Reoccupying Palestine

 

  Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi

All peace efforts will be doomed to failure, as long as we deny the true nature of Israeli operations.


The latest invasion by the Israeli military into Ramallah is underway. The 24-hour curfew, the killing of civilians, the house-to-house searches and the detaining of men, the digging of trenches in the roads -- all are beginning over again. The days are spent listening for the sound of gunfire, with helicopters flying overhead, tanks firing randomly at things that can't be seen, and the sound of explosions that rock the earth, as buildings that have already been destroyed are dynamited once more. 


This time it is Ramallah; perhaps tomorrow it will be Tulkarm, or Jenin, or Nablus, or any other Palestinian town or city. For this is the result -- or should I say 'success'? -- of all the diplomatic and political efforts exerted to date to try and bring about a resolution of the current crisis in Palestine. 


The Israeli human rights organization B'tselem recently released a report on Israeli government-supported settlement expansion. Jewish-only settlements cut a swathe across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They are built on expropriated Palestinian-owned land, in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids the transfer of civilians from the occupying state to the occupied territory. 


Despite their illegality, 36 new settlements have been established since Sharon's election one year ago. Some of them are contiguous with already well-established settlements, others break ground in new areas. 


These new constructions bring to 80 the total number of settlements built since the signing of the Oslo accords, expanding the settler population by 70 per cent. And although the immediate physical ground occupied by these settlements represents only 1.6 per cent of the West Bank, the total land area which has to be controlled to allow them to function amounts to an incredible 41.9 per cent. 


The report also found that the government is encouraging Israeli citizens to move to these settlements by offering them financial incentives. For example, the grants received by regional councils in the West Bank 
settlements are on average 165 per cent higher than those accorded to their counterparts in Israel proper. 


What this indicates is that the Israeli government is continuing to draw up the map of the two countries' future unilaterally. And thus, while efforts to address the violence in the region are being pursued, the implementation and expansion of one of the fundamental reasons for that violence continues unabated and uncontested -- it is, in fact, completely ignored by political and diplomatic discourse. 


Another issue that gives the lie to claims of a 'genuine' dialogue is the fact that we Palestinians are currently suffering the Israeli occupation of almost 100 per cent of our land. The repeated incursions and invasions would be ludicrous, were they not so deadly and dangerous for our people. 


On Monday we may be "free", but on Tuesday through Friday tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavily armed soldiers roam the streets. By doing so, they bring normal life to a standstill, shooting at ambulances, destroying Palestinian infrastructure, endangering our lives and the lives of our children, while helicopters fly overhead shooting and launching missiles whenever they like. It appears we are living under an occupation, but with weekend breaks. Since 24 April, Israeli tanks have so far entered Palestinian towns 110 times. 


These incursions are above all a mechanism. Sharon and the Israeli government are using them to prepare both Palestinians and the international community for the complete Israeli reoccupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The never-ending destruction of our infrastructure and services every time troops move in will ensure that we are unable to function even in those areas that are supposed to be under the control of the Palestinian Authority. This in turn will pave the way for Israeli civil administration in the Palestinian territories. These maneuvers are not 'responses' to the situation on the ground, nor are they short-term measures aimed at solving a specific problem; rather, they are the implementation of a pre-arranged plan, that will eventually lead to complete Israeli occupation. 


The third factor that always seems to be overlooked in the ongoing dialogue on ways forward for the Palestinians and Israelis is the draconian Israeli siege and closure, which has been imposed on us. The past years have seen the creation of dozens of "Berlin Walls", along with 300 clusters of "non-contiguous enclaves" -- or, if you prefer, prison camps. This stranglehold is slowly killing us all. 


The closure is responsible for the most serious humanitarian crisis in Palestine since 1967. Denial of access for medical treatment has already killed 62 Palestinians and forced many expectant mothers to give birth at checkpoints, resulting all too often in the death of the new-born. 


The closure is destroying the health and education systems, forcing up the poverty level higher than ever before. An estimated 75 per cent of the population now live below the poverty line of $US2 a day, while 
unemployment stands at a staggering 62 per cent. 

The fact that the closure has paralyzed our country, perhaps fatally, is apparently unworthy of mention in all the official discourses on how to solve the crisis. Yet diplomatic and political efforts all give pride of place to calls for the reform of the Palestinian Authority -- as if this were some kind of panacea for our present ills. Yes, reform is important, there can be no doubt about that. But no reform enacted under external pressure of this kind can possibly be sustained, nor can it hope to have any kind of legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian people. 

Free democratic elections in Palestine are long overdue. We need an independent judiciary, and the rule of law must be implemented and complied with. Anyone who knows us knows we are not without ideas and direction. For more than seven years we have been demanding, and working towards, democratisation, while many of the external forces who now call for reform were happy to ignore this issue. For Israel, democracy only became an issue when Arafat threw off his role as collaborationist autocrat. In this context, Israeli calls for reform -- combined with the tanks in Palestinian cities and towns, and with thousands of arrests -- are not a stimulus to democracy, but a poison to what democratic life remains. 

So, by all means, let other people call on us to reform ourselves. But please, do not ignore the situation here on the ground. The political issues you are arguing over to not exist in a vacuum; to address them as if they did is shortsighted, and dangerous. 

Solutions will be found only when the problems are addressed in their entirety, and in context. We need reform. But equally, we need an end to settlements, we need an end to the latest Israeli re- occupation, and we need to see the closure lifted. We also need to acknowledge the fact that Sharon's military solution has been a terrible catastrophe. Far from making his people 'secure', Sharon has endangered the safety of Israel, Palestine and the entire region. 

If we are to move forward, then we need to acknowledge these few simple facts. Then, with an international presence on the ground to protect civilians, we can start to work out a peaceful, political solution. For that is the only alternative to the tragedy into which Sharon is dragging us. 


* Dr. Barghouthi is president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and director of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute in Ramallah.