Real aim of "Operation Defensive Shield"

by Gush Shalom

The real aim of "Operation Defensive Shield" was not to "destroy the 
infrastructure of terrorism".This was merely a good slogan for uniting the 
people of Israel, who are angry and afraid after the suicide bombings. It 
is also a good political device, allowing Sharon to ride on the bandwagon 
of President Bush's "war against international terrorism". Under the 
umbrella of "destroying the infrastructure of terrorism" one can do 
practically anything.

Four days ago I was in Ramallah. I sneaked into the town (Israelis are 
forbidden by the military commander from entering the Palestinian 
territories) in order to see it for myself. I visited the Palestinian 
ministries. A shocking sight, indeed.

Take, for example, the Palestinian Ministry of Education. It is housed in 
an imposing building, probably going back to British times, a mixture of 
neo-Classic European and oriental styles. In front of it there was a rose 
garden — "was", because a tank has crisscrossed it, for no apparent 
reason, leaving only one purple rosebush in all its glory. Just so. To 
teach them a lesson.

On the upper floor, where the archives and computers were housed, the 
destruction was total. The computers were taken apart and thrown on the 
floor, the safe blown open, the papers strewn around, the drawers empty, 
the telephones crushed.

Some of it was just plain vandalism.

The money in the safe was stolen, the furniture upturned, the papers 
dispersed.

But when one looked closer, the real aim of the operation became clear.

All the hard disks were taken from the computers, all the important files 
taken away. Only empty shells remained. All the important contents of the 
ministry were taken: the lists of pupils, examination results, lists of 
teachers, the whole logistics of the Palestinian school system.

The Ministry if Health suffered the same fate. The hard disks that 
contained all the information, state of diseases, medical tests, lists of 
doctors and nurses, the logistics of the hospitals had been taken.

Even the people most critical of the Palestinian Authority admitted that 
these two ministries — Education and Health — had been functioning well. 
They have been utterly destroyed.

This happened to virtually all the Palestinian government offices. Gone is 
the information pertaining to land registration and housing, taxes and 
government expenditure, car tests and drivers' licences, everything 
necessary for administrating a modern society.

The lists of terrorists were not hidden in the land registration books, the 
inventory of bombs was not tucked away among the list of kindergarten 
teachers.

The real aim is obvious: to destroy not only the Palestinian Authority, but 
Palestinian society itself: to push it back with one stroke from the stage 
of a modern state-in-the-making to the primitive society of Turkish times.

This is true for the civil society, and even more so for the security 
system. The headquarters of the security services were destroyed, files 
burned, computers crushed, the information concerning armed underground 
organisations and all other details pertaining to the war against terrorism 
were obliterated.

There is no better evidence of the aims of this operation: not war on 
terrorism, but destruction of organised Palestinian society.

By the way, on that day I passed, with a group of Israeli peace activists, 
through the center of Ramallah — from the mass-grave in the hospital 
parking lot to the besieged headquarters of Yasser Arafat.

We carried Hebrew posters and encountered much sympathy and not a single 
sign of hostility.

Even at this time, the Palestinians know the difference between the Israeli 
peace camp and those who are responsible for this brutal attack. Here, 
perhaps, lies the only glimmer of hope.

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Acknowledgments: Gush Shalom