'Israelis must suffer like us'
2006-07-20 08:33
Dheisheh - "I want the Israelis to suffer like us," said Palestinian refugee Khalil Abulaban, his eyes ablaze as northern Israel cowered under a deadly hail of Hezbollah rocket attacks.
"We have been suffering for 50 years, they for just two weeks," said the 58-year-old, whose teenage daughter was killed by Israeli fire in a first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which raged between 1987 and 1993.
Exhausted by years of Israeli domination and bloody incursions, few in the Dheisheh refugee camp of Bethlehem, one of 19 camps dotting the Palestinian territories and home to 12 000 people, were moved by the Israelis' plight.
No empathy
"People are ashamed to say it, but some of us feel happy to see the Jews suffering," under the Lebanese militia's rockets, admitted Fuad Sbaih, 45, who fixes cars in a local workshop.
"I'm 53 years old and I've never seen any kind of empathy from the Israelis towards me," said Hassan Najjar, an employee of the UN refugee agency UNRWA.
"For years they've been killing us, demolishing our homes, they are stopping us from feeding our families," said Najjar, whose two teenage sons were jailed by Israel two and four years ago for membership of a Palestinian militant group.
"They treat us like that all the time," agreed 25-year-old Ketaya Ibrahim.
"Our neighbours' house was demolished by the Israeli army at the beginning of the second intifada in 2000 because they wanted access to the building next door.
"I feel afraid all the time," she said.
Sharpening rage against Israel
Almost 100 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched a fierce campaign in the Gaza Strip to secure the release of a soldier captured three weeks ago and stop rocket attacks into Israel.
Looking north to Lebanon - where more than 320 people have been killed in over a week of relentless strikes by Israeli aircraft, artillery and warships - only sharpens the Palestinians' rage against Israel.
"The Israeli children are in their shelters drinking milk - they are safe. But then you see that Lebanese children are bleeding, who should you be assisting?" asked Abulaban.
"Can't the world see what they are doing in Lebanon? They're turning the world upside down for three soldiers," charged Najjar.
Israel dealing with 'terrorist' threats
Israel has vowed to pursue its deadly twin offensive - sparked by the capture of one soldier by Palestinian militants and two by Hezbollah guerrillas - with no time-limit until it has dealt with both "terrorist" threats.
"Israel is not threatened with destruction, today or before," Najjar charged.
"This could have been solved around a cup of coffee - there's no need to destroy Beirut."
"The leaders of Israel should be wise men, but those we see now in power are tough people," agreed 60-year-old Abu Fuad, taking shelter from the midday sun outside a convenience store.
"If they were wise they would sit down and negotiate with the Arabs."
'We are with Hezbollah, Osama bin Laden
Incensed by the heavy death toll in Gaza and Lebanon, Abulaban described a single struggle against the "Zionist" enemy, linking Palestinian militants with the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon and even the al-Qaeda network.
"Everybody who supports Zionists is my enemy. We are with Hezbollah, (Hezbollah head Hassan) Nasrallah, (al-Qaeda leader) Osama bin Laden - it's the same fight."
US 'the mother of terrorists'
"America wants a strong Israel and supports Israel killing Arabs - the United States is the mother of terrorists in the world," he charged.
But as two Arab-Israeli children died on Wednesday in a rocket attack on the town of Nazareth, raising to 15 the Israeli civilian death toll from a week of cross-border fighting, others called for an end to the spiral of violence.
Sympathy
"I feel sympathy for the Israelis and for the Lebanese. They're all human beings and victims of their governments," said Mazan Farraj, a 30-year-old taxi driver.
"Many people here think this way - I don't like revenge."
Shaking his head sadly, Fuad agreed: "We don't feel good to see Israelis hiding in their shelters. War brings harm and destruction to all sides."
- AFP