to blonde, learn to ask really softball questions, and get hired by Fox to carry water for us with Geraldo."
Terrorist #2: "Not a bad idea, but you have given us an even better idea. why not ask Geraldo? He thinks we are right and he also has experience with reporting from basements..."
But you know what? I don't really care how it went down. The Israelies know how the Pali's treat their troops if they capture them, they kill them in as bloody a manner as possible, then show off their own blood stained hands to the crowd.
Im a catholic and have never stepped foot in Israel. I am asking myself the same thing regarding... the Gypsies. I have learned only recently, over the last few years, the full extent of the persecution, to which the world subjected these people. Just like Jews, they were expelled from Spain in 1492, just like Jews, they were literally exterminated by the Nazis. In Romania they were legally enslaved for centuries --- until about 1880. Unlike Jews, many of them are not educated and lack spokespeople, so we know little about the atrocities purpetrated against them. My heart literally aches when I read new, or recall previously read, specific accounts...
And sometimes I ask myself the same question: I am not a Gypsy; I never has a Roma (Gypsy) friend; the last time I came into contact with one --- in Seville, Spain --- she tried to make me part with my money. So why do I feel so deeply?
And the only answer that comes to mind, "because what was done to them for centuries was terribly wrong."
I am not trying to put words in your mouth, but this is how I undertand your posts, too: unlike many of our present-day fellow countrymen, you are bothered by evil. Thank you and G-d bless.
Have a wonderful and peaceful Easter Holiday.
Pop Quiz "Literally"
Actually what they don't have is a unique language or culture. They are Arabs, they speak Arabic and aside from a few minor regional differences, which they share with nearby Arab countries such as Jordon, Iraq and Syria, they keep Arabic and Muslim cultural traditions, mostly they are Jordanian, although the same coments apply to Jordians, but "General" (same kind as Sadamn presumably) Arafat is Egyptian.
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