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April 8, 2002
Edward
Said
The
Future of Palestine
April 7, 2002
Beth Daoud
Accompanying Ambulances
in Bethlehem
Nancy
Stohlman
After
the Invasion:
The Search for Bread
Among the Ruins
Thomas Mountain
"Yellow Peril" In Hawai'i:
Judge Orders Chains and Shackles for Chinese Witnesses
Tariq
Ali
Who
Killed Daniel Pearl?
April 6, 2002
Philip Farruggio
War, Snake Oil and Circuses
Viktor
Litovkin
Russian
Generals Raise Questions About Pentagon Victories in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
CIA Survey of Iraqi Airfields
May Herald Attack
Walt Brasch
Oil
Slick George:
Bush-whacking the Environment
Ralph Nader
Campaign Finance Sham
Sam Bahour
The
Blind Leading the Criminal
Bill Christison:
A Former CIA Official on
Oil and the Middle East
April 5, 2002
Charmaine
Seitz
In
Ramallah: The Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On
Nancy Stohlman
The Invasion of Bethlehem
and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Beth Daoud
The
Siege of Bethlehem:
"What Do You Mean God Is Punishing Me?"
Fareed Marjaee:
Demonizing Iran
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Philip
Morris to Canada:
"Drop Dead"
Alex Lynch
Tampa Campus Mirrors
Middle East Strife
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon's
Wars: How the
News Gets Through
April 4, 2002
Ray Hanania
Sharon's Latest Lie About the Church
of the Nativity
Mike Leon
Rightwing
Assault on Madison Progressives Misfires
Tom Turnipseed
Stop the Killing Now!
Nancy
Stohlman
An
American Under Siege in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Christopher Reilly
Kissinger, Chile and Justice
at Long Last?
M. Shahid
Alam
The
Lies of Thomas Friedman
April 3, 2002
Don Henley
Dear Loathsome Trade Hacks
Bernard
Weiner
An
American Jew Talks
About His Shame
David Vest
Sting of Stings
Tzaporah
Ryter
Under
Fire: an American Student in Ramallah
Gabriel Ash
America's Bravest
John Chuckman
Of
War, Islam and Israel
Robert Fisk
The Siege of Bethlehem
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Sins of the Church
April 2, 2002
Uri Avnery
Murdering Arafat?
Jeff Chang
Is
Protest Music Dead?
Lev Grinberg
Israel's State Terrorism
Norman
Madarasz
Bullying
Brazil
Robert Fisk
Farce and Terror
in Ramallah
Steve
Perry
Let's
Roll! ®:
The Marketing of Lisa Beamer
April 1, 2002
Stanton / Madsen
America's War Inc.
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
Peace
and Nuclear Disarmament: a Call to Action
Bahour / Dahan
Bloodshed in Palestine:
A Way Out
Molly
Secours
Tennessee's
Kangaroo Court
Phyllis Pollack
The Making of Exile
on Main Street
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's
Top 10 CDs
Francis Boyle
The Big Lie:
Palestine, Palestinians
and International Law
March 31, 2002
Jordan
Flaherty
Last
Night the Israeli
Military Tried to Kill Me
Kristen Schurr
Live from Bethlehem
Maha Sbitani
The
Israeli Army Took Over My House
Robert Fisk
Lies Leaders Tell When
They Want to Go to War
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
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Five
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Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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April 8, 2002
A Letter
to the IDF's Paratrooper Commander
Colonel Aviv Kohavi, How Did You
Become a War Criminal?
By Dr. Neve Gordon
To Colonel Aviv Kohavi
Brigade Commander
of the Israeli Defense Forces Paratroopers
I presume you remember me. In any event,
I remember you. We first met in the paratrooper brigade. I was
a platoon sergeant in the corporals company; you were a young
platoon officer. Even then friends of mine who were serving
with you in the same post in Lebanon related that you were a
sensible, serious, and above all decent officer.
The better part of our acquaintance occurred,
though, at Hebrew University. We were studying towards our B.A.
in Philosophy--you in preparation for a career in the military,
I as a human rights activist. During that period we had more
than one political discussion. I couldn't help but admire you.
I found you to be a thinking person, imaginative, and judicious--quite
different from the typical army officer that one meets at the
university, one who registers merely to snatch a degree and
to run off. Looking back, I believe that you really enjoyed
your studies, a number of which, it should be noted, dealt with
ethical theory.
Years have passed since we last met.
You became the paratroopers' brigade commander, I a lecturer
in the department of politics and government at Ben Gurion
University. On Thursday, March 1, 2002 I once again saw you,
not face to face, but on television. You were on the news program:
the commander of the troops that entered Balata refugee camp,
near Nablus. You solemnly explained that at that very moment
your soldiers were transmitting a forceful message to the Palestinian
terrorists: the Israeli army will hunt them down in every nook
and cranny.
In the days after the interview, news
began to trickle about what took place in the camp: prior to
the incursion the Israeli military reigned terror on the inhabitants
employing helicopters and tanks; then, Aviv, you imposed a curfew
on the camp, blew up the electric transmission lines, cutting
off electricity to 20,000 civilian inhabitants; bulldozers
ruined the water supply pipe lines. Your soldiers, Aviv, then
moved from house to house by smashing holes in the interior
walls; they destroyed furniture and other property, and riddled
bullets in water tanks on roof tops. The soldiers spread terror
on the inhabitants, most of whom were women, elderly, and children.
But that wasn't all. I learned that your
soldiers also used inhabitants as human shields. Also, in the
first few hours of the incursion the Palestinians had 120 wounded,
and that you, Aviv, refused to allow ambulances to enter and
leave the camp.
There were, of course, several battles
in the camp during the incursion; two Palestinians and one of
your soldiers were killed. You also reported that you confiscated
weapons and that your operation prevented future terrorist acts
from happening. But you totally ignored the connection between
Israeli military violence perpetrated in the Occupied Territories
and Palestinian violence in Israel, as if the incursions into
the camps and the reign of terror that you and your soldiers
imposed do not drive Israel/Palestine into a blood bath from
which none can escape.
How, Aviv, do you think that your incursion
affected the children whom you locked up for hours with other
members of their families, while you searched their house and
blasted holes through their walls? Did your incursion contribute
a smithereen to peace, or did it instead spread seeds of hatred,
despondence, and death in the crowded, poverty stricken, hopeless
refugee camp?
I have not stopped thinking about you
since that television interview, trying to understand what was
going on in your mind. What caused you to lead your soldiers
--soldiers of the paratrooper brigade -- to a war against a
civilian population?
Aviv, I am presently teaching a course
entitled "The Politics of Human Rights." One of the
topics I discuss during the semester is the intifada and its
lessons with respect to human rights. From the standpoint of
international conventions, at least, your acts in Balata constitute
blatant violations of human rights. Such acts are, in fact,
war crimes.
Aviv, what happened to the sensible and
judicious officer? How did you become a war criminal?
Dr. Neve Gordon
Department of Political Science
Ben-Gurion University
Beer Sheva, Israel
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