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TITLE: Tearing Down Partners to Build Enemies |
AUTHOR: |
ORG: PMC |
DATE: May 13, 2001 |
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It is relatively easy to tear down a building that took time and hard work to engineer and build. Modern-day technology allows engineers to ear it down in minutes. Usually though, only uninhabitable buildings are torn down, not newly built ones that have been barely finished. For the past eight months in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel has persistently worked to prove this logical chain of actions wrong. It ook over eight years of hard work, soul searching, and dedication to build the foundations of peace between the Palestinian and Israeli Peoples. Both Peoples had worked tirelessly to bring up a new generation that sees peace, freedom, and hope as eminent coming realities. Since September 2000, Israeli sniper bullets, tank shells, and missiles have destroyed in what seems more like a heart beat what took a lifetime to build. In 1987, the first Palestinian Intifada broke out and lasted for seven years. In it, an entire Palestinian generation had grown up knowing only how to defend itself against a vicious occupation that had no respect or acknowledgment of international humanitarian laws or conventions. According to Palestinian sources, Israeli forces killed over 1000 and injured more than 20,000 Palestinian civilians during the first Intifada. Aside from killing or injuring, Israeli occupation forces implemented various measures of collective punishment against the Palestinian People, namely closures, home demolitions, illegal confiscations of land, and curfews. In fact, since 1987, Israeli occupation forces have demolished over 2600 Palestinian homes. In 1993, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and then Israeli Prime Minister Ishak Rabin signed the historic Oslo Peace Agreement, signaling a new beginning in the relationship between the Palestinian and Israeli Peoples. It was to be the beginning of a gradual end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territory. It was supposed to be the hope both Peoples needed for a free and dignified life, where both can prosper and develop. Twenty-seven years of Israeli occupation produced a bitter and hopeless Palestinian generation and an Israeli generation charged with hostility towards its Palestinian counterpart. Both leaderships worked hard and long to begin a dialogue between these generations, in a conscious effort to alter the effects that the Israeli occupation's actions have had on them. Palestinian and Israeli youths began a dialogue based on mutual respect, equality, and partnership aimed at erasing previous scars of a hostile relationship between the occupier and the occupied. Through programs such as People to People, the result was that the foundation for a healthy and respectful relationship was built between the young Palestinian and Israeli generation. Youths on both sides began building for a secure and peaceful future, free of bitterness and tears, and filled with hope and prosperity. In contravention of international law and signed agreements, Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem continued to expand even after the signing of the Oslo peace agreement. In fact, according to Peace Now, an Israeli peace group, the illegal Israeli settlement housing activities has increased by 52% since 1993. Despite the presence of countless United Nations resolutions that call on Israel to end its occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and reiterate the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, Israel refused to implement them. Instead, it chose to blame the Palestinian leadership for the failure of the final status negotiations that took place in July 2000 in Camp David. The truth is, the Palestinian leadership only asked for the implementation of the relevant UN resolutions, accepting to create an independent state on a mere 22% of historical Palestine. Beginning in late September 2000, the Israeli military occupation responded with savagely uncalled for violence against unarmed civilians praying inside Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, Islam's holiest site in Palestine and third holiest in the world. On that day, Israeli live fire killed 6 Palestinian civilians and injured tens others. After that, the Israeli occupation forces have persistently used lethal force against unarmed protesting Palestinian civilians. Since then, every local, regional, and international human rights organization has condemned Israel for its excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians. These calls, and subsequent United Nations resolutions fell on deaf ears. Israeli occupation forces have thus far killed of 459 Palestinians, injured over 13, 523 Palestinians, detained more than 2,600 Palestinians, completely or partially destroyed over 4,000 residential buildings, and razed 3,700,000 square meters of cultivated land. Perhaps the most catastrophic Israeli action against the Palestinian People was the election of Ariel Sharon in January 2001 as Israel's Prime Minister. Immediately after his election, Ariel Sharon announced his adoption of a "100-day plan". After less than one hundred days in office, numerous Israeli attacks against Palestinian cities and towns have been carried out, in addition to the Israeli occupation army persistently carrying out incursions into Palestinian towns and refugee camps, leveling tens of homes, razing hundreds of cultivated dunams, killing and injuring tens of civilians, and displacing hundreds of Palestinians. In his most recent speech to the Israeli Parliament, Ariel Sharon announced that the Israeli army "will no longer suffice with reactions but will adopt a studied and carefully planned policy of initiatives" to eradicate what he claims to be "Palestinian terror". He also reiterated his unwillingness to negotiate a final peace accord with the Palestinian leadership within a year, as the internationally endorsed Egyptian- Jordanian peace initiative outlines. So far, Sharon's orders have not brought about security to his People or the region. In fact, it has further escalated an explosive situation in the area, having a great potential of spiraling out of control and spreading to the entire region. Sharon's carte blanche to his military has only produced the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian livelihoods and displacement of hundreds of others. After the first Israeli sniper's bullet killed the first of almost 500 Palestinians in late September 2000, an entire People now find themselves trapped, attacked, and hungry. They hear their "peace partners" in Israel speak of shelling their homes and schools, destroying their livelihoods, and killing their children, as "security measures" needed to bring about peace in the Middle East. Such statements and acts cannot be understood as gestures of peace. They can't be welcomed as necessary "defensive actions" because hundreds of shattered Palestinian lives and homes are witness to their aggressive nature. So far, the Sharon-led Israeli government has only worked on one front; tearing down its peace partners, leaving only the seeds of animosity and bitterness in their place. What took years of hard work and dedication to produce is now being destroyed in less than 100 days. Sharon's commitment is clear but it is certainly not to peace. If left unabated, Sharon, once done with his master plan of destruction and illegal settlements, would successfully disfigure every thought and hope for peace that had grown among his People and the People of Palestine, destroy the last standing partner of peace in the region, and build long-lasting scars of bitterness and animosity. END |