The IDF's shooting range (Gaza)

[Aidoneus]

The IDF's shooting range
By Gideon Levy

It sometimes seems the Gaza Strip has become the central shooting range of the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF's firing zone and training field. The weapons in use there are of dubious legality, the rules of engagement lack the element of restraint, and punitive measures that Israel would not conceive of inflicting in the West Bank are par for the course, in a region that produces far less terrorism than the West Bank.

--snip--

The Gaza Strip and the West Bank have always been differentiated in the Israeli consciousness. Whereas Ramallah and Bethlehem are considered cities inhabited by people, Gaza has always been portrayed as a "nest of terrorists." The fact that nearly 1.5 million people live there, among them farmers and intellectuals, merchants and craftsmen, religious and secular people - just like anywhere else - has been deliberately distorted here. Try to tell an Israeli that the beaches of the Gaza Strip are among the most beautiful in the Middle East and that the majority of the Gazans are cordial, especially warm people. Who will believe that? The demonization to which Gaza has been subjected, going back to the period before the occupation, has made it possible to behave differently there. Just as in the Israeli-occupied areas of Lebanon, which were remote and where almost everything was allowed, the occupation of Gaza, too, has always been marked by a sense of anarchy, dating back to the operations carried out there by Ariel Sharon and Meir Dagan (the current head of the Mossad) in the 1970s.

--snip--

The streets of Rafah resemble the set of a violent war movie. It's the Grozny of Gaza. To date, Israel has demolished hundreds of homes, including 40 in one day two weeks ago. The declared pretext - the arms- smuggling tunnels from Sinai - can't justify destruction on this scale. The IDF would never dare carry out demolitions of this scope in the West Bank. Suffice it to recall how Jenin became a worldwide symbol two years ago, in Operation Defensive Shield. In Rafah the suffering is greater than in Jenin, but no one takes an interest. There are hardly any foreign correspondents there, and of course no Israeli journalists. It's not by chance that peace activists Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall and the cameraman James Miller were killed there.

It's there that Israel renews its arsenal, too. The miniature black steel darts that scattered in every direction in September 2002, in the vineyard of the Hagin family, killing a mother, two sons and their cousin who were picking grapes, were semi-flechette shells - an illegal antipersonnel weapon generally fired from tanks. At least twice the IDF used the destructive shell, whose scattered darts I saw stuck in the sides of buildings a great distance from the place where the family members were killed. The IDF has not dared to use flechette shells in the West Bank. Similarly, the bombing of population centers from the air has been authorized on a number of occasions in Gaza. The air force, even under the command of the unrestrained Major General Dan Halutz, would not have the temerity to drop a half-ton bomb on a crowded residential area in Ramallah. But it's okay in Gaza, as in the liquidation of Hamas activist Saleh Shehadeh in July 2002 with a one-ton bomb.

--snip--

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/394153.html

[number6]

1. Reckless homicide on the part of the IDF

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