[Peace-discuss] Israel's offensive in a Gaza

[Chuck Minne]

Gaza demolitions cruel
 
Israeli cabinet minister: Lapid says images remind him of his grandmother, who was killed by Nazis
 AP
Monday, May 24, 2004
A Palestinian boy sits against a mosque wall bearing posters of Palestinian leaders and people killed during an Israeli army operation in the Rafah camp.CREDIT: KEVIN FRAYER, AP

 


Causing an uproar, an Israeli cabinet minister and Holocaust survivor said yesterday that Israel's offensive in a Gaza refugee camp, including TV images of displaced Palestinians searching the rubble for their meagre belongings, brought back memories of his family's suffering.

The comments by Justice Minister Yosef Lapid reflected a growing debate in Israel over the justification for a campaign that has left 41 Palestinians dead, destroyed dozens of homes, drawn international condemnation and yielded just one arms-smuggling tunnel.

Later, Lapid said he was not likening army actions to Nazi policies but was simply moved to remember his grandmother, who was killed by the Nazis. "If I wanted to say Holocaust, I would have said Holocaust," Lapid told the radio.

But cabinet colleagues were infuriated, saying that the analogy was clear.

"The comparison, maybe hinted or even unintentional, between the systematic murder of the Jews by the Germans and the army's operations in Gaza ... is not a legitimate analogy," Health Minister Dan Naveh told Army Radio.

The army says the six-day-old offensive - the biggest in Gaza in years - is crucial for stopping weapons smuggling between Egypt and Gaza's Rafah refugee camp. With all other access to Gaza sealed, tunnels are the only way to bring in weapons.

Some critics said the offensive makes little sense from a military standpoint, however. Others questioned why Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved it even though he is pushing for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The outrage has focused on home demolitions in Rafah, most along an Israeli military buffer zone between Egypt and the camp. The army now says it wants to widen the road even further, to 300 metres along the 10-kilometre route to make it harder to dig tunnels. Ninety tunnels have been found and destroyed since the violence began more than three years ago, according to the Israeli Since the outbreak of fighting in 2000, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been displaced by house demolitions along the road, part of the military's attempt to widen it.military, though only one has been discovered during the offensive that began Tuesday.

Military sources confirmed yesterday that the plan would require the demolition of some 700 to 2,000 Palestinian homes. Israel's attorney general has vetoed the idea, saying it would not hold up in local or international courts.

The military says troops are only demolishing houses used as cover by gunmen or smugglers. Even so, in the past 10 days, dozens more homes have been razed or damaged, leaving 1,650 Palestinians without a roof over their heads, according to UN estimates.

During a cabinet discussion yesterday, Lapid, 71, who is leader of the centrist Shinui party, called for a halt in the demolitions, saying the practice was cruel and hurting Israel's image. The justice minister said TV images from Rafah reminded him of the suffering of his own family.

"I am talking about an old woman on all fours looking for her medicine in the rubble of her home, and I thought about my grandmother," he told Army Radio.

A native of the former Yugoslavia, Lapid spent part of the Second World War in the Budapest ghetto and lost many relatives, including one grandmother and his father, in the Holocaust. Many Israelis have relatives who perished in the Nazi genocide, and using the issue in political debate, however heated, is considered taboo.

Lapid's criticism went well beyond the television images. The army's plan to widen the patrol road - even at the cost of demolishing some 2,000 more homes - "makes me sick," Lapid said. "We look like monsters in the eyes of the world."

Lapid, perhaps Sharon's most important coalition partner, said he would not quit the government over the dispute.

A growing chorus of commentators have raised other questions, saying the goals of the mission are unclear. Some analysts said a key motive was revenge - 13 soldiers have been killed in recent fighting in Gaza. Others said Israel is trying to send a message of deterrence to the Palestinians ahead of a withdrawal.

"What is more disturbing to a lot of people is not the dissent, but confusion over what the point of the whole thing is," said Mark Heller of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Also yesterday, three members of Hamas were killed while handling explosives, Palestinian security sources said. The men had pulled their car up alongside an abandoned vehicle used to store their explosives, and the storage vehicle blew up while one of the Hamas members was handling materials inside.

Witnesses said the men had rushed to scene after police attempted to clear out the area due to suspicions about the abandoned vehicle. They said the men were hastily trying to gather the explosives when the blast occurred.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2004




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