22 - 28 November 2001
Issue No.561
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 22 - 28 November 2001 Issue No.561 |
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The word is occupation
In the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the speech Colin Powell made on Monday was a milestone. For the first time, a top US official used the right word to describe the real reason for Palestinian suffering: Israeli occupation. Powell also reiterated the position George W Bush took in his recent speech at the UN General Assembly meeting on the necessity of establishing the "state of Palestine" next to Israel.Since 1948, Israel's leaders have refused to recognise the Palestinians as a people. Golda Meir denied that the very word existed.
Israelis were forced -- officially at least -- to recognise the existence of the Palestinians when Yitzhak Rabin signed the 1993 Oslo deal with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Yet that did not prevent some (like the late Rehavam Ze'evi) from describing them as lice or vermin. As long as the Palestinians did not exist as human beings -- let alone as a nation -- then the Israelis did not have to see themselves as occupiers.
The new US stand, whether sincere or merely a reflection of Washington's desire to preserve its "international" coalition against terrorism, has put an end to such delusions. Israel has long referred to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, as "disputed territories." One US administration after another followed suit and refused to admit what the world had repeatedly enshrined in UN resolutions and international law: the Palestinians are an occupied people.
Palestinians and Arabs, however, will remain sceptical until they see results on the ground. In the past year, there have several attempts to start negotiations again. Yet each time, Israel destroyed chances for peace by assassinating Palestinian activists or building a new settlement on occupied Palestinian land. When Palestinians practiced their legitimate right of resistance, they would be branded terrorists, and hunted down like criminals.
If the US wants to reach an agreement, envoys are not enough. It must end the Israeli occupation, and its crimes against the Palestinians.
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