Robert Fisk: This terrible conflict is the last colonial war
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?dir=140&story=10816
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'Arafat used to make the same expressions of grief when his gunmen murdered
innocent Lebanese'
04 December 2001
Can Ariel Sharon control his own people? Can he control his army? Can he
stop them from killing children, leaving booby traps in orchards or firing
tank shells into refugee camps? Can Sharon stop his rabble of an army from
destroying hundreds of Palestinian refugee homes in Gaza? Can Sharon "crack
down" on Jewish settlers and prevent them from stealing more land from
Palestinians? Can he stop his secret-service killers from murdering their
Palestinian enemies – or carrying out " targeted killings", as the BBC was
still gutlessly calling these executions yesterday in its effort to avoid
Israeli criticism.
It is, of course, forbidden to ask these questions. So let's "legalise"
them. The Palestinian suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa are
disgusting, evil, revolting, unforgivable. I saw the immediate aftermath of
the Pizzeria suicide bombing in Jerusalem last August: Israeli women and
children, ripped apart by explosives that had nails packed around them –
designed to ensure that those who survived were scarred for life.
I remember Yasser Arafat's grovelling message of condolence, and I thought
to myself – like any Israeli, I guess – that I didn't believe a word of it.
In fact, I don't believe a word of it. Arafat used to make the same eloquent
expressions of grief when his gunmen murdered innocent Lebanese during that
country's civil war. Bullshit, I used to think. And I still do.
But there was a clue to the real problem only hours after the latest
bloodbath in Israel. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, was being
questioned with characteristic obsequiousness on CNN about his reaction to
the slaughter. Nothing, he said, could justify such "terrorism", and he went
on to refer to the plight of the Palestinians, who suffer "50 per cent
unemployment". I sat up at that point. Unemployment? Is that what Mr Powell
thought this was about.
And my mind went back to his speech at Louisberg University on 20 November
when he launched – or so we were supposed to believe – his Middle-East
initiative. "Palestinians must..." was the theme: Palestinians must "end the
violence"; Palestinians must "arrest, prosecute and punish the perpetrators
of terrorist acts"; Palestinians "need to understand that, however
legitimate their claims" – note the word "however" – "they cannot be...
addressed by violence"; Palestinians "must realise that violence has had a
terrible impact on Israel". Only when General Powell told his audience that
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza must end, did it become clear
that Israel was occupying Palestine rather than the other way round.
The reality is that the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is the last colonial
war. The French thought that they were fighting the last battle of this
kind. They had long ago conquered Algeria. They set up their farms and
settlements in the most beautiful land in North Africa. And when the
Algerians demanded independence, they called them "terrorists" and they shot
down their demonstrators and they tortured their guerrilla enemies and they
murdered – in "targeted killings" – their antagonists.
In just the same way, we are responding to the latest massacre in Israel
according to the rules of the State Department, CNN, the BBC and Downing
Street. Arafat has got to come alive, to get real, to perform his duty as
the West's policeman in the Middle East. President Mubarak does it in Egypt;
King Abdullah does it in Jordan; King Fahd does it in Saudi Arabia. They
control their people for us. It is their duty. They must fulfil their moral
obligations, without any reference to history or to the pain and the
suffering of their people.
So let me tell a little story. A few hours before I wrote this article –
exactly four hours after the last suicide bomber had destroyed himself and
his innocent victims in Haifa – I visited a grotty, fly-blown hospital in
Quetta, the Pakistani border city where Afghan victims of American bombing
raids are brought for treatment. Surrounded by an army of flies in bed No
12, Mahmat – most Afghans have no family names – told me his story. There
were no CNN cameras, no BBC reporters in this hospital to film the patient.
Nor will there be. Mahmat had been asleep in his home in the village of
Kazikarez six days ago when an bomb from an American B-52 fell on his
village. He was asleep in one room, his wife with the children. His son
Nourali died, as did Jaber – aged 10 – Janaan, eight, Salamo, six, Twayir,
four, and Palwasha – the only girl – two.
"The plane flies so high that we cannot hear them and the mud roof fell on
them," Mahmat said. His wife Rukia – whom he permitted me to see – lay in
the next room (bed No 13). She did not know that her children were dead. She
was 25 and looked 45. A cloth dignified her forehead. Her children – like so
many Afghan innocents in this frightful War for civilisation – were victims
whom Mr Bush and Mr Blair will never acknowledge. And watching Mahmat plead
for money – the American bomb had blasted away his clothes and he was naked
beneath the hospital blanket – I could see something terrible: he and the
angry cousin beside him and the uncle and the wife's brother in the hospital
attacking America for the murders that they had inflicted on their family...
One day, I suspect, Mahmat's relatives may be angry enough to take their
revenge on the United States, in which case they will be terrorists, men of
violence. We may even ask if their leaders could control them. They are not
bin Ladens, Mahmat's family said that – "We are neither Taliban nor Arab" –
but, frankly, could we blame them if they decided to strike at the United
States for the bloody and terrible crime done to their family. Can the
United States stop bombing villages? Can Washington persuade its special
forces to protect prisoners? Can the Americans control their own people?
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