Israeli Military Intensifies Pressure on Civilian Population, Targeting Local Leadership for Assassination
On Tuesday morning large crowds were assembled in solidarity with the assassinated martyrs. Hundreds had gathered at Rafidia hospital and by the time the march reached the downtown core the numbers had swelled to several thousands. By the time the jenazi/funeral had made it to Balata, tens of thousands were assembled to observe the occasion, including men, women and children. The display of popular support for Marshoud is significant at a time when many in the Palestinian elite are talking about ending the Intifada; Egyptian, Jordanian and British security officials are seeking ways of incorporating the armed resistance into a new constabulary force that would suppress the Intifada; and Israeli forces are increasing their attacks on civilians in order to turn people against the local resistance.

As a result new alignments are emerging that challenge both the occupation and those in the Palestinian establishment that are seeking to curtail the current Palestinian uprising. The recent rifts within Fatah, as well as between the PA and huge sectors of Palestinian society, are pointing towards a new dynamic in the Palestinian political life. The old national consensus is fraying and a break with the old leadership that has led the national liberation movement since the mid-1960s is increasingly likely. What that will mean for the future of Palestinian struggle is hard to tell, but it is imperative that civil, progressive, and secular forces seeking to continue the struggle be supported.

TARGETING OF CIVILIANS AND RELIGIOUS OBJECTS IN NABLUS

In the meantime, Israeli military activity has continued unabated. While the funeral for Marshoud and Abu Zeid was progressing towards Balata, the Israeli military staged another incursion in the camp on Tuesday killing 18 year old Salah Salah Mahwani. Later that same day, it was reported that another teenager was killed in the Balata camp, although no independent confirmation of this fact could be obtained at the time of writing. Regardless, three people in the camp where seriously injured according to local journalists, including Ihsan Adawi (20), Ezzedine Marchoud (12), who was hit in the head by a sound grenade, and Amani Yaich (38), a woman who was shot in the back by a live bullet and is now lying in critical condition in Rafidia Hospital. Later that evening the Israeli military acted on a threat it had issued through leaflets in the previous days declaring that it would clear all barricades that had been erected around the Old City (where many of those ’wanted’ by the Israeli military are hidding). Throughout the night the Israeli military, using explosive devices and Special Forces commandoes, went on a destructive romp through the Old City destroying barricades and surrounding buildings. In the morning, residents of the Old City woke up to scenes of devastation as shops, a church, a mosque and several houses were severely damaged by the blasts. We spoke to members of the Shtethiye family in the Al-Jasmina district who had one of their bedrooms blown to pieces. Fifty people from the family live in cramped conditions in the three storey building. Fortunately only one person was lightly injured as the family slept far from the road fearing the threatened Israeli military reprisals.

According to a friend who asked not to be identified: "The Israelis are trying to put pressure on the civilian population to turn against the fighters. They want a civil war, so they are using terror to intimidate the civilians by attacking shops, churches, mosques and houses. They don’t understand that by doing so they are only making the fighters stronger. They will never intimidate us into abandoning the Intifada, even though some in the PA would also like this."

DETERIORATING SITUATION IN SALIM VILLAGE - PHYSICAL SEPERATION INTENSIFIED

While the situation in Nablus continues to slide downwards the situation in the villages is also deteriorating. On Monday, I met with Hassem, an activist from Salim who works in Nablus with Ta’awon, the Palestinian Center for Non-Violent Conflict Resolution. During the school year, Hassem also works as a school councilor dealing with the psychological problems that Palestinian children living under occupation face daily.

To get to his work in Nablus, Hassem has to negotiate a series of military roads, floating checkpoints, bypass roads and trenches, constantly fearing that he may be caught by soldiers. These back roads are often necessary when he is denied entry through either the Azmut or Beit Furik checkpoints - which also require the negotiation of some no-access areas to Palestinians if they are to be reached from Salim - simply because he is a young Palestinian male under the age of 35.

He looks at me intensely as he gives an update of the general situation in the village. "They are so racist. Few days ago the soldiers told me and a group of friends that we Palestinians weren’t even to touch the road for the settlers. Now they’re building a new trench around Salim. This one is 3m deep, followed by a 3m high earthmound and then the old trench that we used to drive through in order to get to where we had to go. If the trench is completed it will be impossible to drive out of Salim. What do they want from our village? [jokingly] Maybe they want us to admit Hans Blix to find all the ’Weapons of Mass Destruction’ we’re hiding for the Iraqis here in our village?" he says with a half-smile.