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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Olives to bombs
In the wake of the October War in 1973, a group of young, educated Palestinians conceived of peace in terms of a single state in which both Arabs and Jews might coexist enjoying equal rights -- this was the slogan of Fatah, the largest Palestinian faction to emerge after 1967 -- but, these Palestinians argued, no such state was possible until the establishment of a separate Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank lands, occupied during the 1967 War, followed by a grace period during which both states lived peacefully together.
Only in the light of a Palestinian state could a peer relation be established through which both parties would willingly unify into a single entity. The greatest triumph of this line of thinking was the Palestinians' entry into Gaza, accompanied by Yasser Arafat, following the Oslo Accords, when young Palestinians placed olive branches and flowers in the guns of Israelis. There were great hopes for peace.
Sharon's success in thwarting such hopes is now complete. The young Palestinians who once carried olive branches are now willing to blow themselves up in a gesture of resistance. The siege of towns and villages, the confiscation of lands to build settlements, the killing, imprisonment and torture of civilians, the destruction of buildings and burning of fields all bear testimony to Sharon's brutality.
Sharon has succeeded in destroying all chances of peaceful coexistence and what Palestinians have witnessed will remain in their memory. Which means that what Sharon has not succeeded in doing, and never will, is to break the spirit of resistance.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is the permanent Palestinian representative at the Arab League
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