A PALESTINIAN teenager from occupied East Jerusalem was kidnapped and killed early on Wednesday in revenge for the killing of three Israeli settler youth near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Footage from surveillance cameras shows Israelis stepping out of a Hyundai in front of Abu Khdeir’s house and forcing the teen inside before speeding off.
Several hours after the three settlers were buried on Tuesday, around 200 Israelis rampaged through Jerusalem, stopping cars and shouting ‘Death to Arabs’.
Since the deaths of the three settlers, there have already been more than 50 air attacks on Gaza City, and up to 600 Palestinians have been arrested in Israeli army raids on the West Bank.
So far seven Palestinians have been killed, and hundreds have been wounded. This adds to the hundreds of Palestinians who have been in jail for many years and who were recently on hunger strike.
There is every reason for believing that many more Palestinians will meet the same fate at the hands of the Israeli occupiers in the days ahead – unless the occupation is ended.
Meanwhile, Hebron has been put under martial law. The Palestinian mayor of Hebron has urged the citizens of Hebron to ‘refrain from all but essential movement’ in the city.
He explained that the city is experiencing a ‘complete shutdown’ as a result of ‘occupying forces deployed on the streets and in the surrounding towns and villages’.
He remarked that this ‘Israeli escalation’ has ceased internal movements between the north and south of Hebron, and likened the situation to a ‘military curfew’.
Israeli occupying forces have already used explosives to demolish the houses of Marwan al-Qwasimah and Amar Abu-Ayshah, both of whom are ‘accused by Israel of involvement in the kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli settlers’. They have declared the area a ‘closed military zone and prevented entry to anyone including the media’.
Hundreds of Israeli settlers from the Kiryat Arba settlement marched towards the centre of Hebron chanting slogans calling for revenge against Palestinians in retaliation for the death of the three settlers.
Violent clashes were also reported in the city of Halhul, north of Hebron, near to where the three settlers’ bodies were discovered. Local youths bombarded Israeli forces with stones and bottles. Israeli forces responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
However, the responsibility for all of the killings in Palestine lies with the occupation which has lasted since 1967, that is for 47 years. In that time, many thousands of Palestinians have been killed, wounded, injured or jailed.
In all that time, the Palestinians have exercised their right to resist the occupation. The Israeli ruling class have responded by repeated invasions of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and by imposing army-backed terror on the Palestinian people.
The Israeli government’s collapsing of the recent ‘peace process’ has brought the situation to the highest point of contradiction. The peace talks collapsed when Israel refused to end settlement building and insisted that any Palestinian state would have to have Israeli troops stationed at its various entry and exit points.
As well, the Israeli government insisted that Israel would not only have to be recognised, but would have to be recognised as a Jewish state, meaning that all non-Jews are guests.
The response of the Palestinians was to insist that the Hamas and Fatah movements unite to establish a national unity government. This has driven the Israeli leaders into a frenzy. They are determined to prevent such a government by any means.
They now require that Israel should have the right of veto over who is to be in the Palestinian government! It is this that has brought the situation to the point of explosion.
UK workers and trade unions must hold massive demonstrations in support of the Palestinians. They must demand that the national unity government be recognised worldwide as the government of Palestine and that Israel must end the occupation at once.
Workers and trade unions must also impose a 100% blockade of Israel until this happens!
