Records of Palestinian dispossession are gathering dust
By Michael R. Fischbach, Daily Star, June 23, 2003 
Part 1 of a two-part series -- The 20th century is full of examples of how resolving ethnic conflicts and injustices involves compensation, restitution, and/or reparation to the victims of such events. During the past decade alone, the world has seen the heirs of Holocaust victims obtain their loved ones’ long-lost bank accounts and insurance claims, just as the Dayton Accords provided for property restitution for persons made refugees by the Bosnian war. Yet the refugee exodus that has received more global attention than any other in the past 50 years ­ the Palestinians ­ has not seen such action taken on behalf of the victims. This is not for lack of evidence: Ironically, the Palestinian case is the one with the most thorough records of lost property of any refugee exodus anywhere in the world. These records have lain behind locked doors at the UN secretariat archives in New York for 40 years. To date, however, they have not been utilized the for purpose for which they were created: resolving Palestinian refugees’ property claims. These voluminous records were created by the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), which was created in December 1948 to seek a “conciliation” among Arabs and Israelis in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli war. Among the charges given to the new body by UN Resolution 194 (III) was to determine ways of compensating refugees for their abandoned and destroyed property. The UNCCP carried out several major initiatives aimed at refugee property compensation and/or restitution from 1949-64. The first of these was its 1951 Global Estimate of refugee losses, produced by a Briton, John M. Berncastle. This quick, general study of the issue was the only one the UNCCP ever published in its entirety, including figures both for the scope and value of refugee property. Using maps and data from the British Mandate in Palestine, the Global Estimate determined that some 16.3 million dunums of Arab land (16.3 billion square meters) “passed into Jewish hands” as a result of the 1948 war. The study further determined this immoveable property was worth £P100,383,784 (Palestinian pounds) in 1948 figures (some $400 million, also in 1948 figures). The Global Estimate also guessed that the refugees abandoned £P20 million in moveable property.

Death and chaos in Iraq
Editorial, The Guardian, June 25, 2003
Our soldiers should not pay the price -- The death toll yesterday among British military personnel north of Basra was a fifth of the total fatalities sustained during the war to occupy Iraq. It is a sad reminder, if one were needed, that the result of that war is not yet peace, and that British soldiers on the ground are having to cope with the consequences of this deeply flawed result. Till now it looked as if southern Iraq might be less affected than the north, but the soldiers and their families are now suffering as much as the US soldiers who have been killed and wounded in the north since April. What exactly happened in the two incidents near Amara will need careful analysis and a great deal more information. It may be tempting for military analysts to pigeonhole episodes of violence into two separate categories. Relatively low level clashes are regarded as an expression of local dissatisfaction with the "postwar situation" and amenable to being settled by more efforts in the hearts and minds department. More sophisticated clashes are attributed to remnant Ba'athists and Fedayeen forces, perhaps with some shadowy Saddamite hand behind them. It would be more realistic to see in Iraq - as formerly in northern Ireland (or anywhere else where armed forces encounter local opposition) - a hazy continuum between popular grievance and more organised forms of resistance. If paramilitary Iraqi forces are roaming in the outskirts of Amara, they could hardly do so without some degree of support from elements of the civilian population. Nor can they take refuge in inhospitable terrain: there are neither forests in southern Iraq nor (since Saddam destroyed them) marshes in which to hide. The type of weapons used is not conclusive evidence either: Iraq is still awash with lethal weaponry, including machine-guns capable of strafing a helicopter, as apparently happened yesterday.

The turn of Hamas
By Gideon Samet, Haaretz, June 25, 2003
We'll have to wait and see if Hamas decides by the weekend to agree to a cease-fire. The correct guess right now appears to be that it will. Then, we'll have to wait and see how long the halt in the attacks lasts and what the extremist Palestinians do without a state and the Israeli radicals - some acting in the name of the state - do to foul the entire process. Till then, the militant minority organizations on the other side now have an unusual opportunity to decide if the political initiatives will be given a chance or not. It's their turn to behave with reason and wisdom. This, therefore, is a call, from a modest corner, to Hamas and its associates, to do the right thing. There's also much cause for concern about the behavior on the Israeli side. Within the huge brainwash in which Israelis have been caught up for a long time, not enough has been said about the ongoing and consistent political blurring and deceit on the part of the Ariel Sharon government. It did everything it could to delay the road map. At first, it didn't approve it. Then, it got some form of American understanding for numerous comments that are designed to impede it. It continued with assassinations and appeared to intensify them whenever there seemed to be signs of movement on the other side. The ingenuous reasoning was that this is how Sharon-Mofaz-Ya'alon-Halutz want to help Abu Mazen, while he fights Ali Baba and thousands of thieves. The explanation was that every helicopter that descends on a victim in the territories brings the opposition groups closer to an agreement on a cease-fire. The assassinations also result in revenge-killings against us? The answer - difficult to disprove until there is a cease-fire: Had we not taken them out, they would have killed more Israelis. Aside from this, Sharon behaved very strangely during the faux-evacuation of the outposts. An army, which knows how to prevent comings and goings from entire Palestinian cities, was unable to block the flow of violent demonstrators against one fake outpost - one of the 60 established during the current Sharon government and that the road map demanded be removed by last month. While 1,000 policemen were mobilized to arrest a number of the suspects from the Israeli Islamic Movement, an apparently insufficient - or not determined enough - force stuttered at preventing the rejectionist nuisance on the part of the settlers.

The song of Orrin Hatch  
By Yuval Dror, Haaretz, June 25, 2003
An hour and 20 minutes into a session of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the audience was stunned into silence. Destroying hackers' computers "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights," thundered the committee chairman, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah. The participants at the hearing fell mute. No, they weren't dreaming. Hatch proposed a law that would allow music, movie and software companies to use remote software to destroy user computers on which illegal files such as MP3s are found. There was no excuse for copyright violations, he said. "He was probably speaking metaphorically," said a spokesman for the music companies association, who didn't believe that someone could be more radical than the association itself, which shut down Napster, sues users and brutally attacks anything that smells of file-swapping. But Hatch was completely serious, and had good reasons for being so. For those who don't know, Hatch is a gifted poet. His Web site says that already as a young man, he began playing the piano, organ and violin. When he was in college, he wrote poetry for pleasure. In 1996, he was approached by singer Janice Kapp-Perry, who asked him to write her a few songs. The senator sat down, and in one weekend, penned no fewer than 10 songs, all of which feature on Kapp-Perry's album, "My God is Love." Since then, he's written her another 300 songs. This is why it's hardly surprising that Hatch wants to put Web travelers' computers in front of a firing squad the minute it turns out they are involved in piracy.

The pressure worked - in the opposite direction
By Amira Hass, Haaretz, June 25, 2003
After the attempt on Abdel Aziz Rantisi's life and the assassinations of the heads of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, Israeli sources claimed that "Hamas is in a panic," and the organization "is under heavy pressure to agree to a cease-fire." But, in Gaza, it was possible to see how little truth there was to these statements. While some Hamas leaders "went underground," it was only for a day or two. Going underground appeared to be mostly an excuse to avoid reporters and TV crews. Afterward, those same leaders, including Rantisi, received visitors at their homes. Their neighbors did not leave in a panic and, as far as is known, they were not told to leave. The Azzadin al-Qassam people continued to appear in public. They also did not cease firing Qassam rockets. It was also difficult to see that Hamas felt any pressure in the wake of the international demands on it. On the contrary, it was on the verge of accepting a cease-fire before the assassination attempt on Rantisi and before the Aqaba summit. Only afterward did the voices inside the movement, opposed to a cease-fire, grow louder. Before Aqaba, Hamas prisoners and Hamas detainees in Ashkelon Prison sent a joint letter with Fatah prisoners in which they called for a stop to granting Israel "excuses" to harm the Palestinian people. That formulation is code for a call for a cease-fire. After Aqaba, the Hamas prisoners were the first to call on their leadership outside the prison to suspend talks with Abu Mazen, meaning cease discussion of his demands/requests for a cease-fire.  The prisoners were among the first whom the organization consulted after it met for clarification talks with Abu Mazen's government representatives and when the Egyptians came for another mediation effort in Gaza. By all accounts, the various pressures worked in reverse and stiffened positions. With the enormous popular support that Rantisi enjoys, the Hamas activists didn't feel any pressure from the Palestinian public.

Howard Dean: Sharon’s Man?
By Ahmed Nassef, Palestine Media Center, June 25, 2003
Although often portrayed as progressive, former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean falls short on several issues important to progressives, with the Middle East being one of the more glaring. True, Dean is one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls who opposed the invasion of Iraq (along with Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, conservative Senator Bob Graham, former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun, and Rev. Al Sharpton), but he is closer to a hawk when it comes to Israel/Palestine and US policy toward Iran. In a major foreign policy speech earlier this year, Dean, while calling for an end to Palestinian violence, did not call for an end to Israeli violence, let alone an end to the illegal Israeli occupation. And when asked whether his views are closer to the dovish Americans for Peace Now (APN) or the right wing, Sharon-supporting American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he stated unequivocally in an interview with the Jewish weekly The Forward, "My view is closer to AIPAC's view." "At one time the Peace Now view was important, but now Israel is under enormous pressure. We have to stop terrorism before peace negotiations," he said. Similarly, Dean's official campaign position on solving the Palestinian Israeli problem is that "terrorism against Israel must end," but there is no mention of the Israeli violence that has resulted in over 2,391 deaths since September 2000. Last December, Dean told the Jerusalem Post that he unequivocally supported $8 Billion in US loan guarantees for Israel. "I believe that by providing Israel with the loan guarantees...the US will be advancing its own interest," he said. His unconditional support for the loan package, in addition to $4 Billion in outright grants, went further than even some of the most pro-Israel elements in the Bush administration, like Paul Wolfowitz, who wanted to at least include some vague restrictions like pushing Israel to curtail new settlements and accept a timetable to establish a Palestinian state. On the illegal Israeli settlements, Dean seems to be waffling of late. A pro-Dean blog quotes his campaign as calling for the ultimate removal of only "a number of existing settlements." (The link back to the official site was no longer operational as of this writing.) However, in what may signal a softening of his position to woo progressive voters in the upcoming MoveOn.org Democratic "Primary" vote, Dean called last month for "ultimately dismantling the settlements." So which one is it?

The Tabboun: Arab Community Insider, For the week of June 23
By Ray Hanania, Palestine Chronicle, June 24, 2003
THIS ONE MAN'S OPINION: When addressing the issue of the Middle East, Arabs and especially Palestinians must always remind themselves that the issue is not religion, or about "Jews" or "Jewish people." It is about policy and politics. Many Jews and Israelis support compromise and a peaceful settlement and while they abhor and condemn suicide bombing terrorism, they also object to the heavy handed policies of the current government of Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. As a reminder, we take note that court martial trials of Israeli and Jewish pacifists Yoni Ben-Artzi and occupation resisters Haggai Matar, Matan Kaminer, Shimri Tzameret, Adam Maor and Noam Bahat resume this week. All six, Jews and Israelis, refused to enlist since they regard the service in the Israel Defense Forces as opposed to their conscience. They also objected to the military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem. Not all Jews and Israelis are fanatics or extremists or support violence. ... And furthermore, when Palestinians can stand up at the bitterest of moments, as their people are being killed by Israeli military attacks, and speak out forcefully against Palestinian suicide attacks and the killings of Jews and Israelis, Palestinians are making their strongest moral argument in support of an end to the occupation. We must work to encourage more Jews and Israelis to join us in speaking out against the murder of anyone regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim or Jew!... DOUBLE STANDARDS: The push by President George W. Bush to get information on Iran's nuclear weapons program reminds us of the double standard that drives American policy toward Israel which has a massive nuclear weapons program and that also is not monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).Israel reportedly had more than 200 nuclear weapons a decade ago and that their race to build more of these weapons of mass destruction remain unmonitored. In fact, the Israeli atomic energy technician who blew the whistle of Israel's illegal nuclear weapons program, Mordechai Vanunu, remains in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison. You can learn more about Vanunu by visiting www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/ ... But that's only one of the many areas of double standards that exist. Israel's government doesn't abide by the Geneva Conventions which prohibits much of Israel's violations of civil rights because Israel doesn't define itself as a military occupier. The lands they occupied in a military conflict in June 1967 are considered "disputed" territories. Right. And the land it captured in 1948 is also considered "disputed territory" by that definition, too. But, the other choice is moderation and both sides recognize their own misdeeds...

The Pretense of Dismantling Settlements
By Uri Avnery, Tikkun, June 22, 2003
Ariel Sharon's Ruse May Fool Americans--but Not Many Israelis Are Tricked -- The most talented director could not have done better. It was a perfect show. Television viewers all over the world saw heroic Israeli soldiers on their screens battling the fanatical settlers. Close-ups: faces twisted with passion, a soldier lying on a stretcher, a young woman crying in despair, children weeping, youngsters storming forward in fury, masses of people wrestling with each other. A battle of life and death. There is no room for doubt: Ariel Sharon is leading a heroic fight against the settlers in order to fulfil his promise to remove "unauthorized" outposts, even "inhabited" ones. The old warrior is again facing a determined enemy without flinching. The conclusion is self-evident, both in Israel and throughout the world: if such a tumultuous battle takes place for a tiny outpost inhabited by hardly a dozen people, how can one expect Sharon to remove 90 outposts, as promised in the Road Map? If things look like that when he has to remove a handful of tents and one small stone building—how can one even dream of evacuating real settlements, where dozens, hundreds or even thousands of families are living? This must have impressed George Bush and his people. Unfortunately, it has not impressed me. It makes me laugh. In the last few years I have witnessed dozens of confrontation with the army. I know what they really look like. The Israeli army has already demolished thousands of Palestinian homes in the occupied territories. This is how it goes: early in the morning, hundreds of soldiers surround the land. Behind them come the tanks and bulldozers, and the action starts. When despair drives the inhabitants to resist, the soldiers hit them with sticks, throw tear gas grenades, shoot rubber-coated metal bullets and, if the resistance is stronger, live ammunition, too. Old people are thrown on the ground, women dragged along, young people handcuffed and pushed against the wall. After a few minutes, it's all over. Well, they'll say, that's done to Arabs. They don't do this to Jews. Wrong. They certainly do this to Jews. Depends who the Jews are. I, for example, am a Jew. I have been attacked with tear gas five times so far. Once it was a special gas, and for a few moments I was afraid that I was going to choke to death. During one of the blockades on Ramallah we decided to bring food to the beleaguered town. We were some three thousand Israeli peace activists, both Jews and Arabs. At the A-Ram checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, a line of policemen and soldiers stopped us. There was an exchange of insults and a lot of shouting. Suddenly we were showered with tear gas canisters. The thousands dispersed in panic, coughing and choking, some were trampled; one of our group, an 82-year old Jew and kibbutznik, was injured. I have witnessed demonstrations in which rubber-coated bullets were shot at Israeli citizens (generally Arabs). Once I was in the gas-filled rooms of a school at Um-al-Fahem in Israel.