Eyewitness Report from Ramallah
14 December 2001
Eyewitness Report from Ramallah
STRIKES BY ISRAELI HELICOPTERS, PLANES AND TANKS ENDANGER PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Israeli troops moved into Ramallah early Thursday morning. The re-occupation of Ramallah included the neighborhoods of Tel Anabta and A-Tira. Other reliable reports indicate that Israeli attacks are not unerring as an Israeli missile crashed into the Ramallah Friends School and caused significant physical damage to the building.
A Partners for Peace contact sent the following report from occupied Ramallah.
“Today on Dec. 13th I would frankly say there’s no way to any place. All roads are completely closed since more than two weeks. Now we are under an Israeli military curfew. Nobody is allowed to go to school, work or shop. As I’m writing right now there’s a huge Israeli tank in front of my bedroom window. Another two tanks are opposite our home on the main street. Yesterday there was no electricity all morning. Also, a bullet broke our neighbor’s (in the same building) window, thanks God nobody was hurt. Till now we don’t know from where the bullet came.
At night, from 1:00 a.m. to the sunrise we didn’t have any sleep. Military airplanes and tanks shot and bombed all around to terrify the people. Two very loud bombs were heard. Now the Israeli soldiers are on the roof of our neighbors’ building. People don’t have enough food. They try to share together. We have moved the computer from my sister’s bedroom to the saloon because it seems safer. It’s all a Collective Punishment Procedure to let us all feel INSECURE.
In fact, my little story isn’t a unique story. Three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip face the same things. Thousands have much more dramatic stories and lost lives in the midst of all this.”
Israel’s current actions raise three serious concerns:
1. Collective punishment of the sort Israel is carrying out now is prohibited by international law. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 states, “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or terrorism are prohibited.”
2. US law prohibits the use of US-supplied weapons against civilian populations.
3. Israel’s occupation and settlement of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem is in contravention of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
