The Story of Yoni Ben-Artzi

Those of you who are long time readers here, know my opinions of the Israeli army. To quote from my FAQ:

1. The IDF is the main reason that Israel continues to illegally occupy the West Bank and Gaza, and refuses to reach a just and permanent solution with the Palestinians.
2. The IDF is the key institution that undermines democracy in Israel, and perpetuates inequality and corruption in Israeli society.

There are so many stories I can tell about the corruption and cruelty of the army that I saw and experienced in my ten years of service. Tonight, I will tell just one, the story of a 20 year old boy, Yoni ben-Artzi.
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FERAS AL BAKRI - A HERO IN THE MIDST OF HORROR
By Anne Gwynne

“3 Palestinians killed and 25 injured in Nablus” say the headlines. Tells you nothing at all…

I have just come from Raffidia Hospital on the North Mountain in Nablus, formerly the most beautiful and prosperous city in the ancient, cultured and peaceful land of Palestine, where most of those 25 people were taken and where one of the injured, FERAS MABROUKI aged 21, has just died of the wounds he sustained a few hours earlier. Also under the sanitized ‘3 dead’ heading come AYMAN KAMAL abu ZANT aged 20, and MOHAMED- SAMIR TAKRURI, aged 35. All, I am told, murdered by shots to the head - all human beings with families suddenly and grievously bereaved tonight. Three more innocents murdered - three more Martyrs in Nablus.

Under a continuous, year-long, brutal, illegal military occupation, the suffering of the people of Nablus goes on day after day in ever-escalating terror inflicted upon them by what the people here can now only describe as the crazy and totally evil Jewish-Israeli soldiers. Today demonstrated that, in the most terrible fashion. The desperately injured and the dead in the Hospitals of Nablus are witnesses-without-a-voice to the murderous assault upon an innocent civilian population on a sunny, shopping-eating-laughing Sunday afternoon.
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As the world focuses on Iraq, the bodies pile up in Gaza

The question hung over the concrete rubble and twisted iron support rods, the ruined buildings where Palestinians said three young men were killed when the Israeli army demolished them this week.

Is the Israeli military taking advantage of a time when the world is not paying attention to what is going on here, when media coverage is focusing on Iraq, to step up its campaign in the occupied territories?

In the past week, while the world's press focused on the UN security council and Baghdad, the violence has suddenly surged. In six days, at least 30 Palestinians have been killed in a series of Israeli operations, chiefly in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Nablus.
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Israel divides Bethlehem with a wall of concrete, fear and suspicion

As you arrive from Jerusalem, the first street of Bethlehem, lined with old, carved limestone houses, is deserted. Where the tourists used to throng, the restaurants are boarded up. In a few months, a high concrete wall will run down the middle of this street, blocking a neighbourhood of Bethlehem from the rest of the city.
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  thanks to American Samizdat

Peace hopes sink as Sharon rules out Jerusalem deal

The Israeli prime minster, Ariel Sharon, last night further entrenched his obstacles to a peace settlement by ruling out the division of Jerusalem or the return of Palestinian refugees from negotiations.
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