This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Israel steps up attacks on Palestine; resistance grows

by MC17

Israel is providing the world with a clear example of terrorism, and using U.$. military aid to do so. The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli offensive which has now gone on for 17 months rose to over 1000 people in mid-February. Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip with u.$.-supplied jets and helicopters have caused widespread destruction in civilian areas.(1) For example, on February 17, Israeli helicopters attacked military and civilian targets in Nablus. In addition to the police headquarters they targeted an official guesthouse, a medical clinic and a guesthouse.(3)

The same day Israeli bulldozers demolished a road that links Nablus to the West Bank and the water networks in Nablus. Military roadblocks continue to be imposed on cities throughout the West Bank and Gaza, along with sporadic military attacks by occupying troops and frequent home searches and arrests.(3) Throughout February Israeli occupation forces made wide-scale military incursions into Nablus, Halhoul, Tamoun, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoon, and Dir Al Balah, invading these towns with tanks and infantry, raiding Palestinian houses and arresting dozens of residents. In just one week in February Israeli troops killed seven and arrested dozens of Palestinians.(4) One quarter of the Palestinians killed in the past 17 months were children and 85% were civilians.(1) Meanwhile the occupation continues to kill Palestinian civilians by refusing them access to medical care. Recently a woman from Rafah died when Israeli forces at roadblocks kept her from getting to a hospital.(2)

Israeli soldiers refuse service

In a growing publicized movement to oppose the genocide in Palestine, over 250 members of the Israeli Defense Forces have signed a statement refusing to serve in the war against the Palestinian people. In a country where military service is compulsory, the numbers of soldiers refusing to serve are small. But they reflect a correct position from within the oppressor nations to oppose the occupation and refuse complicity.

The statement from the IDF soldiers is a strong condemnation of the attacks on the Palestinian people. "We, who have been issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people; "We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides; "We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF's human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society; "We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end; "We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements. "We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. "We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense. "The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose - and we shall take no part in them."(5)

MIM applauds this strong stance of resistance. The expansion of Israeli settlements and other provocations in the West Bank and Gaza strip undermine the peace and security of all peoples in the region -- not to mention the world, seeing as Israel has atomic weapons and has threatened to use them in the past.(7) That just goes to show that the IDF is part of the problem, and should be broken with, as it serves the interests of Israeli finance capital and its big Amerikan friends. Total aid from the U.$. to Israel is about $3 billion per year, of which Israel is expected to spend $1.9 billion on U.$. military products. That makes Israel the largest recipient of U.$. aid in the world.(6)

Notes:
1. The Palestine Monitor, A PNGO Information Clearinghouse Information Brief, 14 February 2002
2. PCHR For complete details regarding Israeli violations against Palestinian civilians in in the period 07- 13 February 2002, see http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/200 2/14-02-2002.htm
3. Karma Abu-Sharif , Feb 17, 2002.
4. February 17, 2002 Press Release LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment http://www.lawsociety.org
5. The complete text of the statement from the IDF soldiers can be found at http://seruv.nethost.co.il/defaultEng.asp 6. Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 18, 1999. 7. "Israel threatened to use nuclear weapons, and in fact prepared to do so, in the early stages of the October 1973 war, in order to compel the U.S. to provide a 'massive shipment of conventional weapons' to Israel." Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle, Cambridge: South End Press, 1999, p. 466.