However, in recent weeks a clearer Israeli strategy towards the Gaza Strip’s future has emerged and it is part of the overall new thinking about the fate of the occupied territories in general. It is in essence, a refinement of the unilateralism adopted by Israel ever since the collapse of the Camp David “peace talks” in the summer of 2000. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his party Kadima, and his successor Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, delineated very clearly what unilateralism entailed: Israel would annex about 50 percent of the West Bank, not as a homogeneous chunk of it, but as the total space of the settlement blocs, the apartheid roads, the military bases and the “national park reserves” (which are no-go areas for Palestinians). This was more or less implemented in the last eight years. These purely Jewish entities cut the West Bank into 11 small cantons and sub-cantons. They are all separated from each other by this complex colonial Jewish presence. The most important part of this encroachment is the greater Jerusalem wedge that divides the West Bank into two discrete regions with no land connection for the Palestinians.

The wall thus is stretched and reincarnated in various forms all over the West Bank, encircling at times individual villages, neighborhoods or towns. The cartographic picture of this new edifice gives a clue to the new strategy both towards the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The 21st century Jewish state is about to complete the construction of two mega prisons, the largest of their kind in human history.

If you are an Israeli citizen living in the West bank towns of Samaria and Judea and you beat up a Palestinian, even kill him or her, there’s a 90 percent chance you will get away with it.

The latest Data Sheet (see here ) from Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, confirms what many have long suspected to be the case – that the system of law enforcement in Israel treats Palestinians in much the same way as black South Africans were treated by that country’s police force when the apartheid regime was in place.

Yesh Din has tracked police 205 investigation files opened in recent years.  81 of these files relate to attacks on Palestinians by Israeli civilians and this includes 2 cases of shooting that led to death, and 9 cases of serious injury.  The remainder deal with incidents where Palestinians were assaulted with sticks, knives, rifle butts, as well as attacks on their houses and vehicles.

Then there are 79 cases of criminal trespass which involve cutting down, uprooting and setting fire to Palestinian crops and stealing olives during the harvest season.  The remainder of the cases involve theft and vandalising agricultural equipment.

Yesh Din reports that of these 205 investigations “police processing and prosecutorial review have concluded in 163 files. Out of those 163, only in 13 (8%) of the cases were indictments filed against defendants. One case file was lost and never investigated, and 149 (91%) investigation files were
closed without filing any indictments against suspects.”

And what reasons are given for the closure of a staggering 91 percent of files - 91 were closed on grounds of “perpetrator unknown” (61%) and 43 cases were closed on grounds of “lack of evidence” (28%).

15 August 2008

Amnesty International has described as scandalous the Israeli army's account of firing a tank shell that killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana as a "sound" decision. The army reached the conclusion as part of a so-called investigation into the killing of the journalist and three other unarmed civilians, including 2 children, on 16 April 2008.

The army’s so-called investigation lacked any semblance of impartiality and Amnesty International called for an independent and impartial investigation into the killing. The organization said that the army's conclusion can only reinforce the culture of impunity that has led to so many reckless and disproportionate killings of children and other unarmed civilians by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Fadel Shana worked for Reuters press agency and was in a car clearly marked as Press. He and his colleague left the car, wearing visible Press flak-jackets and he was killed by an Israeli tank he was filming. The tank fired a shell at Shana, which also hit the civilians, including children, and injured his colleague and others around him.

Shana and two children, Ahmad Farajallah and Ghassan Khaled Abu ‘Ataiwi, were killed by flechettes. Amnesty International has said that that flechette shells, which are notoriously imprecise and filled with up to 5,000 5cm-long steel darts or flechettes that spread over an area as big as a football pitch and are lethal, should never be used in or around populated areas.

Reuters has said it is "deeply disturbed" that the Israeli military has decided the tank crew that killed one of the news agency's cameramen and eight young bystanders in the Gaza Strip four months ago will not face legal action.

PHOTO: Fadel Shana: the Reuters cameraman killed in Gaza Fadel Shana: the Reuters cameraman killed in Gaza aged just 24

Israel's senior military advocate-general told the London-based news agency in a letter sent on Tuesday that the official report into the incident concluded that troops could not see whether Reuters' Fadal Shana, 24, was operating a camera or a weapon.

However, the official said reports found that the Israeli Defence Force tank crew were nonetheless justified in firing an airburst shell packed with flechettes - metal darts - that killed the Reuters cameraman and eight other Palestinians during fighting in the Gaza Strip on April 16.

The international news agency, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, issued a statement today saying it was "disappointed with and dissatisfied" by the Israeli military's decision that the tank crew would not face legal action.

"Reuters is deeply disturbed by a conclusion that would severely curtail the freedom of the media to cover the conflict by effectively giving soldiers a free hand to kill without being sure that they were not firing on journalists," the news agency said.