9 - 15 May 2002
Issue No.585
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 May 2002 Issue No.585 |
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Historical shifts
Despite the brutality which, daily, the Palestinians must face, in one very real sense they have outmanouevred Israel: the fear that has spread among the Israeli public outweighs Palestinian fears.
Israeli forces may well resume their assault on civilians, trying to arrest anyone (which is everyone) sympathetic to the resistance movement. But they can never eradicate a resistance that belongs not to a particular faction but is a movement that encompasses Palestinian society in its entirety.
Israelis are in a hopeless position. History is on the side of the Palestinians: Arabs inside Israel count for around 20 per cent of the population , a figure that, by 2050 will reach 50 per cent. Israel remains a colonial power, an anachronism opposed, in essence, to historical progress.
It is at times useful to think beyond daily developments, beyond the ups and downs of events and focus instead on the longer- term, historical perspective, which is, after all, the one that will ultimately prevail. Yasser Arafat's immediate prospects, the number of towns Israel decimates and reoccupies in a week, these are mere details that can have no real bearing on the inexorable shifting of history which can lead only to victory for the Palestinians.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
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