From: eastsidetraks@soothpark.net   
      
   "They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I   
   come, BUT I GAVE NO ONE A CHANCE. I didn't wait. I didn't give one   
   blow, and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with   
   full power, to bring it down as fast as possible. I wanted to get to   
   the other houses. To get as many as possible, I didn't give a damn   
   about the Palestinians, but I didn't just ruin with no reason. It was   
   all under orders."   
      
   Fortified by an arsenal of alcohol, Israeli occupation army bulldozer   
   driver Moshe Nissim did enjoy his work by killing hundreds of   
   Palestinian children, women and unarmed men in the Jenin camp. First   
   published in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot and since reprinted on   
   the website of the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, his testimony   
   gives a version of the barbarian and inhumane massacre that took place   
   on April 13, 2002.   
      
   "I found joy with every house that came down, because I knew they   
   didn't mind dying, but they cared for their homes. If you knocked down   
   a house, you buried 40 or 50 people for generations. If I am sorry for   
   anything, it is for not tearing the whole camp down", he says.   
      
   Nissim's army unit received a military commendation for its efforts in   
   killing Palestinians in Jenin.   
      
   During the month of March 2002, Israel launched its "Operation   
   Defensive Shield" with incursions into the seven main Palestinian   
   towns. In each incursion, Israeli troops, tanks and armored vehicles   
   entered the cities and imposed a curfew on their civilian population.   
      
   On the 3rd of April 2002 Israeli occupation forces surrounded Jenin   
   city and its refugee camp, controlled all the access roads into and   
   out the city and imposed a curfew while declaring the area as a   
   "closed military area".   
      
   Jenin camp, established in 1953, is one of 22 refugee camps in the   
   West Bank; it was the second largest refugee camp in the West Bank   
   comprising a population of about 14000 people.   
      
   Israeli forces attacked the camp using bulldozers, tanks, and apache   
   helicopters. Serious damage was done to the water, sewage and   
   electrical infrastructure of the camp; moreover the occupation   
   soldiers prevented ambulances and the medical teams from entering the   
   camp. This operation continued for about 13 days. Many civilians were   
   killed, many buildings were destroyed which housed several families,   
   and, in some cases, some of these buildings had people inside. Many   
   families were left homeless. And Israeli soldiers arrested some of the   
   camp residents.   
      
   The exact toll of the dead may never be known as many corpses may   
   still be lying under the rubble.  Moreover, witnesses mentioned   
   stories of the death of a group of people who where gathering inside   
   their homes. Initial estimates were hundreds of children, women, and   
   men.   
      
   Israeli officials tried to justify this deplorable behavior against a   
   civilian population by claiming there were about 200-armed men from   
   (Tanzeem) Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades hiding inside the camp. However,   
   the Israeli occupation army didn't take steps to avoid injury to   
   civilians; moreover they used some of them as human shields.   
      
   Till now the Israeli government still refuses to acknowledge that what   
   happened in Jenin is a Massacre. An independent forensic expert says   
   evidence suggests that a massacre has taken place. And the inhabitants   
   of the camp know too well what those 13 days were; they didn't need a   
   fact-finding mission to tell them.   
      
   Moreover, Israeli occupation forces had evacuated many other corpses   
   and buried them in the occupied territories (in the numbered "enemy"   
   cemetery) in an attempt to hide the actual number of victims in the   
   refugee camp.   
      
   The UN Security Council formed a Committee to investigate the massacre   
   but the Israeli government refused to cooperate with the Committee.   
   Upon that Israeli rejection of cooperation, then UN Secretary-General,   
   Kofi Anan, dissolved the Committee before starting its work. Thus, the   
   Israeli war criminals are still free to commit more war crimes,   
   atrocities, and human rights violations against the Palestinian   
   people, without being held accountable for their actions.   
      
   Media sources in the Middle East and Europe, and to a lesser extent   
   elsewhere in the world, had a field day. Headlines screamed   
   "Massacre", "War Crimes", "Atrocities", "Genocide" and worse.   
      
   Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations,   
   described on CNN Channel what was happening, he said "There's almost a   
   massacre now taking place in Jenin. Helicopter gun ships are throwing   
   missiles at one square kilometer packed with almost 15,000 people in a   
   refugee camp. . . . Just look at the TV and watch, watch what the   
   -what the Israel forces are doing. . . . This is a war crime, clear   
   war crime, witnessed by the whole world, preventing ambulances,   
   preventing people from being buried. I mean this is an all-out assault   
   against the whole population."   
      
   A United Nations envoy has said that the devastation left by Israeli   
   forces in Jenin is "horrific beyond belief".   
      
   Terje Roed-Larsen, who was the UN's Special Coordinator for the   
   occupied Palestinian territories, had visited the camp with Red Cross   
   and UN workers. He toured the Jenin refugee camp, and said it was   
   "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed emergency workers in   
   for 11 days to provide humanitarian relief.   
      
   Roed-Larsen said the top priority was to bring in search-and-rescue   
   teams. The only rescue efforts which were under way were residents   
   digging though the ruins looking for survivors. "It is totally   
   destroyed, it looks like an earthquake has hit it", he said. "We have   
   expert people here who have been in war zones and earthquakes and they   
   say they have never seen anything like it", he added.   
      
   While the rubble had been cleared from the Jenin camp, and the bodies   
   buried, most Palestinians felt that the stories they told have been   
   too hastily swept aside.   
      
   Four months after the fact, the UN did produce a report on the conduct   
   of the Israeli army. Based on secondary sources and internet research,   
   it did not however provide a judgment as much as a venue for Israel   
   and the Palestinians to air their opposing versions of events.   
      
   "Inevitably the report falls short of a comprehensive inquiry. We   
   found that the report was not satisfactory because it did not address   
   the issues in the depth they deserved", says Donatella Rovera of HRW.   
      
   "There has to be an investigation, and those responsible must be   
   brought to justice. The duty to investigate lies with the Israeli   
   government. The responsibility for this, failing the Israeli   
   authorities, lies with the international community."   
      
   That a follow-up never materialized surprised a few. "This is in   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)