Interim is forever
A new Middle East peace initiative is getting underway. But, unless we are careful we can repeat the mistakes of Oslo, warns Mustafa Barghouti*
The sacrifices the Palestinians made during two intifadas were painful, but without them the Palestinian struggle would not have emerged from the dark and long tunnel it had been pushed into.
Sharon now recognises the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own. The credit for such a change of heart should go to Palestinian struggle, to the legendary steadfastness of millions of our people, in heroic Jenin as in valiant Rafah. Let's recall the general course of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Thirty years ago, Golda Meir bragged that no such a thing existed as the Palestinian people. Ten years ago, Sharon, this unreformed war criminal, claimed that the Palestinian state was in Jordan, and explored ways to deport the Palestinians or "transfer" them from their homeland.
Today, the Palestinian people have made the world, not just Israel, recognise their existence. No self-respecting country, official, or intellectual, can now deny the right of the Palestinians for national independence and a state of their own.
The Palestinian people have won the battle of survival and steadfastness by refusing to flee in 1967 -- having learned the lesson of 1948. The Palestinians have earned the right to an independent state thanks to two intifadas during which over 100,000 of them were killed or wounded.
Israel has lost the battle over the Palestinians' right for independence. So, it is now initiating a final battle, one in which it is determined to empty independence from all meaning and hand the Palestinians a collection of cantons or ghettos, dismembered and shorn of sovereignty, on a mere 42 per cent of the area of the West Bank and Gaza.
This ploy has been tried before, in Oslo, and successfully. The Oslo accords were thrown out of track. They ended in a charade of partial and transitive agreements. This gave Israel time and the type of truce it always wanted, a one-sided truce, a truce during which the Palestinians desist from struggle while Israel continues to impose the status quo and build more settlements. Over 100 new settlements have been built, and the previous ones have been doubled in size. This development triggered the ongoing intifada, in which 2,500 gave their lives, 40,000 were wounded, and unprecedented destruction of property and infrastructure took place -- all this just to save the Palestinian cause from the dark tunnel in which it had entered.
Now, and with characteristic arrogance, Sharon wants to push us back into that same dark tunnel. He is talking of the "interim state" as if it were a lasting solution. He is trying to stifle the last breath of life of a lame and revised roadmap.
Israel is going through a deep crisis, perhaps the worst since its creation. It is a multi-faceted crisis that is felt in politics as well as economy, demography as well as security.
The number of unemployed has reached 281,000. About 40 per cent of businesses have folded. National income has dropped to a record level. Israel is facing a steady erosion of international credibility, just as the Palestinians witness growing support for their cause. Only one thing can save Israel from its current debacle: Palestinian capitulation.
Once bitten, twice shy, as the popular saying goes. The Palestinians were bitten once by Oslo and should not repeat their mistake. It is true we are living a nightmare. The occupied territories have turned into a high security prison, complete with collective punishment, apartheid barriers, searches and demolitions. But the Israelis are in no better shape.
We have a chance to translate our sacrifices, pain, and suffering into concrete political results. And, we must not waste this chance by waiting for Sharon and his government to throw crumbs our way.
Israel needs to get out of its intensifying crisis. The United States, as well as Europe, are seriously examining ways to stabilise the volatile Middle East, where things seem to move only from bad to worse. The Palestinian people need peace, a peace that is true and just. Such a peace cannot be achieved through a parody of interim arrangements, but through genuine respect for Palestinian national rights.
The Palestinian people need a state, not a ghetto or disconnected cantons. They need a state to give them dignity and freedom, democracy and civil rights. They need a state that is free from all forms of internal and external repression, exploitation, and abuse of power.
The Palestinians must not give up their quest for true national independence. It would be a shame to give up such a quest when independence is at hand. The Palestinians have to insist on an independent state with full sovereignty and control over its borders, crossing points, water, and wealth. This should happen without going through an interim phase. Interim, in Israel's terms, is forever. Interim arrangements will only serve to alleviate some pressure, but eventually the crisis will go back to square one -- this is what happened in Oslo.
The Palestinians have to have a state in the full sense of the word, on all the land occupied in 1967, and with Jerusalem as its capital. In other words, all the issues of the final settlement must be tabled at once: settlements, borders, rights of the refugees, and Jerusalem.
Remember, all these are matters that should have been resolved by 1999.
* The writer is secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, president of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and director of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HIDP) in Ramallah.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 5 -11 June 2003 (Issue No. 641)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/641/op9.htm