[R-G] Widow decries suicide bombing; Protests a rare sign of support by Palestinians for a ceasefire

[shniad at sfu.ca]

Globe and Mail	   May 22, 2003 

Widow decries suicide bombing

Palestinian woman's worst fear becomes reality after husband killed in bus
blast

By Paul Adams

Shuafat refugee camp, Israel -- Thirty-four is young to be a widow. At that
age, Kifiya al-Tawil suddenly finds herself the sole caregiver for her eight
children after her husband, Ghaleb al-Tawil, had the bad luck to board Bus
No. 6. He was on his way to a cleaning job he had taken at a Jerusalem
hospital to be close to their gravely ill daughter.

Just before 6 a.m. Sunday morning, another man got on the same bus, this one
wearing an explosive belt laced with ball bearings. A few moments later, he
detonated the device, shredding Mr. al-Tawil's body. The only thing that
made Mr. al-Tawil stand out from the six other commuters who died that
morning was that he, like the bomber, was a Palestinian Arab. It was an
Israeli bus, and the rest of the victims were Jews.

"I have always thought that this bombing is wrong, and now it has found me
in my own home," Mrs. al-Tawil said, dressed in the head scarf of a devout
Muslim and the dark mourning clothes of a new widow.

"Suicide bombings are a big mistake. Jews are like us. They are on their way
to work. This is against the will of God. They are ordinary people like us."


Her children, aged 1½ to 16, munched glumly on pita sandwiches. On the wall,
there was a poster showing a picture of her husband juxtaposed with the
golden dome of the Al-Aqsa mosque.

"The children are asking for him all the time," she said, her composure
crumpling into tears. "I point at the picture and tell them he has gone to
heaven."

Mr. al-Tawil is not the only Arab to fall victim to Palestinian militants in
the past 31 months of violence. The very next day, an Arab-Israeli man,
Hassan Tuatha, was killed in a suicide bombing outside a shopping mall in
the northern Israeli town of Afula.

But these most recent deaths seem to have touched a chord with Palestinians,
many of whom are increasingly fed up with the violence that is dominating
their lives just as it has the Israelis.

A poll conducted by Bir Zeit University found that 71 per cent of
Palestinians favour an end to terror attacks in Israel if the international
community is able to engineer a resumption of peace talks. The White House
has been trying to promote a so-called road map to peace, but it has been
stalled, in part by the recent spate of bombings.

"The two peoples are killing each other and the leaders are watching," said
Huda abu Sneineh, Mrs. al-Tawil's sister -- one of the few relatives who
managed to find her way from Hebron through Israeli checkpoints to get to
Mr. al-Tawil's funeral. "Mostly it is revenge. The Israelis are constantly
killing our brothers and sisters and destroying our houses. Therefore they
want revenge. I am against all this revenge. . . . Children are left without
fathers on both sides."

"The only way to end the [Israeli] occupation is peace," Mrs. al-Tawil
added. "It is the only way." A plasterer by trade, Mr. al-Tawil took a job
just over a year ago cleaning at Hadassah Hospital. He wanted to work there
to be closer to his 13-year-old daughter, Iman, who has Down syndrome and is
being treated at the hospital for leukemia. When she was in hospital for
long periods, he often slept in the room with her.

Mrs. al-Tawil said that she and her husband had been warned against taking
the No. 6, but it was the only way for him to get to work and for her to
take Iman to her appointments while she was being treated as an out patient.
A round trip by taxi costs 100 shekels (about $30). Mr. al-Tawil could not
afford that. Besides his wife and eight children at home, he was supporting
his mother, a niece, and a child from a previous marriage on 2,500 shekels
($750) a month. Mrs. al-Tawil seemed unaware that as victims of terrorist
violence, her family should be eligible for generous financial, housing and
educational benefits from the Israeli government.

She was sure about one thing. "I won't take that bus again even if it means
ending Iman's treatment," she said.

"I won't do it because my husband died that way and I can't stand the
memory. And I won't do it because I have to protect myself. I'm all the
children have now."




Globe and Mail	  May 21, 2003 

Protests a rare sign of support by Palestinians for a ceasefire

People in Beit Hanoun blame militants for inspiring punishing Israeli
incursion

By Paul Adams

Tel Aviv -- Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip erupted in angry
protest at an unusual target yesterday: Islamic militants, whom they blamed
for bringing military incursions upon their town by firing rockets into
Israel.

The townspeople of Beit Hanoun blocked a main road and burned tires just
hours after Israeli tanks and troops pulled out. During their five-day
incursion into the town, the forces demolished 15 homes, flattened orchards
and tore up streets in what Israeli spokesmen said was an effort to deprive
Palestinian militants of launching points.

"They claim they are heroes," farmer Mohammed Zaaneen complained, referring
to the militants. "They brought us only destruction and made us homeless.
They used our farms, our houses and our children to hide."

It was a rare sign of Arab popular support for a ceasefire. Palestinian,
Israeli and U.S. leaders struggled to keep peace talks alive yesterday,
after the deadly suicide bombings of recent days.

U.S. President George W. Bush worked to revive prospects for his so-called
road map to peace and Palestinian statehood, making his first high-level
contact with the Palestinian leadership in two years.

He telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and recently-appointed
Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has been fighting an uphill
battle to promote the plan.

"The President reiterated his vision for two states living side by side in
peace, and the President reiterated the absolute need for all parties to
fight terror," Mr. Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said.

Despite having U.S. endorsement, Mr. Abbas has been beset with difficulties.
Mr. Arafat has tried to undercut his authority, and Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon has refused to endorse the road map. Palestinian militants have
registered their rejection of the peace plan with a fearsome campaign of
violence.

In a series of five attacks between Saturday night and Monday afternoon,
suicide bombers killed 16 other people. The New York Times has reported that
at least some U.S. officials acknowledge that hopes for progress will end if
the killing continues.

Monday's attack on a shopping centre in the northern Israeli city of Afula,
carried out by a religious 19-year-old Muslim woman from the West Bank, was
particularly embarrassing to Mr. Abbas. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which
owes at least nominal allegiance to the Fatah faction of which both Mr.
Abbas and Mr. Arafat are leaders, claimed responsibility for the attack,
along with Islamic Jihad.

Yesterday, Palestinian external-affairs minister Nabil Shaath defiantly
announced that "any attempt to force us to give up the road map will not
pass," and said that factional talks aimed at securing a yearlong ceasefire
with Israel will resume shortly in Cairo.

Hamas official Ismael Haniya, whose group has claimed responsibility for
four of the five recent attacks, said it will participate in the
discussions. Although Hamas has been fierce in its opposition to the road
map, Mr. Haniya said the spate of bombings was not aimed at undermining Mr.
Abbas. Some Palestinian commentators have suggested that the recent attacks
may actually have been aimed at increasing Hamas's leverage at Cairo talks.

Mr. Bush also spoke to Mr. Sharon, who has registered a long list of
reservations and conditions regarding the road map. Earlier this week, he
announced that the bombings had forced him to postpone a visit to Washington
for face-to-face talks with the President about the plan.

Nonetheless, the Israeli government may have spared the plan a death blow
yesterday, by refraining from violent retaliation for the recent bombings.

The country went on a state of high alert for further attacks, but the army
did not mount new incursions or assassinations of militants, as it often
does in such circumstances. Instead, it withdrew from Beit Hanoun,
unexpectedly setting the stage for the unusual protest scenes there.