Israeli Occupation of Palestine

international | miscellaneous | feature Saturday June 08, 2002 21:20 by IMC Editorial Group - IMC Ireland

Internment, refuseniks, and extra-judicial executions - the 'Troubles' in the Middle-East

The situation in Palestine has become more and more extreme in the last couple of weeks. Reports are emerging regularly which detail the use of mass internment against Palestinian civilians living in refugee camps. Many Israelis and foreign observers have been taken aback at the dark symbolism of reports of internees having numbers printed on their skin.

Meanwhile the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the targeting of Palestinian militants for extra-judicial executions continues despite the arrival of an American peace envoy. A series of shocking photographs of such a killing have been relesed in the last few days. It is all depressingly reminiscent of events in Northern Ireland during the early days of the 'troubles'.

IMC Israel is an excellent source of detailed on-the-ground reports of events as they unfold and shows that the Israeli support for the murderous military campaign against the Intifada is anything but monolithic. Up to 250 Israeli Army Reservists have refused to serve beyond the 1967 borders. Objectors are ending up in Israeli prisons as a result of their protests. Another 2,795 Israeli civilians have declared their support for the Reservists on a second strongly worded document that said: "Since we understand that the missions of occupation and oppression do not serve Israel's defense, we express our solidarity with all those who refuse to engage in them."

Perhaps the most disturbing reports are those which indicate that a large proportion of Israels Jewish citizens are in favour of some kind of ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories.

Reports from IMC Palestine are also regularly posted on the site.

Background information and ongoing analysis of the situation can be found in the Middle East Watch section of Znet