U.S. is to blame for condoning assassination of Hamas leader -- Akahata editorial, April 21
Following the assassination of top Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantishi in the Palestine self-rule area of Gaza, the United States called on Israel to use restraint but also made clear that "Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks" (Apr. 17 statement of the presidential press secretary). This is tantamount to condoning the lawless Israeli military action and involves the danger of upsetting the existing efforts toward Middle East peace.
The United States, the United Nations, the European Union (EU) and Russia, have made efforts to work out a roadmap for Middle East peace and have played a role as mediator between Israel and Palestine. For these reasons, the U.S. responsibility is all the more serious.
Self-defense is the wrong word
Israel is justifying the assassination of Mr. Rantishi by arguing that the action was to counter suicide-bomb attacks. It is absolutely uncodonable for a government to send its armed forces into an autonomy to assassinate its citizens, just as suicide bomb attacks by terrorists against ordinary citizens are uncondonable.
The Israeli force launched missiles from an armed helicopter, targeting Mr. Rantishi's car and killing him even though he had not attacked the Israeli forces. It is wrong to justify such lawless murder as an act in "self-defense." It is an act of state terrorism and will only help increase the cycle of violence.
In the first place, it was Israel that invaded the Palestine self-rule area and enlarged the Israeli colonies by killing Palestinians. The United Nations has repeatedly adopted resolutions demanding that Israel pull out from the occupied Palestinian lands.
But Israel continued to reject these requests. On the contrary, it expanded its colonies. In the West Bank, Israel has built high partition walls to enclose the settlements.
Any progress toward peace in the Middle East requires the Israeli withdrawal from the lands it has occupied.
At the White House on April 14, U.S. President Bush handed a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon requesting Israel to take definite actions against terrorism, while urging Palestinians to immediately halt their military actions.
The U.S. president expressed his support for Sharon's plan to withdraw certain military installations and settlements from Gaza while continuing to keep many settlements in the West Bank. While advocating in general terms that Israel must act in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338 that require Israel to withdraw from all the areas it occupied after the 1967 War, the U.S. president approved of Israel's possession of settlements, saying that settling the Israeli-Palestinian border issue based on these U.N. resolutions is 'unrealistic.'
It is natural that the U.S. policy violating international agreements and subsequent steps draws severe criticism from the Palestinian people.
Obviously, Israel's outrages have been prompted by the latest actions by the U.S., Israel's major supporter.
Both must stop atrocious military actions
In their indiscriminate retaliatory mopping-up operations carried out in Fallujah as an "overwhelming counter attack" against the killing of four American citizens, the U.S. forces killed more than 600 citizens. In Southern Iraq, they are sieging the holy city of Najaf in order to "capture or kill" a leader of Shiite Muslims who are putting up an undaunted resistance to the occupation.
These military actions of the U.S. and Israeli forces can not be justified in the name of a "war on terrorism."
Let's increase global criticism of their reckless occupation and cruel military actions so that such atrocities will be ended as early as possible. (end)
