Issue No. 604
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19 - 25 September 2002 Issue No. 604 Region |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Arresting atonement
Yom Kippur marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday season and the worsening of conditions for the Palestinians, reports Khaled Amayreh from Jerusalem
Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar, has been marred by violence. However, since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising nearly two years ago, the observance of Yom Kippur and other Jewish holidays has meant even harsher conditions for the Palestinians.
This week, the Israeli army enforced a curfew on all Palestinian towns and villages. Israel claims the lock down is aimed at preventing Palestinian guerrilla attacks on Israeli targets, especially during the holiday season. Last week, the Israeli army imposed a similar curfew which lasted for 72 hours and brought all aspects of life to a standstill.
This week's curfew is having a particularly devastating effect on the education of Palestinian children. Over the past two years over 300 school-age Palestinian children have lost their lives. This curfew is keeping the children at home and away from schools.
Voicing their frustration, hundreds of school children took to the streets in Nablus this week demanding an end to the suffocating curfew and the collective house arrest.
Nablus, the largest town in the West Bank and one of the most hard-hit by Israeli actions has been under a constant curfew since 21 January. Human rights activists say that the 160,000 inhabitants are allowed to leave their homes only a few hours every week, otherwise everyone is forced to remain inside his home.
The children, who were joined by a number of North American and European peace activists, carried placards reading "end the occupation now", "we are human beings, too" and "stop Israeli terror against the children."
"I don't know why they are not allowing us to go to school, I want to be a scientist when I grow up, those soldiers are killing my dream," said Lama Bustami, a second grader. The presence of foreigners seems to have provided security for the children. Israeli troops, who patrol the streets of the city around-the- clock, didn't disperse the peaceful demonstration.
Palestinians are desperately trying to find alternative ways to keep the educational process alive through so-called "popular education". Volunteer teachers are holding classes in mosques and other large buildings, usually away from the haunting eyes of Israeli occupation troops.
However, the popular education efforts seem to be more symbolic than an effective alternative. Moreover, some leaders are worried that Palestinian acceptance, non- resistance, to the curfew will pro-long the Israel's support for curfews. That is why the people of Nablus are breaking the curfew by flooding the streets with people and school children.
"Let the army kill 10, 20, a 100, at least we will send a message to the world that this cannot continue, we want to be free," said one of the leaders of the local popular committees. For its part, the Palestinian Authority has proved to be completely powerless in helping the 160,000 inhabitants of Nablus. Sa'eb Erekat appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to end the nightmare.
However, desperate appeals by Erekat and other PA officials seem to have made little impact, neither in publicity nor political terms; as the world, including the Arab world, is preoccupied with the Iraqi crisis.
However, many Palestinians are expecting the worst should the Iraqi crisis evolve into a full-fledged war. Erekat warned that in case of an American attack on Iraq, Israel might embark on three pronged strategy including the liquidation of the Palestinian Authority and the killing of Arafat, annexation of the bulk of the West Bank and a full-fledged military reoccupation of the remaining Palestinian territories.
Many Palestinians are expecting an even a worse scenario, such as the Israeli army expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the territories into the neighbouring countries of Jordan and Egypt.
To the Palestinians such an expulsion, which many Israelis refer to euphemistically as "transfer", doesn't seem to be a far-fetched possibility. "Transfer" is attracting grass-root support throughout Israeli society which is drifting menacingly toward right-wing religious and political views.
Last month an Israeli organisation called Gamla, founded by settlers and former military officers, published detailed plans for the "complete elimination of the Arab demographic threat to Israel". The group plans to forcibly expel Palestinians, including Palestinians in the occupied territories and Arab Israelis, from the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea within three to five years.
Gamla published these "recommendations" on its Web site (www.gamla.org.il/english) in a nine thousand word manifesto titled "the Logistics of transfer". The authors believe that this is "the only possible solution" to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and it is "substantiated by the Torah".
Under the proposal, Israel would launch an information campaign and tighten economic restrictions so as to force Palestinians to "voluntarily" leave. The document recommends that Israel convince the international community to establish a Palestinian state far away from Israel and the occupied territories, possibly in Iraq or Saudi Arabia. The group suggests that forced expulsions begin, if there has been no progress on the Palestine issue in three to five years.
It is important to note that many in the Israeli political and military establishment share these views. So the question is not if the Israeli government embraces "transfer" as an ideology, but how it will go about implementing this strategy.
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