27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
Issue No.553
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001 Issue No.553 |
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A strategic option
On its first anniversary, the Intifada has scored a number of achievements. First, it has demonstrated our enduring ability to confront occupation and refuse what was offered as a solution to the Palestinian question: the US-Israeli project, designed principally to destroy all potential for a Palestinian national government. The Americans and the Israelis believed they could impose their own vision on the Palestinians -- hence Camp David II. The Palestinians, however, have demonstrated that no solution is acceptable unless it includes sovereignty over Jerusalem, the right of return for all refugees and a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. The Intifada, in this perspective, was an uprising against the American-Israel project. Politically, this was its ceiling; and it has been successful, proving in practice, not rhetoric, that Palestinians who choose freedom and independence are ready to pay the price.
It has been taken for granted that our people do not have the capability to sustain a long-term struggle; yet our rule, in civil society or in battle, is independence and freedom. We have exposed the policy of our occupiers and shown the international community that we are living under an intransigent force that controls every aspect of our life. The Intifada, in other words, has revealed the falsity of Israel's call for peace.
Moreover, the uprising has made the occupation project a failure in terms of politics, security, the economy and human casualties. We hit the occupation where it hurts most: on settlements and settlers. We have made it clear that the settlers' exile is the best option, and in fact 26 per cent of those in Palestinian areas have left. Of the by-roads carved into Palestinian land to serve the settlers, 18 per cent are now blocked. The Israeli economy was also severely hit, with many hotels closed and hundreds of tourism companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Jewish immigration has declined drastically, and Jews are leaving Israel at a rate unprecedented in the past 10 years. The proportion of Israeli to Palestinian casualties has also been more favourable to the Palestinians this time around: 180 Israelis have been killed, as against around 700 Palestinians, a ratio never reached since 1948.
The Intifada has also brought national unity to the fore, and shown that struggle is the principal means of achieving our national objectives. We have sent a clear message to the world: the Israelis will enjoy neither peace nor security as long as they occupy our land.
I believe we can enter our second year more steadfast yet; and one day, the uprising will be a strategic option for all the Arab world.
* The writer is Fatah leader for the West Bank.
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