The 1.5 state solution
By Gabriel Ash, YellowTimes.org 10/31/2003
(YellowTimes.org) – Just as the world learned about the secret Geneva Accord, supposedly a groundbreaking blueprint for a comprehensive peace between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the parents of two Palestinian children in Rafah learned of their children's death at the hands of brave Israeli pilots. Hence, the accord, even before anyone read it, had already helped the Israeli "peace camp" fulfill its traditional diplomatic role, deflecting international attention from the horrible things Israel does, to the pious chants that accompany expressions of Israeli hopes for peace.
The driving personality behind the Geneva Accord, the indefatigable Yossi Beilin, has already brokered a number of "peace" blueprints. In theory, they all call for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the so-called "Two State Solution." In practice, their mathematics of Palestinian statehood are more fractional. The "Oslo Accord," with its almost total absence of Israeli obligations, should probably be called the "1.2 State Solution," whereas at Taba in 2000 Beilin went all the way up to a "1.4 State Solution." A full and free Palestinian state has never been on the table.
Not satisfied with the results, Beilin recruited another team of negotiators, found a willing Palestinian partner in the team led by Yasser Abd-Rabbo, and produced yet another blueprint. But does it go beyond the fractional? Does it recognize Palestinians as equals? Or is it more of the same, at best a "1.5 State Solution"?
Construction of wall in Israel/Palestine amounts to apartheid
By Miriam Ward, RSM, Catholic Peace Voice/VTJP September-October 20
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” (Robert Frost)
Whether called a wall or a fence, the massive 200-mile, 25-foot-high concrete and razor wire barrier, now 90-miles complete, is, according to President Bush, a “problem” and “obstacle to peace.” Clearly an “obstacle to peace,” the “problem” is nothing short of creating an apartheid state at best, ethnic cleansing at worst, and either way a frightening development in the tactics of oppression, and an ecological disaster.
In June/July I visited the wall in the Northern West Bank, as well as the wall(s) around Jerusalem that Sharon defiantly told Bush “will continue to be built.”
The Northern Wall
As one approaches the Qalqilya area, bulldozers are laying out what looks like an eight-lane highway through some of the richest farmland and olive groves in the West Bank. The Israeli Defense Ministry has acknowledged uprooting 63,000 olive trees in the process. The wall is not on the 1967 border, the Green Line, but cuts deep into Palestinian territory.
To date 67 Palestinian villages and cities are experiencing the devastating impact of the wall. Maintaining the appearance of legality, Israeli military pin requisition notices in Hebrew outside a home or drop them on farmland. Nothing is sacred in clearing the path for the wall: homes, businesses, water wells. Families are separated from farmlands and vital services, schools and hospitals. More than half the formerly self-sufficient population rely on UNRWA for rice, flour, sugar and oil. They view the Wall as an assault on their way of life, an extension of a brutal military occupation, the root cause of the conflict.
The New Israeli Geography Erasing History Of Villages
By Saeda Hamad, Al-Hayat 11/21/2003
According to the new Israeli geography, the village of Azoon Atmeh in the district of Qalqilia is no longer part of the occupied Palestinian West Bank. The separation wall has 'moved' it westward, locking it between an iron gate and the fictional Green line. And yet, according to Israel's plan, the village itself and its 3,000 inhabitants will not be part of the state of Israel.
To enter the Palestinian village, one must come from within the Green line, where Palestinians who do not reside in the village are forbidden to cross the iron gate to the West Bank and enter it. The village inhabitants are allowed to cross the military gate toward neighboring villages, but only during the hours set by the soldiers. The scene is all the more surprising because Israelis describe the wall as a security wall, but in the village and around its houses, there are houses of the Jewish settlement of Shaar, which are only separated from the Palestinian houses by a fence. The village is just a few meters away from the village of Kfer Qasem, and there is no material separation between the village and the Green line after the military barrack was removed, leaving only an Israeli military patrol to control the passing cars.
On both sides of the military gate, dozens of students and teachers wait every morning to be allowed to cross the gate because one part of the common school for both villages is in Azoon Atmeh and the other in Beit Amin.
As for the teachers who have no identity cards showing they live in one of the villages, they should get special "authorizations" from the military authorities. The matter is even more complicated, as one of the teachers complained that they had to wait until the soldier finished playing with the dog to begin the identity inspection.
UN Res. 1515 and Bush's London Speech
By Kristen Ess, Palestine Chronicle 11/21/2003
“More resolutions is not the solution,” said Israel's deputy UN ambassador Aryeh Mekel. They must not be for Israel, considering its history of not honoring them. Since 1967 and the passing of Resolution 242, the UN has passed 130 resolutions against Israel, none of which have been honored.
The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted unanimously yesterday to support Resolution 1515, calling for the implementation of the Road Map. Israel has long spoken against UN intervention. Palestinians have been asking for it for years.
Bearing in mind Israel’s general non-compliance, the Resolution includes, “all its previous relevant resolutions,” and highlights three resolutions: 242 from 1967, 338 from 1973, 1397 from 2002, and includes the Madrid principles.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said that Russia officially submitted the draft to the UN on Wednesday and Russia's envoy to the UN, Sergei Lavrov, presented the draft to the Security Council. On a recent visit to Russia, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is against the Road Map.
The Americans told the Israelis in advance that the U.S. would vote with the Road Map resolution, but also said they would attempt to alter the proposal. This is a large reason why Palestinian people have little faith in international agreements. An already flawed document is diminished even further.
Palestinians Don't Want Repackaged Oslo
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle 11/21/2003
The “Geneva agreement”, a symbolic peace initiative devised by ex-Israeli and Palestinian officials, is yet another charade whose only objective is to gratify the political fervor of the “publicity hounds”, according to many Palestinians and Israelis.
Even before the fine print had been scrutinized, mistrust has flared; even before the Israeli Labor Party’s media offices mailed out hundreds of thousands of copies to every Israeli household, the Sharon government was able to conclude that the agreement “reeked with bad odor.” While the Israeli right has an abundance of reasons to feel threatened by the Geneva “breakthrough” — on political, ideological and religious grounds — Palestinian skeptics are wary of the peace proposal for another reason: The last time they rejoiced over a similar “breakthrough”, they forfeited more territories to Israeli settlements and militarized zones at yet a more rapid pace. In fact, since the last breakthrough in Oslo in September 1993, the number of Israeli Jewish settlers in the occupied territories has doubled.
In order for the Geneva agreement to endure, it must, and without any reservation, be seen as distinct from Oslo and its offspring. Oslo’s shortcomings are many; it spurned international law, failed to realize a tangible mechanism for executing the agreement, stipulated no accountability, and undermined issues Palestinians consider fundamental.
American Middle East policy through Arab eyes
By Salim El Hoss, Daily Star 11/21/2003
It is inconceivable that we stand against America and the fundamental values embedded in its constitution, but we do cherish the right to be opposed to the policy of the US administration, as does in fact a large segment of the American population, as certain polls have revealed.
American foreign policy in our region has ended with dismal failure as it veered away from the very values enshrined in the American constitution, pursuing a course alien to reason and justice. The administration seems to have steered a course after the Sept. 11, 2001, atrocity (which we strongly condemned) eschewing those values and espousing a policy of coercion. The vanquished people of Palestine are aware of their rights, interests, and obligations. It would be utterly counterproductive to subject them to any kind of oppression or coercion, which they stand ready to resist regardless of the sacrifices that this might entail. The Americans’ blessed forefathers set a magnificent example in that regard as they revolted against oppression and injustice and wrested their freedom. As they did they were hailed as heroes, whereas the Palestinians nowadays, struggling as they are for their freedom, dignity, and, right to self-determination, are condemned as terrorists.
How bizarre!
Building from the ruins
By Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 20 - 26 November 200
Rafah's Philadelphi Road along the border with Egypt was once home to several thousand Palestinian refugees. Today it is a slough of bulldozed mud, crushed stone and fallen homes, keeled and abandoned like so many shipwrecks. Last month the Israeli army mounted three incursions to clear the road, pulling down apartments used by Palestinian guerrillas, unearthing tunnels that fed them arms, pushing out the people who lived there. Eighteen Palestinians were killed, including three children; 120 were wounded; nearly 200 homes were razed; nearly 2,000 Palestinians were made homeless; and three tunnels were found.
For those displaced Israel's aim is not defensive or even punitive. It is rather a massive act of geo-political engineering, stirring both memory and omen. "In 1948 the Israelis transferred us to the West Bank and Gaza. Now they're transferring us to places within the West Bank and Gaza," says Hajar Abu Armana.
She and her seven children are now squatting in a changing room in Rafah's football stadium, dripping with damp, shared with 30. Her house was on the border, she says. It is now a pile of pulverised concrete covered by a carpet. "I don't know where we will be moved," she says leaning on a fence hung with washing. "But I know we will be moved. We always are."
Israel's anti-Semitism
By Ibrahim Nafie, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 20 - 26 November 200
The Israeli right stands guilty of more than hypocrisy when they accuse others of being anti-Semitic -- Israel and Zionist organisations are becoming increasingly dependent upon the charge of "anti- Semitism" as a political weapon. Individuals and organisations, indeed entire nations and societies, have found themselves so besmirched.
Anti-Semitism has a very precise definition. It refers to remarks or acts targeting the ethnic group termed Semites, which comprises both Jews and Arabs. Israeli and Zionist media and political forces have warped this definition in several ways. Above all they have manipulated the concept of Semitic ethnicity so as to apply to Jews alone, thereby enabling them to level the allegation of anti-Semitism against the Arabs in spite of the fact that they constitute the majority of the Semitic peoples. In addition, they have stretched the definition of anti-Semitism to include any criticism of Israel and Israeli policy. Thus, anyone who speaks out against the aggression and inhumane practices inflicted against the Palestinian people by Israeli occupation forces risks being branded "anti-Semitic".
The label "anti-Semitic" has acquired enormous deterrent power. Israeli and Zionist forces have rallied their enormous network of relations and vested interests to disseminate such a climate of terror as to forestall any discussion of Israeli policy or actions that might somehow be construed as adverse. Even in academic circles, for scholars or researchers to so much as broach certain subjects is enough to set off the charge of anti- Semitism. As a consequence entire fields of scholastic inquiry have entered the constantly expanding list of Israel's taboos.
Settlers Attack Palestinian Olive Pickers
By Bassem Shehadi, Jerusalem Times 11/19/2003
The annual olive harvest in the occupied territories has once again been rocked by extremist Jewish settlers, who increased their assaults on Palestinian pickers to plunder their crop. This year, the settlers terrorized olive pickers in their land with guns and clubs and they destroyed hundreds of trees, some have been planted since the Roman era.
Mob militant settlers have been harassing Palestinian farmers for years, especially in the past three years of the Intifada. There have been hundreds of attacks, including rampages through Palestinian villages. Human rights groups say 25 Palestinians have been killed by settlers in the past three years. The Palestinians harvest only fear and hatred and believe that the settler's rampages are part of a systematic campaign by Israel to force them to flee from their lands. Settlers, usually go about with rifles and pistols, eventually will control the land near their settlements, because poor framers usually pack up and flee for their lives.
Olives are estimated to represent around 65% of the West Bank's crops, but Palestinian harvesters are increasingly dependent on the assistance of foreign activists to do the picking. The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture estimated the losses caused by the settlers' attacks in the territories to about 1,000 liters of olive oil or 30% of its annual production. Framers need foreign volunteers to bring their equipment to their groves near the Jewish settlements, which are usually left uncultivated most of the year. Mob settlers with chain saws turned olive groves into a wasteland overnight, thousands of trees were cut down at the trunks....
Twilight Zone / `I punched an Arab in the face'
Ha'aretz 11/21/2003
"The line of what is forbidden was never precisely drawn. No one was ever punished and they just let us continue." -- Staff Sergeant (res.) Liran Ron Furer cannot just routinely get on with his life anymore. He is haunted by images from his three years of military service in Gaza and the thought that this could be a syndrome afflicting everyone who serves at checkpoints gives him no respite. On the verge of completing his studies in the design program at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, he decided to drop everything and devote all his time to the book he wanted to write. The major publishers he brought it to declined to publish it. The publisher that finally accepted it (Gevanim) says that the Steimatzky bookstore chain refuses to distribute it. But Furer is determined to bring his book to the public's attention.
"You can adopt the most hard-line political positions, but no parent would agree to his son becoming a thief, a criminal or a violent person," says Furer. "The problem is that it's never presented this way. The boy himself doesn't portray himself this way to his family when he returns from the territories. On the contrary - he is received as a hero, as someone who is doing the important work of being a soldier. No one can be indifferent to the fact that there are many families in which, in a certain sense, there are already two generations of criminals. The father went through it and now the son is going through it and no one talks about it around the dinner table."
Furer is certain that what happened to him is not at all unique. Here he was - a creative, sensitive graduate of the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, who became an animal at the checkpoint, a violent sadist who beat up Palestinians because they didn't show him the proper courtesy, who shot out tires of cars because their owners were playing the radio too loud, who abused a retarded teenage boy lying handcuffed on the floor of the Jeep, just because he had to take his anger out somehow....
The Zenith of Arab - Islamic Civilization
By Leila Diab, Middle East Online 11/20/2003
It was in the Arab world that the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam were established, and thus began spreading throughout the world -- Today, the Arab- Muslim American experience represents the most common denominator in our culturally diverse society. For Arabs, who comprise 22 countries in the Arab world, the celebration of Arab Heritage Month throughout the City of Chicago, acknowledges its many contributions to science, math, literature and the humanities. Amazingly, it is a time to discover that within the Arab world and culture, our own themes and experiences are all common threads that bind us all together. Conversely, the discovery of the significant contributions of Arab civilization throughout the centuries has left an indelible and infinite mark that is all encompassing in the western world today. The revered and distinguished historian, Albert Hourani, in his book, A History of the Arab People, captures the rich and venerable Arab heritage and civilization by citing several examples such as of the beauty of the Al Hambra Palace in Granada, Spain, the great mosques (Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem), churches (Church of Nativity and Holy Sculpture), the importance of education, the Arab achievements in Science, navigation, the role of Arab women, and the contemporary Question of Palestine. Hourani also chronicles the spread of the new religion of Islam in the 7th century AD, which leads us into the creation of the Arab, as well as the Muslim world.
Safieh letter to President Bush
Jerusalem Times 11/19/2003
Dear Mr. President,
I believe, Mr. President, that you are badly advised and poorly surrounded and I sincerely hope that you will unburden yourself of the shallow and belligerent neo-conservative ideology and the delirious Christian fundamentalist theology. As a descendent of the early Christians - who were, by the way, converted Jews- each time I hear the evangelicals, I feel a need to proclaim and defend " the innocence of God". My understanding of the Christian faith is that Christ has never left us and that there is no need to support unquestioningly Israel's territorial appetite to accelerate His return.
Since the end of bipolarity and the emergence of a unipolar international system, I personally believe that non alignment should be what characterizes American foreign policy. America is a fascinating society because it is " a nation of nations". When the American administration sides, in a regional conflict, with one of the belligerent parties, it not only antagonizes all the other actors in the region but it also alienates and ghettoizes one component of the domestic national social fabric. And in the Middle East, one ought to remember that it is Israel that occupies Palestine and not the other way around.
Mr. President, the perceived collusion between the American and the Israeli agendas has put America on a collusion course with the Arabs and the Muslims. The unresolved Palestinian tragedy is what is poisoning international relations. America gives Israel a lot of aid and, occasionally, some advice. You seem, Mr. President, to have grown accustomed to see Israel take all the aid and leave the advice aside. Many senior Americans have been for long advocating that the administration should link its aid and its advice to "save Israel in spite of itself" (George Ball, among others, since over 3 decades).
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