- Deconstructing the Roadmap
by Hanan Ashrawi
Poverty
of
spirit
and
moral
obtuseness
are
the
salient
characteristics
of
current
Israeli
policy
vis-à-vis
the
Palestinians
in
the
context
of
the
road
map.
Why else would the government
stage a big show of “dismantling” or “evacuating” settlement outposts
(that are largely vacant and makeshift), then look the other way when more
outposts are established on nearby hilltops?
Why else would Sharon urge his
partners in land-theft to continue settlement construction and expansion,
but to do so in silence and in secrecy?
Why else would the hundreds of
check-posts, permanent and ad hoc, continue to
besiege our towns and villages like a burning necklace stealthily stealing
all our life force, freedom, and vitality?
Why else would the notorious
apartheid wall snake its way among our villages and farms in the north,
sucking up all our water, uprooting ancient olive trees, razing homes to
the ground, and spewing out a particularly long-lasting venom in the belly
of the earth as well as in the minds of people?
Why else would the abduction
of Palestinians from their own cities and homes continue, while the
authorities “generously” release those captives who had served out most of
their sentences, or had not been sentenced at all, or had been caught
trying to stave off hunger by working in Israel without a permit?
Beyond the cold cynicism and
immunity to pain is a deliberate dehumanization that seeks to negate the
most elemental rights of the other, hence destroy the basis of any shared
discourse or vision.
The distortion of the
occupation has given rise to the most lethal form of arrogance that
“normalizes” control and gives itself license to act simultaneously as
judge, executioner, and victim.
Thus the occupier’s “self
defense” is the blanket justification for the occupation itself and all
its cruelties and aberrations. It is the root of the evil of violence
against civilians and innocents (on both sides) who were trampled by the
oppressive machine in a way not dissimilar to the obscenity of the Israeli
bulldozer crushing to death the young and unsuspecting body of Rachel
Corrie.
From the heights of
manipulative power, the ilks of Sharon and Mofaz are passing judgment on
the efforts of (often helpless and hapless) Palestinian leaders who are
seeking to “deliver” to the Americans in order to be granted certificates
of “good conduct.”
Suddenly, the whole roadmap
has become an instrument of Israeli “security” with Israeli dictated
priorities and conditions.
The Palestinian hudna
(ceasefire) is not acceptable to the Israeli political and military
leadership unless it leads to forced factional confrontations tantamount
to a Palestinian civil war.
While Israeli ministers and
generals spout forth the most racist hate language against the
Palestinians as a whole, the prisoners (who should be drowned in the Dead
Sea), and Yasser Arafat in particular, it is Palestinian “incitement” that
has become the issue that determines Palestinian compliance with the
roadmap.
Suddenly it is the Palestinian
side that must demonstrate impeccable behavior in spite of persistent
Israeli provocation and violations. Israeli preemptive and destructive
unilateralism is totally ignored in favor of a cynical “unilateralism” of
accountability and compliance reserved for the Palestinians.
Another political hijacking
has taken place, this time of the Quartet’s roadmap. Another disappearing
act has taken place, this time by three out of the four partners supposed
to sponsor and monitor the implementation of the roadmap. Another tacit
duplicity has taken place, this time by incorporating the 14 Israeli
reservations on the roadmap in the actual implementation.
In the meantime, the push and
pull game between the Palestinian President and his Prime Minister
continues.
In the meantime, at the
Muqata’a, a three-meter wall is being constructed surrounding the whole
compound.
As the drills drill, the
bulldozers heave, and the dust flies one inescapable irony looms larger
than the tallest crane:
All the rubble and debris, the
broken stones and bricks of horribly mutilated buildings and the
grotesquely twisted metal of crushed vehicles, remain contained within the
parameters of the wall.
- Source:
-
by the same author:
-
