Palestinians defy curfew, Israel opens fire

Israeli soldiers stand in a destroyed portion of the office building of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, in Arafat's headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah Wed., Sept. 25, 2002

Compiled by Sean Marquis

Sept. 25 (AGR)— In an emergency session on Monday the United Nations (UN) security council passed a resolution demanding Israel withdraw from Palestinian towns and end the destruction of Palestinian property. The council also condemned attacks on Israelis.

But the near unanimous vote in New York, from which only the US abstained, appeared to have had little immediate impact in the Middle East as nine Palestinians were killed in fighting in Gaza City that same day.

The incursion -- the deepest yet into the 600,000-strong city in two years of fighting -- began at around midnight, with about 60 armored vehicles converging on two areas.

Three of those killed were militants and six were civilians killed by stray rounds, according to doctors and relatives. Twenty-four people were injured.

Without specifically referring to Israel’s siege of Yassir Arafat’s compound, the UN resolution also called for an end to Israeli operations in and around Ramallah that have left the Palestinian leader confined to a few rooms.

The Palestinians, who had failed several times in the past to secure such a resolution, said it was a step in the right direction. “What is required now is the implementation of this decision,” said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an adviser to Arafat.

The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Yehuda Lancry, said he was disappointed the US did not veto the resolution.

Arafat issued a statement to the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) official news agency WAFA on Sept. 21, urging all Palestinian factions to immediately cease attacks on Israeli civilians within Israel.

Yet Arafat remained defiant in his statement, saying he would never capitulate to Israel. “We are ready for peace, but not for capitulation, and we will not give up Jerusalem or a grain of our soil,” he said.

Hani al-Hassan, a Fatah leader who is also holed up with Arafat, told the Jerusalem Post that local Fatah leaders were calling him to ask for permission to renew attacks, but he stressed that the Fatah leadership was sticking to its decision to end attacks on civilians.

The first negotiations on ending the siege broke up Monday. The Israeli army allowed Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, to enter Arafat’s compound. Erekat said the Israeli negotiators had refused to give him a list of wanted militants, and had in fact sent him to Arafat with a demand for a list of everyone in the building. Arafat rejected the demand.

14-year-old boy Baha al-Bahesh killed by Israeli gunfire on Mon., Sept. 23 in Nablus in the Occupied Territories during a demonstrtion against teh Israeli occupation

Also the Associated Press reported that, according to an Israeli official, the military is considering expelling the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and a senior official in the group, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, but that no final decision has been made. Rantisi warned Tuesday that “Gaza will be a grave to all Israeli soldiers.”

On Thursday, Israel ordered the army to move into Arafat’s compound and to destroy the buildings around the one where he still remains after two suicide bombings last week, the first in Israel in 45 days.Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has held Arafat personally responsible for any Palestinian attacks on Israelis.”

Israeli bulldozers dug a deep trench and troops ran coils of barbed wire around the main building - the only one left standing. Arafat was confined to his quarters on the second floor, after troops destroyed the stairway to the ground floor with a tank shell, his aides said.

About 200 aides and security guards are currently with him.

In Thursday’s bombing, a suicide bomber detonated nail-studded explosives on a crowded bus in a shopping and business district in downtown Tel Aviv, killing six people in addition to himself, and wounding about 50. Among the victims was Jonathan Jesner, a 19-year-old Jewish seminary student from Scotland, who was critically wounded in the blast and died of his injuries Friday.

The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing in a leaflet sent to the Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera. Hamas said the bus bombing was the third in a series of planned attacks against Israeli targets as revenge for Israeli military strikes against Plaestinians. The Islamic Jihad group said it sent the bomber in Wednesday’s attack, who blew himself up at a bus stop in Israel’s north, killing a policeman.

In Washington, President George W. Bush -- currently pushing for a war on Iraq -- condemned the suicide bombings. “If you want people to grow up in a peaceful world, all parties must do everything they can to reject and stop violence,” he said.

In Gaza City early Friday, Israeli forces entered a mixed industrial-residential neighborhood and blew up three metal workshops, witnesses said. Two Palestinians were killed in the action, one of whom was a 25-year-old woman who was killed by helicopter fire as she stood on her balcony.

Meanwhile, at the sidelines of a world mayor’s conference in Athens last week, a Palestinian and two Israeli mayors decided to sit down and talk about peace not as opposing parties but as “human beings.”

Arafat: lame duck turns hero

The current crisis has only served to enhance Arafat’s support. He was embarrassed days ago when the Palestinian parliament almost passed a vote of no confidence in his government, alleging corruption by many Ministers who are his cronies. Ministers resigned en masse to forestall the vote.

Last week the Palestinian Legislative Council used its first session in months to challenge Arafat openly, forcing him to accept the resignation of his cabinet and to schedule presidential and parliamentary elections for Jan. 20.

But the siege has prompted a show of popular support on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that Israelis and Palestinians say has no recent precedent, including a general strike across the Occupied Territories and in East Jerusalem in support of Arafat on Monday.

In late March and throughout April, when Arafat was surrounded in his compound by Israeli armor, there were no such demonstrations of support for him. This time, the protests have brought together Palestinians from various political factions, including some whom have not been enamored of Arafat.

In the middle of the night on Saturday, heeding calls from Fatah, Arafat’s movement, and from mullahs in the mosques, more than a thousand Palestinian men, women, and children marched onto Ramallah’s central Manara Square. They defied Israeli demands to disperse and chanted, “We will give our soul and blood for Arafat!”

Similar protests were reported in Gaza City and in the West Bank in Qalqilya, Tulkarm, Hebron, Tubas, Salfit, Bethlehem, and Jericho. It was the first mass wave of support for Arafat in months. Two protesters were shot dead in Ramallah, one in Tulkarm and one in Nablus.

A fifth, a 14-year-old boy, was shot dead by troops, a British activist who witnessed the killing said Monday. Military officials said Baha Albahsh set himself alight while handling a fire bomb, but a Palestinian doctor said he was killed by a gunshot wound in the chest.

Baha al-Bahesh was walking near a group of foreign activists in Nablus when an armored car arrived, said Ewa Jasiewics, 24, a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, which stages protests against the Israeli occupation.

“A soldier popped up from inside. I saw him with his rifle and he aimed at some kids on the street. There was no stone- throwing or shooting going on at the time,” Jasiewics said.

“This soldier fired,” she said. “It wasn’t accidental.”

Meanwhile, on the West Bank, an Israeli man was killed and three of his children, ages 9, 12, and 18, were wounded by Palestinian gunfire in Hebron. The four had traveled from Jerusalem and were visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs for the holiday of Sukkot.

Humiliation, destruction, death, and defiance

On the afternoon of Sept. 20 Israeli troops emerged on the roof of what had once been the proudest building in the headquarters of the PA and unceremoniously hauled down the Palestinian flag, as Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was holed up, powerless and humiliated, in his private offices a few feet away.

“There you are, that’s the proof,” said Abdullah Injum, a middle-aged electrician, as he watched from his garden a hundred yards away while troops raised the blue and white flag of Israel where the Palestinian flag had been. “Arafat is not the problem for the Israelis. They want to eliminate the Palestinian issue, pure and simple.”

“The Israelis first invaded the compound several months ago, but this is the first time they have put up their flag. I feel pain to see it,” said his wife, Kawther.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has also stepped up its campaign of house demolitions. Three houses were demolished — two in Qalqiliya and one in Qabatiya near Jenin. According to the mayor of Qabatiya, Qasem Al-Awneh, nine tanks, a bulldozer, and several jeeps entered the town at 3am, gave the family in the house 15 minutes to evacuate and then proceeded to tear it down. The story was repeated in Qalqiliya when several tanks, jeeps, and armored vehicles entered the city and pulled down two houses. One of the houses destroyed was only rented by the family of a Palestinian the Israelis claim is wanted.

According to a report by Electronic Intifada, people in Nablus broke the curfew on Sept. 20 and took their kids to school.

The governor of Nablus and the Palestinian Ministry of Education were forced to announce the opening of schools as a direct result of the pressure and protest of the kids and their parents.

Israeli tanks positioned themselves in front of almost every school, and the IDF proceeded to shoot tear gas into the Fatimiya school which hosts girls between the ages of 6 and 15. Despite those conditions, according to the report, students and teachers remained and classes continued.

Israeli soldiers opened fire on Palestinians who defied curfews on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. Earlier in the day, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and bullets to try to stop demonstrations in West Bank towns as thousands of marchers disregarded military orders confining them to their homes.

In a statement, the Palestinian parliament urged Palestinians to resist the occupation and said “The American administration bears responsibility of blood of our people and of our leadership,” a reference to US support for Israel.

About 7,000 Palestinians marched in Lebanon’s largest refugee camp, threatening retaliation should Israel harm or kill Arafat.

“If Arafat is martyred, we will bomb embassies,” some of the marchers shouted in Ein el-Hilweh camp. The demonstrators carried portraits of Arafat, Palestinian flags and placards calling on world leaders to protect Arafat.

Sources: Associated Press, Electronic Intifada, Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), Islamic Republic News Agency, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, The Palestine Monitor, Qatar News Agency, Washington Post

Ten million Brazilians vote against FTAA

By Mario Osava

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 17 (IPS)— Nearly 10 million voters in Brazil have expressed their rejection of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in an unofficial referendum organized by more than 60 organizations, the results of which were announced in the capital Tuesday.

Approximately 98 percent of the 10.1 million people who responded to a survey conducted Sept. 1-7 in 3,894 municipalities throughout Brazil gave a resounding “no” to the question: “Should the Brazilian government sign the FTAA treaty?”

Furthermore, 95 percent of the voters indicated that Brazil should not even “continue participating in the FTAA negotiations,” in response to the second question put forth in what the organizers dubbed a “people’s plebiscite.”

The question about a potential agreement that would allow the United States to launch rockets and satellites from a base in northern Brazil also received overwhelming rejection, with 98 percent voting against it.

However, the wording of that question was not necessarily unbiased: “Should the Brazilian government hand over part of our territory, the Alcántara base, to US military control?”

The question refers to a bilateral agreement with stipulations that have met with resistance from military officials and even from lawmakers belonging to the coalition headed by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

According to the accord, which is already before Congress for ratification, the US authorities could operate with autonomy, ostensibly to protect technological secrets, and would be allowed to bring in equipment without authorization by Brazilian Customs. Opposition lawmakers assert that Brazil would be renouncing part of its sovereignty by signing the agreement.

Ministers Ronaldo Sardenberg, of Science and Technology, and Geraldo Quintao, of Defense, said the treaty would provide revenues and experience that are indispensable for developing the Alcántara Base and for the country’s progress in the strategic aerospace industry.

The announcement of the plebiscite results Tuesday in downtown Brasilia took place amidst a demonstration by thousands of activists, with a strong showing by the peasant farmers of the Movimiento dos Sem Terra (MST, Landless Movement).

The figures are not yet complete, because “some ballot boxes have not yet arrived” from the Brazilian interior, according to Catholic priest Alfredo Gonçalves.

Nevertheless, the results so far surpassed all expectations, said Gonçalves, head of the social division of Brazil’s National Bishops Conference (CNOB) and one of the plebiscite coordinators.

The CNOB, MST, Central Union of Workers and other groups hoped for “slightly more” than six million voters to take part in the “consultation”, the total reached in a similar experience in 2000, when 95.6 percent responded that Brazil should stop paying its foreign debt.

“This proves that the population understands that the FTAA could shut down a debilitated economy” like Brazil’s, and leave this South American giant — with its population of 170 million — defenseless to a world power while bankruptcies and unemployment could multiply, said the priest.

“And without Brazil, there is no FTAA,” says Gonçalves, repeating the argument he uses when others worry that the country would lose markets abroad if it refuses to participate in the hemisphere-wide trade integration effort that other Latin American countries are supporting.

Firm opposition from Brazil “would change the direction” of the negotiations under way, he said.

This second “people’s plebiscite” did not have the Party of Workers (PT) behind it, though the leftist party was an important force in promoting the unofficial vote on the foreign debt two years ago.

“We understand the electoral reasons of the PT leadership” for not participating in the referendum, said the priest, referring to the efforts of front-running PT presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to moderate his tone and his platform on the way to October’s first round elections.

Lula has sought alliances and support from the political center to ensure a victory after being defeated in his last three bids for the presidency. But his statement that “now is not the time to play with plebiscites” won him condemnations from the organizing NGOs and the CNOB in particular.

In any case, the grassroots activists of the PT were among the 150,000 activists who mobilized to collect responses from voters throughout the country.

The referendum does not reflect a cross-section of Brazilian opinion because it was mostly targeted at those who have formed an opinion against the “Alaska-to-Tierra del Fuego” free trade area.

But even in the larger political arena there are few who enthusiastically defend the efforts to create the FTAA, which was proposed by the United States and is slated to be ready for ratification in 2004.

The governing coalition’s presidential candidate, social-democrat José Serra, says Brazil should not take part in the FTAA if it does not attend to the country’s interests or hurts trade capacity.

The government of Cardoso himself is currently attempting to neutralize maneuvers by Canada and the United States to hold a hemispheric summit in early 2003 in an effort to speed up negotiations. Brazil rejects any acceleration of the timeline, which calls for a summit and the implementation of the agreed treaty by 2005.

Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Marcus Pratini de Moraes says at every opportunity that the country is not interested in hemisphere- wide trade integration if the United States does not open its agricultural markets and end farm subsidies beforehand.

One of the few sectors in Brazil that is in favor of the FTAA is the textile industry, as its business owners believe they are sufficiently competitive to conquer a large portion of the US market and the rest of Latin America once the treaty takes effect.

DC police ‘demonize’ anti-IMF/World Bank protesters

Compiled by Nicholas Holt

Sept. 25 (AGR)— Activists will be gathering in Washington, DC this weekend to protest the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the developing world. Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities are considering legal maneuvers against groups planning direct action to disrupt the normal functioning of the area.

US Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer, asked about the protests during a Congressional hearing on the region’s general emergency preparedness, said he and DC police had met with the US attorney’s office and the Department of Justice to discuss protest plans that include trying to shut down the District, clog the Capital Beltway and vandalize stores and police cars. The major street protests are scheduled to begin Friday.

Authorities had discussed whether such activities “are so deleterious to security efforts that we ought to take proactive action, whether there are violations of the law that are so potentially egregious that they outweigh the First Amendment rights of someone to come in and speak with their life and shut down our intersections,” Gainer said.

Protesters reacted with indignation to Gainer’s remarks and said they would not be cowed.

A statement issued on Sept. 20 by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC) , a group calling for a shutdown of the city Friday, said police have been “spreading lies about the nature of the demonstrations and the actions planned. Thus far, the ACC has mainly been planning and publicizing marches on K Street and bike rides and anti-war leafleting and theatrical production.” The statement said accusations that the group is planning violence are “reckless and unfounded.” Friday’s action is intended to be disruptive. Nevertheless, “this isn’t a plan to burn down the city,” said one ACC organizer for the group. “It’s a plan to show that there a lot of people fed up with the way things are going.”

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney for the District-based Partnership for Civil Justice, dismissed Gainer’s comments. She said her group and the National Lawyers Guild plan legal support for activists. “This is [the police department’s] standard demonization tactic,” she said. “There has been no call for violence by any of the people in organizations who are coming to . . . protest.”

“The police department is once again demonstrating their contempt for the constitutional rights of protesters in this city,” she said. “Frankly, when they talk about preemptively shutting down protests and First Amendment speech, that is a hallmark of a police state and a repressive government.”

She predicted that “more and more people will take to the streets to oppose [President] Bush and [Attorney General John D.] Ashcroft if they try to shut down protests in the city.”

After the hearing, Gainer said that no legal action had yet been taken against protesters and that the option would be further discussed next week.

Police officials have voiced concern for days about the protests, raising the possibility that they might serve as cover for terrorist activities, and some businesses are being urged to let their employees telecommute, although the mayor’s office is urging people to go about their business as usual.

Protest organizers say police are trying to demonize them by suggesting terrorists might use the cover of their demonstrations to carry out violent acts.

Anti-corporate globalization groups say they have scheduled dozens of events in the lead-up to Saturday and Sunday’s annual meetings of the two bodies. Demonstrations, teach-ins, vigils, and debates will cover issues ranging from the costly privatizing of electricity grids in Africa to selling water for profit in Latin America and the protests will include a variety of voices, from those against war with Iraq to pro-labor and pro-environment groups.

Washington critics of the entrenched economic system say they will be joined by dozens of campaigners from the developing world and busloads from across the country to protest ”the catastrophic impact of debt, environmental abuse, reckless lending, and profit-driven economic policies” imposed by the two Washington-based institutions.

Specifically, they are demanding an end to structural adjustment programs and a halt to financing for environmentally destructive infrastructure projects. They also have called on the Bank and IMF to open up their meetings and allow public participation decision-making.

Organizers say they expect “thousands” of protestors at the weekend meetings.

As in the past, mainstream media outlets have been inaccurate in their descriptions of previous protests, failed to classify police use of chemical sprays against children, beatings of protesters and media personnel, or the targeting of first aid workers with rubber bullets as violence, and repeatedly referred to the militant protest technique of the black bloc as an organization.

Sources: IPS, Washington Post