Issue is occupation, not Arafat Gulf News

Opinion, September 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Issue is occupation,not Arafat

Gulf News

30-09-2003

Marking the third anniversary of a struggle that has brought untold anguish to both Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinian militant groups have reiterated their determination to continue the armed intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.

All that the Palestinians are asking for is peace with honour. This is in Israel's power to deliver. While a mood of gloom prevails among the majority in Palestine and Israel, it is significant that Palestinian militant groups have called on the Palestinian National Authority and the new Palestinian government to resist American and Israeli pressure which seeks to take away their right of resistance. Significantly, in making this call to the PNA, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are also making the point that they are talking to a government they believe will be sympathetic to their position; a new regime they had a hand in establishing.

This is what the Israelis must seriously consider because every step they take to end the cycle of violence has every chance of being matched by a new government which has popular support; one which, vitally, is backed by Arafat. Israel must realise by now that targeted assassinations, curfews and blockades, regular military strikes and raids will not quell the intifada.

Instead, it will only fuel more retaliation. The backers of the 'roadmap', the US, UN, EU and Russia, must prevail upon Tel Aviv to step back from a no-win situation and not compound the issue with more devisive elements such as its security fence in the West Bank. Likened by Palestinians to the Berlin Wall, it is perhaps the biggest obstacle on the road to peace as it encroaches on the territory of a future Palestinian state.

Regrettably, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his fellow hawks are persisting with a policy that will never deliver lasting peace to the vast majority of Israeli civilians who believe the answer lies in UN Resolution 242 and the 'roadmap'.

Tel Aviv must make the first move by ending the occupation. It must also accept the fact that its threat to remove Arafat will prove to be yet another colossal blunder. The message from the Palestinians is clear: get rid of the occupation, not our elected leaders.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).