Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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The illusion of peace

By Mustafa Al-Barghouti *

In a very calculated and cynical manner, Israel has escalated the conflagration in the occupied territories, its purpose being to attempt to disguise the simple fact that Israel is an occupying power waging a brutal war against a people unarmed save for a very few who possess light weapons.

Naturally, it is in Israel's short-term interest to portray its assault as a battle between two equal opponents rather than as what it is: an exercise in the savage repression of a people's struggle to resist an occupation that has lasted far longer than any people could tolerate. But there is no masking the apparent glee with which Israel's generals are now savouring the thrill of conducting their own electronic war, having been deprived of participation in the Gulf War, along with the attendant pleasure of watching their high-tech Apaches, warships and armoured tanks bombarding defenceless Palestinian civilians, as occurred in Gaza, Beit Sahour and Al-Bira.

To comprehend the scale of the atrocity Israel is perpetrating, it is sufficient to note that the Israeli assault, to date, has killed 240 Palestinians and wounded approximately 7,500. Were the ratio of this casualty toll to the Palestinian population to be applied to a country the size of the US, for example, it would equal 20,000 dead and 690,000 wounded, all within the 50 days since the outbreak of the Intifada.

Israel, the most powerful nation in the region, has produced the most hawkish regime in its history. Barak is a decorated Israeli army general, as is the opposition leader, who is especially notorious for his bloodthirstiness, to which the massacres of Sabra and Shatila stand testimony. The third political power base in the country, Shas, is represented by another general and former chief of staff. Were it not for the scandal that unseated Yitzhak Mordechai, the current Israeli government would possess three former chiefs of staff, on top of the dozens of generals that swell the ranks of the Israeli army and security apparatuses.

Given this leadership, it is not surprising that the Israeli political elite should be marginalised, that Barak's militaristic mentality should predominate, particularly in view of his repeated failures as a statesman, and that the extremism of the Israeli settlers should form the prime impetus behind the Israeli bombardment of Palestinian civilians.

Nevertheless, all the might of the Israeli military machine and all the belligerence of its leaders will not conceal a basic truth. The military solution will not succeed in quashing the Palestinian Intifada for, as history has proved over and over again, the force of arms cannot vanquish a people determined to secure their rights to freedom, independence and dignity. Israeli leaders are also mistaken if they think that their bombs and their deliberate murder of Palestinian demonstrators (98 per cent of the Palestinian dead had been shot in the upper half of their bodies) will terrorise the Palestinians into succumbing.

In its one-sided war against the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has set the precedent of being the first nation to wage a war against the country it already occupies. Simultaneously, the Israeli aggression has also shattered the illusions the Oslo process sought to generate. It is now clearer than ever before that the Palestinian people will never accept a form of Bantustan self-rule as an alternative to an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state in the entire West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Now is the time for the Israelis to take a good look in the mirror, to peer at the naked reality of their state. Israel is an occupying power that is inflicting upon its subjugated people many of the same outrages the Jews themselves suffered in other parts of the world. The Israelis must come to terms with the fact that no amount of plastic surgery will succeed in hiding the monstrous face of occupation.

Certainly, too, it is time for the world to realise that there is a simple, straightforward way to bring peace and end the suffering. This is for Israel to end its occupation, to withdraw its forces from all the territories it occupied in 1967 and to give the Palestinians the opportunity to found a viable, independent and democratic state. In favour of this strategy is the international powers' increasing awareness of the fact that the Palestinians, though relatively few in number, hold the key to stability in the region. The Palestinian Intifada has set itself a very specific goal -- freedom and statehood -- and it will not end until it attains that goal.

The only viable and humane political way to end the current crisis is for the international community to intervene in order to protect the Palestinian people and create a more equitable framework for the peace process, a framework guided by the imperative need to end the Israeli occupation and implement the relevant United Nations resolutions. To revert to the bankrupt Oslo-Camp David formula, which is to attempt to implement agreements that fall far short of internationally agreed upon principles, will only add another layer of deceit to those that have already been exposed. Ultimately, it is no longer possible to substitute true peace with the illusion of peace.

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* The writer is president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees.

Related stories:
The cost of vengeance 23 - 29 November 2000
See Intifada in focus 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
Intifada special 19 - 25 October 2000

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