US backs Israel's slaughter

The United States vetoed a draft UN resolution on October 5 
demanding an immediate end to the massive Israeli military thrust 
into the Gaza Strip that has claimed almost 100 lives. Eleven 
members of the 15-member Security Council voted for the 
resolution; Britain, Germany and Romania abstained.

The Arab nations that introduced the resolution had wanted a 
quick, affirmative vote on the resolution because of high 
casualties sustained by the Palestinian side, particularly 
civilians, over a period of six days  the deadliest Israeli 
incursion into Gaza in more than four years of fighting.

Nine Palestinians died on October 4 in northern Gaza, including 
four militants and a 14-year-old girl who residents said was shot 
as she baked bread with her mother in their garden. More recently 
on October 7 two 14-year-old children were killed by Israeli fire 
in the Jabalya refugee camp.

Israel has vowed to keep its troops in the area until Palestinian 
militants end rocket attacks against southern Israeli towns.

Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa told Al Jazeera that his 
leadership condemned the "rudimentary" Qassam rocket attacks by 
Palestinian militants, especially the killing of Israeli 
children.

But he said Israel had killed at least 83 Palestinians, including 
20 children, and wounded more than 350 others, using 2000 
soldiers, 100 tanks, more than 100 other armored vehicles, and 
helicopter gunships. Destruction has been heaviest in Jabalya 
refugee camp and the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit 
Lahia.

"Israel persists in committing war crimes and acts of state 
terrorism against the Palestinian people", al-Kidwa said. "There 
is no justification for this Israeli hysteria, for these 
widespread killings and deliberate destruction."

Al-Kidwa rejected Israel's assertion that the military operation 
was a justified response to the firing of two Palestinian rockets 
from Gaza that killed two children in the southern Israeli city 
of Sederot on September 29.

"Now there are hundreds of Palestinians without shelter as a 
result of that total demolition or partial demolition of their 
homes, tens of thousands without water or electricity and 
suffering from severe shortages of food and medicine, 
precipitating a genuine humanitarian tragedy", Al-Kidwa said.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on the world and the 
Israeli peace movements to take urgent action to stop the Israeli 
military's "crimes against humanity", especially in North Gaza.

Prior to the vote, a Swiss foreign ministry spokesperson had 
expressed concern about the escalation of violence in Gaza and 
called on Israel to respect international law, which prohibits 
the use of disproportionate force and reprisals against 
civilians.

Algerian UN Ambassador Abd Allah Baali said, "The Palestinian 
people are exposed to a virtual war of extermination. The 
unfettered use of brutal force is terrifying."

Prior to the vote, US Ambassador John Danforth accused the 
Security Council, as well as the 191-member General Assembly, of 
acting "as the adversary of Israel and the cheerleader of the 
Palestinians". Despite a last-minute effort by the Russian 
Federation to amend the draft to Washington's liking, Danforth 
ultimately vetoed the draft, calling it "one-sided". Since 1984, 
the US, the closest ally of Israel, had vetoed 23 draft 
resolutions condemning Israel's actions toward Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) said that while it 
strongly condemns the killing of Israeli and Palestinian 
civilians alike, it regards as "sheer hypocrisy" Ariel Sharon 
Government's attempt to exploit the deaths of civilians, 
including the two children in Sederot, "to justify the renewal of 
occupation of parts of Gaza Strip and the killing of tens of 
Palestinians, among them pupils in their school classes".

The CPI called upon "all peace lovers, Jews and Arabs, to 
denounce the crimes of occupation and to demand the immediate 
pullout of the Israeli Army from all parts of the Gaza Strip."

It said, "Security and peace can be achieved only by putting an 
end to Israeli occupation, evacuating all Israeli settlements, 
establishing a Palestinian independent state alongside Israel, 
establishing two capitals in Jerusalem, and solving the 
Palestinian refugees' question according to UN resolutions."

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People's Weekly World