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NEWS & LETTERS, July 2002
Our Life and Times column by Kevin A. Barry
Middle East conflict escalates further
Ariel Sharon has again used the inhuman suicide bombings by Palestinians inside Israel to justify launching another massive invasion of the West Bank. This time however, Sharon and his cabinet declared that Israeli troops will not withdraw. The invasion began on June 19, with aerial bombing from
U.S.-supplied Apache helicopters, followed by shelling from tanks. Troops have
once again attacked all Palestinian cities in the West Bank and have placed
residents under curfew. Many men between the ages of 15 and 45 have been rounded
up and arrested. Troops are also conducting house to house searches, exploding
houses, looting and vandalizing stores. Israeli tanks opened fire on a crowd of people in the
Jenin city market as people had rushed out of their homes for a one hour break
from curfew. Three children and a teacher were killed. Near Nablus, settlers
went on a rampage and killed a young Palestinian man after Palestinian gunmen
attacked the house of a settler family and killed three. Israeli troops have
also bombed the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, but the brunt of the attack
concentrates on the West Bank. On June 17 and June 19, two suicide bombings in a
Jerusalem bus and at a bus stop killed 27 mostly school children and severely
injured many more. Prior to these bombings, on June 16, the Israeli army had
started building a concrete wall around the West Bank that clearly violated the
internationally recognized border called the Green Line. The suicide bombers
only made it easier for Sharon to take the steps toward a permanent invasion of
the West Bank which he has always had in mind. On June 24, in a burst of imperial arrogance, George W.
Bush gave a speech many said Sharon could have written ordering the Palestinians
to change their leadership. He did not criticize Israel and relegated the idea
of an independent Palestine to a distant future. The disastrous phenomenon of suicide bombings and
disturbing polls showing that a majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza support these acts, have finally prompted a group of prominent Palestinian
intellectuals to take an explicit public stand against these bombings in
Arabic-language publications. An ad published in the Jerusalem paper AL QUDS on June
20, drafted by Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent peace activist and philosophy
professor, and co-signed by Hanan Ashrawi and 53 other Palestinian
intellectuals, declares: "Suicide bombings deepen the hatred and widen the
gap between the Palestinian and Israeli people. Also, they destroy the
possibilities of peaceful co-existence between them in two neighboring states. "We see that these bombings do not contribute
towards achieving our national project that calls for freedom and independence.
On the contrary, they strengthen the enemies of peace on the Israeli side."
Earlier, the Palestinian writer Edward Said had stated in Egypt's AL AHRAM
weekly of June 13: "If there is one thing along with Arafat's ruinous
regime that has done us more harm as a cause it is this calamitous policy of
killing Israeli civilians, which further proves to the world that we are indeed
terrorists and an immoral movement....It must be up to us to project the idea of
co-existence in two states that have natural relations with each other on the
basis of sovereignty and equality... A just cause can easily be subverted by
evil or inadequate or corrupt means." One hopeful development within Israel was a rally for
peace on May 12, attended by tens of thousands in Tel Aviv who called on Israel
to pursue the Saudi Peace Plan. Another important event was the first Jerusalem
Gay Pride march on June 7, attended by hundreds of gays, lesbians, and their
supporters, who also took a stand against Israel's illegal occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza. —Sheila Sahar, June 24, 2002 |
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