From Occupied Palestine

Fingering the collaborators
DANNY RUBINSTEIN
Ha'aretz, 3 May 2004

Occasionally there is an outbreak of panic about collaborators among the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, such as occured over two weeks ago in the Gaza Strip after the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Rantisi was aware that Israel had targeted him for death, and that they were trying to kill him. At least once before he was saved from an assassination attempt, and since then he had taken extra security measures: he surrounded himself with bodyguards, switched hiding places, and didn't travel in his familiar car. In spite of that, the Israeli security services managed to catch up with him and to kill him, only a few weeks after he was chosen to head Hamas in Gaza.

The victory of the Hamas way
DANNY RUBINSTEIN
Ha'aretz, 19 April 2004

The liquidation of Abdel Aziz Rantisi put an end, in one fell swoop, to the Palestinians' feverish occupation with what they term "the Bush declaration" (likened in all publications in the territories to the Balfour Declaration). Palestinian reaction to the killing of Rantisi was, of course, consistent - condemnation and rage, and popular demand for revenge. The reactions to Bush's declaration were also almost all uniform - anger at what the Palestinians view as an Israeli-American consensus on three issues that belong to the permanent-status settlement: the borders, the settlements and the refugees.

Arab states to ask UN to condemn Rantisi killing
HA'ARETZ SERVICE and NEWS AGENCIES
Ha'aretz, 19 april 2004

The United Nations Security Council set an emergency meeting on the Middle East on Monday at the request of Arab nations following Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi on Saturday, and a major policy announcement Wednesday by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Arab leaders say Bush backs Israel attack policy
EWEN MacASKILL
Guardian, 19 April 2004

Many Arab countries yesterday accused the US president, George Bush, of giving Israel the go-ahead last week for continuing its assassination policy. They linked the US to the death on Saturday of the Hamas leader, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi.

Obituary: Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi
DEREK BROWN
Guardian, 19 April 2004

Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, who was assassinated by the Israeli military aged 56, was leader of the militant Islamist group Hamas. He had held that post for just 25 days, since the near identical killing of the group's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Dr Abdel Aziz Rantisi
ADEL DARWISH
Independent, 19 April 2004

Abdel Aziz Rantissi, physician and political activist: born Yubna, Palestine 23 October 1947; married (two sons, five daughters); died Gaza City 17 April 2004.

Like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, his predecessor as leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantissi owed his fame and popularity more to Israel's harsh treatment and disproportionate punishment of activists opposed to its occupation of Palestinian land than to political cunning.

Grieving Palestinians pledge bloody revenge for killing of Hamas leader
DONALD MacINTYRE
Independent, 19 April 2004

Gaza -- Hamas moved swiftly yesterday to build a new underground leadership in the aftershock of Israel's assassination of Abdel Azis Rantissi little more than three weeks after he took over as head of the faction in Gaza.

It secretly designated the third Gaza leader in a month to replace Mr Rantissi, who was assassinated by a helicopter missile that destroyed his car on Saturday near his home. His driver and bodyguard were killed instantly.

Israel assassinates Dr. Abdul 'Aziz al-Rantissi, leader of Hamas
PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (PCHR)
press release, 18 April 2004

On Saturday evening, 17 April 2004, Israeli occupying forces assassinated Dr. 'Abdul 'Aziz al-Rantissi, 57, leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip. The attack also killed two of Dr. al-Rantissi's bodyguards, and wounded four civilian bystanders. This illegal and belligerent act is implemented within the context of Israeli authorities' threats to assassinate Hamas leaders, which have been articulated by Israeli political and military officials for the past two years. This assassination came less than one month following the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader and founder of Hamas, who was assassinated by Israeli occupying forces on 22 March 2004.

A reshaped table
GRAHAM USHER
al Ahram Weekly, 1-7 April 2004

The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin empowered Hamas and the only way to defuse its effect is to accept this, writes Graham Usher from Gaza and Ramallah

"We know Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and the enemy of the Muslim people," raged Abdul-Aziz Al- Rantisi, Hamas's new political leader in Gaza. He was speaking on Sunday at a rally at Gaza's Islamic University hours after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last week. The Arab summit in Tunisia had also just collapsed due to "divisions" over the issue of political reform in the Arab world. Rantisi did not spare Arab leaders the lash of his tongue.

Road map is forgotten at dead end for negotiation
AVI SHLAIM
Observer, 28 March 2004

Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, marked an extraordinarily dangerous escalation in the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. There could hardly be a more dramatic demonstration of the disparity in military power between the two parties to this conflict. The trouble is that there is no military solution and there are only losers in this dance of death.