|
|
September 26, 2008
Protecting your enemy
Israelis have mixed opinions about refuge issue.
RHONDA SPIVAK
In Ashkelon's Holiday Inn last month, most of the visiting foreigners were Jews from France who had come to Israel for their "grandes vacances." Elsewhere, minutes away, at Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital, there were some very unusual foreigners who had come for a rather unexpected stay.
Following violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza in late July, Israel took the unusual step of allowing a Fatah gunman who had been viciously injured by Hamas to find refuge in Israel. Israel allowed at least 12 of these gunmen to be treated at Barzilai Hospital on humanitarian grounds. Ironically, Israelis witnessed the rather remarkable scenes of Fatah gunmen from Gaza sitting up in their hospital beds and telling Israeli television crews that they were thankful that the Jewish state had been there to save them.
When I was in Ashkelon in August, I went to Barzilai Hospital. I immediately noticed a security guard standing on the hospital roof. Another security guard unsuccessfully tried to prevent me from taking a photo of the building. Presumably, Israel wanted to make sure that the Fatah gunmen being treated there were not attacked by Hamas infiltrators or Israelis who felt that their country ought not be a refuge for such men.
Every Israeli I spoke with had an opinion on whether Israel ought to be providing this medical care. While the Olmert government saw this step as a means of providing support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas against Hamas, critics thought the move would only strengthen Hamas' claims that Fatah has become a puppet of Israel.
Shlomi Dan, a security guard who lives in Ashkelon, expressed opposition to providing these men with medical care. "Fatah and Hamas are the same thing. Both are terror organizations. Statistically, in the last 10 years, Fatah has injured more Israelis than Hamas in terror attacks. If these people [being treated here] are so important to the Palestinian people, then Egypt should have opened its borders to them. They should be treated in Egypt not here," he said.
Hanoch Melanick, a taxi driver in nearby Kiryat Gat, said, "We are Jewish and we take pity on others, so we treat them as human beings. If it was us who had to go be treated in a Gaza hospital, they [the Arabs] would kill us." But Shimon Azar, a security guard at the Holiday Inn in Ashkelon, felt differently. "They are human beings, like me. If there is a possibility that they can come here and get medical treatment, then let them, even if they could have been treated in Egypt."
Eyal, another young man from Ashkelon, said, "I'm not so happy about Fatah men being treated here. Would you like it if Al Qaeda men were in your hospitals in Canada?"
Elana Davis, an Ashkelon waitress who has lived in Ottawa, said she has really mixed feelings about treating Fatah activists in Israel. "I was raised not to hate them [Palestinians] – not everyone is a bad person – but I have friends in the army who were killed by Fatah or, if not killed, injured for life. If you ask soldiers about treating Fatah here, they are angry."
One thing has emerged very clearly from the incident, about which there is no disagreement. The clashes proved that Hamas has strengthened its control over the Gaza Strip and there has been an almost complete elimination of Fatah's presence there. As one Fatah gunman, 28-year-old Madachat Shachtah, who was being treated at Barzilai, told the Hebrew daily Yediyot Achronot, "There is only one solution to the problem: America or Israel or the Arab states must conquer Gaza and kick out Hamas and then we can go back to our homes and live in peace. The Jews have pity on us. They are human beings. Even though today we are enemies, we can live with them nicely as neighbors."
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer who spends several months a year in Israel.
^TOP
|
|
