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More than a 'problem'
by Khalid
Amayreh
The use by President George
Bush of the word "problem" to describe the apartheid wall Israel is
building in the West Bank drew some positive reactions this week and
generated a modicum of encouragement and optimism among Palestinians.
However, the continued building of the wall, notwithstanding American
reservations, is effectively killing hopes for any just and equitable
peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"This is not a security or
separation wall. This is Israel's means to effect ethnic cleansing and
steal more Palestinian land and prevent the creation of a genuine and
viable Palestinian state," said Mustafa Barghouthi, head of the
Palestinian National Initiative, a non-governmental group dedicated to
resisting Israeli apartheid and colonialist occupation.
"This criminal wall will
bisect the West Bank into closed ghettos and townships that are cut off
from each other. There is absolutely no way a Palestinian state can be
established with this wall in place."
Barghouthi's views are shared
by nearly all the Palestinians as well as by a growing number of
peace-minded Israelis.
Even the US, Israel's
guardian/ally, is beginning to get the message, as evidenced by Bush's
remarks.
However, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon continues to insist that the wall is no more than a
"security wall" aimed at preventing Palestinian guerrillas from
infiltrating into Israel.
This claim, dismissed by
Palestinians as a cheap, malicious lie, seems also to be losing currency
in Washington, although not to the extent desired by the Palestinians, or
required to stop the wall from destroying the entire peace process.
Bush, responding to a
reporter's question during his joint press conference with visiting
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas last Friday described the wall as
"a problem" saying he had discussed the issue with Sharon and that he
planned to discuss it again with him during their White House meeting on
Tuesday.
"It is very difficult to
develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking
through the West Bank."
Bush's words apparently had
little or no impact on Sharon's thinking or, indeed, on his government's
actions.
On 28 July, just 24 hours
before Sharon and Bush met at the White House, the Israeli government
decided to allocate another $170 million for the completion of the wall in
the northern West Bank.
The provocative measure
indicates that Sharon is either not taking Bush's remarks seriously enough
or that he is actually willing to confront and even defy the American
administration.
In any case, Israeli actions
on the ground speak louder than any statements by Israeli or American
officials.
On Monday, Israeli soldiers
opened fire on a group of Palestinian, Israeli and international
activists, protesting what one north American student described as the
"crime of our time". Eight protesters were injured by rubber-coated
bullets, one seriously.
The brutal suppression of the
symbolic protest demonstrated Sharon's determination to impose his own
roadmap on the Palestinians, irrespective of what the Americans and the
rest of the world may or may not think.
Meanwhile, Israel has been
continuing its repression of the Palestinians on a daily basis, while
claiming to be "relaxing" restrictions on them. This week, the Israeli
government announced that the Jewish settler population in the West Bank
had increased by nearly 5000 people since the beginning of 2003.
Moreover, the Israeli peace
movement Peace Now has published fresh reports revealing how Sharon's
government is continuing to encourage settlers to build more settlement
outposts in lieu of those outposts removed by the Israeli army.
Seeking to divert attention
from the bleak reality in the West Bank, the Israeli government this week
highlighted the removal of three roadblocks in the Ramallah region. Both
Israeli officials and the Hebrew media presented the removal of the three
dirt mounds, known as the Surda and Ein Arik roadblocks, as a great
Israeli concessions for peace.
However, the measure didn't
impress the Palestinians who said that Israel removed only three out of
162 roadblocks erected outside Palestinian towns, villages and refugee
camps all over the West Bank and manned by trigger-happy soldiers who
don't hesitate to open fire, with or without reason, with the intent of
killing Palestinians.
Indeed, as the PA premier was
meeting with Bush at the White House on Friday, one of these trigger-happy
soldiers guarding a roadblock in the northern West Bank fired a burst of
machine- gun fire on a passenger car, killing four-year-old Ghassan Kabaha
and injuring his six- and seven- year-old sisters.
Seeking to evade the crime,
the Israeli army described the "incident" as a "mishap", very much like
the estimated other 408 mishaps in which 408 Palestinian children lost
their lives to Israeli soldiers' bullets during the past 30 months.
According to the Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), one in five Palestinians killed by the
Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish terrorists is a child. Though the
rate of killing since the beginning of the current truce has dropped
sharply, the Israeli army continues to fire heavy machine- guns into
Palestinian population centres, particularly in the Gaza Strip, on an
almost daily basis.
Among the latest victims of
this indiscriminate shooting were three teenagers and an eight-year- old,
Youssef Abu Jaza, who was hit in the knee when soldiers shot at a group of
youngsters and children playing football in Khan Younis.
Palestinian officials have
actually ridiculed the Israeli decision to remove the three Ramallah
roadblocks, dismissing the measure as a public relations tactic aimed at
deceiving world public opinion and distracting attention from the
construction of the apartheid wall.
"They have removed three and
left 159 others in place. This means that it will take another 53 meetings
between Bush and Sharon to remove all the remaining roadblocks," said PA
official Saeb Ereikat.
"Then imagine how many
meetings it would take to overcome other issues pertaining to Jewish
settlements, borders, Jerusalem and the refugees"
Source:
by courtesy & © 2003 Al-Ahram Weekly & Khalid Amayreh
by the same author:
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