25 April - 1 May 2002
Issue No.583
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 25 April - 1 May 2002 Issue No.583 |
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Enemy number one
Jenin, a refugee camp covering no more than one square kilometre and with no more than 15,000 inhabitants, has been Israel's most effective enemy since the start of the current Israeli attacks on Palestinian towns, villages and the Palestinian Authority on 29 March.
The refugee camp, in the collective Israeli conscious and unconscious, has come to embody the issue of Palestinian refugees. There are five million of them, the highest concentrations being immediately around Israel, and their presence recalls the original crime that was the basis on which the state of Israel was founded. It was this crime that gave rise to camps in the first place; and in eliminating the camps the Israelis are trying to purge their consciences of that crime. Such purging is made necessary by the fact that Israelis have failed to achieve any inner reconciliation, possessing no just or even half just solution to the problem of refugees. They remain afraid of the ethical and legal ramifications of, among other things, settlement activity; they are afraid of the ramifications of maintaining the ethnic purity of the Jewish state, and such fears are highlighted by the existence of refugees.
Credible, unbiased international organisations should undertake an opinion poll among refugees to find out whether they would rather return or be compensated, or both. The result of such a poll would be shocking and unsettling to Israel, reminding Israelis of the impossibility of their position. If it fails to act as such a necessary reminder, then the Intifada, which emanates from the heart of the camps more than any other place, functions similarly.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is deputy head of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
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