Re: Is Syria next ...

A group of left-wing Israeli and Palestinian activists voiced fears that the Israeli Army might use the US-led war on Iraq—which began this morning—as a cover to transfer thousands of Palestinians from their homes into neighboring countries, such as Jordan, as it did during the previous 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars.

“Transfer may mean expulsion of Palestinians from the county altogether, or the transfer of populations from areas of the West Bank earmarked for annexation to other areas,” US-Israeli activist Jeff Halper told reporters in occupied east Jerusalem early on Tuesday.

“These actions are likely to be spearheaded by militias of armed (Israeli) settlers,” he said at a news conference organized by the Palestinian-Israeli Emergency Committee.

We call on all people of good will to mobilize their organizations and networks, and to lobby their governments to protect the Palestinian people, and we call on Israeli soldiers to respect international law and refuse illegal orders given by their commanders to harm the civilian population” said Halper.

Palestinian human rights group, LAW, expressed fear that Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people would escalate as attention turns to Iraq.

The group voiced fears of an increase in the number of “punitive home demolitions, intended to punish the families of political activists, of suicide bombers and other armed combatants.”

LAW also said that the Israel would increase its military assaults against the densely populated Gaza Strip, which have “caused immeasurable loss and suffering to Palestine’s poorest of the poor, the refugees.”

Moreover, the human rights group expressed fear that Israeli occupation army will step up its extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian activists and warned of mass rounding of Palestinians as well as possible deportation of some political prisoners

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