To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Subject: The Wages of an Unjust Peace - by Azmi Bishara
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 02:13:30 +0200


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


The Wages of an Unjust Peace

An Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset says Sharon=92s visit may have ignited the firestorm, but the anger fueling it was long in the making

By Azmi Bishara


NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
October 16 issue =97

Liberals and leftists in Israel and the United States would like to think that the uprising of the last two weeks in the West Bank and Gaza was provoked by Likud leader Ariel Sharon=92s unwelcomed visit to Al Aqsa mosque. But, in truth, explosive pressure has been building since the Camp David talks, where Prime Minister Ehud Barak fashioned an Israeli-American coalition to dictate an unjust peace.

        Barak paid no heed to the mounting danger. He was content with his diplomatic achievements; satisfied that Yasir Arafat was recognized as a rejectionist turning down Barak=92s =93generous=94 offers. But the generosity is illusory. Barak has held to the same positions he declared before Israel=92s May 1999 elections: there has been no Israeli withdrawal from the lands occupied on June 4, 1967; he demands that 80 percent of Jewish settlers be under Israeli sovereignty; there=92s no right of return for Palestinian refugees within the 1948 borders, and there=92s no sovereignty for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

        The perceived change in Barak=92s views regarding Jerusalem during Camp David proved mostly verbal, while the rest of his positions remained firm. This is the reason that the outbreak of a popular uprising was waiting to happen. We do not know whether Sharon=92s visit was the ultimate provocation or whether it was Barak=92s approval of that visit. Was it the heavy police presence around the mosque or the massacre in Al Aqsa=92s square at prayer time the next day? But what we should keep in mind is that Sharon didn=92t intend to provoke the Palestinians. He wanted to test whether Barak really intended to cling to Israeli sovereignty in the area. So Barak and Shlomo Ben-Ami, another peace negotiator, sent 3,000 police officers to accompany Sharon. In so doing, they passed the test of the Likud leader, but failed the test of peace.

        The rest was left to the internal dynamics of events. Chief of Staff Gen. Shaul Mofaz took the opportunity to teach the Palestinians a lesson that they will remember if they come to declare a state unilaterally. The firmness of military orders, the intensity of fire by trigger-happy Israeli troops and the use of tanks and helicopters against demonstrators made the point. A small-scale war was launched.

        Within Israel, there was also pressure building. Arab Palestinian citizens remembered March 30, 1976, when they went out to defend their land against systematic confiscation and the Israeli police shot six Arab citizens dead. They remembered that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin led the Labor government at the time. Since then, with the rise of education and the development of a middle class, Palestinians have become more aware of their status as Israeli citizens and the potential hidden in that status. They have concentrated on their own affairs as citizens, yearning for equality while keeping their Arab national identity. Gradually the state acknowledged the fact that Arab citizens are discriminated against.

        But equality cannot be granted to Arab citizens as long as Israel defines itself as a Jewish state and functions as such. One million Palestinians, approximately 20 percent of Israel=92s population, have been marginalized in their relationship with the Arab nation and also in their relationship to Israeli institutions and society.

        In the last few days, Arab society in Israel went out to protest against the oppression of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, against the attempts of Barak to dictate an unjust peace and against people who could shoot a young child embraced by his father. What is special about the uprising of the Arab citizens is the fact that they did not go out this time to protest their own victimization, but to demonstrate their frustration with Barak, whom many had hoped would be a man of peace and equality.
       
        During the last week, 11 Arab citizens were shot and killed and hundreds more wounded by rubber bullets and live ammunition. It seems that the Israeli cabinet decided that Arabs only understand =93the language of force.=94 The police were given the role of teaching Arab citizens how the state of Israel wanted them to behave. But the lesson was rejected. The Arabs became more determined than ever not only to express their demand for equality as natives of the country, but also to assert their political views.
       
        A new chapter has been opened between the Israeli state and its Arab citizens, who have been dealt with as its adversaries. A great deal needs to be rethought. What does democracy in Israel really mean? Can the state launch a war against Palestinians nearby while maintaining peace and democracy inside? The events of the last week have shown that the means of oppression, the politics of occupation and their effects spill from one side of the Green Line to the other to unite the Palestinian people.
      


Bishara is a member of the Knesset.
      
       =A9 2000 Newsweek, Inc.
       

HTML VERSION: