According to Israeli radio stations, the Israeli army recently destroyed the houses of two Palestinian suicide bombers on the West Bank, captured dozens of their relatives and prepared to deport them to Gaza. Deportation of the families of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip will lower the motivation of potential suicide bombers to carry out attacks due to fears for the future of their families, a senior Israeli security officer said.
However, this behavior has alarmed world opinion and aroused much criticism. What’ s more, people are wondering whether this policy can really work? Can it bring security to Israel or create a new situation?
A leading Kuwait newspaper Alqabas quoted Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Sha’ath as saying that the Israeli policy is a “war crime” against international law. Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Abdulrahman condemned this as a “racial crime.” UN Secretary General Kofi Annan openly warned the Israeli government not to impose collective punishment on the Palestinians. The European Union also expressed its disagreement by saying it was neither legal nor acceptable.
Looking back over the past two years of bloody conflict, it is hard to count how many collective punishments Israel has imposed on the Palestinians. If someone set a bomb at the roadside, those in the vicinity over a large area were rooted out, ignoring the livelihood needs of those Palestinians. If someone opened fire at Israeli troops from a house, the surrounding constructions would also be razed without caring about the innocence of these civilians. During the conflict, more than 2,000 innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed, over 3 million Palestinians have suffered from blockade, segregation as well as unemployment, and most have not been participants in the conflict.
In so doing, countless fruit trees, fields as well as houses turned out to be the revenge targets of Israeli army, innumerable families were left homeless because of some group’s behavior. The mood of the Palestinians is getting more and more desperate, their outrage is becoming more and more hostile, extreme and radical sentiment is winning over a bigger area, thus worsening the Israeli security environment and leading to more precious lives being lost in suicide bombings.
Radical Palestinians’ suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians is wanton slaughter and certainly should be condemned worldwide. However, the deportation policy of Israeli government is also excessive use of violence, which can only force the Palestinians into a corner. As a government policy, radical actions only result in more violence instead of achieving the security they expected, and damages Israeli international image.
Military repression cannot conquer people’s will, violence can only serve as a plague on peace, occupation cannot buy security, and killing will only deepen rancor, commented a report of the official Chinese Xinhua News Agency.
Hostility only invites more enemies. Countless iron facts and bloody teaching shows that seeking revenge, collective punishment, meeting violence with violence do not work and only lead to a vicious circle of violence. On the contrary, showing restraint, looking to the future, awakening a belief in peace by tolerance and adopting concrete measures to reduce a hostile mood, is the only real efficient guarantee for Israeli security, added the report.
( china.org.cn by Zheng Guihong, July 30, 2002 )
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