[GushShalomPress] Sharon answers cease-fire offer with carnage

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press release, Tuesday July 23
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Sharon answers cease-fire offer with carnage
Rabin-Pelosof resigns from the government
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Less than twenty-four hours ago, the Hamas leader Sheikh Ahamad Yassin made an 
unprecedented public call for a cease-fire with Israel. That call was the 
culmination of long, patient negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and 
the Hamas leadership, aimed at achieving a ceasefire between the Palestinians 
and Israel, putting an end to suicide bombings and paving the way to a 
resumption of some kind of political process
Saudi Arabia, too, is known to have made direct approaches to the Hamas leaders 
in order to achieve the same result.  
A  government of Israel  caring even a little bit for the well-being of its own 
citizens would have welcomed the opening. Not so the Sharon Government, whose 
response was to send an F-16 fighter plane on a bombing spree in Gaza. The  
effect of attempting to assassinate a senior Hamas leader was a carnage whose 
victims included many women and children. 
Now, instead of offers of ceasefire the Hamas leadership is coming out with 
calls for revenge, which seems to suit Sharon much better. It is the PM, with 
his endless string of provocations, who bears the responsibility for this 
missed opportunity of ending the cycle of bloodshed.

Deputy Defence Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelosof resigned this evening, charging the 
Sharon government with destroying the life work of the late Yitzchak Rabin, her father. 

For more information: 
Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson
+972-3-5565804 / +972-56-709603 / +972-56-709604 


[We just received the following from George Rishmawi who lives under curfew in Beit 
Sahour]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"abunimir" <abunimir at yahoo.com>
Date sent:      	Mon, 22 Jul 2002 23:51:51 -0000
Subject:        	[pcraddressbook] Israeli terrorist airstrike kills 12 in Gaza

[Gaza, on Tuesday July 23, 2002]

Israeli F-16 fighters attacked a residential area to the east of the 
Al Yarmouk area in Gaza a couple of hours ago killing 12 Palestinian 
civilians and injuring more than 130, children, women, and old 
people among them.  Israeli newspaper Haaretz says that Sheikh Salah 
Shehadeh (one of Hamas leaders) has been killed in the attack.  Al 
Jazeera TV said that Shehadeh's wife and three of his children have 
also been killed in the same attack among the 12 dead.

This terrorist attack comes hours after Hamas's leader Sheikh Ahmad 
Yassin's declaration about the intention of Hamas to stop its 
military attacks in Israel if Israel withdraws from the Palestinian 
areas.  (Some Palestinian sources say that Sheikh Salah Shehadeh is 
still alive.)

Israeli and Palestinian officials met and there was a talk about 
withdrawing from two re-occupied cities if things will be quiet in 
the coming 24 hours or so.  Now Israel assasinates a Hamas leader 
and Hamas is threatening to revenge.  Thus, there will be no 24 
hours of no attacks.  This means that there will be no withdrawal 
from the cities.

I think the message is clear by now.  Israel wants to keep provoking 
the Palestinians so they keep their occupation alive in the midst of 
an American blessing for every Israeli crime against the Palestinians 
under the excuse of fighting terrorism.

If what Palestinians are doing is terrorism, then Israel has to be 
blamed for creating it.  The occupation is the maker of its 
and our suffering, therefore Occupation has to stop so that both 
peoples can live in peace.

	----
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