Israel’s ‘Arrest’ of Arafat
by Brian Wood
January 21, 2002
Israeli military took over the majority of Ramallah Friday night, 18 January 2002. Tanks, troops, and Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) drove into several areas of Ramallah and have taken up positions only a few minutes walk in most directions of the city center. Ground troops have taken over numerous houses in the old city of Ramallah, turning them into military posts and confining the residents to a strict curfew. One witness in the area said a bulldozer destroyed half a house to make a path for the tanks to move more easily. She and her mother, visiting from Saudi Arabia, were trapped in their house by the threats posed by Israeli tanks and snipers outside their door.
I approached the Muqata’a, headquarters for Arafat in the West Bank, passing many armed men working for the Palestinian Authority. Two of them told me they are under strict orders not to shoot. Some have left their weapons at home saying, “If the Israelis see us with a gun they will shoot us.” Those who are resisting the invasion with weapons are not working for the Palestinian Authority, are said to be operating illegally, and face arrest if caught.
Meanwhile, unarmed and innocent young boys, as young as seven, were throwing stones at Israeli jeeps and heavily armored APCs from distances too far to reach their target. This did not stop the soldiers from shooting—and killing—the children, whose efforts amounted to nothing more than playing in the streets. One young boy was shot in the head, reportedly by a live round, from a distance of 50 meters. The large crowd around the ambulance suggested such a bloody, horrible scene. The schools of these children are closed because tanks and soldiers have surrounded their classrooms. In exchange for their lost education they have become moving objects used for target practice by Israeli soldiers barely old enough to drink by US standards.
I was stunned at this scene of total butchery. I had heard stories of such events in Gaza, but had heretofore never witnessed such a pitiful presentation of humanity.
Dozens of tear gas canisters littered Irsal Street next to Arafat’s West Bank headquarters. The setting sun painted beautiful colors of orange, red, purple, and yellow over the grim scene of state-sponsored child murder, which would be swiftly protested if enacted in any other country of the world. Almost no government of the world recognizes Israel’s military rule of the West Bank and Gaza. Ironically, none of them speak against this brutal program of dispossession and deportation of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland. This is Israel’s way to “arrest” the Palestinian leader and render him futile. Prime Minister Sharon said, “He looks out his window and see our tanks and knows he has no where to go.”