The shooting on Gilo
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From the first days of al-Aqsa Intifada, Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood was subjected to heavy small-arms fire from the adjacent Palestinian town of Beit Jala. In spite of the fact that no one killed from this shooting, the situation in which the Palestinians were firing on Jerusalem was insufferable from Israel's point of view and led to harsh reprisals against the Beit Jala homes used for staging, escalating from tank fire to helicopter gunships.
The mostly Palestinian Christian residents of Beit Jala reported that their homes were used against their will by Muslim militant groups, and believed that the strategy was designed to effect a demographic change in the area. They point to the Tanzim militants' choice of Christian Beit Jala to shoot from over other places where they could have similarly targeted Jerusalem, and their specific positioning in or near Christian homes, hotels and churches such as St. Nicholas, as well as institutions like the Greek Orthodox club, and their knowledge that a slight deviation in Israeli return fire would harm the Christian buildings.[1]
Andreas Reinecke, head of the German Liaison office to the PA, protested:
I would like to draw your attention in this letter to a number of incidents which occurred at "Talitakoumi" school in Beit Jala...which is funded mainly by the Protestant Church in Berlin. Over the last few days the school staff noticed attempts on the part of several armed Palestinians to use the school premises and some of its gardens for their activities. If they succeed in doing this, an Israeli reaction will be inevitable. This will have a negative impact on the continuation of the functioning of the school, in which no less than 1,000 [Christian] Palestinians study....You cannot imagine the kind of upheaval which will be provoked among the supporters of this school [in Germany] should they discover that the school premises are used as a battle ground.[2]
The shooting on Gilo ceased completely only after Operation Defensive Shield.
[edit] References
- ^ Associated Press, as reported in Yoram Ettinger, "The Islamization of Bethlehem by Arafat," Jerusalem Cloakroom #117, Ariel Center for Policy Research, December 25, 2001.
- ^ Letter from Andreas Reinecke to Colonel Jibril Rajoub, Head of the PA Preventive Security Apparatus in the West Bank, May 5, 2002, from IDF Spokesperson, May 12, 2002.
