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TITLE: A Call for International Protection |
AUTHOR: |
ORG: The Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace |
DATE: February 24, 2001 |
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The Palestinians went to Oslo with the hope that the agreement will be binding to all Parties, that peace can be achieved by the implementation of SC Resolution 242, which will end occupation and will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state on the Palestinian land occupied in 1967 (the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem). As it turned out, the successive Israeli governments were dragging their feet and were trying g to find a way not to implement the agreement and to maintain the hegemony over the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and to find a way not to have an independent Palestinian state but rather an autonomous area, whereby sovereignty will remain in Israeli hands. The absence of serious efforts on the part of the international community to convince and force Israel to implement the agreement, only gave a chance to extremists and the ideologues of Greater Israel to get stronger and made any move towards peace more difficult. The present Intifada is the true expression of the state of despair and frustration from the situation that the so called peace process has led us to at all levels: economic, social and political. What Shamir was planning to do with the peace negotiations after the Madrid Conference dragging it for ten years without meaningful results), turned out to be what is in fact happening on the ground, and made the Palestinians lose confidence in the process and in the direction it was leading us to. Under the name of "security" Israel has succeeded in convincing most of the world including its own people that such security can only be attained by expanding its territory and by keeping the people under occupation (by force of arms). Thus now, the Palestinians for the last 33 years under occupation are asked to stop resisting occupation and stop the violence as a condition for the resumption of a process that is becoming more and more certain not to lead to peace (and a Palestinian state). Resisting occupation by all means is legitimate and is condoned by the UN charter. It is not true that the Israelis are not ready for peace with the Palestinians. It is in fact the international community, which is not ready to use all means available, including various kinds of pressure, to force Israel to implement the agreements that it signed (withdrawal in accordance with resolutions 242 and 338). Under the prevailing conditions it is becoming less likely that the Palestinians will be able to resume peace negotiations in any meaningful way, especially with the present Israeli coalition. It, therefore, becomes of the utmost urgency that solidarity with the Palestinians will take a form of a well-organized campaign asking for the International Protection of the Palestinian people under occupation. Such protection will pave the way for the end of occupation through negotiations and will avoid the escalation of violence into an all out war in the region. END |