Who Rules the World? (American Empire Project)

by Noam Chomsky

And so it was: as Yifrah was freed, the Israeli press reported that an army patrol fired into the yard of a school in a West Bank refugee camp, wounding five children, likewise intending only “to shock them.” There were no charges, and the event again attracted no attention. It was just another episode in a program of “illiteracy as punishment,” as the Israeli press termed it, including the closing of schools, the use of gas bombs, the beating of students with rifle butts, and the barring of medical aid for victims. Beyond the schools, a reign of even more severe brutality that became yet more savage during the Intifada was enacted under the orders of Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. After two years of violent and sadistic repression, Rabin informed Peace Now leaders that “the inhabitants of the territories are subject to harsh military and economic pressure. In the end, they will be broken,” and would accept Israel’s terms—as they did, when Arafat restored control through the Oslo process.12