18 - 24 April 2002
Issue No.582
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 18 - 24 April 2002 Issue No.582 |
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Giving in to blackmail
American and Israeli pressure on Arafat has resulted in a Palestinian Authority statement condemning suicide attacks on civilians in Israel. This is a major setback for the Palestinian Authority, a humiliating compromise in return for which Arafat, who remains besieged in Ramallah, gets nothing but a visit from Colin Powell.
To accept any form of negotiations -- whether with Powell or Anthony Zinni, neither of whom have a practicable plan for a resolution -- is a serious mistake. There can be no resolution under siege. Before negotiations start, Israeli aggression must stop, and the Israeli forces must withdraw from Palestinian land. To start negotiations while Arafat is under house arrest, while Israel controls Palestinian towns and hundreds fall dead and injured in Jenin, Nablus and Bethlehem means that the Palestinians are giving in, bowing before Israeli might.
Rather than peace talks and resolutions, the appropriate Palestinian response is legitimate armed struggle against the forces of occupation. True solidarity through acts and deeds, rather than empty rhetoric, is what is needed. The Palestinians have nothing to lose by refusing to negotiate with Sharon via Powell and Zinni; they have much, if not everything, to lose by giving in to military siege and political blackmail.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is associate editor-in-chief of Al-Wafd.
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