Homeless in their own land

Fifty years after the Zionist occupation of Arab land, Palestinians find themselves in a homeless - and hopeless - state.

JOHN CHERIAN

ON May 14, Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip marked the 50th anniversary of the occupation of their land by organising one of the biggest demonstrations ever witnessed in the area. Going by the Arab calendar, that date marks the anniversary of the Zionist occupation of Arab land and the creation of the state of Israel.

About a fortnight earlier, Israel had celebrated with pomp the golden jubilee of the founding of the Jewish state (Frontline, May 22, 1998). But then, Israelis have a lot to celebrate: Israel today is the most powerful state, militarily and economically, in West Asia. Palestinians, on the other hand, find to their chagrin that even the limited promises made in the flawed Oslo peace accord are proving unrealisable and illusory. The Palestinian Authority (P.A.) under Yasser Arafat is in physical control of only 3 per cent of the territory in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip while the right-wing Likud Party Government in Israel aggressively expands Jewish settlements on occupied Arab land. The United States, the most important guarantor of the peace accords, seems to have given up on its attempt to pressure the recalcitrant Government of Benjamin Netanyahu to implement at least some of the key provisions of the accords. The West Asia peace process has virtually become comatose.

On May 14, which the Palestinians had declared a day of mourning to commemorate half a century of dispossession and exile, a "million man march" was organised. According to the P.A., about a million marchers took peacefully to the streets to mark what the Palestinians call "al Nakhba", the "great catastrophe" that befell them 50 years ago. In the course of demonstrations in many parts of the West Bank, pitched battles took place between some of the Palestinian marchers and Israeli security forces. At least eight Palestinians, including two eight-year-old boys, were killed by Israeli troops in the crowded Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers fired bullets and teargas shells at random to control the crowds.

In a broadcast on May 15, Arafat said that the Palestinian people had to overcome their bitter history and form an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians stood in silence for two minutes just after noon as sirens wailed across the occupied territories.

NOEL JABBOUR /AP
The "million man march", seen through a hole in the Palestinian flag, in Ramallah in the West Bank on May 14. Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip observed the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Arab land as a day of mourning.

Palestinians have reasons to be angry. Netanyahu has stonewalled all efforts by the White House to make the Israeli Government fulfil its commitment to cede 13 per cent of the West Bank territory to the P.A. Instead, his war-mongering Minister for Housing, Ariel Sharon, who was responsible for the disastrous Israeli invasion of Lebanon, is dictating terms. He has ordered the speedy construction of new settlements in the West Bank.

The 1993 and 1995 Oslo agreements had mandated the "redeployment" from Palestinian territory of the old Jewish settlements that had come up since 1983. Instead, Sharon has put up new settlements in strategic hilltops throughout the West Bank. He has declared that Israel will withdraw only from less than 6 per cent of the West Bank territory. Withdrawal from more areas would be "painful", he said.

The P.A. had only reluctantly acceded to the U.S. proposal that Israel initially withdraw from 13 per cent of the occupied territory. Both Sharon and Netanyahu, on the other hand, claim that giving back more than 9 per cent of the West Bank to the Palestinians would jeopardise Israel's security.

The grand plan of the Netanyahu-Sharon duo is to bring all the illegal Jewish settlements, along with the connecting roads, permanently under Israeli rule. If this happens, even the concept of limited statehood for Palestine will become meaningless.

Sharon has said often that Jews should in perpetuity retain control over the Jordan valley, the Judean desert, major aquifers and east-west routes across the West Bank and retain access to each of the 126 settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

It has been obvious from the time Netanyahu came to power two years ago that his short-term goal is to circumvent the peace process and finally to scuttle it.

MEANWHILE, the Israeli security apparatus is working overtime to keep the restive Palestinian populace under control. There are indications that Palestinians are fed up of the political impasse and the economic misery that the Oslo peace process has resulted in. Unless there is a diplomatic breakthrough soon, another intifadah (uprising) could be round the corner. Palestinians have now been reduced to a people who have hardly anything left to lose. Even their fundamental civil rights are violated.

For the first time, the Israeli Supreme Court has decided to open hearings on the use of violent interrogation methods on Palestinians by Israeli security forces. The case was brought forward by two human rights organisations and former Palestinian prisoners. They have asked the court to ban all forms of physical abuse that violate conventions relating to investigation procedures, which Israel - and in fact most countries - have signed. But Israel has been a blatant violator of human rights.

A report released in the third week of May by Betselem, an Israeli human rights group, concluded that 85 per cent of the 1,500 Palestinians picked up for interrogation in 1997 were subjected to torture, and that many were released without any criminal charges being filed. Betselem director Yuval Gimbar said that such brutality would only have the effect of instigating more hatred against Israel and complicate the quest for an enduring peace settlement.

AP
Downtrodden in Arab East Jerusalem. A Palestinian demonstrator gets a feel of the Israeli police force's "security measures".

One of the methods of torture most frequently used by the Israeli secret service Shin Bet is called "the shake": Palestinians picked up for questioning are tied to a chair and violently pushed around. Many Palestinians have died after being given "the shake" treatment. However, in a bizarre defence of this barbaric method of torture, Israel's State Attorney has argued that "the employment of 'the shake' is vital. Its use cannot be forgone without having a seriously debilitating effect on the capabilities of the security forces to thwart severe terror attacks."

The Supreme Court judges who are hearing the case are reluctant to give a ruling. Chief Justice Aharon Barak has said that it was for the Israeli Parliament to repeal the law that provides a cover for those who take recourse to such methods. At the same time, he has promised to give an expeditious ruling in the case.

THE P.A. under Arafat has lost a lot of political ground in recent months. Despite occasional bursts of belligerence, Arafat seems to have invested all his faith in U.S. diplomacy to retrieve - at least partially - the situation. As things stand, Arafat seems reconciled to a new U.S. proposal, which will give the P.A. partial control of only 40 per cent of the West Bank before the final round of the peace process starts. This will give Netanyahu the crucial bargaining chip he has sought all along. Arafat's position could become untenable if he walks blindly into the trap set for him by Netanyahu and company. Already, the Arab world has started showing signs of distancing itself from Arafat and the P.A.

The spiritual leader of Hamas, the radical Islamist grouping, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, has been given a hero's welcome in the Gulf states, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Rich Arab states have started openly funding Hamas. Sheikh Yassin has accused Arafat of "succumbing to American ideas" and has warned that "martyrdom operations are coming to avenge the blood of those killed by Jews and their collaborators". Palestinians, cutting across party affiliations, are calling for a "united national review" of the peace accords and for the formulation of a new political strategy to prepare for a new national struggle, now that the peace process is on the verge of collapse.

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