The right of return and the right of choice
By Rifat Odeh Kassis, Electronic Intifada 12/10/2003
For the last fifty-five years and since Alnakba “the catastrophe” in 1948, the Palestinians have been struggling for their freedom, independence, self-determination and the right of return to their homeland. Unfortunately, because of the international power struggle and the consequences of the cold war, every single Palestinian demand or right was forced to be renegotiated, and has never been respected, honored or taken seriously.
Contrary to what many people think and believe that the Palestinian tragedy started after the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, it started much earlier. Palestine was occupied in 1948 and many European Jews settled in Palestine replacing its indigenous Palestinian people. The Palestinians were expelled from their homeland with the will, the blessing and the support of the international community. This was clearly first shown with the British Balfour declaration in 1917, then with the irresponsible partition resolution in 1947, and finally with the acceptance of the creation of the State of Israel within the country of Palestine, without taking into consideration the Palestinian national and political rights to a homeland and an independent country as well.
Later these policies manifested themselves more clearly through the US and various European countries’ continuous blind support and backing of the State of Israel and its aggression, both against the Palestinians and against the rest of the Arab countries. That blind support encouraged Israel in the 1967 war to drive out again hundreds of thousands of Palestinians - by force and intimidation - from the areas near the Jordan River and near the Green Line, which separates Israel from the West Bank.
US and EU should impose a solution on Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Editorial, Daily Star 12/11/2003
Representatives of donor countries meeting in Rome are clearly losing patience with both sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and with good reason. Neither camp has accepted the futility of seeking a solution through violence, and neither side’s leaders have had the maturity to articulate a vision of peace predicated on a commitment that there is, in fact, no going back. Various factions blow hot and cold about their “bottom lines,” a situation that is only exacerbated when the people in charge work doggedly to stake out the vaguest positions possible. All the while, blood continues to flow, a state of affairs that sends precisely the wrong signal to the governments and organizations being asked to provide aid.
Donors are justifiably concerned that any money they pour into the area will go up in smoke as the two sides keep fighting. There is a depressingly fresh precedent for this fear: Virtually everything the Palestinian Authority built with aid funds received after the signing of the Oslo Accords has been destroyed. Israeli tanks and bulldozers have ruined all manner of infrastructure, from roads and sewer systems to irrigation networks and Gaza International Airport. This is not to mention the threat to the physical safety of aid workers.
The failed policies that have led to this impasse are not solely Israeli and Palestinian: The international community has also been remiss for not demanding that the principals come to their senses. It is not as though powerful actors like the United States and the European Union lack the leverage to impose a solution. The problem is that they have thus far lacked the courage to pull the levers at their disposal.
'Made in Israel' crackdowns in Iraq won't work
By Helena Cobban, Christian Science Monitor 12/11/2003
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. – In recent weeks, many US military units in Iraq have turned from trying to win Iraqi "hearts and minds" to a "get tough" policy that explicitly copies many moves from the playbook used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the West Bank and Gaza. These moves include demolition of homes of suspects, imposition of stifling movement controls and other collective punishments on civilians, and the frequent use of excessive force.
Tactics like these are unethical under any moral code, and illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. In addition, their adoption is shortsighted. In Israel itself, many leading strategic thinkers now openly admit that the IDF's three-year-long pursuit of these tactics has still not "convinced" the Palestinians to end their defiance of Israel's will.
(It is also tragic that US commanders moved to these antihumanitarian and antidemocratic measures at the same time President Bush issued his call for the spread of democracy throughout the Arab world.)
In Israel, criticism of the country's get-tough policies toward Palestinians has been voiced by four former heads of the country's Shin Bet security agency - and also by Gen. Moshe Yaalon who, as sitting IDF chief of staff, is the man in charge of implementing all the IDF's policies. In late October, Mr. Yaalon voiced a rare public criticism of the civilian leaders whose mandate he is sworn to follow. He told reporters that the IDF's unrelenting use of tough tactics in the occupied territories, "increases hatred for Israel and strengthens the terror organizations." He added, "In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."
US, Israel prepare mass killings in Iraq
By Bill Vann, Palestine Media Center/World Socialist Web Site 12/11/2003
The Bush administration is about to launch a campaign of wholesale killings in Iraq with the assistance of the Israeli military, according to both US and Israeli sources quoted in several recent news reports.
Frustrated over the growing popular resistance to the US military occupation and determined to reduce US casualties in Iraq before next November’s election, the administration has authorized a policy that could well resemble the infamous “Operation Phoenix” assassination program run by the CIA during the Vietnam War. That operation claimed the lives of as many as 41,000 Vietnamese over a four-year period beginning in 1968.
In preparation for the new counterinsurgency campaign, the US military has brought urban warfare specialists from the Israeli Defenses Force (IDF) to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the headquarters of the US Special Forces. They are training assassination teams in methods that the IDF has used to suppress Palestinian resistance to the Israel occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“This is basically an assassination program.... This is a hunter-killer team,” a former senior intelligence official told the British Guardian newspaper. He warned that Washington’s reliance on Israeli assistance in launching the operation would only intensify anger over the US occupation throughout the Middle East.
“It is bonkers, insane,” the former official said. “Here we are—we’re already being compared to Sharon in the Arab world, and we’ve just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams.”
Palestinian veterans demand a dignified existence
By Samar Draimali, Jerusalem Times 12/11/2003
His dignity, pride, tears, shaking body, and many other factors prevented him, at first, from talking to us. He spent his youth traveling among Israeli prisons and fighting with the Palestine Liberation Army. Until now, no one has heeded him, but he continues to wear his military suit. “We did not fight to become heroes; we fought for God and the homeland,” said Muharib Sa’ad, 77, a member of the Liberation Forces that were part of the Palestine Liberation Army. “None of the officials cared about us although they know how we have suffered and that we are unable to fend for ourselves.”
Sa’ad wondered why the Palestinian National Authority had not established a fund for war veterans, especially as funds have been established for prisoners and released prisoners.
“They did not even provide me with a residence. I will not list my demands and rights, because I know it would be futile,” said Sa’ad, remembering his late friend, the martyr Abdul-Qader Abu Fahem, who died in prison during a hunger strike. He added, “I was imprisoned for 13 years. My son was only four months old when I went to prison. By the time I was released, he was 14.”
Sa’ad said his eight-member family is proud of him and is upset that he has not been recognized for his years of resistance. He added that the Union of Revolution Fighters is the only representative of war veterans regardless of their political allegiance. The union, with 7,000 members in the Gaza Strip and 8,000 in the West Bank, strives to serve the veterans and protect their rights.
The Purpose Of Dialogue
By Azmi Bishara, Al-Hayat 12/11/2003
If the dialogue over a truce between Palestinians and Israelis is genuine, then it must contain elements of mutuality and compel both parties to abide by the rules of this ceasefire. And if Israel, which is the strongest in this equation as well as the occupying force, does not contribute in the dialogue of ceasefire, then this truce will not be implemented on the ground.
Nobody can negotiate with Israel, and Israel negotiates with no one over the rules of truce, and it is proud of this. Thus, there is no real dialogue of truce and it is the right of Palestinians to choose efficient means of struggle and avoid useless ones.
Currently, there are no apparent signs of a fair resolution for the Palestinian cause, and Sharon knows this. And because he knows it, he is asking Palestinians to either accept a preliminary long-term resolution, or be threatened with Israeli actions on one side, similar to the building of the racial discrimination wall.
And since the Palestinians do not accept a resolution of strict minimums, then the goal must be to protect the Palestinian unity in order to be able to accomplish the following basic missions...
Redemption in Gaza
By Laura Gordon, Electronic Intifada 12/10/2003
9 December 2003 -- On this day the ninth of December 2003, again the group of internationals left Rafah for Erez after five windsped weeks in Rafah, left empty shelves, an apartment full of the fragrance of absense, cups of coffee and tea and cigarettes, the scent of exhausted sadness, overwhelmed as empty hands carrying the weight of the wind blowing through their fingertips.
In this winter night the chill of the air is the only detail separating winter from those long summer days I and Mahmood spent locked in an empty office writing paper after preparatory paper for the dream of new groups of internationals.
This time we are not left entirely alone: Mary has stayed and Ahmed has joined our work and they have stayed like family, beyond the goodbyes. I write to the rhythm of small glass cups filled to the brim with sweet tea. I plan for long days of reading and writing; language study and home visits. The rhythm of visitors has become usual and unimpressive. For the first time in my life it is I who am being left, I -- who was addicted to leaving the people who had filled my soul with theirs -- now watch those souls pass through my footsteps and run to the far reaches of my world. I suppose it's healthy.
....I've become enthralled with births and weddings -- the creation of family -- redemption from the ache of a war that systematically removes the most beloved burdens of a person's full hands. A house, a brother, a mother.
Terror in the mirror
By James Brooks, Online Journal 12/11/2003
Denial, projection, and the Israeli–Arab war -- To most Americans, terror is emblematic of the Israeli-Arab conflict. But what is "terror" to us?
Following 9/11, we heard that Americans finally knew what terror meant to places like Israel. It was not acceptable to suggest that we finally knew what terror meant to places like Guatemala, or Iran, or Vietnam, or Chile, or Palestine, or dozens of other places where civilians have been terrorized by our military and intelligence, or by US-backed regimes using our training and equipment.
Terrorism is a reprehensible war crime because it targets civilians. Not because it is "stateless," not because people sometimes kill themselves in the act, but because it targets civilians.
In the 60 years preceding 9/11, the United States had targeted and killed well over two million civilians, including more than 500,000 during World War II, [1,2,3] over a million innocent souls in Southeast Asia, [4] and over 500,000 in Iraq through war and sanctions. Our self-censorship of the real policies and events driving our government had become so pervasive that we could only imagine ourselves as world leaders in preventing civilian casualties. Now we are so advanced we no longer need count the dead. Our anti-personnel bombs didn't kill them, so it doesn't matter.
In such a state of mind, and still mired in our national racism, we were ready to imagine the 9/11 terrorists as an absolute "other," just as they were described. They were everything we were not, starting with their "utter contempt for innocent life."
Taking apart a significant pro-Israeli policy document
By Adib Farha, Daily Star 12/11/2003
Strategy outlined in A Clean Break, A New Strategy for the Realm is ineffective, obsolete and based on misaligned national interests -- The following is the first part of Adib F. Farha’s statement at the US Congressional Panel Discussion on A Clean Break, A New Strategy for the Realm, on Nov. 26, 2003. Part two appears tomorrow.
The document we are here to discuss, A Clean Break, A new Strategy for the Realm, was originally written by the Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000 of The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. The group leader was Mr. Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute and seven other individuals known for their strong sympathy and blind support for the state of Israel.
We wouldn’t be studying this document today had it not been for the fact that three members of the group have since become key players in the current American administration. Perle is the former chair and current member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, Douglas Feith, another member of the group, is the Undersecretary of Defense and David Wurmser, yet another member of the same group, is an adviser to Vice-President Richard Cheney.
In other words, leaders of the same group that set out to draw a strategy in Israel’s interest are now key players in drawing the American strategy. The underlying, albeit wrong, assumption is that American interests and those of Israel are one and the same. Accordingly, Israel’s strategic interests are shaping US foreign policy in the Middle East, the world’s most volatile area. The conflict of interest and of loyalty is incontestable.
From Herzliya to Herzliya
By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz 12/11/2003
Here's some advice for Yossi Sarid: Don't be in a hurry to add Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon to the ranks of the left or call them "penitents" because of their proposals for unilateral withdrawals from the territories and the evacuation of some settlements. Listen carefully to what they are saying. Because what they are proposing, each in their own way, is not a peace plan but an update of the goals of the war against the Palestinians - and a guarantee that it will continue after the withdrawal.
Olmert showed some political courage when he called for a "demographic retreat," leaving his competitors behind in the dust in the race to inherit Sharon's seat. Only one thing was missing from his plan: the Palestinians. What will happen to them on the day after? Who will be in charge? How will they make a living? Olmert doesn't explain and apparently isn't very interested, beyond saying that the terror will continue. Nor does Sharon have anything to say about the fate of our neighbors, making do with the threat that a unilateral move will be more painful than an agreement.
That indifference to their fate is strange, and it is bad news. Only a year ago, Sharon took center stage at the Herzliya Conference and dictated victor's terms to the Palestinians, demanding a profound reform in every possible sphere of government as a condition for a tiny state in provisional borders. And now he doesn't care. Yasser Arafat is still in charge, the Palestinian security forces are fragmented, the terror infrastructure is ticking away and the Palestinian judicial system has not been reformed, as he demanded as preconditions for any progress. But what does all that matter when he has a new magic solution? Israel will gather up the settlers, close the territories in the West Bank and throw away the key.
It’s not too late
Editorial, Palestine Monitor 12/11/2003
As the International Court of Justice received a UN request to issue an opinion on Israel’s apartheid wall, Palestinian and Israeli citizen’s fight together on the ground to stop the wall before it is built.
In voting to ask the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's construction of a wall between itself and the West Bank the Assembly also expressed grave concern about the start and ongoing construction of the barrier in and around East Jerusalem which will constitute a further grave departure from the "Green Line" and disrupt the lives of thousands of civilians, leading to the de facto annexation of large areas of territory.
The planned route of the wall around Jerusalem is becoming more and more complex yet for the time being much of it exists solely as plans and as such the potential remains to halt its construction.
The A-Ram Wall for instance is planned but is not yet built. A-Ram is located north of Jerusalem. 100,000 Palestinians, most of whom have Jerusalem identity cards, live in this area and for them Jerusalem is the center of all business, educational, medical, and cultural life.
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