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Last update - 10:16 27/02/2008
The breakthrough that did not happen
By Amira Hass
Tags: gaza, israel, IDF

For an entire day, the Israel Defense Forces raised the level of hysteria in Israel by announcing they were preparing for the possibility that thousands of Gazans would try to break through the checkpoints. It is easy now for the army to say that the breakthrough did not occur only because of the warnings that Hamas would be held responsible for the blood that would be shed. But anyone who is attentive to the Palestinians as an occupied people rather than as "an intelligence objective" (which openly provided the information that women and children would demonstrate against the siege on Monday), was aware they did not have a plan to topple the barriers at the Erez and Karni crossing points.

The well-publicized army preparations had a racist subtext: Look how Hamas is prepared to send children and women to absorb the bullets. In other words, Hamas is indifferent to people's lives and can also set them in motion like pawns. But even the youngsters who two days ago threw stones at the Erez checkpoint walls, thus putting themselves in danger of being shot at and hit by the IDF, and who were arrested, did not do so because someone had "sent" them. In contrast to Israel, the Palestinians do not have compulsory military service. Everyone who puts himself in danger of dying in what appears to him and his society as the national struggle against the occupation, does so not because "the state" obliges him to do so and sends him but rather because that is what he chooses to do.

A young man from Beit Hanoun told me on the eve of the "breakthrough" that wasn't: "We know the army will shoot to kill, and that is why no one will take the risk." Only on Saturday, his relative, Mohammed Za'anin, aged 22, and two of his friends had been killed by an IDF missile. The IDF, of course, claimed they had been armed. An independent examination revealed that the three friends from their high school days - one a student, another a policeman and the third a bank employee - had gone out to smoke a narghile together and to prepare a late lunch for themselves and some friends in a hut in the shade of a field, about 1.2 km from the border.
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It is not only the events of Monday that prove the hysteria was premature. Day after day, the checkpoints in the heart of the occupied West Bank prove that the Palestinians are forgoing, meanwhile, the option of a popular unarmed struggle against the siege. They wait in their masses for their turn to cross over, obediently - but with controlled and growing anger. They do not remove the hundreds of roadblocks that the IDF has set up between the villages and at the exits to the roads. That is because they are not suicidal. The Palestinians do not need warnings or reports to know the Israeli soldiers shoot the unarmed as well, and they also kill women and children.

The correct question is not whether and how the Palestinians are prepared to be killed but rather to what extent we Israelis are prepared to kill. The question is, if and when the Palestinians decide to claim their right to freedom of movement and to break through checkpoints en masse, will the order be to shoot at them with guns? First at their legs and then at their heads? Women, elderly people and babies? Or perhaps with cannons? And how many soldiers will not obey the order? Two, three or hundreds? Is there a quorum for the number of people who can be killed in one go, at the road blocks, that will extricate Israeli society from its indifference and its denial? Five or six? Hundreds of dead?
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  1.   AMIRA How do you know? They never ever tried it. 10:37  |  PETER SM 27/02/08
  2.   Cold Blooded Murder 10:41  |  Walid 27/02/08
  3.   Non-violence not an end in itself 10:41  |  Truth 27/02/08
  4.   They DO suicide bomb...peaceful struggle `d be suicide? Do it!!! 10:54  |  Alain 27/02/08
  5.   WALID.This is not happenning in a vacuum but with regular Qassams 11:05  |  PETER SM 27/02/08
  6.   Amira Hass Is Legitimising ArabPal Terror In Particular 11:13  |  Joseph . E 27/02/08
  7.   "TRUTH"Overwhelming majority of Pal targets Israeli civillians 11:15  |  PETER SM 27/02/08
  8.   Nelson Mandela would agree with Amira 11:32  |  Nick Ferriman 27/02/08
  9.   ah! Amira! 11:42  |  adam harishon 27/02/08
  10.   WHAT DOES G-D REQUIRE OF PALS AND STRANGERSRS 11:43  |  Bill 27/02/08
  11.   The correct question is ? 11:57  |  Joe Sittizen 27/02/08
  12.   FERIMAN .Mandela would? Does he know you speak for him? 12:02  |  PETER SM 27/02/08
  13.   No state, no loyalty describes Gaza to a T 12:43  |  MaryRose 27/02/08
  14.   Wishful thinking 12:43  |  Said 27/02/08
  15.   Peter SM 12:47  |  Walid 27/02/08
  16.   A feeble attempt to justify 13:26  |  Mark Lincoln 27/02/08
  17.   # 12 Peter SM 13:27  |  Nick Ferriman 27/02/08
  18.   Peter is selective 13:31  |  Joshua 27/02/08
  19.   Joe Sittizen 13:36  |  Walid 27/02/08
  20.   Reply to Nick Ferriman 13:41  |  Barry 27/02/08
  21.   amira as is normal puts the cart before the horse 13:46  |  victor hardman 27/02/08
  22.   Said 13:49  |  Walid 27/02/08
  23.   # 7 Peter SM 13:50  |  Nick Ferriman 27/02/08
  24.   Said,Arab wish list can`t include dissolving Jewish state 13:51  |  Sam 27/02/08
  25.   Amira: Israelis are not soft enough 14:03  |  Boris 27/02/08
  26.   Palestinan rights 14:19  |  Charlie 27/02/08
  27.   Haaretz Voice of Israel`s destruction 14:21  |  Lisa 27/02/08
  28.   #10 Bible Bill 14:24  |  Baal 27/02/08
  29.   # 20 Barry 14:31  |  Nick Ferriman 27/02/08
  30.   to nick ferriman 14:43  |  adam.harishon 27/02/08
  31.   The Movement is Unstoppable 14:57  |  Yaakov Sullivan 27/02/08
  32.   Dear Nick 15:07  |  Barry 27/02/08
  33.   For most of us, are palestinians human beings,? 15:15  |  ana 27/02/08
  34.   Replace ?peace? with strength and determination. 15:20  |  Jean Van Daem 27/02/08
  35.   A downhill slide 15:37  |  Prof. David 27/02/08
  36.   Jean Van Daem as Israel`s new protestant saviour 15:39  |  Yaakov Sullivan 27/02/08
  37.   #24 Sam 15:43  |  Boycott 27/02/08
  38.   #25 Borris, Amira says Yours is Too Hard! 15:45  |  Magnify 27/02/08
  39.   adam harishon on typical anti-semitic propaganda 15:52  |  Yaakov Sullivan 27/02/08
  40.   Yaakub Sullivan full of it 16:01  |  Suzanne 27/02/08
  41.   bush said (and i believe everything he sais) 16:36  |  triska TORONTO 27/02/08
  42.   What would we do without AMIRA? 16:38  |  Gil 27/02/08
  43.   Boycott- The wall is defence,not final settlement 16:40  |  Sam 27/02/08
  44.   What would we do without AMIRA? 16:41  |  Gil 27/02/08
  45.   Said, best posting yet. 16:42  |  Abu Yusuf 27/02/08
  46.   PREVENTING DEMO "By All IDF Means" is COLONIAL CRIME #2 16:44  |  ALL 4 PEACE 27/02/08
  47.   PREVENTING DEMO "By All IDF Means" is COLONIAL CRIME #3 16:46  |  ALL 4 PEACE 27/02/08
  48.   Walid, hate teaching is the issue 16:51  |  Abu Yusuf 27/02/08
  49.   32. dear barry. i hope u don`t offend self if i 16:56  |  triska TORONTO 27/02/08
  50.   "Innocent" Palestinian policeman 17:05  |  Victor 27/02/08
  51.   very true... 17:13  |  ravi 27/02/08
  52.   Israel BROKE a BARRIER that SEPARATES HUMANITY from PARIAH STATES 17:24  |  Normalcy vs Zealotry 27/02/08
  53.   PREVENTING DEMO "By All IDF Means" is COLONIAL CRIME #1 17:28  |  ALL 4 PEACE 27/02/08
  54.   # 30 Adam Harishon 17:37  |  Nick Ferriman 27/02/08
  55.   Truth#2 - there was never a 100% unarmed group 17:39  |  William 27/02/08
  56.   Palestinian rights 17:42  |  William 27/02/08
  57.   try the other shoe on Emira 17:46  |  Sham Onu 27/02/08
  58.   Walid#23 - response to Said 17:47  |  William 27/02/08
  59.   # 32 Barry 17:48  |  Nick Ferriman 27/02/08
  60.   Boycott#37 - The answer is simple 17:53  |  William 27/02/08
  61.   You are exactly wrong, Amira Hass 17:59  |  jj 27/02/08
  62.   COURAGE NEC PLUS ULTRA 18:15  |  Mohamed Malleck 27/02/08
  63.   TO THE CONTRARY 18:16  |  Stephen Connor 27/02/08
  64.   ANOTHER WILD IMAGINATION FROM ME 18:16  |  indrajaya 27/02/08
  65.   Abu Yusuf 18:22  |  Stephen Connor 27/02/08
  66.   Suicide is just what the "Palestinians" need 18:23  |  Eliezar 27/02/08
  67.   #40 Susan and Yaakov Sullivan bashing 18:24  |  Yaakov Sullivan 27/02/08
  68.   #14 Said another arab zionist apologist 18:31  |  Yaakov Sullivan 27/02/08
  69.   William - A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE 18:32  |  Stephen Connor 27/02/08
  70.   breakthrough 18:38  |  goldie klugman 27/02/08
  71.   Indrajaya - you are mistaken 18:42  |  Stephen Connor 27/02/08
  72.   Eliezar 18:44  |  Stephen Connor