Qibya and Sharon: 50 Years Later

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http://www.counterpunch.com/ridenhour10142003.html

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Anniversary of a Massacre
By ERIC RIDENOUR

October 14, 2003 marks the fifty year anniversary of a virtually forgotten massacre. In the Jordanian village of Qibya, a total of 69 civilians were murdered in a six hour killing spree, which almost totally destroyed the town. The attackers blew up about forty houses, a school, water pumping station, police station and telephone office (1) and they sustained no casualties, as Qibya was virtually undefended.

Of the first 42 bodies recovered after the attack, 38 were women and children.(2) One man lost all 11 members of his family. Describing the scene, a UN observer stated that 'Bullet-riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their homes were blown up over them.'(1)

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The world has known for decades who was responsible for the killing in Qibya, yet not only has no legal action been taken against him for this, but he is rarely even criticized for it. The person I'm referring to is the current Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon. In 1953, the 25 year old Sharon was the head of an Israeli special forces group called Unit 101. Its task on the night of October 14 was to take revenge for the killing of three Israelis in a settlement near Tel Aviv two days before. Sharon's orders explicitly stated 'destruction and maximum killing'.(4) Unit 101 was sent to Qibya to kill civilians.

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This tendency to target and kill civilians seems to be a long-established tactic of the butcher in Israel. I am not an anti-semite, but I am a rational person who can plainly see that as long as Sharon is running Israel (and is a driving force behind the Bush administration), nothing will ever stop the killing in the Middle East. You can lay much of the responsibility for the problems we have there now on Sharon's doorstep.