News, September 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
When 'superficialities replace fundamentals'
Musa Keilani
Jordan Times, Sunday, September 28, 2003
IT IS regrettable but not surprising that the international Quartet has found fault with the Palestinians, saying they do not do enough towards achieving peace. It is regrettable because the Quartet should know that the Palestinians had believed that the Oslo agreements would lead to peace based on their legitimate rights and that they resumed armed resistance seven years later only when it became clear that Israel had no intention of meeting the minimum requirements for peace but was seeking to impose its will on the people under its occupation. Israel continues to argue that groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not interested in peace and want to eliminate Israel to make room for an Islamic state in Palestine. Indeed, Hamas and likeminded groups have made Israel's job easier by issuing statements to that effect. The assertion by Hamas and Islamic Jihad that their acceptance of a truce in June was only aimed at averting a Palestinian civil war and not at facilitating peace negotiations between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel was the best example of the kind of material they themselves are providing to Israel to support its case.
What we have seen so far in the collapsed peace process is more attention to immediate developments as reasons for the deadlock in the negotiations rather than the fundamentals that led to the collapse.
When was the last time we heard any report about the Palestinian demand for the return of Jerusalem and respect for the rights the UN granted the Palestinians?
What we are hearing about now is Israeli actions aimed at rooting out Palestinian resistance and arrogant declarations that Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders are marked for death and that it is only a matter of time before Yasser Arafat is expelled from Palestine. We are also hearing about Israel redeploying its army in the West Bank and Gaza and negotiating conditions for token moves by the army while the territories are under its iron grip.
Under such conditions, where is room for any talk about the rights of the Palestinians? Why did the Quartet fail to note that there is no Palestinian police force worth mentioning? Why did the Quartet fail to demand the release of the over 7,000 Palestinians from Israeli jails? After all, many among them are members of the Palestinian police force that should be the medium to prevent attacks on Israelis.
Why didn't the Quartet acknowledge that ensuring “security” for the Israelis could not be an objective on its own without ensuring the same thing for the Palestinians? There is an air of superficiality to the entire exercise of Palestinian Premier-designate Ahmed Qureia making his Cabinet. It is clear that it is a waste of time at this point since even if Qureia made the most “moderate” Cabinet, Israel would not move to resume peace talks.
Quite simply, the peace process is about to die and be gone.
Whatever else is happening is only aimed at subduing the Palestinian people into accepting Israel's version of peace; nothing else matters for people like Ariel Sharon and others.
Naturally, then, the question that imposes itself is why we should talk about the peace process and the politics related to it. Asking that is a defeatist approach since every hour and every day is eroding the Palestinian cause. We can argue that the cause would not die no matter what, and cite people like George Habash, saying that the next generations would take the struggle to victory. It sounds pretty nice to hear, but what is happening on the ground is also aimed at trying to ensure that next generations would not be able to pick up and continue the struggle.
The Quartet's statement was not surprising since it reflects the stand of the international community today. Truths are overlooked in favour of lies and it is traumatic to see that superficialities replace fundamentals.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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