News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terrorisraelhostilities200303-may-jun — Viewing Item


Writing numbers palestinians remembers holocaust { April 29 2003 }

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030429175114880

http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030429175114880

As Israel Remembers Holocaust, Army Resorts to Nazi Practice against Palestinians

Tuesday, April 29 2003 @ 05:51 PM GMT

"Occupation soldiers have written numbers in ink on the hands of hundreds of Palestinians waiting at a crowded West Bank military roadblock, the AP reported on Monday .."

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - As Israel marked its national day of remembrance Tuesday for the Holocaust, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have resorted again to a Nazi practice to humiliate and tighten their grip on the Palestinian people in the occupied territory.

IOF soldiers have written numbers in ink on the hands of hundreds of Palestinians waiting at a crowded West Bank military roadblock, the AP reported on Monday.

The IOF confirmed the incident but claimed it was done by a lone soldier who acted on his own and would face a disciplinary hearing.

Palestinians with three-digit numbers scribbled on their palms said they told the IOF soldiers they considered the practice degrading, but they were given a choice to either turn back or submit to the marking.

“I never felt such a degrading insult,” said professor Hamdi Al-Jabali, 46, who teaches Arabic at Al-Najah University in Nablus after an IOF soldier wrote number “125” on his right palm, the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam reported on Tuesday.

Professor Al-Jabali was heading to Nablus from the nearby village of Bieta. “Do they want to repeat the way the Nazi Germans treated Jews?” he asked.

Al-Jabali said some of the 100 or so people waiting in front of him when he arrived at 8 a.m. turned back instead of accepting the numbers.

“I thought about going back, but I couldn’t because I had many lectures, many appointments,” he said.

Palestinians refuted the IOF claim that the practice was an isolated incident by a lone soldier.

Palestinians who cross the Hawarah roadblock, just south of Nablus and one of the busiest areas in the West Bank, told Al-Ayyam the IOF troops started this Nazi practice on Sunday.

Al-Jabali and others told the daily that IOF troops manning the roadblock were determined not to allow any Palestinian through unless his or her palm is numbered. “Nobody will get through without his or her serial number printed on his/her palm,” Al-Jabali quoted the soldiers as saying.

During Monday morning rush hour at Hawarah, hundreds of Palestinians were waiting at the roadblock on their way to jobs and schools in Nablus.

Insurance agent Wa’el Dwaikat, who was assigned the number 113, said residents waiting to cross tried unsuccessfully to convince the IOF soldiers that they would line up in an orderly fashion without them marking their hands.

“But the soldier said, ‘these are our orders. If you will not accept that, you will not enter the city.’”

The IOF claimed in a statement that, “at a checkpoint near Nablus, soldiers handed out numbers to those passing the checkpoint, as part of a routine inspection.”

“At a certain point, they ran out of numbers, and one soldier continued writing numbers on the hands of those passing,” the IOF army said.

The occupation army added that the “soldier made a flawed decision, on his own, in contrary to army regulations.” IOF troops were told “there is no place in the army for such actions,” the statement said.

In the past 31 months of conflict, Israel has enforced stringent travel bans on Palestinians.

This was not however, as Israel’s army claimed, an isolated incident.

A similar incident happened in March 2001 when soldiers marked numbers on the foreheads and forearms of Palestinian detainees awaiting interrogation during an army sweep of a West Bank refugee camp.

At the time, the action drew outrage from an Israeli lawmaker who survived the Holocaust, and the practice was halted. During World War II, Nazi concentration camp inmates, most of them Jews, had numbers tattooed on their forearms.

Israel on Tuesday marked its national day of remembrance for the Holocaust and wartime Jewish resistance to the Nazi machine of extermination.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/)



16 killed suicide bombing { June 11 2003 }
3 die israeli mall suicide { May 19 2003 }
Bomber after new palestinian cabinet { April 30 2003 }
British blame terror libya algeria { May 6 2003 }
British cameraman killing war crime { May 4 2003 }
British journalist shot dead { May 3 2003 }
British suicide bomber drowned
British suicide bomber { August 2 1981 }
Checkpoint writing numbers like holocaust { April 29 2003 }
Children shot israeli raids { June 5 2003 }
Cycle of attacks 26 die { June 12 2003 }
Idf shot 65 yrold 17 yrold { May 23 2003 }
Israel demolishes 8 homes { May 22 2003 }
Israel hit 3 attacks dressed orthodox { May 18 2003 }
Israel kills 3 militants and bystander { June 27 2003 }
Israel raids activist office
Israel restricts foreigners gaza { May 10 2003 }
Israeli helicopter fires into crowd
Israeli helicopter launch attack gaza
Israeli made palestinian drink cleaning fluid
Israeli missile kills two hamas leader escapes
Israeli missile woulds 30 { May 14 2003 }
Israeli raid kills 5 palestinians { May 16 2003 }
Israeli troops northern gaza strip
Militants kill 5 israeli soldiers
Militants kill four israeli troops { June 8 2003 }
No sympathy for israel { May 19 2003 }
Palestinian toddler shot in head
Palestinians marked with numbers
Seven palestinians killed { May 1 2003 }
Sharon postpones us trip after bombing { May 18 2003 }
Shit in head protecting child { May 9 2003 }
Two groups claim bombing { April 30 2003 }
Uk seeks probe cameraman shooting
Waiver for if army shoots { May 9 2003 }
West bank checkpoint case probed
Wont disarm without political resolution { April 30 2003 }
Writing numbers palestinians remembers holocaust { April 29 2003 }

Files Listed: 38



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple