8 - 14 February 2001
Issue No.520
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 8 - 14 February 2001 Issue No.520 |
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'Israel's last bullet'
The Palestinian Authority, apparently eager to minimise the damage the peace process is likely to sustain with Likud leader Ariel Sharon at the helm of Israeli politics, has declared that it will work with any government or prime minister chosen by the Israeli people.
"TWO FACES OF A SINGLE MURDERER", read the poster urging Palestinian citizens of Israel to boycot the election; the carnage continued in the occupied territories
(photo:AP)
"What we are concerned with is that a Sharon-led government pursues the path of peace. We will deal with Sharon as a prime minister, not as the general who led the Lebanon war," PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Other PA officials, particularly those involved in negotiations with Israel, warned that the PA would only negotiate with Sharon from the point where the talks with Barak's government left off.
"We are not going to give him any concessions on the basic issues," said PA official Saeb Erekat, who argued that the peace process would suffer under Sharon.
Formally, the PA has preferred to give Sharon a grace period; having heard his words, they wait to see his actions.
"We should not behave with undue haste toward Sharon. Yes, we are not giving him the benefit of the doubt, but we are not going to draw a quick conclusion about him. Let us wait and see what Sharon will do once he takes office," Nabil Amr, Palestinian minister for parliamentary affairs and a confidant of Yasser Arafat, said.
Other PA figures were not as diplomatic.
"We are ready for Sharon. We know how to deal with him. He can't dictate terms to the Palestinian people," said West Bank Preventive Security Chief Jebril Rajoub, suggesting that an escalation of the Intifada would be the Palestinian response to Sharon's presumed bellicosity.
Rajoub's remarks came after Sharon told supporters in Tel Aviv, "I know the Arabs, and the Arabs know me... When I say yes, I mean yes; and when I say no, I mean no." Arab and Palestinian observers construed these statements as an allusion to the numerous atrocities Sharon perpetrated against Palestinians, Lebanese and Egyptians during his long military career.
On the street, Sharon -- and his perceived insolence -- has already been greeted with popular defiance and calls for escalating the Intifada.
Earlier, Fatah Secretary-General in the West Bank Marwan Barghouthi warned Sharon against embarking on any impetuous action against the Palestinian people.
"We will show the Israeli public that Sharon cannot bring them security. Sharon is the Israelis' last bullet. We will not be intimidated by him; we will repulse him as we have all other Israeli prime ministers who chose to ignore our rights."
Meanwhile, the Islamic resistance movement Hamas opined that Palestinian and Arab interests would be better served with Sharon, rather than Barak, in power.
"Sharon and Barak are the same, but Barak is trying to deceive us and to lure Western support while Sharon will reveal the real Zionist image, with its lust for wars and killing, and will lose internationally," said Hamas official Khaled Meshaal in an interview on Monday.
He further suggested that "Sharon will unify the ranks of the Arab and Islamic nations -- he will force them to look for a real option to counter the enemy and not to limit their options to peace only."
Meshaal went on to criticise some Arab leaders for seeking to appease Israel, irrespective of circumstances.
"The Arabs should be prepared for all options. If peace comes we welcome it, but if there is no peace our choice should be resistance."
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authorities re-imposed a two-tiered blockade on the Palestinian self-rule areas during elections on Tuesday, effectively placing all Palestinians under curfew.
The closure was made even more hermetic with the closure on Monday of Gaza airport and the Rafah crossing point between Palestine and Egypt. The airport has been closed several times during the Palestinian uprising, reflecting the limited nature of Palestinian autonomy and the extent to which Israel still controls the lives of Palestinians.
The draconian measures were ordered by outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Barak following the killing of an Israeli soldier in Gaza, apparently by a Palestinian sniper.
However, observers in Palestine suggested that the measures were also a last, desperate, but ultimately futile effort on Barak's part to enhance his image and narrow the widening gap that separated him from Sharon in public opinion polls.
In the meantime, Israeli killing and torment of Palestinians continued unabated.
On 4 February, Israeli occupation troops shot and killed 24-year-old Shadi Abdel-Rahman Kahlut, an Islamic Jihad fighter who was apparently on his way to carry out an attack inside Israel.
Earlier, another Palestinian, Abdullah Abu Karsh, died of injuries he sustained a week ago near the Mintar crossing east of Gaza town.
Also on 4 February, as many as 64 Palestinian civilians, including many children, were left homeless after Israeli army bulldozers, without prior warning, brutally destroyed their houses near the crossing.
The bulldozers, backed by tanks and soldiers, moved in before dawn and razed the houses, along with two petrol stations and a brick factory, shattering the lives of six large families.
"They forced us out of our homes and threw our furniture out into the rain before starting the demolitions," said Hussein Thabet, whose house was among those destroyed.
The brutality did not stop there, as Israeli bulldozers continued to destroy Palestinian orchards and farmlands, especially in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said that over 5,000 hectares of farmland have been destroyed by the Israeli army since the outbreak of the Intifada.
Israel claims that the destruction of orchards and other farmland is carried out for security reasons, but Palestinians and human rights observers, including Israeli groups such as B'etselm, insist that the destruction is meant first and foremost to inflict economic losses and collective punishment, in a bid to break the defiance of Palestinians.
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