Fwd: ZGram - 7/8/2004 - "Look who's gassing people now!"

zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Thu Jul 8 16:59:19 EDT 2004


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>Israel's Chemical Weapons
>
>by James Brooks
>Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!
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>July 8, 2004
>
>Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
>
>The reference for the article below is 
>http://www.antiwar.com/orig/brooks.php?articleid=2957
>
>[START]
>
>"On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 
>patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old 
>people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high 
>number of cases of [tetany], spasm in legs and hands, connected to 
>the nervous system. Pupils were dilated. Š Other symptoms included 
>shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and 
>sweating."
>
>Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village 
>of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel's impending wall 
>has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report 
>(procured by the International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC]), 
>"the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a 
>nerve gas."
>
>The following day, Israel's "Peace Bloc," Gush Shalom, began a press 
>release with the following quote from Al-Zawiya:
>
>"What the army used here yesterday was not tear gas. We know what 
>tear gas is, what it feels like. That was something totally 
>different. Š When we were still a long way off from where the 
>bulldozers were working, they started shooting things like this one 
>(holding up a dark green metal tube with the inscription "Hand and 
>rifle grenade no.400" - in English). Black smoke came out. Anyone 
>who breathed it lost consciousness immediately, more than a hundred 
>people. They remained unconscious for nearly 24 hours. One is still 
>unconscious, at Rapidiya Hospital in Nablus. They had high fever and 
>their muscles became rigid. Some needed urgent blood transfusion. 
>Now, is this a way of dispersing a demonstration, or is it chemical 
>warfare?"
>
>The incident in Al-Zawiya appears to be the tenth attack by Israeli 
>soldiers using an "unknown gas" against Palestinian civilians since 
>early 2001. We have photographs of the canisters. We have film of 
>victims suffering in the hospital. We have interviews with 
>Palestinian and European doctors who have treated the victims. And 
>we presumably have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of survivors. But we 
>know nothing of their fate. Despite the evidence, we have not 
>inquired.
>
>Though it is a state secret, Israel's development of chemical and 
>biological weapons has been known and analyzed for decades. From the 
>typhoid poisoning of Palestinian wells and water supplies in 1948 to 
>the conversion of F-16s into nerve gas "crop dusters" in 1998, 
>Israel has always demonstrated a strong interest in developing CBW 
>agents and methods for their dispersal.
>
>In 1992 an El Al 747 flying nerve gas ingredients from the U.S. to 
>Israel crashed into an Amsterdam apartment building. According to 
>Salman Abu-Sitta, president of the Palestine Land Society, the 
>respected Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad followed up the crash with an 
>in-depth investigation of the Israel Institute for Biological 
>Research (IIBR), Israel's CBW complex in Nes Ziona. The paper 
>reportedly found "strong links" with several U.S. CBW and medical 
>research centers, "close cooperation between IIBR and the 
>British-American biological warfare program," and "extensive 
>collaboration on BW research with Germany and Holland."
>
>At IIBR, doctors publish world-class research in acetylcholine, the 
>mother lode of nerve gas design. The Nes Ziona complex is reputed to 
>have invented an "undetectable" poison-needle gun for "clean" 
>assassinations. In September 1997, two days after Jordan's King 
>Hussein told Israeli PM Netanyahu that Hamas was seeking 
>negotiations, Mossad agents in Jordan attempted to kill Hamas leader 
>Khaled Misha'al with a lethal dose of fentanyl.
>
>For years, rumors persisted that Israel was using or testing unknown 
>chemical agents on Palestinian civilians. The rumors began to reveal 
>their substance February 12, 2001, when Israel began a six-week 
>campaign of "novel gas" attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. By 
>chance, American filmmaker James Longley arrived in Khan Younis, 
>Gaza in the middle of the first attack. That afternoon he began 
>filming the victims. His award-winning film, Gaza Strip, documents 
>the naked reality of Israel's chemical weaponry - the canisters, the 
>doctors, the eyewitnesses, and the hideous suffering of the victims, 
>many of whom remained hospitalized for days or weeks.
>
>The February 12 gassing of neighborhoods in Khan Younis presaged the 
>attacks that followed. When the gas canisters landed, they began to 
>billow clouds of either white or black, sooty smoke. The gas was 
>non-irritating and initially odorless, changing to a sweet, minty 
>fragrance after a few minutes. One victim recalled, "the smell was 
>good. You want to breathe more. You feel good when you inhale it." 
>The smoke often shifted to a "rainbow" of changing colors.
>
>From five to thirty minutes after breathing the gas, victims began 
>to feel sick and have difficulty breathing. A searing pain began 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, 
>alternating between convulsions and periods of conscious, twitching, 
>vomiting agony. Palestinians agreed: "This is like nothing we've 
>ever seen before."
>
>Forty people were admitted to Al-Nasser Hospital "in an odd state of 
>hysteria and nervous breakdown," suffering from "fainting and 
>spasms." Sixteen gas patients had to be transferred to the intensive 
>care unit. Doctors "reported the Israeli use of gas that appeared to 
>cause convulsions."
>
>At the Gharbi refugee camp, thirty-two people "were treated for 
>serious injuries" following exposure to the gas. Dr. Salakh Shami at 
>Al-Amal Hospital reported the hospital receiving "about 130 patients 
>suffering from gas inhalation from February 12."
>
>Bewildered medical personnel had "never seen anything Š like the gas 
>at Tufa." Victims were "jumping up and down, left and right Š 
>thrashing limbs around," suffering "convulsions Š a kind of 
>hysteria. They were all shaking." Others were already unconscious. 
>An hour or two later, they would come to. And the convulsions and 
>the vomiting and disorientation and pain would return.
>
>The following day, February 13, Israeli forces again deployed the 
>strange new gas canisters in Khan Younis. Over forty new gas 
>victims, "including a number of children Š from 1 to 5-years-old," 
>arrived at Al-Nasser Hospital and the hospital of the Palestinian 
>Red Crescent Society.
>
>The news began to trickle out. "Palestinian security services have 
>accused the Israeli army of using nerve gas during a gunbattle 
>yesterday," reported AFX News Limited, noting "the army has strongly 
>denied the charges." The Voice of Palestine reported that 
>"specialists believe that this is an internationally banned nerve 
>gas." Those who inhaled the gas "suffered a nervous breakdown and 
>vomited blood."
>
>The next day, Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted Dr. Yasser Sheikh Ali 
>from Al-Nasser Hospital: "Israel has been using a powerful type of 
>tear gas against the Palestinians that causes convulsions and 
>spasms." According to DPA, more than 80 PalestiniansŠreported that 
>Israeli soldiers had used the white smoky gas, but Israel denied 
>doing so."
>
>The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that on 
>February 15 three more canisters of the poison gas were fired at 
>houses in the Khan Younis camp, and "another 11 Palestinian 
>civilians, mostly children, suffered from suffocation and spasms due 
>to gas inhalation." British journalist Graham Usher wrote that Khan 
>Younis civilians were "incapacitated" by "a 'new' form of toxic gas."
>
>PA President Yasser Arafat publicly "accused Israel of using poison 
>gas." The IDF issued a second denial. Israeli Communications 
>Minister Ben-Eliezer called reports of gas casualties in Khan Younis 
>"incorrect and false." Senior PA minister Nabil Shaath said that a 
>sample of the gas would be sent to "an international center for 
>analysis." The results, if any, were never divulged.
>
>On February 18, Israeli soldiers near the Neve Dekalim settlement 
>reportedly fired four poison gas canisters at Palestinian houses in 
>Khan Younis. Later that afternoon, more canisters were fired, 
>forcing Palestinians to flee their homes. PCHR reported that "41 
>Palestinian civilians, mostly children and women, suffered from 
>suffocation and spasms." By PCHR's count, 238 Palestinians were 
>affected by poison gas attacks between February 12 and February 20. 
>Twenty-seven of the victims were still hospitalized on the 22nd.
>
>On March 2, an unknown gas was used against civilians in the West 
>Bank town of Al-Bireh. Israeli soldiers reportedly fired "canisters 
>of a highly effective black gas similar to the one used in Khan 
>Yunis three weeks ago."
>
>Twenty-four days later, Israeli forces east of Gaza City used a gas 
>that "left symptoms different from those of the Š gas used first Š 
>in Khan Yunis starting from February 12," although several 
>similarities also appeared. In this attack the onset of abdominal 
>pain seemed to be delayed.
>
>On March 30, medical professionals in Nablus reported Israeli 
>soldiers using the new poison gas against Palestinian demonstrators.
>
>British journalist Jonathan Cook reported a March gas attack on the 
>schoolyard of Al-Khader village, near Bethlehem. Thirteen year-old 
>Sliman Salah was playing when a gas canister landed next to him, 
>"enveloping him in a cloud of gas described by witnesses as an 
>unfamiliar, yellow colour." Large doses of anti-convulsants were 
>required to control the boy's seizures and maintain consciousness. 
>His symptoms "were finally brought under control five days after his 
>exposure to the gas. But Salah's father says the boy is still 
>suffering from stomach pains, vomiting, dizziness and breathing 
>problems."
>
>In its March, 2003 special report, Israel's Secret Weapon, BBC 
>Television reviewed this series of gas attacks, noting, "The Israeli 
>army has used new unidentified weapons. In February 2001 a new gas 
>was used in Gaza. A hundred and eighty patients were admitted to 
>hospitals with severe convulsions. Š Israel is outside chemical and 
>biological weapons treaties and still refuses to say what the new 
>gas was."
>
>In my amateur analysis of the reported comments of victims, 
>eyewitnesses and medical professionals regarding this series of 
>attacks, I identified thirty-three distinct symptoms attributed to 
>the unidentified gas. All but three of these symptoms appear to be 
>typical of nerve gas poisoning. Tareg Bey, a chemical warfare expert 
>at the University of California-Irvine, told the Chicago Reader that 
>the symptoms described to him "all fit really well to nerve gas," 
>though he was puzzled by the reported fragrance and skin rashes.
>
>In an October 9, 2003, article, Jennifer Loewenstein and Angela Gaff 
>asked, "What gas is Israel using?" They reported the story of 
>Mukhles Burgal, a Palestinian prisoner caught in a brutal attack 
>inside Israel's Ashkelon prison. The "guards forced their way into 
>the crowded cell, spraying two canisters of some type of gas. Some 
>of the 14 prisoners passed out. Š The effects of the gas were severe 
>muscle spasms and an overwhelming sensation of not being able to 
>breathe."
>
>Two days later, Palestine Monitor reported that Israeli forces in 
>Rafah were allegedly "firing gas grenades containing a black gas 
>believed to be adamatite [adamsite?] - the use of which is forbidden 
>according to international law. Medical authorities urged people to 
>avoid the gas at all costs, as it not only causes difficulty in 
>breathing but seriously affects the nervous system." For some 
>reason, PCHR's press release from the same day, an apparent source 
>of these reports, is no longer available. On the 14th, eyewitness 
>Laura Gordon wrote, "The army used some kind of nerve gas for the 
>first time in Rafah, leaving people in convulsions for days."
>
>Following the recent gas attack in Al-Zawiya, town officials 
>reportedly told Al Ayyam newspaper, "the Israeli occupation troops 
>were using an illegal substance that caused nerve spasms and that 
>several cases had been transferred to Nablus hospitals."
>
>The PA's International Press Center reported that "official and 
>public sources in Š Al-Zawya Š asserted that those who have inhaled 
>the tear gas IOF troops fired at them four days ago are still 
>suffering from the effects of the gas Š a number of those citizens 
>have already had amnesias or partial memory loss, in addition to 
>cramps Š in addition to strange cramps every three hours Š those who 
>inhaled the gas are still suffering severe pains in the joints and 
>nausea for four days now. Eyewitnesses recalled that the Israeli 
>soldiers were keen on picking the empty tear gas canisters." 
>Journalists told IPC "that the gas was in different colors they have 
>never seen coming out of a tear gas canister before, and that some 
>gases had an unrecalled smell."
>
>According to IMEMC, "[T]ens of demonstrators who inhaled this gas 
>had partial memory loss. Dr. Bassam Abu Madi told IMEMC that the 
>some of those who inhaled the gas had severe choking and some 
>contraction in their feet and arm muscles. Eyewitnesses said the gas 
>has a strange smell and a reddish-brownish color." In a follow up 
>story, IMEMC concluded that "protesters were attacked with gas that 
>is not like the tear gas. Those who inhaled the gas suffered some 
>memory loss while others had other symptoms of a nerve gas. Yet this 
>was not medically confirmed for lack of laboratories to inspect the 
>gas canisters collected from the scene."
>
>Al-Jazeera reported the opinion of Awni Khatib, a professor of 
>chemistry at Hebron University:
>
>"The new symptoms - particularly the violent convulsions experienced 
>by some Palestinian protesters outside the village of Sawiya 
>[Zawiya], southwest of Nablus - suggest Š that the Israeli army may 
>be using a new class of chemicals that lie somewhere between normal 
>tear gas and chemical weapons."
>
>Israel's repeated use of highly toxic unknown chemicals against 
>Palestinian civilians is now an open secret. We can expect these 
>attacks to continue until a concerted effort is made to determine 
>the facts and hold Israel accountable. So far, the international 
>human rights community has steadfastly ignored the mounting evidence.
>
>When will professional investigators begin to retrieve and test the 
>gas canisters? Why has no one but James Longley bothered to document 
>interviews with victims, doctors, and other eyewitnesses? In a world 
>in which one country's mere possession of chemical weapons can be an 
>excuse for international retribution, how can another country's use 
>of chemical weapons against civilians be dismissed as a "regrettably 
>excessive" tactic of crowd control?
>
>Our silence is poisoning Palestine.
>
>[END]



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