Send Hans Blix to Nes Ziona: Civilians attacked
with poison gas
By James Brooks Online Journal Contributing Writer
February
20, 2003—Some of the victims were demonstrators. Some were children in
their homes, trying to get away from the gas
seeping under the door. Some were old men walking down the street. One
of the victims was a 13-year-old boy, playing in a schoolyard when a
gas canister enveloped him in a cloud of poisonous smoke.[1]
Like many of the others, he suffered recurring severe convulsions for
days.
Ambulance
drivers responding to one of the gas attacks found people on the street
jumping around, thrashing their limbs in
uncontrollable spasms. The victims seemed unaware of their actions and
surroundings. One driver said, "If they had anything in their hand—a
woman carrying her child might throw him down without
realizing it. She'd just drop him and start clawing at herself from the
gas." Many adults were required to restrain each violently convulsing
victim.[2]
These
attacks with an unknown poison gas were reported in a prestigious
regional newspaper by respected journalists.[3–4]
They appeared on European wire services, and on at least one US
military website.[5–8] They were repeatedly documented by an
award-winning human rights organization affiliated with the UN.[9–13]
Graphic film documentation
of the victims' suffering is available on VHS and DVD.[14] Three days
after the attacks began, the leader of the targeted people publicly
alleged the use of "poison gas"
against civilians and demanded that it stop. Yet the attacks broadened
in scope and continued for the next six weeks, until they ceased as
mysteriously as they had begun.[15]
These
facts are all in plain sight. But chances are you've never heard about
this chemical warfare against innocent
civilians. It was not the work of Saddam Hussein, or the Russians, or
terrorists, at least as the term is generally understood. It didn't
occur in the 1980s, and it didn't require the satellite data and
battle planning that the US military provided Iraq for its chemical
warfare against Iran.
These
poison gas attacks were perpetrated just two years ago by Israeli
troops against civilians in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories. Although they are documented by a small mountain of
detailed and consistent open-source information, they remain a silent,
ignored, seemingly untouchable story. At least eight separate
attacks were reported from February 12 through March 30, 2001, first in
the Gaza Strip and later in the West Bank. Several hundred civilians
are reported to have suffered from exposure to the gas. Many
required prolonged hospitalization. Six weeks after the initial
attacks, a doctor caring for victims at Ali Nasser Hospital in Gaza
said, "We still have 10 cases who we would like to send abroad for
treatment."[16]
The
poison gas canisters were unfamiliar, marked only with a few numerals
and Hebrew letters. The smoking gas they released
was non-irritating and initially odorless. After a few minutes a sweet,
minty fragrance would emerge. One victim recalled that "the smell was
good. You want to breathe more. You feel good when you
inhale it." The smoke often spewed in a "rainbow" of changing colors,
ending in a steady billow of black soot.
From
five to 30 minutes after breathing the gas, victims began to feel sick
and had difficulty breathing. A searing pain
would begin to wrench their gut, followed by vomiting, sometimes of
blood, then complete hysteria and extremely violent convulsions. Many
victims suffered a relentless syndrome for days or weeks
afterward, cycling between convulsions and periods of conscious,
twitching, vomiting agony. Palestinians agreed: "This is like nothing
we've ever seen before."[17]
Eyewitness
reports identify 33 distinct symptoms induced by the gas. All but three
are typical of nerve gas poisoning.[18]
Tareg Bey, a chemical warfare expert at the University of
California-Irvine, told the Chicago Reader that the symptoms "all fit
really well to nerve gas," though he was puzzled by the reported
fragrance and skin rashes.[19] The gas, which caused no recorded
fatalities, may have been a novel "nerve agent" developed in Israel's
CBW laboratories at Nes Ziona, where they've been making
nerve gases, and many other things, for decades.[20]
Were
these gas attacks an "experiment"? What has become of the victims? Who
made the decision to conduct this
criminal and inhuman campaign? These and many other questions about
Israel's willingness to use chemical weapons demand answers. The
silence about these attacks must end. Failure to investigate them and
bring their perpetrators to justice is a violation of the Geneva
Accords. America cannot make a case for war over potential chemical
weapons in Iraq, yet turn a blind eye to the actual chemical warfare
conducted by its "staunchest ally."
References:
[1] Vale of tears: Tear or poison gas? By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 5–11 April 2001, Issue No.528.
[2] Selected Interviews recorded for the documentary film Gaza Strip by James Longley, transcripts.
[3] Unprepared for the worst, by Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly Online, Feb.
15–21, 2001, Issue No. 521.
[4] Vale of tears: Tear or poison gas? By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 5–11 April 2001, Issue No.528.
[5] BBC Monitoring Middle East - Political, February 13, 2001.
[6] Deutsche Presse-Agentur, February 14, 2001, BC Cycle, 00:45 CET.
[7] AFX News Limited, AFX European Focus, February 13, 2001.
[8] Protests of U.S. and U.K. Air Strikes, Fort Bragg Web site, Feb 19,
2001.
[9] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report, Feb. 8–14, 2001.
[10] PCHR Weekly Report, February 15–21, 2001.
[11] PCHR Weekly Report, March 1–7, 2001.
[12] PCHR Weekly Report, March 22–29, 2001.
[13] PCHR Weekly Report, March 29-April 4, 2001.
[14] Gaza Strip, a documentary by James Longley, February, 2002.
[15] The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks: A Preliminary Investigation, James
Brooks, Media Monitors Network, January 8, 2003.
[16] Selected Interviews recorded for the documentary film Gaza Strip by James Longley, transcripts.
[17] ibid.
[18] Symptoms - The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks: A Preliminary Investigation, James Brooks.
[19] Gas Attack/What Was It?/News Bites, Michael Milner, Chicago Reader, August 23, 2002 Reader Archive—Article:
2002/020823/HOTTYPE.
[20] Israel and Chemical/Biological Weapons: History, Deterrence, and Arms Control, Avner Cohen, The Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Fall-Winter), pp. 27–53.
For additional references, see:
The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks: A Preliminary Investigation,
James Brooks.
James
Brooks of Worcester, Vermont, is an independent researcher and former
business owner whose articles have been published by
Vermont newspapers, Antiwar.com, Media Monitors Network, Dissident
Voice and several other sites. Currently Mr. Brooks serves as webmaster
for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel and publishes News Links, a free once-daily e-mail digest of in-depth Middle East news and commentary. To subscribe, contact jamiedb@attglobal.net
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