Press release, Tuesday July 23
Sharon answers cease-fire offer with carnage
Rabin-Pelosof resigns from the government
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.
Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
For Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
French available at request
Also on the site:
photo's - of action or otherwise informative
the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
(and a lot more)
http://www.gush-shalom.org
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Palestinian life under occupation, reports and letters at: http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
Why are the volunteer international observers important? Because the United Nations didn't send its protection force. Information about the International Solidarity Movement - and how to support it in different ways - at http://www.palsolidarity.org/