Quadriplegic in wheelchair assassinated by helicopter gunship

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Monday March 22, 2004 10:13

by kokomero

Having released Ahmed Yassin because of fears he might die in prison

might lead to massive violence on the streets of Palestine Ariel Sharon chose today to public assassinate him in Gaza without so much as a trial.

The question is why? And why was it sanctioned by Bush as it undoubtedly must have been?

They could have picked up this man any time they wanted on the streets as there was little chance of him getting away on his wheelchair. Surely this barbaric execution is proof if it were required that Israel has no interest in peace and is again thumbing its' nose at the world.

His assassination will reawaken memories for Irish people of the execution of James Connolly in a wheelchair and the war which led to independence from British tyranny that it sparked!

"Sharon has opened the gates of hell. and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head."

http://www.megastories.com/islam/yassin/interv.htm

Ahmed Yassin has been a quadraplegic for many years and is almost blind. Sentenced by Israel to 15 years in prison for conspiracy to murder, analysts have long suspected that he might be released early to avoid the unrest that would inevitably follow if he died in an Israeli jail.

Following is a translation by Out There News of an interview by APTV with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a Jordanian hospital on October 4, 1997.

"I say this one more time so that everyone understands. We do not hate the Jews as Jews. We do not fight the Jews as Jews.

We are fighting (people) who take our rights and our land, and our homes and our houses. We are fighting those who kill us. We want Truth. We are not the aggressors against anyone. We do not oppress anyone.

The Palestinian people want to return to their homes. For that reason, we are prepared to live with the Jews in the best possible circumstances, in brotherhood and a spirit of cooperation.

But they must not infringe our rights. If my Muslim brother, of the same mother and father, took my land I would fight him. I would fight my brother, though he was from the same mother and father."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1175088,00.html

Israel today killed the Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in a helicopter missile strike outside a Gaza City mosque.

The assassination prompted threats of revenge by Palestinian militants against Israel and the United States.

Yassin is the most prominent Palestinian leader to be killed by Israel, and his assassination was seen as a major escalation in more than three years of fighting.

"His wheelchair was twisted. Two or three people were lying next to him on the ground," said taxi driver Yousef Haddad, who had rushed out of a nearby grocers' shop when the missiles shook the Sabra district.

The Yassin assassination is being seen as an enormous gamble by Sharon, who is trying to score a decisive victory against Hamas ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. It risks triggering a dramatic escalation in bloodshed that could turn the popular mood in Israel against him.

For the first time, Hamas also threatened the United States, saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible.

Israel had previously tried to kill Yassin in September last year, when a warplane dropped a bomb on a building where he and other Hamas leaders were meeting, but Yassin escaped with just a small wound to his hand.

One Israeli official recently said Yassin, a Hamas founder, was "marked for death."

Despite Israeli threats against him, Yassin never changed his routine.

Every morning, he would attend pre-dawn prayers at the local mosque in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. Today, he did the same, being wheeled to the house of prayer by bodyguards. As he emerged at around 5:30am (0330 GMT), three Israeli missiles hit.

Yassin lived in a modest house. Though he was limited in his movements, and Israel blamed him for inspiring Hamas bombers and attackers who killed hundreds of Israelis, Israeli governments had until now refrained from targeting him, fearing a firestorm of revenge attacks.