Palestinians on Verge of Humanitarian Catastrophe
By Genevieve Cora Fraser, Jerusalemites 11/27/2003
Over 9% of children under-5 suffer irreversible brain damage Due to Israeli policies, UN Right to Food Report reveals -- Last May, as part of the Road Map to Peace, the Bush Administration pushed hard and Israel capitulated in an effort to stay on President Bush's good side. So in July, Israel welcomed a UN sponsored mission to investigate conditions in the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel since 1967. The United Nations has now released a summary of "The Right to Food, a Report by the Special UN Rapporteur Jean Ziegler," one of the world's foremost specialists in the field.
For openers, Ziegler reports that the Occupied Palestinian Territory is "on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe, as the result of extremely harsh military measures that the occupying Israeli military forces have imposed in response to the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000."
Over 22% of Palestinian children less than five years old are suffering from either acute or chronic malnutrition; of these 9.3% now suffer from irreversible brain damage due to the starvation conditions brought on by Israeli policies. Food consumption has fallen 30 per cent on average per person and 60 per cent of Palestinian households now live in acute poverty. Half of them depend on international food aid, which is increasingly in short supply. Zeigler finds these conditions absurd considering that Palestine was formerly a middle-class economy.
The extensive imposition of closures, curfews and permit systems constitutes a violation of the obligation to respect the right to food, Ziegler states. It threatens the physical and economic access to food, as well as food availability. While acknowledging that Israelis live under the threat of suicide attacks by Palestinians bombers, Palestinians also live in fear, the report states. "Women and children are often killed in their homes or on crowed streets by Israeli military operations targeting Palestinian leaders."
Matters of principle
By Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 27 November - 3 Dece
Ariel Sharon suggested this week he might remove some Jewish settlements. It indicates how he intends to preserve most -- Last weekend Ariel Sharon made ripples that rapidly became a wave. In speeches and interviews with the Israeli press, he implied that should the roadmap proceed no further with Ahmed Qurei than it did with Mahmoud Abbas he might "unilaterally" set the borders of a "provisional" Palestinian state, involving the removal of "isolated" settlements. "It is obvious that ultimately we shall not be in all the places we're in now," he said on Monday.
His guarded comments sent Israel's right-wing parties and settler movement spinning. "The removal of any existing settlement will force us to immediately leave the government," railed Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the far-right National Union Party. The settlers dusted down plans for a mass campaign of protest as well as an old/new "political plan" to forestall both the roadmap and "unilateral separation". Instead, said the settlers, "Judea, Samaria and Gaza" should be divided into eight Jewish cantons and two Arab.
Sharon feigned innocence at the storm. "I said one phrase -- that I don't rule out unilateral moves," he answered his critics. "There is no need to get upset by journalists who write more than they know. Nothing has happened yet."
Nothing has happened and, believe most Israeli and Palestinian analysts, nothing will, at least not yet. Most read Sharon's ambiguities as a well-worn ruse aimed at filling the diplomatic vacuum that is the empty heart of his political strategy. What prompted them is (in his eyes) a dangerous mix of Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives and a revived American interest in the long dead roadmap. Sharon is aware that any convergence between them might erode the Israeli Jewish consensus he has so far marshalled behind his leadership.
Time to consult the Israeli and Palestinian publics
By Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star 11/28/2003
After several years of virtual stalemate in Palestinian-Israeli peace-making, a recent flurry of activity suggests that something is in the air.
Two separate grassroots Israeli-Palestinian peace frameworks based on the two-state solution have been proposed (the Nusseibeh-Ayalon plan, and the Geneva Agreement agreed by teams headed by Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo). The UN Security Council has formally endorsed the Quartet’s “road map” for peace and Palestinian statehood by 2005. To signal its displeasure with Israel’s expansion of settlements and construction of the separation barrier, the US has just deducted nearly $300 million from its $9 billion loan guarantees to Israel. The new Palestinian government headed by Ahmed Qorei plans top-level meetings with Israeli officials. Egypt this week wants to host a gathering of all Palestinian political groups to discuss a cessation of armed resistance against Israel, among other actions designed to resume the negotiations for a permanent peace accord. Four former Israeli internal security chiefs have publicly criticized the current Israeli government policy toward the Palestinians. And even the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has suggested he may dismantle a few of the dozens of small colonies that Israeli settlers have established in recent years throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The meaning of all this is unclear. It remains to be seen if the recent flurry of activity is merely movement without substance, prompted by frustration and desperation, or a tangible sign of substantive progress that builds on the tough lessons of the past decade. I think we have good news and bad news here.
Israel-Palestine, (un)Truth From The Land Of Israel - Lies with very short legs
By B.Michael, translated by Yosef Grodzinsky, A-Info News Service/Yediot Aharonot 4/26/2002
[The following is a translation by Grodzinsky of B.Michael's Excavations in the Spokesman's Site which appeared in Yediot Aharonot, April 26, 2002.]
It is Shavu'ot now - the Jewish Holiday of Harvest - and our forces are back in Jenin city and refugee camp. Their harvest includes 30 arrested Palestinians from the General Security Service's 'wanted list', 2 killed adults 'terrorists shot while trying to escape', and one 15 year old boy.
Israel is constantly attacking the territories, though with less media attention than in April. The script is the same: Armored troop carriers surround a town, while tanks and bulldozers, escorted by foot soldiers, turn up in its center, beginning their home-to-home searches. They are after those on the wanted list. They search, sometimes kill (as they did a 15 year old boy today), sometimes destroy (as they did several structures in Jenin today). News briefs regarding actions in West Bank cities, villages and towns have become a matter of daily routine now. Reporting on them is curt, clear, decisive. 2 killed (while trying to escape arrest, of course), 30 arrested; 1 child killed (the local commander duly apologized to the family), 10 arrested, an ammo 'factory' found. No one, neither here nor in the U.S. questions the validity of these reports, of the wanted list, or the justification of the actions. Israel has the right to be secure, and this is the cost if its security needs. Being awarded with a GSS 'wanted' status (mevukash in Hebrew or matlub in Arabic), is on a par with being handed down a verdict. A mevukash may be arrested or killed at will. Thousands have thus been arrested recently, hundreds killed. I have never seen a query by an American diplomat, or by anyone from the mainstream press, regarding the validity of the wanted list, or the fact that it completely annuls the concept of due process. 'Anti-democratic' is a term reserved to Arafat, whose 'intransigence' back in the news ('he is being vague again about the elections', announced Israel TV's anchor merrily tonight); the Israelis, with their celebrated GSS, are the force of democracy and freedom, hence immune to any questioning.
Hush, hush about Israel's bomb
By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 27 November - 3 Dece
A recent attack on a Knesset member underscores the country's hostility towards calls for transparency in Israel's weapons of mass destruction programme -- At midday on Friday, 24 October, Issam Makhoul, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, and his wife Suad got into their two cars outside their home in the centre of Haifa. Issam Makhoul reversed his Knesset-supplied Ford out of the driveway as his wife started the engine of the family Honda to collect their twin children from school.
Seconds later an explosion flooded Suad Makhoul's car with flames. She leapt from the vehicle moments before the fire could engulf her.
....So what thrust the white-haired, mild- mannered Makhoul into a situation in which he was specially targeted for assassination?
According to Israeli Army Radio, Knesset security officials are working on the assumption that criminal elements within the Arab minority were responsible for the attack. That seems far less probable than that the would-be assassins selected Makhoul because he has been an almost solitary critic of Israel's most sensitive -- if widely known -- secret: that it has stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including nuclear arms.
The smell of dissent
Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 27 November - 3 Dece
Sonallah Ibrahim's elaborately staged refusal of an award presented at the second Novelists Conference overshadowed the appearance of his latest novel, Amrikanli. Ibrahim speaks to Youssef Rakha about fiction, politics and what it means to be an Arab writer -- "I never intended to be a writer -- I wanted to become a political activist. Literate adolescents invariably resort to pen and paper to express their feelings, their surprise at the things they're discovering in life. And I was like that too, but before too long I said, Khalas, and rubbed out this period.
"In the autumn of 1952 I enrolled at the Faculty of Law. I spent three or four years there -- until I reached the second year. I failed repeatedly because I paid no attention to my studies. I was busy doing political work -- my life's mission -- and I never graduated. I went to jail in 1959, in the Communist Party trial. And by the time I came out the idea of becoming a writer had taken a hold on me. I felt you didn't need academic sanction for that. My charge was conspiring to overthrow the regime, and I was sentenced to seven years but exonerated and released, along with many others, after five and a half years.
"Prison at the age of 21 or 22 was a cruel but rich experience, and it was directly after my release -- when Tilka Al-Ra'iha was written -- that I began to feel the need to tell. Once again I resolved that certain things must be communicated and expressed.
"Maybe it was isolation within the prison precincts, which is imposed on you as part of the torture. To ease the passing of time you automatically exercise your imagination. Day dreams. Fantasies. Plus what you're seeing all around you: people's stories and how they lived outside, their methods of adjusting to prison life. And then there were instances of heroism or cowardice, of people standing up to persecution and people dying of torture -- representative, telling instances that I wanted to capture in some form. At the time I would write a new novel every day -- in my head.
The bad fence
By Avraham Bendor, Ha'aretz 11/28/2003
The separation fence that is being built in Judea and Samaria gives rise to the concern that it will be of no use. Indeed, it is liable to cause great harm. The format of the fence is similar to what the East Germans built to separate the two parts of Germany. That fence was intended to prevent the passage of people from east to west, and as such it was successful. Most of the fence was built in straight lines, with guard towers every 100 meters, each manned by two policemen, who also watched over each other to ensure they didn't defect to the West. There was eye contact between the towers. There were no passages and no openings in the fence. Anyone who crossed - with a permit, of course - had to go to Berlin, where the fence, or wall, was constructed in a different format because it was a built-up area.
What's the situation here? To begin with, the unusual terrain and the geographic conditions will require a great many soldiers and police to guard and supervise the fence. Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers, for whom there will undoubtedly be special arrangements, Arab workers, merchants and VIPs will pass through openings and passages every day. There will be special openings for fellahin so they can get to their fields, for schoolchildren and so on. So as not to endanger the guards at the passages, thorough - meaning slow - inspections will be necessary. There will be riots and outbursts at every opening every day, and clearly there will be attempts at terrorist attacks, which will kill and maim people.
Back to the recession of 1967
By Nehemia Strasler, Ha'aretz 11/28/2003
....But how can both the end of terrorism and security be attained without a peace agreement, without concessions and without the evacuation of Jewish settlements? Netanyahu apparently has all the answers.
In any event, a recent study by two Tel Aviv University economics professors - Danny Sidon and Zvi Eckstein - proves the existence of a Gordian knot binding together terrorism and economics. The two economists ran a model that counted the number of persons killed in terrorist acts, the number injured and the number of terrorist acts within the Green Line during a given quarter. They have proved that the higher these figures, the lower the level of economic activity in the following quarter will be.
Their study demonstrates that the terrorist acts of the past three years have forced the Israeli economy to backtrack by several decades, to the level of the severe recession experienced in 1967. They carried out their examination by calculating the ratio between Israel and the U.S. in terms of gross national product per capita (adjusted to buying power). This year, we sank to a ratio of 43 percent, which was the figure in 1967.
....The problem with Israel's persistent recession is the danger of the situation deteriorating into a financial crisis. The crisis Israel is experiencing now is expressing itself in a reduction in GNP per capita, in a lowering of the standard of living, in increased gaps between the rich and the poor, in the deepening of the national budget deficit and in the constantly growing burden on the weaker social strata. However, a society can endure such a situation for a very long time.
The problem is that suddenly, without any prior warning, the macroeconomic crisis could become a dangerous financial crisis. This happens when the public begins to have fears regarding the future. The public then reacts by running to the dollar, thereby creating a devaluation that would be impossible to control.
World Domination, Inc.
By Sherif Hetata, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 27 November - 3 Dece
Sherif Hetata analyses the forces -- religious, corporatist and militarist -- that are busily earmarking funds to buy George W Bush a second term and underwrite an emerging "Pax Israelica" -- I am writing from the living room of my apartment on Peaks Island, near the coast of Maine in the northeastern corner of the United States. From my window I can see the calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Living for some time in the US has also allowed me to follow the successive waves of influence of a powerful Zionist wing within the Bush administration, how it has built up an alliance with the strong and active Christian fundamentalist movement, and to realise what is being planned for the future of the Middle East.
Bush is already preparing for the 2004 presidential campaign and has been able to collect $200,000,000 for it. The most active supporters of his campaign will be Zionist forces, the Christian fundamentalist movement and the Catholic right. Together they constitute a powerful electoral force buttressed by multinationals -- especially those involved in arms manufacturing, in oil, in the pharmaceutical industry and in the media -- as well as many higher levels in the armed forces in a country undergoing rapid militarisation. Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi based in Washington, DC and a member of the Iraqi National Council headed by Ahmed Chalabi, commenting on the projected war against Iraq a few months before it was launched, said "The removal of Saddam Hussein presents the United States in particular with a historic opportunity that I believe is going to prove to be as large as anything that has happened in the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the entry of the British troops into Iraq in 1917."
Winning with hearts and minds
By Mustafa El-Feki, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 27 November - 3 Dece
As the distance between life and death constantly narrows, fear no longer finds its way to the hearts of the Palestinians. Still, courage needs to be guided by reason -- I recently took part in a television debate with two groups of Palestinian brothers, some speaking from the site of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon and others speaking from Ramallah. The debate focussed on the Arab situation in general, and the bloody events in Palestinian lands in particular. Somehow, the debate became heated and we found ourselves on parallel but separate paths, defined by the twin forces of reason and sentiment. The Palestinian situation is utterly agonising. I don't think that any nation has ever had to live through what the Palestinians endure. The demolition of houses, the assassination of leaders, and the killing of children have all become daily occurrences. None of us suffers as much as the Palestinians. For them, death lurks at every corner. Life is but a suspended sentence. They, the Palestinians, no longer have anything to hope for, nothing to hold on to. This is why martyrdom has become a fantasy-cum-reality for many of their youth.
People like me keep track of ongoing events and try to make some sense of them. And I don't think we are entitled to patronise or blame the Palestinians. I -- and millions more -- choke when we see the coffins multiplying, the tears streaming, the agony so complete. Yet this television debate forced me to look even more closely at the current scene, and I sensed a widening gap between sentiments and ideas; between those who are witnesses and those who are victim to horror. This gap sets the Palestinians apart from the rest of the Arabs. I will elaborate in the paragraphs that follow.
Courting trouble to buy votes
By Hassan Nafaa, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 27 November - 3 Dece
As Washington becomes increasingly mired in Iraq and US elections approach, a strike at a neighbouring state becomes increasingly likely -- It would appear that the Bush administration has concluded, somewhat belatedly, that US forces are incapable of bringing the security situation in Iraq under control and are powerless to prevent the daily increase in the number and severity of attacks. For the administration problems with its Iraqi policy are compounded by the fact that next year's presidential elections are effectively already underway and, however many fingers are being crossed in the White House, what happens in Iraq cannot help but determine the outcome.
Bush's priority -- the priority of all incumbent presidents -- is to get himself re- elected. To help further this goal he will attempt to choose from among the available alternatives the one that offers the best prospects for resolving the Iraqi crisis in a manner that will enhance his popularity ratings. The problem, though, is that just as his administration has begun to sense the risks involved in persisting in its current policy it has also realised the dangerous lack of available alternatives. Which leaves Bush in a double-bind. In his determination to get re- elected he may feel compelled to opt for a course of action that will strategically impair Washington's ability to secure a decisive victory in the war in Iraq. And should this happen, the American public may well conclude that they have a president who will do anything just to hang on to power.
....As the pressure mounts the current US administration is faced with two alternatives. The first is to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government with wide-ranging powers, including maintaining security. This would allow US troops to leave residential districts and re-deploy in fortified positions away from the cities, reducing the risk of attack. The second alternative would be to manipulate circumstances in such a way as to precipitate a conflict with Iran or Syria, and then rely on the American people standing behind their president in such a crisis. The White House, for the time being at least, appears to have opted for the first alternative. We should not, however, discount a switch to the second.
Each Word Engraved in Stone
By B. Michael, translation and comments by Assaf Oron, Yediot Aharonot 6/28/2002
At first, it was hard to concentrate on the content. Attention drifted to the terrified eyes hopping between the multi-syllabled words, and to the mouth mechanically chewing the measured sentences planted there by the President’s relentless operators. But gradually the fun wore off, and the ears started hearing the speech itself.
Lo and behold – a surprise. Not a heap of meaningless words uttered for the record, but a well-designed plan, a complex and advanced platform, a precise and convincing blueprint for the erection of a civilized State. Sentence by sentence, condition after condition, demand after demand – the heart widened to hear the specifications and the general scheme. Each word engraved in stone.
For example, “Constitution”. The President expressly demands a constitution. The foundation of any civilized society. Who could argue?
“A New and Peace-Seeking Leadership”. A necessary condition. The current leadership is up to its neck in violence, it is old, bitter, unwilling to wake up and seek a new road, it will never be able to lead its people towards Peace. It must go.
“A Transparent Budget”. A must. We’ve had enough of the dark channels pushing money intended for the nation’s welfare, to fill the pockets and desires of cronies, groupies, bribed ones, spoiled ones, connected ones. [Michael alludes to the well-known sectorial character of Israel’s budget preferences, and to the frequent budget corruption scandals]
“Uprooting of Corruption”. Elementary. A corrupt society is a proven recipe for deterioration and catastrophe (to validate this demand, the President could ask that someone read him some USA business newspapers from the past week).
|
