telis
11-17-2006, 04:49 PM
Fury as Israelis damage war cemetery
By Tim Butcher at the Gaza war cemetery
Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 15/11/2006
Britain has issued a formal complaint after Israeli forces caused significant damage to the Commonwealth war cemetery in Gaza City, the last resting place for thousands of troops who died fighting the Ottomans in 1917.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/11/13/nveteran13.jpg
One of the damaged headstones at the Commonwealth war cemetery in Gaza City.
The cemetery is the resting place for 3,686 Commonwealth servicemen, mostly British infantrymenThe British embassy in Tel Aviv wrote to the Israeli government four months ago after six headstones and a perimeter wall were destroyed by an Israeli army bulldozer but has not yet received an answer.
More damage was done last week during an Israeli operation in the nearby town of Beit Hanoun, when an attack helicopter used its cannon to fire at one of the cemetery's larger group memorial stones.
Two dozen other headstones have been pockmarked by shrapnel from Israeli artillery and several have been completely destroyed.
British diplomats are understood to be increasingly frustrated at Israel's unwillingness to discuss the issue.
''In spite of the representations, nothing has been heard back: it's all rather exasperating," a diplomat said.
Detailed questions put by The Daily Telegraph to the office of the Israel Defence Forces went unanswered yesterday, apart from a general statement that the Israeli army does not target religious sites.
The security situation in Gaza remains so poor that this year, for the first time, British diplomats were unable to organise a remembrance service at the cemetery.
Andy Fretwell, the Holy Land representative of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, has not been able to visit the Gaza cemetery for a year because of ongoing fighting and has had to rely on reports from its Palestinian gardeners.
''It's very upsetting for everyone involved in maintaining the many war graves here in the Holy Land but particularly upsetting for our loyal and dedicated local staff," Mr Fretwell said. ''I just wish the Israelis would pay more attention to what they are doing."
The cemetery, which was completed in 1920, is the resting place for 3,686 Commonwealth servicemen, mostly British soldiers killed during the three bloody battles it took to win Gaza from its Ottoman occupiers in 1917. There are cavalrymen, air crew and the occasional medic, but the vast bulk come from the "Poor Bloody Infantry".
The crests of many of Britain's most famous foot regiments are represented in Gaza; the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Cameronians, and the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
There are also 210 victims from the Second World War, when Gaza was the headquarters of a large Australian force, and 30 who have died since 1945, mostly as peacekeepers caught up in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Under the shade of jacaranda trees, the well-irrigated gardens, with rows of identically-shaped headstones, were first damaged in July by Israeli troops.
Israel launched an operation known as Summer Rains in retaliation for the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit. The operation consisted of a number of raids deep into Gaza. One incursion reached as far as the Tufah, the Gaza City suburb where the cemetery is located.
Mr Fretwell remembers receiving a telephone call from the retired head gardener, Ibrahim Jeradeh, who was hiding under a table at the time because of the weight of Israeli fire.
''The tanks came to the edge of Tufah and then they sent in the bulldozers," said Mr Jeradeh, 69, who still works part time at the cemetery.
"They destroyed all of our olive trees and some citrus trees but the worst thing was that they destroyed part of the perimeter wall, in the Canadian section, making it fall on to some headstones.
''We could not go outside for two days because it was too dangerous. If you opened a window they would have shot you."
Clearing undergrowth in Gaza is a standard tactic for Israel because it is used by Palestinian militants as cover to fire home-made rockets into Israel.
As the bulldozer continued its work, Mr Fretwell immediately called colleagues at the British Embassy who contacted the Israeli army.
The bulldozer was eventually ordered away but not until it had trundled into a section of the cemetery where 184 Ottoman soldiers lie in a mass grave, leaving two bare stretches in the green grass where its tracks cut into the ground.
This is not the first time the cemetery has been desecrated.
Palestinian troublemakers launched an attack two years ago to protest at the maltreatment of Muslim prisoners by American troops in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Several headstones were knocked down in the attack but Mr Jeradeh then chased the armed men away.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/13/nveterans13.xml
By Tim Butcher at the Gaza war cemetery
Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 15/11/2006
Britain has issued a formal complaint after Israeli forces caused significant damage to the Commonwealth war cemetery in Gaza City, the last resting place for thousands of troops who died fighting the Ottomans in 1917.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/11/13/nveteran13.jpg
One of the damaged headstones at the Commonwealth war cemetery in Gaza City.
The cemetery is the resting place for 3,686 Commonwealth servicemen, mostly British infantrymenThe British embassy in Tel Aviv wrote to the Israeli government four months ago after six headstones and a perimeter wall were destroyed by an Israeli army bulldozer but has not yet received an answer.
More damage was done last week during an Israeli operation in the nearby town of Beit Hanoun, when an attack helicopter used its cannon to fire at one of the cemetery's larger group memorial stones.
Two dozen other headstones have been pockmarked by shrapnel from Israeli artillery and several have been completely destroyed.
British diplomats are understood to be increasingly frustrated at Israel's unwillingness to discuss the issue.
''In spite of the representations, nothing has been heard back: it's all rather exasperating," a diplomat said.
Detailed questions put by The Daily Telegraph to the office of the Israel Defence Forces went unanswered yesterday, apart from a general statement that the Israeli army does not target religious sites.
The security situation in Gaza remains so poor that this year, for the first time, British diplomats were unable to organise a remembrance service at the cemetery.
Andy Fretwell, the Holy Land representative of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, has not been able to visit the Gaza cemetery for a year because of ongoing fighting and has had to rely on reports from its Palestinian gardeners.
''It's very upsetting for everyone involved in maintaining the many war graves here in the Holy Land but particularly upsetting for our loyal and dedicated local staff," Mr Fretwell said. ''I just wish the Israelis would pay more attention to what they are doing."
The cemetery, which was completed in 1920, is the resting place for 3,686 Commonwealth servicemen, mostly British soldiers killed during the three bloody battles it took to win Gaza from its Ottoman occupiers in 1917. There are cavalrymen, air crew and the occasional medic, but the vast bulk come from the "Poor Bloody Infantry".
The crests of many of Britain's most famous foot regiments are represented in Gaza; the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Cameronians, and the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
There are also 210 victims from the Second World War, when Gaza was the headquarters of a large Australian force, and 30 who have died since 1945, mostly as peacekeepers caught up in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Under the shade of jacaranda trees, the well-irrigated gardens, with rows of identically-shaped headstones, were first damaged in July by Israeli troops.
Israel launched an operation known as Summer Rains in retaliation for the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit. The operation consisted of a number of raids deep into Gaza. One incursion reached as far as the Tufah, the Gaza City suburb where the cemetery is located.
Mr Fretwell remembers receiving a telephone call from the retired head gardener, Ibrahim Jeradeh, who was hiding under a table at the time because of the weight of Israeli fire.
''The tanks came to the edge of Tufah and then they sent in the bulldozers," said Mr Jeradeh, 69, who still works part time at the cemetery.
"They destroyed all of our olive trees and some citrus trees but the worst thing was that they destroyed part of the perimeter wall, in the Canadian section, making it fall on to some headstones.
''We could not go outside for two days because it was too dangerous. If you opened a window they would have shot you."
Clearing undergrowth in Gaza is a standard tactic for Israel because it is used by Palestinian militants as cover to fire home-made rockets into Israel.
As the bulldozer continued its work, Mr Fretwell immediately called colleagues at the British Embassy who contacted the Israeli army.
The bulldozer was eventually ordered away but not until it had trundled into a section of the cemetery where 184 Ottoman soldiers lie in a mass grave, leaving two bare stretches in the green grass where its tracks cut into the ground.
This is not the first time the cemetery has been desecrated.
Palestinian troublemakers launched an attack two years ago to protest at the maltreatment of Muslim prisoners by American troops in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Several headstones were knocked down in the attack but Mr Jeradeh then chased the armed men away.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/13/nveterans13.xml