An End To Occupation Will Dry Up Suicide Bombings

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press release

[translation from Hebrew version sent to Israeli press]

”Yet another nineteen innocent victims have today fallen on the vain altar of the ongoing occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip” says Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc.

“The occupation regime, which has lasted thirty-five years – nearly two thirds of Israel’ total history – is the hothouse of despair and hatred, from which suicide bombers originate.

The ongoing denial of basic rights to a population of three and a half million drives some of the occupied population to a despicable means of responding - the random killing of Israeli civilians - which deserves all condemnation and which plays directly into the hands of Sharon and the extreme right.

Despicable as they are, there can be no military means of ending the suicide bombings, no way forward by main force: neither bombings from the air nor incursions and invasions on the ground.

“Operation Defensive Shield” in April failed to put an end to the suicide bombings, and the same will prove true of the even more extensive and brutal operations envisioned in the IDF contingency plans and fervently advocated by the settlers and the extreme right.

The “Separation Fence”, recently proposed as a cure-all by some circles, will prove no real solution.

The retaliatory and punitive raids by the army, of which some more are expected tonight, do manage to intercept some potential suicide bombers – but the very same raids and incursions, by demonstrating the brutality of the occupation, also increase on the Palestinian side the motivation for reribution and help the recruitment of new suicide bombers.

Only an end to the occupation by political means, allowing a fair expression of the basic Palestinian aspirations, can dry up the suicide bombing phenomenon at its source and provide new hope to the desperate young Palestinians from whose ranks the bombers are recruited.

For further details:

Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson, 03-5565804 or 056-709603

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