Assassination
of Sheikh Yassin
By Chris Marsden
23 March 2004
World Socialist Website
Israels
assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual head of the Palestinian
Islamic militant group Hamas, is calculated to escalate the conflict
on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is a desperate and criminal effort
by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to create the most favourable conditions
for the major land-grab, announced in his plan for unilateral separation
from the Palestinians.
The attack on Sheikh
Yassin was personally organised by Sharon, who oversaw the entire operation
and received constant updates from military officials at his Negev ranch.
He gave the formal authorisation for the move at a cabinet meeting last
week, on the pretext that Yassin was politically responsible for the
suicide attack in the port of Ashdod on March 14 that killed 10 Israelis.
Sharons aim
is to provoke an angry reaction amongst the Palestinian masses and an
escalation in suicide bombings. This will serve to undermine what little
influence Yasser Arafats Palestinian Authority (PA) still possesses,
strengthening Hamass own authority, and in doing so will open
the way for a stepping up of Israels military attacks.
No single actother
than the murder of Arafat himselfcould have been more easily predicted
to ignite the simmering tensions in the Occupied Territories than the
killing of Sheikh Yassin, a partially deaf wheelchair-bound paraplegic,
as he returned from a mosque in Gaza City. Seven others died in the
Israeli attack, including two bodyguards and one of Sheikh Yassins
sons. Seventeen people were wounded.
This was the second
attempt to kill Sheikh Yassinthe first was made in September 2003.
Arafat has declared
three days of mourning. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia warned,
This is a crazy and very dangerous act. It opens the door wide
to chaos. Yassin is known for his moderation and he was controlling
Hamas, and therefore this is a dangerous, cowardly act.
The PAs chief
negotiator Saeb Erekat also warned, This will add fuel to the
fire, and the cycle of violence and counter-violence.
Hamas immediately
threatened to open the gates of hell, as tens of thousands
of Palestinians took to the streets in angry protests. For the first
time, Hamas also threatened the United States, saying Americas
backing of Israel made the assassination possible.
The Zionists
didnt carry out their operation without getting the consent of
the terrorist American Administration, and it must take responsibility
for this crime, Hamas said in a statement. All the Muslims
of the world will be honoured to join in on the retaliation for this
crime.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade, which is tied to Arafats Al Fatah, declared, War,
war, war on the sons of Zion... He who signed the order to assassinate
Yassin has effectively signed the death warrant of hundreds of Israelis.
Islamic Jihad also
promised revenge.
Tens of thousands
of mourners took to the streets of Gaza City for Yassins funeral
procession. Hundreds of gunmen were among the protesters, and cars mounted
with loudspeakers called for revenge. There were clashes between youths
and Israeli soldiers throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Three protesters
and a Palestinian journalist are reported to have been killed.
In Nablus, 15,000
people gathered in the city centre. In Jenin, more than 10,000 people
demonstrated. In the West Bank town of Hebron, dozens of Palestinians
threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who fired tear gas.
Palestinian militants
fired 10 homemade rockets toward the Neveh Dekalim Israeli settlement
in Gaza. Two apartments were damaged. IDF soldiers shot dead a 13-year-old
Palestinian during clashes with hundreds of protesters who flocked to
a roadblock west of Khan Yunis refugee camp near the Neveh Dekalim settlement
and threw stones at the guards. The soldiers fired live ammunition at
the crowd, made up mainly of schoolchildren.
An axe-wielding
Palestinian man lightly wounded three people, two men and a woman, outside
an army base near Tel Aviv. And in the Israeli prison camp of Ketziot,
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners rioted, setting tents on fire and
throwing stones at soldiers.
Anger towards US
Hamas is not the
only tendency that has directly implicated the Bush administration in
Sharons crime. Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-General Command, told Lebanons al-Manar
television, This Zionist enemy could not have committed this crime
without the United States giving it the green light. The United States
is convinced that we are not a people who are defending a cause but
views us as terrorists.
The tacit support
of the US for Sharons actions was made clear by Washingtons
singular failure to condemn the assassination. All the European powers
denounced the killing of Sheikh Yassin, even Americas closest
ally Britain. Most warned that this act would escalate the violence.
Across the Arab
world, the crime was denounced as state terrorism in its most
hideous form.
The most pro-Western
Arab regime is Egypt, which has been leading the effort to get Hamas
to agree to another ceasefire. President Hosni Mubarak said that Egypt
would now not attend the Israeli Knessets celebrations marking
the anniversary of the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David peace
treaty. He warned that the assassination of Sheikh Yassin aborted all
efforts to push forward the peace process.
Even Iraqs
US-appointed Governing Council said it could escalate danger in Iraq.
In contrast, the
US, though one of the first countries to issue an official reaction,
did not condemn the killing. State Department spokesman Lou Fintor only
stated, The United States urges all sides to remain calm and exercise
restraint.
Even when charged
with complicity by Hamas, the US still did not condemn the killing.
Bushs national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, denied that
Washington had given Israel a green light for the assassination, adding
only, It is very important that everyone step back now and try
now to be calm in the region. There is always a possibility of a better
day in the Middle East.
Sharons project for Greater Israel
Most analysts present
the assassination of Sheikh Yassin as some sort of warning shot, meant
to undermine any attempts by Hamas to present Sharons proposed
unilateral disengagement plan as a victory for the Palestinians. Only
then do they warn of its supposedly unintended consequences in destabilising
the PA and provoking further violence.
For example, Zeev
Schiff, writing in Haaretz, states, The message that Israel sent
out by assassinating Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is that, when the disengagement
from Gaza is finally implemented, Hamas will not be able to claim that
the withdrawal was prompted by the groups terrorist operations
and that if these attacks continue, they will lead to a complete Israeli
withdrawal.
He then goes on
to warn, The danger is that the Gaza Strip will be consumed by
anarchy, and that Hamas will take control of the street, preventing
the more pragmatic Palestinian Authority forces from imposing law and
order.
His concerns are
backed up by fellow Haaretz analyst Danny Rubinstein, who predicts,
The more Israel hits Hamas leaders and rank-and-file members,
the more their popularity climbs.... The assassination of Yassin could,
therefore, merely contribute to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority,
and, by creating chaos in the Gaza Strip, turn Hamas into the only side
to profit from Yassins death.
But escalating violence
and destabilisation is not an unintended consequence of a rash and foolish
act. It is Sharons desired aim because he hopes it will enable
him to realise his life goal of a Greater Israel.
Sharon has abandoned
any pretence of supporting a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians
in favour of an overt move to seize the majority of the occupied West
Bank and permanently annex it to Israel. His so-called security fence,
now under construction, is the physical embodiment of his unilateral
separation plan. It incorporates most of the 200-plus illegal Jewish
settlements into Israel and will leave one-and-a-half million Palestinians
in a ghetto made up of just 42 percent of the West Bank and cut off
from East Jerusalem.
In return, all Sharon
has promised is the removal of 17 of 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip,
which will involve relocating just 5,000 Israelis.
Even this does not
exhaust Sharons predatory aims. Anyone who believes that separation
under such unjust conditions would bring an end to violence has not
heeded the subtext of the governments own statements and that
of its supporters. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the
assassination of Sheikh Yassin, explaining that It is highly possible
that we will have to carry out many operations in the Palestinian Authority
areas.
In effect, separation
would only represent an initial annexation of Palestinian territories
behind a vast militarised wall. This land will be permanently settled
by Zionist fanatics, while a war of attrition continues against the
Palestinians who remain trapped in a glorified prison camp. In the end,
moreover, nothing will satisfy Sharon other than the expulsion of all
the Palestinians to neighbouring Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
Within Sharons
government, such plans are already openly voiced. Transport Minister
Avigdor Lieberman of the National Union Party has called for the creation
of four isolated ghettos in the West Bank surrounded by Israeli armed
forces, while Housing Minister Effi Eitam of the National Religious
Party has proposed that areas of Gaza be joined with Egypt, and West
Bank residents are confederated into Jordan.
None of this could
be contemplated without the tacit support Israel has been given for
its criminal acts by the US. Despite its pretence of playing the honest
broker and support for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state,
the Bush administration has either ignored or endorsed every act of
aggression by Israeleven when it flies in the face of Washingtons
so-called Road Map for peace in the Middle East.
Sharon knows that
he has the backing of the most powerful forces within the White House
for his policy of targeted assassinations and for his efforts to link
his military offensive against the Palestinians to Washingtons
war on terror. Predictably, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul
Mofaz defended the killing of Yassin by calling him the Palestinian
bin Laden.
Israel has already
benefited from the US deposing of Saddam Hussein, which has neutralised
its most powerful regional rival, Iraq. And Sharon calculates that there
are some within Bushs beleaguered and unpopular government who
will welcome his latest action precisely because it further destabilises
the Middle East and provides a propaganda opportunity in the run-up
to the November presidential elections.
Sharon may calculate
that he will benefit from his attack on Hamas because of its connections
with Iran and Syria (through Lebanon), both of which feature in Bushs
axis of evil. He clearly hopes that reprisals for Sheikh
Yassins killing will not be confined to Israel and may indeed
target US interests. Irans Vice President Ali Abtahi has already
called for revenge for the killing of Yassin, who turned into
the leader of the entire Muslim nation after his death.