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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Executing orders
One of the photographs of which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is most proud is of himself in army uniform, standing at the door of an airplane and raising a gun in the air, smiling after succeeding in freeing Israeli hostages from Palestinian hijackers in the 1970s. The photo formed the cover of one of the many biographies "Israel's most decorated soldier" that following last year's election victory. The same biography revealed details of Barak's personal involvement in the assassination of Abu Jihad, at the PLO headquarters in Tunis, and in other operations in which scores of Palestinian died.The man who is supposed to make peace with the Arabs is, then, a man who has killed many Arabs. He is also the man who refuses to release Palestinian prisoners held for decades in Israeli jails because their hands "are covered with Jewish blood." His own hands, it seems, could easily be washed clean. The blood that stains them was only Palestinian.
A Jewish settler kills a young Palestinian child for no apparent reason, a not unheard of event, yet the punishment seldom exceeds a six month prison term, after which the murderer is free to go home and continue his "harmless" pursuits. A Palestinian, though, whose house has been bulldozed, land confiscated and family killed, jailed, or simply "gone missing" by the score -- should he take action in defence of his rights, is liable to rot forever in an Israeli jail.
Israel prides itself on being a democracy that does not condone capital punishment, a pride that rings more than a little hollow when that self-same democracy repeatedly condones the extra-judicial killing of Palestinians without so much as a flicker of remorse, or the raising of a moral eye-brow.
And so Israel continues in the banal belief that it can make peace and continue to detain Palestinian prisoners because they one day dared to fight for their country and homeland. Hardly surprising, then, that the most violent clashes in years between Palestinians and Israeli occupation troops took place this week. Or at least surprising to no one save those Israelis who continue to believe in their right to kill Palestinians with impunity if only to underline that Palestinians have no rights at all . And incredulously, these are the very people who repeat solemnly that they are seeking peace.
