Arabs should look at full half of the cup

I may upset few of my colleagues and, maybe, as well as readers by saying that I welcome the report of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Anan on events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities. But I believe it is worth taking the risk. The trouble with us Arabs, we often tend to only see the empty half of the cup, not the full half.

Headlines in Israel and many Israeli commentators were joyfully rushing to confirm that no massacre was committed in Jenin following the release of the UN report early in the month. It is a rare occasion, historically speaking, for Israel to hail any thing the UN says or decides.

Equally perplexing, many Arabs, though understandably in some cases, heavily came out against the report which, almost explicitly in my view indicted, though indirectly, the Israeli government and army.

The report says that the Secretary-General had to present the General Assembly with report on events at Jenin, after the Israeli government suddenly rejected the UN's fact-finding team which was due to go to Jenin to establish what has really happened there.

Here what the Secretary-General says: "The report was requested by the General Assembly in May (Resolution ES- 10/10 adopted on 7 May 2002), after (listen carefully) the disbandment of the team which the Secretary- General, supported by the Security Council (Resolution 1405 of 19 April 2002), had proposed to send to Jenin to establish the facts on the ground."

The report continues to accuse Israel for not cooperating with the UN when it requested information about the events in Jenin, and confirms the sources where the information were collected from.

Therefore, the report relies "on available resources and information, including submissions from six UN member States and Observer Missions, documents in the public domain and papers submitted by NGOs from a range of perspectives."

The report goes on to say that "the Palestinian Authority did submit information, while the Government of Israel did not. In an effort to present as complete a picture as possible, the report makes use of publicly available information from the Israeli Government."

In reporting the events on these basis, the report highlights some key aspects of the events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities.

The report criticises the Palestinians on two accounts only while it lashes the Israelis on seven. Its criticism of the Palestinians based entirely on "Israel's charges and allegation", and the report says so quite explicitly.

However, its criticism of the Israelis based on information obtained from human rights organizations, UN Observers as well as the Palestinian Authority.

On the conduct of the Israeli forces during the attack from March 1 through May 7, the report graphically reveals the following:"Death Toll: 497 Palestinians were killed and 1,447 wounded in the course of the IDF reoccupation of Palestinian areas.

Most accounts estimate that between 70 and 80 Palestinians, including approximately 50 civilians, were killed in Nablus. The IDF lost four soldiers there."

The report continues: "In Jenin camp, by the time of the IDF's withdrawal and the lifting of the curfew on April 18, at least fifty-two Palestinians, of whom up to half may have been civilians, and twenty-three Israeli soldiers were dead.

"Allegations by Palestinian Authority officials in mid-April that 500 or more persons were killed in Jenin camp were not substantiated by the evidence that subsequently emerged."

Arbitary Arrests and Detention: "By May 6 an alleged 7,000 Palestinians had been arrested under Operation Defence Shield, many of them held for long periods with little or no outside contact.

"In many instances the IDF followed a pattern of using loudspeakers to summon males between the ages of 15 and 45. According to human rights reports, significant numbers of the men arrested were blindfolded and handcuffed, not allowed to use a lavatory, and deprived of food pr blankets during their first day in detention."

Human Shields: "There were numerous reports of the IDF compelling Palestinian civilians to accompany them during house searches…stand in the line of fire. Witness claim that this was done in Jenin camp and other Palestinian cities. The Government of Israel has denied (this)…, but on May 5 issued 'an unequivocal order… that forces in the field are absolutely forbidden to use civilians as a means of living shield'."

"Disproportionate and Indiscriminate Destruction: Operation Defensive Shield resulted in the widespread destruction of Palestinian private and public property…(using) bulldozers, tank shelling and rocket firing, at time from helicopters, in populated areas."

The report points to the fact that "over 2,800 refugee housing units were damaged and 878 homes were demolished or destroyed during the period covered, leaving more than 17,000 people homeless or in need of shelter rehabilitation. Nablus was especially hard hit in terms of physical destruction, notably in its Old City, which contained many buildings of culture, religious and historic significance."

While the report points to the destruction of Palestinian Authority Civilian property, which the Israeli army admitted, it highlights the other IDF practices during the invasion, such as denial of humanitarian access as well as curfews and closures.

It also highlights the attacks on ambulances and cites three instances where the Israeli forces were in action.

"On March 4, before the invasion of Jenin, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society Emergency medical Services in Jenin was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank while he was traveling in a clearly marked ambulance."

"On March 7, an employee of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was shot and killed while riding in an UNRWA ambulance near Tulkarm in the West Bank. And on April 8, an UNRWA ambulance was fired on as it tried to reach a wounded man in Jenin."

Two lessons can be drawn from this report. Palestinian officials and Arab commentators should remember that inflating the number of those killed does not turn the killing into massacre.

But most importantly, the report contains sufficient details of atrocities committed by Israeli forces during the period to indict those responsible to justice, albeit at a later date and different circumstances.

Mustapha Karkouti is the former president, Foreign Press Association in London