From Occupied Palestine

'This is for Sheikh Yassin'
ARNON REGULAR
Ha'artez, 11 May 2004

Gaza City -- An armed Hamas member stood in an alleyway in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza yesterday, holding a bag that he said contained human remains from the armored personnel carrier blown up yesterday.

Shockingly, he proceeded to pull a finger out of the bag and shouted: "This is for Sheikh Yassin, and for the rest you'll pay in liberated prisoners."

In the wake of the Yassin assassination
TOUFIC HADDAD
Znet, 3 April 2004

Introduction

Much has been written about the assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin when US supplied helicopter gunships fired rockets at his wheelchair in the pre-dawn hours of March 21 while exiting a mosque in the destitute Sabra neighborhood of Gaza city. Yet despite the wide media attention the assassination received, the gravity of what's at stake in Yassin's killing has predictably failed to be clinched. Though misrepresentation by Western media of Israel's repression of Palestinians throughout the course of the Al Aqsa Intifada is the norm rather than the exception, the case of the Yassin assassination is notable because it aptly illustrates how Israeli policies are cunningly tailored to achieve Israeli and US objectives, while complete mystification shrouds the intentions and repercussion of what is at stake.

Balance of pain
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 2 April 2004

Sometimes Sheikh Ahmed Yassin would answer with a question. He smiled politely when told that to answer a question with another question was considered a Jewish trait. A Hamas activist who engaged Yassin in many hours of conversation says this was his style - not only with an Israeli interviewer: "He was a cautious person and that is how he spoke, always. That is also why he spoke slowly, to ensure that thought preceded speech."

A reshaped table
GRAHAM USHER
al Ahram Weekly, 1-7 April 2004

The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin empowered Hamas and the only way to defuse its effect is to accept this, writes Graham Usher from Gaza and Ramallah

"We know Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and the enemy of the Muslim people," raged Abdul-Aziz Al- Rantisi, Hamas's new political leader in Gaza. He was speaking on Sunday at a rally at Gaza's Islamic University hours after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last week. The Arab summit in Tunisia had also just collapsed due to "divisions" over the issue of political reform in the Arab world. Rantisi did not spare Arab leaders the lash of his tongue.

As in Tiennamen Square
TANYA REINHART
Yediot Aharonot, 30 March 2004

An extensive discussion has already taken place in Israel regarding the cost-benefit ratio of Yassin's asassination. But the question of justice has hardly been raised.

According to international law, the execution of any person in an occupied territory is not allowed. The Geneva Conventions, born out of the horrifying experience of the Second World War, sets limitations on the use of force even in times of war.

Yassin and annexation
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Znet, 30 March 2004

The assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin marks a serious escalation in Israeli occupation tactics. While Israel had (in earlier assassination attempts) already crossed the "red line" that once defined some limits in aggressive acts, its message in the Yassin murder was that there are no limits, that Israel's military attacks face no restrictions. Counting accurately on Washington's unwillingness to challenge its aggression, the assassination also ushers in a new Israeli campaign to win official U.S. support for wide-spread annexation of major West Bank settlements as part of Tel Aviv's "unilateral withdrawal from Gaza" plan.

Road map is forgotten at dead end for negotiation
AVI SHLAIM
Observer, 28 March 2004

Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, marked an extraordinarily dangerous escalation in the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. There could hardly be a more dramatic demonstration of the disparity in military power between the two parties to this conflict. The trouble is that there is no military solution and there are only losers in this dance of death.

Endgame begins
GRAHAM USHER
al-Ahram Weekly, 25-31 March 2004

Four days after Israeli helicopter gunships killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and seven other Palestinians in Gaza City, Israel and Palestine have the feel of nations teetering on the brink of an earthquake. In the immediate aftermath the Israeli army slapped a draconian closure on the occupied territories and maintained the highest security alert throughout Israel. In their blockaded towns, villages and refugee camps Palestinians observed three days of mourning and strikes in which the rich neighbourhoods of Ramallah were shuttered every bit as tightly as the barrios in Gaza.

Rising Hamas is undaunted by loss of leader Yassin
DANNY RUBINSTEIN
Independent, 28 March 2004

I met Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas founder killed in an Israeli attack last week, shortly after he was released from prison a few years ago.

His humble residence in Gaza, typical of the homes of other Hamas leaders, stood in great contrast to the luxurious homes of Palestinian Authority Fatah leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas leaders have always had a reputation for modest living. Possessing no luxury cars, sumptuous offices or designer suits, they became adored by the Palestinian street.

Three generals, one martyr
URI AVNERY
Gush Shalom, 27 March 2004

Five hundred black-and-white-bearded Hamas members were sitting opposite me. Venerable sheikhs and young people. On the side, some rows were occupied by women. I was standing on the stage, talking in Hebrew, with the crossed flags of Israel and Palestine on my lapel.

As I have recounted already several times, it happened like this: at the end of 1992, the new Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, expelled 415 Islamic activists – mostly Hamas members – to the Lebanese border area. In protest, we put up tents opposite the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem. There we spent 45 days and nights – Israeli peace activists (who were later to found Gush Shalom) and Arab citizens of Israel, mostly members of the Islamic movement. Most of the time it was very cold, and some days our tents were covered with snow. There was a lot of debate in the tents, the Jews learning something about Islam and the Muslims something about Judaism.