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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 October 2000 Issue No. 503 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 October 2000 Issue No. 503
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Books Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters An ethical transformation
By John Whitbeck*As Serbs stormed and torched their parliament in an outburst of violence encouraged and cheered on by the Western powers, President Clinton proclaimed: "The United States stands with people everywhere who are fighting for their freedom."
It would be wonderful, of course, if this were true, but, as with every other principle which Americans purport to hold dear, Palestinians, who have also been fighting for their freedom in recent days (at far greater human cost), are a glaring exception. It seems that, in American eyes, Palestinians are not considered "people." Indeed, no one who believes that Arabs are human beings could consider the transformation of the Arab land of Palestine into the Jewish state of Israel, necessarily requiring the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people, to be a good thing, as almost all Americans do. Holding both views simultaneously is logically and intellectually impossible.
History cannot be erased. Israel exists, and Israelis are also human beings. Yet it is inconceivable that a true peace, for both Palestinians and Israelis, will ever be achieved unless the peoples of Palestine's only enemies, Israel and the United States, recognise in their hearts and minds the enormity of the original sin -- that the dispossession, dispersal and continuing oppression of the Palestinian people constitute a grave injustice, probably the gravest injustice inflicted on one people by another since the Second World War -- and that Palestinians are not simply a problem to be coped with but human beings entitled to basic human rights.
Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli soldiers usually die in numbers but namelessly -- at least in the Western media. Thanks to the presence of a French cameraman, 12-year-old Mohamed Al-Dorra did not die namelessly at Netzarim junction on September 30. To most of those who watched him die from the comfort of their homes around the world, he probably looked like a human being. If so, are not all Palestinians human beings? If so, are they not entitled to basic human rights? If so, why should Israel continue to be permitted to defy international law and UN resolutions and to deny them their basic human rights? Indeed, why should Israelis wish to do so and why should Americans, alone, wish to support them in doing so?
If Americans and Israelis viewed Palestinians as human beings, they might also be capable of seeing through the propaganda fog and recognising that every Palestinian position or objective in the peace negotiations is fully consistent with international law and relevant UN resolutions, while virtually every Israeli position and objective in the peace negotiations is inconsistent with international law and relevant UN resolutions. Even for countries as notoriously hostile to international law and UN resolutions (except when, as a matter of convenience, they can be used a stick with which to beat a particular adversary) as Israel and the United States, this is a fundamental reality which, if recognised, could not easily be brushed aside.
Middle East peace will clearly require a moral and ethical transformation on the part of Americans and Israelis. However, moral and ethical transformations can occur abruptly, and it should not be forgotten that Americans and Israelis have high moral and ethical aspirations and that most of them genuinely believe that they act morally and ethically in the world. If the death of Mohamed Al-Dorra provokes such a moral and ethical transformation and helps a critical mass of Americans and Israelis to recognise that Palestinians are human beings, with all the consequences that inevitably flow from such a recognition, then this poor child will not have died in vain and a durable peace, necessarily requiring some measure of justice for Palestinians and some measure of repentance by Israelis, will, at last, be possible.
* The writer is an international lawyer who comments frequently on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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