Excerpts from Briefing by Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert on the Situation in Jerusalem
Jerusalem, October 24, 2000
Since the beginning of the events following Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year, we've had until now 14 events of shooting at civilian
quarters of Jerusalem, mostly in Gilo, which is in the southwestern
part of the city of Jerusalem.
Gilo is a neighborhood of approximately 40,000 residents. The
shooting started on a couple of streets, on Anafa and Koreh streets,
and then expanded into other streets. Until now there have been about
17 apartments which were hit directly, and there were a few citizens
which were injured - thank God not severely - and one policeman who
was very severely wounded, and is still struggling for his life. The
shooting increased in the last few days - particularly two nights ago
there was a massive shooting, that by some miracle didn't result in
many casualties. I visited some of the apartments that were hit, and
it really was nothing less than a miracle. In a few apartments you
could see the holes in the walls of the apartment; it was very close
to the heads and bodies of the residents, including very young
children.
In the beginning, the Palestinian Authority claimed that the shooting
was being done against their will and against their efforts to
stop it. We have good evidence that in the last few days not only is it
not done against their will, but it is coordinated and encouraged by
the officials of the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem. So this is
an outright violation of the understandings and agreements that we
have with the Palestinians.
We know that Beit Jala was chosen very carefully by the Palestinians.
It is mostly a Christian community, as Bethlehem is, and we are aware
of the fact that the Palestinians thought there would be a massive
Israeli reaction which would result in a massive blow to buildings
and institutes and maybe of Christian people in the area, which could
then be used in different parts of the world, in different Christian
communities, against Israel. This is a typical tactic of the
Palestinians. As you know very well they expose children so that the
children will be hit and their blood can be used to show the
"brutality" of the Israelis, and the same goes for the choice of
these particular neighborhoods which are Christian neighborhoods, so
that the propaganda can be effectively used against the State of
Israel.
Those who shoot are not necessarily residents of Beit Jala; they come
from the outside, against the good will of the population there,
which by and large are unhappy with the use of this site for the
shooting. But the fact that those who shoot are from the outside only
proves the point I made before, that the shootings are orchestrated
in purpose to involve a Christian community in a situation between us
and the Palestinians in order to embarrass the State of Israel
against Christian countries and Christian societies in various parts
of the world.
We have a good idea of who these people may be, both those who are
shooting and those who are sending them. We will reach them, sooner
or later, and they will have to pay a heavy price, because I think
it's obvious that no-one is expected to tolerate the attacks on
civilian populations such as in the neighborhood of Gilo. Of course,
in addition there is another dimension: we are talking about the
capital of Israel, and I don't know of any capital in the world, that
would tolerate a shooting against its capital.
The Israeli reaction was very restrained. There is a reason for it:
we don't have any intention of shooting innocent civilians. We try as
much as we can to avoid shooting at the houses and buildings where it
may result in innocent civilians may be hit. Therefore the Israeli
army was instructed to strike only at the specific targets that were
the source of the shooting against us. In some cases we couldn't
detect the specific location from which they were shooting, so we did
not respond. The use of choppers and tanks was also very restrained
and careful.
We have no desire to hit civilians. We have no war with the civilians
living in Beit Jala. They can continue their cooperation in living
peacefully alongside Gilo as they did until now, but cannot expect
that Beit Jala will be a base of daily and nightly shooting against
our people without any Israeli reaction. We don't seek any revenge.
We just seek one thing - to stop it.
We are not in the business of retaliation, we are not in the business
of punishment, we are not in the business of killing civilians and
then making an excuse, "What do you want from us, we had to respond"
- no. We are in the business of trying to stop those who are shooting
at our civilians in the neighborhood of Gilo as they were doing in
the last three weeks. In order to avoid unnecessary and undesired
effects, we have repeatedly asked the residents of Beit Jala to move
from their homes.
The tank shells were not aimed at residences or houses, they were
aimed at a particular site, which was the marble factory from which
there was massive shooting, and gunfire was not an appropriate answer
for that site because of the nature of this place. So it is not that
tanks shells are the typical response, there were only two tank
shells that were shot.
The only problems that we have had in Jerusalem were on the Temple
Mount, and on the Temple Mount the participants on the Arab side were
not residents of Jerusalem, they were the Tanzim, and the members of
the Palestinian intelligence who came from the outside, but they are
not residents of Jerusalem. With the residents of Jerusalem we have
good relations; they are not our enemies; we are not in a war with
the Arab Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, no matter where they
live - in Sheikh Jarah, in Shuafat, in Beit Hanina, in Issawiya or in
Jabel Mukabar. Of course everything is a little bit tense now, under
the circumstances, but there was not one single event of rioting, not
one attempt to stop or close any junction in any major part of the
city of Jerusalem, as happened in other parts of the country.
In spite of all the incitements and provocations in the last four
weeks, the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem remained quiet and
did not take part in any major riots or violent activities against
other civilians or the security forces in the city of Jerusalem.