ISRAELI Offensive -PROTEST TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday April 15, 2002 16:41 by Tim Hourigan - Gluaiseacht, Green Party, Limerick 4 Change Limerick City, Ireland

Forget the 'Sharon v Arafat' propganda. Real people are dying.

I can't access my e-mail here, so I can't show you the e-mail (yet) I sent to Sharon's office. I can't believe the amount of people trying to spin only one side or reduce everything to harping back to the holocaust or else Arafat and Sharon while on the streets people are dying. Come protest at the Israeli embassy in Dublin 122 Pembroke Road. 8:30 this evening. And tomorrow at the Westin hotel college Green 6pm. Demand that Ireland takes a stand against the carnage.

I have been in very recent contact with Mary Kelly who is still in Nablus under difficult circumstances. People have tried to condemn her for supporting Arafat by her actions.
Mary is a nurse and her actions are to save the lives of innocent people. Those are the most imporatant 'politics' to have in times like these.

I'm reposting this piece which I sent as a comment on a very biased piece of propoganda.

-------------------------------------------------
A lot of people have been posting comments on the site, as if any criticism of Israeli war crimes is somehow an automatic and unconditional show of support for Yasser Arafat or the suicide bombers.

It has taken up a lot of people's time in replying to correct this view.
At the risk of appearing baited I'd like to say what I saw and heard from most of the people I spoke to at the 2,000 strong demo in Dublin.
I agreed with most people but there were things I didn't agree with also.

What people are really protesting about is the loss of life, not personal support of Arafat or Sharon.
Personally, I would not like to see Arafat martyred by Israel. It would only escalate the violence and further isolate the possibility for rational dialogue.
I'd like to see him peacefully replaced by a more capabale Palestinian leader. I'd like to see Sharon removed by his own people.
Both these men could then be held accountable to the people for what has happened.

Most people view with disgust the deaths of innocent Israelis in these suicide attacks.
Most people are disgusted and distressed when they get reports of innocent Palestinians being killed in cold blood by the Israeli ATTACK Force
in Operation 'Defensive Wall'.
Of course, there's a media blackout in the worst areas so when we get a call from a friend inside telling us of F-16s dropping bombs and piles of corpses being bulldozed, we are outraged that there are no pictures of this on the news.

It's terrible that people were killed in the latest bus bomb in Israel. And it's right that the TV should report it. But the lives of Palestinians are worth just as much, and if they are massacred in Jenin, the world, and the Israeli public in particular have a right to see what is done in their name.
I'm not alone in feeling that it is an extra crime to report only the casualties of your own citizens. This gives the Israeli public a distorted image of what is going on.
If we could see what has been described to me on the phone - atrocities in Bethlehem and Nablus, then more Israeli's would question the tactics used by Sharon.
When Sharon's warriors wipe out families in Jenin and one of the survivors bombs a bus in Israel, there is a very obvious cause and effect.
Both are tragic and wrong. Only one got real coverage and comment in the mainstream media.
I feel sorry for the victims of both those events. Israeli people have a right to sit on a bus without being killed. just as the Palestinians have a right not to be killed in their homes.
But if a trial were possible, one would have to consider the state of mind of the suicide bomber and the Israeli tank commander / F-16 pilot.

Sounding a little harsh and cold, look at the tactics used and how they come about.
If someone wiped out half my family using tanks or planes, I'm not sure I'd still be a sane person. I'd like to think I'd go after the person responsible and not just random people from 'their side'. But I don't have tanks or aircraft of my own to fight back with.
Bombing a bus full of people who had nothing to do with the tank hitting my house is wrong, and evil even when done by someone who may be insane with personal grief. Unfortunately the suicide bomber is dead and cannot be held accountable, or explain her actions.

Tank commanders and F-16 pilots on the other hand operate under orders. They can operate with impugnity, out of the media spotlight and are at very little risk of being killed when they take out a house full of people.
Tank shells and airforce bombs do not discriminate between terrorist and innocent Palestinians. It seems they don't have to when CNN don't get to show dead Palestinian children in the same report as dead Israeli children (lives equally valuable, deaths equally tragic)

When an Israeli family loses a member they have a trained army to respond. An army that is supposed to be able to tell the difference between a 'legitimate target' and a random innocent Palestinian. If the army simply wastes a whole block of Jenin or Ramallah, they do a disservice to their own people too. And they also fuel the cycle of hate that generates even more suicide bombers.

When some of the people inside the Palestinian house survive, it is no surprise that they become hateful of the Israeli state.
I would condemn them for not distinguishing between innocent Israeli commuters (who may even oppose Sharon) and Israeli military).
But I doubt anyone who just had their house and family blown away would listen to that argument.

How could Arafat convince someone like that not to become a suicide bomber when he can't promise that another Israeli tank won't kill more of the bombers family tomorrow?

In the sick twisted logic of bloodletting would this be considered a more 'legitimate war' if the Palestinians had an airforce and tank divisions to fight back with?
Would it make 'glossier' CNN footage? Would Francis Tusla drool over the technical comparisons of the hardware on the SKY NEWSWALL?
GET A GRIP! People are dying left right and centre and some people seem to only care only about Arafat and Sharon.

Israel should stop its offensive against the Palestinians immediately.
They would of course need to step up security at the checkpoints with the extra military, but they would not be generating as many bombers.

Israel should allow the media to report on what is really going on so everyone can see that there is no righteous victor in this conflict and that there is no justice in any of the attacks.
The Israeli people should then hold Ariel Sharon accountable for the loss of life caused by the IDF and the backlash it caused.
The Palestinians should be allowed to hold open and free elections to replace Arafat and hold him accountable for his part in the bloodbath.

Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon have failed the people of the middle east.
While people discuss the merits of these two men, scores more will perish in senselss carnage.
They should resign and let more sane and humane people decide how to deal with this.