1 - 7 February 2001
Issue No.519
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 February 2001 Issue No.519 |
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Laying the ground for Sharon
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat made a scathing attack on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's government at this week's Davos conference. In remarks addressed to the World Economic Forum, Arafat accused Barak of "waging a savage and barbaric war as well as a fascist military aggression against our people." The Palestinian leader charged, moreover, that Israel was using banned weapons in its onslaught against the Palestinian civilian population. He said weapons and ammunition the Israelis were using were internationally prohibited, and included depleted uranium in their composition.
Funeral of 20-year-old Mohamed Abu Moussa, among the recent victims of Israel's brutality
(photo: Reuters)
Some hours after Arafat had called Israel's policies and actions toward Palestinians "savage, fascist and barbaric," Barak reacted by cancelling a pre-scheduled meeting with the Palestinian leader in Stockholm, Sweden, which was to take place on Tuesday.
Describing Arafat's Davos remarks as "a full fledged attack of lies on the army and the state of Israel," the Israeli premier also decided to halt all political contact with the Palestinians until after next Tuesday's election. The more crucial security contacts, however, were not halted owing to their vital importance for Israel.
Tension between the two sides was by no means confined to the verbal sphere. On 29 January, a Jewish settler was killed when the car he was driving south of Ramallah came under fire from suspected Palestinian guerrillas.
An Israeli army spokesman claimed the attack was carried out by Arafat's Force-17 (the presidential guard), which the Israeli army alleges has been responsible for the majority of armed Palestinian attacks on Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers.
Barak vehemently condemned the attack. "There will be no compromise in the battle against terror and the perpetrators and those who sent them will not remain at large," he vowed.
The killing of the settler, which brings to 49 the number of Israeli soldiers and settlers killed by Palestinians since the outbreak of the Intifada on 28 September, came hours after Israeli army snipers shot and killed 20-year-old Mohamed Nafez Abu Mousa outside his home in Khan Younis.
The killing of the young Palestinian, who eyewitnesses confirmed was not taking part in protests, may signal the resumption of the use of snipers to murder Palestinians.
Shortly afterwards, on 29 January, Israeli occupation soldiers kidnapped five Palestinians travelling in a minibus outside Khan Younis. The five were taken to the nearby settlement of Netzarim, where they were subjected to violent interrogation, after which one was arrested and the other four released.
A day earlier, the Israeli army fired artillery shells on Palestinian refugee camps and other civilian neighbourhoods at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, injuring several Palestinians and inflicting substantial damage.
Meanwhile, the army, whose Chief of Staff General Shaul Mofaz has been leaning heavily towards Barak's contender in Tuesday's elections, right-wing Likud leader Ariel Sharon, accused the PA of smuggling offensive arms, including RPG's, via the sea. Palestinian Security Chief in Gaza Lt. General Abdul-Razeq Al-Majaydeh dismissed the charge as "rubbish."
"These statements are dangerous because they are part of an ongoing Israeli effort aimed at preparing the ground and seeking excuses for a new Israeli aggression against our people," Al-Majaydeh said.
Palestinian apprehension about the dissemination by right-wing Israeli circles of such rumours seems to be justified. The rumours, which are readily echoed by Sharon and his ilk, might eventually serve to prepare the ground for an all-out attack by a Sharon-led government on Palestinian self-rule areas if the Palestinian people refused to put an end to the Intifada.
Sharon has repeatedly stressed that he would not agree to hold talks with the Palestinian Authority unless there were a complete halt to "violence and terror," a clear allusion to the Intifada.
However, with the Intifada increasingly viewed by many Palestinians as their premier asset to force the world, particularly Israel, to grant them a dignified peace reflecting human rights and international law rather than Israel's brute force, it is doubtful that even the PA leadership will be willing to, or even capable of, bringing it to an end.
This means the Palestinians and Sharon, known as a war criminal for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, will inevitably find themselves on a collision course -- with all the dire consequences and implications emanating from this looming probability.
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