Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 March 2002 Issue No.577
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Enough is enough

Last Friday 50 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, were killed by the Israeli army in refugee camps in Jenin and Balata in the West Bank. Since Friday, between seven and ten Palestinians daily have been killed by the Israeli army in massive assaults that make use of US-made aircraft and helicopters. In the meantime, hundreds of men aged between 13 and 50 have been arrested, blindfolded and led to detention camps. Some estimate that in a single week at least 2,500 Palestinians have been detained, without charge, and without recourse to lawyers.

Shortly after the massacres in Jenin and Balata, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that he was willing to lift, at least partially, the travel ban imposed on President Yasser Arafat, who for four months has been confined to Ramallah. The move led many observers to speculate that Sharon had been forced to bow to US and international pressure to facilitate the resumption of negotiations.

But any hopes that Sharon was being forced to confront the realities he has long brushed under the carpet, the better to pursue policies aimed at battering the Palestinians into surrender, were quickly dashed. On Tuesday, just days before the arrival in the region of both the US vice-president and Washington's special envoy Anthony Zinni, Sharon ordered the Israeli army to attack the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, killing 19 Palestinians. And once again the Israeli army adhered to its now time-honoured policy of targeting both doctors and ambulances, preventing them from reaching the injured who were left to bleed to death in the camp's narrow alleyways.

So intent is Sharon on displaying his country's overwhelming military superiority -- secured courtesy of America -- whatever the cost in innocent Palestinian lives, that there is no room for meaningful negotiations. Whether or not Arafat is confined to Ramallah becomes merely academic.

How, one wonders, does Washington expect Palestinians and Arabs to react after such a cynical show of force? Does Mr Cheney, in the region to drum up support for America's expansion of its "war on terror," really suppose that his administration's support of Sharon's policies of liquidation, terror and murder of civilians has gone unnoticed?

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