"Arafat and Jenin - What Sort of Deal Did Bush Strike?" asked an editorial published in the US press (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 20 April 2002).
The same question is asked in the Jenin refugee camp and by all those in Palestine and elsewhere who know that justice and respect for human rights and international law are the key to the solution of the 54 year-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people.
The Israeli government eventually surrendered to pressure exerted by US president Bush and relinquished its request for extradition of the six prisoners allegedly involved in the killing of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi and in arms smuggling for the Palestinian Authority.
The six were transferred from President Arafat’s Ramallah compound to a Palestinian prison in Jericho and guarded by US and British troops dispatched for this purpose.
Thus, Palestinian president Arafat was finally free to leave the Ramallah compound where he had been held since March 29 by the Israeli army.
Subsequently the six week siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was also ended – but on the basis that 13 Palestinians would be exiled (via Cyprus) to unknown EU states, while a further 26 would face internal exile in Gaza.
Thus US imperialism and the Israeli state forced the Palestinian people to pay a further heavy price to gain Arafat’s release. Of course even this price has not silenced the Israeli and Zionist right, who are increasingly calling for Arafat himself to be forced once again into exile.
At the same time the Israeli state is making ready to invade the Gaza strip and to wreak the same murderous vengeance on its people that it has already carried through on the camps, cities and villages throughout the West Bank.
On the other hand the supposed UN Fact-Finding Mission into the events at the Jenin refugee camp was eventually called off by Kofi Annan despite its approval by the UN Security Council (UNSC Resolution 1405, 19 April 2002).
While the fact finding mission is now supposed to be replaced by an investigation which will question witnesses, it is clear that once again the US has backed its friends in Israel, to make sure Sharon does not pay the price of his most recent war crimes.
International scrutiny and investigation into Israel’s war crimes – and justice for the victims – a mission impossible?
On 18 April 1996, during a massive Israeli military offensive on Lebanon code-named "Operation Grapes of Wrath," approximately 800 civilians were sheltering in a United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the village of Qana, South Lebanon.
They had assumed – incorrectly – that since international law strictly prohibits the targeting of civilian structures and UN facilities they would be safe under UNIFIL’s protection.
Just after 2 PM on April 18, a barrage of proximity-fuse shells crashed directly into the pre-fabricated building. Minutes later 106 people lay dead, many burned and dismembered beyond recognition.
On 25 April 1996 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution (UNGA Res. A/RES/50/22 C) characterising Israel’s actions in the "Grapes of Wrath" offensive as "grave violations of international laws relating to the protection of civilians during war."
Then UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali appointed a team to investigate Israel’s bombing of the UNIFIL compound. The team was composed of military experts and headed by the Dutch General Franklin Van Kappen.
It conducted an official on-site investigation of the Qana incident, interviewed all available witnesses, including UNIFIL staff and Israeli officials, and obtained maps and ballistic evidence.
According to experts familiar with this UN investigation, the initial report concluded that the shelling and killing of 106 civilians inside the UNIFIL compound by Israel was deliberate, and that there was no possibility of an accident.
When Boutros Ghali wanted to publish the report, he was threatened that this would cost him his job: he was forced to publish a revised report.
This concluded that "while the possibility cannot be ruled out completely, it is unlikely that the shelling of the UNIFIL compound was the result of gross technical and/or procedural error."
The Van Kappen report also indicated that IDF officials of "some seniority" were involved in orders to fire upon the base, which they knew was sheltering hundreds of civilians.
International human rights organisations also conducted investigations and concluded that the shelling of the UNIFIL compound was most likely deliberate, not mistaken.
The United States and Israel vigorously contended that the attack had been an unfortunate mistake. No further action was taken by the United Nations.
Moreover, the United Nations has yet to act upon a petition filed by families of the victims of Qana with the UN Human Rights Commission.
The families’ petition requests the UN to re-open its investigation.