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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Please, Mrs Robinson
During a four-day visit to occupied Palestinian territories, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson saw for herself a few examples of the Israeli terror campaign to which Palestinians are subjected as a matter of routine.
Last week, Israeli helicopters bombed the car of a Palestinian activist in President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, killing him on the spot, together with two innocent women who happened to be walking down the street where the assassination took place. An Israeli government spokesman said the Fatah activist was on his way to carry out a terrorist attack, meaning that mere intentions are reason enough for Israel to kill Palestinians.
Israel prides itself on being one of the world's most advanced democracies, a society in which the death penalty is not applied. But this rule applies only to Israeli citizens.
Because of the West's short memory and legendary bias, Israel's crimes are always forgiven and even justified. For decades, Palestinians were the victims of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, years of illegal detention, land confiscation and wanton property destruction. Yet these are all legitimate, according to the Israeli interpretation of democracy.
How could the crime Israel committed in the West Bank last week be seen as anything other than an act of state-sponsored terrorism? How would the world react if a Palestinians sought to retaliate and attacked Israeli targets, accidentally killing civilians?
The Israeli attack took place just hours before US President Clinton was due to meet Arafat at the White House. Yet the meeting was held as planned; Washington uttered not a word of condemnation against Israel. Had the victims been Israelis, the White House would have delayed the meeting with Arafat, blamed him for the violence and ask him to crush his own people. Then again, perhaps this is not surprising: after meeting Arafat, Clinton held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was involved himself in the extrajudicial killing of one of Arafat's closest aides in Tunisia in the 1980s. At the time, like today, the UN took no measures against Israel. The world's callous indifference to the killing of Palestinians by Israeli occupation troops makes it difficult to imagine that even the courageous Mrs Robinson will be able to change the ugliness of reality.
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