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Knut Rognes
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The Tables Turned
by Hanan Ashrawi
Violence in
the Middle East has so far claimed the lives of over 325
people and
wounded over 11,000—most of them Israelis.
The
latest incidents took place in the early pre-dawn hours as
Palestinian
Defense Forces (PDF), in response to gunfire by Israeli
gunmen, shelled
the empty buildings in which the gunmen were taking
shelter. Five people were killed and twenty injured in the ensuing exchange
of fire.
Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat once again called on the Israelis
to “stop the
violence.” He once again pledged Palestine’s unwavering
commitment to peace and called on the
Israeli people to “stop their
acts of terrorism against Palestinian
civilians and PDF personnel.”
Deploying
“our Markaba tanks, our Apache and Cobra gun ships, and the
closure of
Israeli territories” are all “essential measures to
protect the
security of Palestine,” he added.
Praising the
“policy of restraint” practiced by the PDF, President
Arafat said that
if it took the “killing of two thousand more
Israelis” to put an end
to Jewish rioting and terror, he would do so.
In response
to the deteriorating economic conditions within the
Israeli territories,
Palestinian officials said that they would allow
ten thousand Israeli
workers to work in Palestine as a “good will
gesture.” To qualify for
permits, these Israeli workers must be
married, with several children, and
over 35 years old.
This latest
easing of the closure of the Israeli territories came in
response to the
European Union envoy’s appeals to Palestinian leaders
not to allow the
economy of Israel to collapse as a result of the
multiple closures. “The
entire European economic aid package to
Israel is being absorbed by these
closures,” the envoy said. Europe
has pledged an estimated US$ 500
million annually to help build up
the Israeli economy. The cost of the
closure is estimated at US$ 10
million per day.
Since the
beginning of the violence (or uprising, as some Israelis
call it),
unemployment has risen to 40% in Israel and over 30% of the
entire
population of Israel is now living below the poverty level.
Called upon
to release the funds that Palestine has refrained from
handing over to the
Israeli treasury as per the interim agreements
(VAT and excise tax), the Palestinian Minister of Finance said he would do
so “once the violence
subsides,” and after he deducts the amount owed
the Palestinian treasury
for hospital and other expenses.
At a
press conference held by the Palestine army spokesperson, and in
response
to questions concerning Palestine’s use of “excessive force”
in
quelling the riots, General Shati reiterated that the soldiers
have
“strict orders” not to shoot “unless their lives are
threatened.” PDF personnel are facing “life-threatening and dangerous
conditions”
and are acting strictly in “self defense.”
As for the
large number of Israeli children being killed (30% of the
total killed),
General Shati once again called on the Israeli
leadership not to “send
children into the line of fire” for the sake
of “scoring media
points.” “As you know,” he stated, “the Israelis do
not share the
same values that we have, and they do not have the same
feelings for their
children.” It is part of the Jewish culture to
“glorify martyrdom,”
and cynically sending their children out to die
provides the Israeli
leadership with a “cheap propaganda victory.”
The fact
that most injuries were in the head and the upper part of
the body is due
to the “skill of Palestinian snipers,” Shati
explained. These are
highly trained and skilled experts who know how
to stop “lethal
attacks” from “Jewish terrorists.” If there are any
“excesses,”
the PDF will carry out its own investigations. “Rest
assured, we will do
everything possible to investigate and to
discipline those responsible.”
He concluded, “You must remember, this
is a war situation. Our soldiers
are responding to stones, Molotov
cocktails, and live fire from the
Israeli rioters.”
In a meeting
with the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
representatives
of Israeli human rights organizations and NGO’s
raised the issue of the Palestinian settlements on Israeli land occupied by
Palestine. They
claimed that Palestinian settlers had “stolen” their
lands to bring in
Muslims from other countries to live in housing
units subsidized by the Palestinian government. “Since the signing of the
Declaration of
Principles, settlement activity has doubled,” they
claimed. “Israeli
towns and villages on whose lands these settlements
were built are being threatened by these settlers with daily shootings,
abductions, torture and
killing of innocent civilians,” the Israeli
representatives claimed.
With the “bypass roads that the Palestinians
had constructed,” all
Israeli towns are isolated from each other and
their inhabitants have no
freedom of movement.
Expressing
“outrage” at the use of “excessive force” by the PDF, and
at the
violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Palestinian
occupied
Israeli territories, the UN Commissioner issued a report
which included
the “incident” in which Palestinian settlers shot at
her car while
visiting the “shared” city of Modi’im.
In response,
the Palestinian Government spokesperson issued a
statement refuting the
Commissioner’s report while describing it as
“one-sided.” Palestine
has always applied the Convention “de facto”
in the disputed territories, the statement adds. Palestinian civilians have
every right to
live anywhere they want in historical Canaan, and the
PDF has the
responsibility of protecting them. The spokesperson
further stressed the
“emotional and spiritual attach ment” that
Muslims everywhere have for
this Waqf land as part of their heritage
and identity. The bypass roads
are essential for the security of
Palestinian and Muslim settlers who need
to travel freely in the
Israeli territory and to connect with Palestine without being attacked by
Israeli terrorists.
When asked
whether the uprooting of Israeli olive and fruit trees and
the bulldozing
of crops were necessary, the Palestinian spokesperson
responded that these
were used as “cover” by Israeli terrorists
throwing stones at Palestinian settlers and PDF vehicles traveling
throughout the Israeli
territories.
“Palestinian
civilians are being attacked by Jewish terrorists, and
the roads are no
longer safe in light of these latest riots,” he
stated. Restrictions on
the movement of Israelis have become a
security necessity, and curfews on
Israelis are essential,
particularly in shared cities, for the protection
of Palestinian
civilians. Haifa, for example, must remain calm, and for
the security
of the Palestinian population there and in order to guarantee
their
freedom of movement, all Jewish inhabitants of this city must remain
under curfew. “We allow them two hours of movement every few days to let
them do their shopping,” declared the spokesperson. “We do take into
account such humanitarian considerations.”
In the
Muslim neighborhood of Jala’, a suburb of West Jerusalem,
residents are
being subjected to gunfire from the Israeli town of
Beth Hassida. Fatima
Abed, 45 a school teacher and mother of six
children, had to be taken to
hospital for shock treatment when a
bullet struck the living room window
of her suburban home. The PDF
tanks stationed there had to shell the town of Beth Hassida in order to
silence the Israeli guns. “We will not tolerate any shooting or Israeli
threat to our eternal and undivided capital, Jerusalem,” the
spokesperson concluded.
Jerusalem,
however, remains an issue of contention. For security
reasons, Palestine
has closed off Jerusalem (both East and West) to
all Israelis, except for
those who are allowed to reside in the city
and who had been issued blue
identity cards by the Palestinian
authorities. Jewish holders of orange or
green ID cards are barred
entry, as well as all vehicles with blue or
green license
plates—“only yellow license plates are allowed to enter the area of greater
Jerusalem as designated by the Palestinian cabinet in
1967,” said the
spokesperson. Nevertheless, Jewish worshipers are
allowed to reach
the Wailing Wall during two major holidays provided they
are over 45
years old. “For security reasons,” however, “they have
to be bussed
in, and only in limited numbers.”
“Jerusalem
is open to all religions,” declared the Palestinian
minister in charge
of religious affairs. “We have a policy of 100%
religious tolerance and
we respect the right to worship freely at all
holy sites.” In response
to a question on the closure imposed on
Jerusalem since 1993 and the
prevention of Jewish Israelis from
entering the city, the minister
responded: “This is only a temporary
security measure. The whole world
understands that we are living in
exceptional circumstances that require
drastic measures.”
“These are
the same ‘drastic measures’ that are used by the
Palestinians to
demolish Jewish homes, to confiscate Israeli
Jerusalem ID’s, to
expropriate Israeli land on which to build
Palestinian settlements, and to
ban Jewish Israelis from building on
their own land,” claimed an Israeli
resident of Jerusalem. “First,
they declare our land as ‘green
areas’, then they refuse to grant us
building permits on the 12%
that’s left to us, then—before you know
it—Palestinian settlements
are mushrooming everywhere, around and
within our city. We cannot move
freely in our own city,” he added.
The Palestine government, however,
maintains its position that it can
build anywhere in its capital. “We
have even built housing projects
for Jews,” claimed the Palestinian minister of housing and construction,
himself a Hamas member of Arafat’s
coalition government.
(forts)
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