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NEWS & LETTERS, OCTOBER 2003Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BarryFaulty 'road map' to Middle East peaceThe “Road Map” to peace had many loopholes which set the stage for the current escalation of violence and relentless raids on Palestinians by the Sharon government. By not definitively recognizing the Palestinian right to a state within the West Bank, Gaza and part of Jerusalem, and by allowing Israel to violate the terms of peace negotiations on the basis of any single act of violence committed by the Palestinian side, the “Road Map” was faulty from the start. On June 29, the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmud Abbas, was able to negotiate a ceasefire agreement on behalf of the Palestinian organizations Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They agreed to stop all attacks inside Israel and inside the occupied territories. In exchange they demanded an end to Israel’s targeted killings, the withdrawal of the Israeli army to the posts they occupied in September 2000, and the beginning of the release of over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel violated the terms of this agreement from the very beginning. Very few Palestinian prisoners (300-400) were released, army raids and arrests in the West Bank and Gaza continued, and illegal settlements continued to be built even though polls had shown that 75% of Jewish settlers were willing to leave the occupied territories in return for compensation from the Israeli government. Israel’s Separation Wall continued to cut into major portions of Palestinian territory. On Aug. 10, the Lebanese Hizbullah fired mortars toward Israeli army posts on the Lebanese border, in response to which Israeli warplanes attacked Hizbullah positions. Soon the ceasefire unraveled when Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in an Israeli market. The Israeli army then killed an Islamist leader, Muhamad Sidr, in Hebron. On Aug. 20, a Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus packed with Jewish families in Jerusalem. Twenty-one people were killed and many were injured. The next day Israeli helicopter gunships assassinated an important political leader of Hamas, Ismail Abu Shanab, and his bodyguards. Abu Shanab was the only Hamas leader who had recognized the existence of Israel and did not advocate its extinction. He had supported the continuation of a ceasefire. From this date on, Israel further intensified its raids, home demolitions and targeted killings. On Aug. 24, Palestine Authority and Hamas leaders proposed a renewed truce. But the Israeli army responded by more targeted killings of Hamas leaders. It also opened Temple Mount, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, to Jewish visitors, while preventing access to Muslim worshippers. On Sept. 4, Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas gave a speech to the Palestinian parliament in which he called for an end to the cycle of action and reaction. Faced with the actions of the Israeli government, attacks from within the Palestine Authority, as well as attacks from Palestinian Islamists, some of whom attempted to enter the parliament session with clubs and swords to kill him, Abbas was forced to resign on Sept. 6. Later that day, Israeli army missiles attempted to assassinate Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the highest ranking Islamist leader among Palestinians. Yassin, who survived the attack on his apartment in Gaza, was slightly wounded. The destructive effects of this assassination attempt may truly be terrifying. At this point, Sharon’s government has avoided the responsibility of speaking with a new Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Queria. Instead, once again, it used its old tactic of blaming the corrupt Yasir Arafat as the source of all the Palestinian suicide attacks, and threatened to expel him from the occupied territories. Once again the issue of Israel’s provocations and its refusal to abide by the terms of any peace negotiations, was subsumed under the status of Arafat. The UN Security Council, under U.S. pressure, vetoed a resolution against the expulsion of Arafat. Later the majority of the UN General Assembly condemned Israel’s threat of expulsion. As of Sept. 21, the Palestine Authority has called for another ceasefire and for international peacekeeping forces in the region. The intensity of the Israeli raids, its building of the Separation Wall and the support that these attacks continue to receive from the Bush administration, has made the idea of any peace negotiations impossible. Some peace activists are warning that the Separation Wall, which upon completion will cut into 50% of the existing occupied territories, will make a two state solution virtually impossible. --Sheila Sahar, Sep. 24, 2003 |
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