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.
And had lived there continuously since then.
P.S. the Palestinians are really Jordanians. Their homeland is right next door.
Europeans are all a bunch of sneering, fearful, bad-teeth creeps who walk around with their elbows tucked in at their sides because they're afraid to take up too much room, and they do nothing but sit around hating Americans and Jews. There's an Irish saying that I could extrapolate from to describe the European attitude: An American and a European are walking along and they see a beautiful mansion. The American decides "Some day I'm going to live in that house!" The European broods, "Some day I'm going to get the bastard who lives in that house!" and that sums it up.
Hmmmm, and what would you call the "clear example" set by Arafat's people with regard to the suicide bombers targeting civilians?
FP
Take a close look at Arafat-(arse) and see if I'm wrong.
You can't be serious. Different species can't transplant.
They are letting in several thousands Arab laborers on humanitarian grounds due to US and EU pressure. At least that's how Israeli english language papers characterize the rationale.
Israel, sooner or later, will have to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank and set new borders. However, that will neither stop the attacks nor the scorn of the Europeans and others who'd rather that Israel disappear as it impedes commerce with the Islamic/Islamist world which needs to be engaged (bought off). Israel will be assaulted in diplomatic arena for not withdrawing to pre-1967 borders. Once Israel is pressured to withdraw to those borders, it would be then pressured to let in Arab "refugees" conserved in that state since the 1948 War. If they cave in (and they will eventually) there will be a bloodbath in short order and the world will once again shed a few tears.
So the point is that no matter what Israel does the validity given to the Islamist perspective by the post-modern West will lead to the destruction of Israel as a state of the Jews. Unfortunately, we don't live in a rational world, not anymore at least.
We can use the dead Palestinians as a source of replacement organs and skin for the Israelis
You can't be serious. Different species can't transplant.
267 posted on 3/31/02 7:56 AM Pacific by Alouette
LOL! I chose it the day I found Free Republic and I was feeling very grim indeed. I'm happy to report that since finding FR my mood has improved immensely and I again have hope.
We can use the dead Palestinians as a source of replacement organs and skin for the Israelis
You can't be serious. Different species can't transplant.
Fascist alert!!!
Were you two clowns meaning to click over to Stormfront.org and accidentally ended up here instead? This is NOT a hate site, even if riff-raff like you are determined to make it so. OUT with you!!!
Were you two clowns meaning to click over to Stormfront.org and accidentally ended up here instead?
What species of creature thinks it's a heroic and noble act to commit suicide while murdering innocent men, women and children at Passover seders, restaurants, supermarkets, bar mitzvah parties and shopping centers?
Clue: these are the "fascists" you're alerting to.
Ironically, the same sort of racist hate-mongering that was practiced against the Jews for centuries in Europe.
Have you not learned that continuous posts from commie sources without comment seems like someone who likes to throw in a few firecrackers from the roof and then run away?
Sheesh.
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