10 - 16 January 2002
Issue No.568
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 10 - 16 January 2002 Issue No.568 |
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The amazing power of people
The Palestinians struggle, not for any state, but for a fair and just one, writes Mustafa Barghouthi
The number of foreigners on the streets of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem in the last few weeks was not, unfortunately, due to seasonal festivities in the Holy Land. Nor has Palestine become a new holiday destination for Europeans and Americans. Rather, hundreds of people, of various nationalities including Italians, French, Belgians, Americans, Dutch and British, were responding to the call of Palestinian NGOs for international observers.
For 15 months now we have been waiting for an international observer/protection force to be sent to the region to provide some kind of security for Palestinians. Every time one of the 32 people who were prevented from receiving medical treatment died, we called for international observers to be located at checkpoints to prevent the same thing happening again. As the Israeli army mercilessly shelled civilian neighbourhoods, opened fire -- unprovoked -- on children at demonstrations, destroyed acres of land and agricultural produce or invaded areas under PA control, we have called for an international protection force to be sent -- unfortunately to no avail.
The UN call for observers to be sent was vetoed three times by countries aware that Israel was not in favour of the resolution; 934 Palestinians have died, 26,000 people have been injured, and still the international community dragged its feet. Members of Palestine's vibrant civil society took the initiative and in coordination with foreign NGOs, churches and church-related institutions, aid agencies, solidarity groups, human rights activists and concerned individuals, decided to launch their own campaign for the protection of the Palestinian people.
The objectives were simple, non violent and peaceful; to protect the Palestinian people through the presence of international civilians by deterring Israeli army and settler aggression, to express concrete solidarity with the Palestinian people and with those who struggle in Israel for a just and sustainable peace, to report on the experience and raise awareness in their respective countries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and finally, to send out a political signal to the international community and to the Israeli government demanding the deployment of a genuine international force of protection, the implementation of UN resolutions and the end of the occupation. The itinerary of the Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People (GIPP) activists, all of whom made the visit at their own expense, has been full: planting olive trees, lectures, visits with grassroot organisations, and demonstrations. They were prevented from entering Gaza, and some found themselves victims of Israeli soldiers aggression after which one woman was hospitalised overnight. An entirely peaceful demonstration in Ramallah in which thousands of Palestinians and around 400 GIPP delegates demonstrated, was typically met with Israeli violence when troops opened fire on the march with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber coated steel bullets. And now, after tearing down the Israeli checkpoint separating Ramallah from Birzeit the Israeli army has, in its typical petty, malicious and vengeful manner, erected a new checkpoint closer to Ramallah, meaning Palestinians have to walk an extra kilometre -- up hill.
The occupation is still here, the foreign delegates will leave in a few days, and the lives of Palestinians will no doubt continue to be difficult. So what has the visit demonstrated? It has given Palestinians a huge boost of morale -- proving to them that there are people out there, despite the demonisation of Palestinians in the international media, who care about their cause, are aware of the inherent justice of their struggle, and are concerned with what is currently happening to them. It has also wrecked Sharon's effort to isolate the Palestinians, to cast them in the "terrorist" mould and to dehumanise them in order to enable him to continue his war against the Palestinian civilian population. Moreover, their courage has been immeasurable, in standing face to face with a ruthless army that has no understanding of peaceful marches, nor cares. They have shown us, and the world, that justice will prevail through the power and sheer will of the people. Furthermore, not only did these people come, witness and learn, they will return to their homes, families, churches, political parties, social clubs and workplaces and tell others what they saw and experienced whilst they were here, and slowly break down the wall of silence that shrouds the Palestinian cause.
The delegates illustrated the power of non-violent, peaceful resistance to the continuing military occupation to the Palestinians, and have perhaps empowered them to use these very methods to abort Israeli efforts to subjugate and dehumanise them. Perhaps we will see these long-term effects over time.
As equally remarkable is the dynamism shown by Palestinian civil society. It is one of the recent illustrations that there is an alternative voice in Palestinian society. Last week 31 Palestinian intellectuals, human rights and democracy activists, all leading members of Palestinian civil society, published a petition demanding reform of the Palestinian Authority.
"The Palestinian public demands immediate internal reform which cannot be postponed or delayed, that will strengthen our struggle in the exceptional circumstances the Palestinians are living under. The reforms should be immediate," the statement read.
The petition also called on the Authority "to improve and fix official political institutions which have been weakened and paralysed and to also ensure an independent justice system" as well as calling for new elections to the parliament -- a move that needs to be encouraged, and is long overdue since elections have been postponed indefinitely since 1999.
Others have criticised the lack of respect for the law, and the lack of separation of power between the executive, legislature and judiciary, in addition to criticism of the concentration of power in the hands of few, and the lack of accountability of the executive branch of the Authority. This is the same civil society that has mobilised and united to bring the heroic foreign GIPP delegates here, and this mobilisation and outspokenness shows that there is a strong democratic political alternative in Palestine.
This group of people believes that a democratic alternative is the only way of preventing a dangerous polarisation between the fundamentalists and autocracy that the future Palestinian political society appears to be facing. It also confirms that Palestinians struggle, not for any state but for a free and democratic one. The overall significance of the GIPP delegates is that of power and steadfastness -- because it is only through sustained steadfastness and survival in the face of the military aggression of occupation, and in calling for internal political reforms, that the Palestinians' struggle can achieve freedom, justice, and democracy.
* The writer is president of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and director of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIF) in Ramallah. Last week, in the course of the peaceful solidarity demonstrations discussed here, he was arrested twice and badly beaten by the Israeli security forces.
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