Fateful Triangle

The Palestinian Uprising797inhabitants a life of invisibility” by evading the reality of daily life. Todraw an example virtually at random from current Israeli press coverage,take the case of 19-year-old Muhammad Abu-Akar, an inhabitant of theDeheisha refugee camp near Jerusalem who was flown to the U.S. fortreatment for severe bullet wounds and “remains attached forever to theartificial feeding apparatus that replaces his lost gut.” 9 On November 4,soldiers entered his home and arrested him. When it turned out thatthey were actually seeking his brother, he was freed, but another patrol“told Muhammad clearly that if his brother will not give himself upbefore Wednesday, he will be himself arrested”—possibly a quick death.At 8:30PM on Tuesday, while Muhammad was in the hospital, armypatrols broke into the house, throwing a smoke grenade into it andbeating up his mother, breaking her hand. At 10PM, another patrolcame, smashing the windows and pouring all the food onto the floor. Athird patrol arrived at midnight “They broke everything that the otherhad left unbroken, and ordered the mother whose hand had been brokento go outside to erase graffiti on a fence fifty yards away,” telling herthat if her son did not give himself up, he would be shot on sight. AtlAM, the mother was allowed to go for treatment to the hospital, joiningher son.This is also routine, not approaching the far more grim atrocities thatare ignored, so it is again understandable that it passed unnoticed.Another device employed by Defense Minister Rabin is expulsion ofPalestinians whom authorities determine to be living ‘illegally’ in theterritories. This program of “invisible transfer” began under the LaborParty shortly after the 1967 conquest as one of the means to deal withthe “demographic problem” (the problem of too many Arabs in theJewish state). The program was accelerated in August 1989, becoming“a plague,” the press reports, particularly in small villages aroundRamallah. Over 90% of the victims are women and children, some asClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky