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/ |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
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/_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ LOOKING AHEAD BY LOOKING BACK
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A WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY...LIKELY
JUST AND LASTING PEACE...UNLIKELY
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/17:
Yasser has already capitulated in public one more time. Just a few weeks ago
he was shouting and screaming "Never, Never...the Palestinian State must absolutely
be declared September 13th and nothing can change this." But a few public threats
from Clinton and Barak, and a great deal of out of sight squeezing and bribing,
and Arafat has already changed his tune again. Camp David was only recessed
by Clinton. And the Israelis are desperate to get Arafat's signature on their
document of "final peace"...for they intend to insist for decades to come that
what Arafat signs does indeed "end the conflict" and they know very well that
what he is endorsing is far beyond their past wildest Zionist dreams.
For those who think the Clinton/Barak extravaganza now likely to be celebrated
on the White House lawn during September with Arafat, a few Arab big-wigs, and
the Washington Ambassadorial corps as props...for those who think this is "the
final peace", well they don't know very much about the history of the Middle
East. This is but one more "peace deal" in a lengthy line of Western concoctions
stretching back to the "Paris Peace Conference" of 1918, now known as "the Peace
to end all Peace."
What will likely be taking place soon in Washington -- just in time for help
propel Al, Joe, and Hillary back to town in higher offices as well as to allow
outgoing Clinton to claim a historical legacy other than that of impeached, disbared,
philanderer -- is one more tortuously imposed arrangement that the Arabs will
be expected to swallow, however bitter the taste.
Indeed, the deal itself is so rancid and deceptive it could well lead to a case
of political poisoning, making those who eat from it sicker and weaker in the
years ahead. Or maybe a better analogy is steroids that athletes take knowing
they will get temporary help to win the immediate event but at the cost of threatening
their basic health just a few years down the road.
The Palestinians will wake up in the years ahead, after all the hoopla of extravaganza
moment, only to find that they cannot now even visit 80% of what was their country
not that long ago -- they are now "separated" from it. They will find themselves
imprisoned in a deformed and pockmarked Statelet administered by a miserably
corrupt and repressive "Authority", everywhere surrounded by the Israeli army
at new "border crossings", internally infiltrated by the CIA, cut up into more
pieces than ever before, and divided from each other as never before. They will
find that all the nice words put on paper and heralded so loudly in front of
the world's cameras will ring more and more hollow as the realities of their
lives and circumstances unfold. And they will find that the tens of billions
given to Arafat and neighborhood client regimes who helped bring all this about
will be squandered and stolen and turned against them one more time.
The following article was first published by MER three years ago this month,
the author, a highly educated, secular, and distinguished Palestinian intellectual
and activist:
WHY WE HAVE ALL BECOME SUICIDE BOMBERS
Understanding Palestinian Terror
by Dr. Eyad Sarraj*
"All in the name of peace we were humiliated, even
arrested and tortured by Palestinian forces to protect
the peace. Our Authority was turning against us...
Our officials were driving in big cars and building
big villas. They have VIP cards and cross the check
posts like human beings while we are left to rot."
A few weeks ago I said that the struggle of Palestinians today is how not to
become a bomb and that the amazing thing is not the occurrence of the suicide
bombing, rather the rarity of them.
The BBC interviewer appeared to understand. I was shocked because it is our
understanding that the world out there will never understand. And who on earth
in their right mind would understand terror and the killing of innocent people?
Why do Palestinians kill themselves and Israelis in such an horrific way at the
bus stop or in a crowded market? Do you really care to know? Well, let me try
and explain.
I believe it is an act of absolute despair and a very serious stage of the seemingly
perpetual conflict. Since the uprooting of the Palestinians in 1948 triggered
by Irgun Jewish terror under the leadership of Yitzak Shamir and Menachem Begin,
we have tried every thing. We have tried Nasser and Arab Nationalism, only to
be invaded in 1956 in our second homes in the refugee camps. It was only because
of the Russian threat to bomb London and Paris, and the resolve of American president
Eisenhower that ended the Israeli occupation. We have tried the United Nations
and its Security Council, which by the way have made excellent resolutions on
our behalf. For example Resolution 194 calling on Israel to allow us to return
to our homeland, but to no avail.
So we kept wandering around, between airports and refugee camps, waiting for
a hero or an earthquake. All we wanted was to go home. But our story was getting
worse and we grew bitter as we heard that a Jew from Poland would be declared
a citizen of our country - a country now called Israel.
We were told that officially we were stateless with undefined nationality. So
we went toniversities. We believed then that Jews were so clever because they
were educated. We were told that Jews controlled the world with their education.
They are doctors, lawyers and scientists, never beggars or boxers. In twenty
years many of us became university graduates and we were in every university.
We had some pride. Some of our educated people formed the resistance movement.
They believed that the Arab countries would never fight Israel, and that we had
to force them to fight. Fatah with Yasser Arafat was born. They forced the Arabs
to fight by inviting Israel to attack Egypt in 1967.
In the course of six days the Arabs were defeated again but worse. This time
we lost Gaza and the West Bank, Egypt lost Sinai, and Syria lost the Golan. In
a sudden stroke our fate was sealed and we had to live under Israeli military
occupation for thirty years.
Do you know what does it mean to live under Israeli military occupation? Do you
really care to know? Let me tell you a few things.
* You are given an identity number and a permit to reside. If you leave the country
for more that three years in succession, you lose that right to residence.
* When you leave the country on a trip, you are given a laissez passez, a travelling
document, valid for one year and it tells you in its recording of your particulars
that you are of undefined nationality.
* Israeli occupation means that you are called twice a year by the intelligence
for routine interrogation and persuasion to work as an informer on your brothers
and sisters. No one is spared. If you are to be a member of a political organisation
you will be sentenced for ten years. For a military action you will be sentenced
to life.
* To survive under the Israeli occupation you are given the chance to work in
the jobs that Israelis do not like, sweeping the streets, building houses, collecting
fruit or harvesting. You will have to leave your home in the refugee camp in
Gaza at 3 am, go through the road blocks and check posts, spend your day under
the sun and surveillance returning home in the evening to collapse in bed for
a few hours before the following day.
We simply became the slaves of our enemy. We are building their homes on our
villages, and we clean their streets. Do you know what does it do to you when
you have to be the slave of your enemy in order to survive. No you will never
know how painful it is unless your country is occupied by another force. Only
then will you learn how to watch in silence pretending not to see the torture
of your friends and the humiliation of your father. Do you know what it means
for a child to see his father spat at and beaten before his eyes by an Israeli
soldier? Nobody knows what happened to our children. We don't know ourselves
except we observe that they lose respect for their fathers. So they, our children,
the children of the stone as they became known, tried the Intifada - the Uprising.
Seven long years our children were throwing stones and being killed daily. Nearly
all our young men were arrested, the majority were tortured. All had to confess.
The result was every one suspected that all people were spies. So, we were exhausted,
tormented and brutalised. What else could we do to return to our home? We had
almost forgotten that and all what we wanted was to be left alone. What else
could we try?
Oh yes, peace.
When the news came that Arafat had signed a peace treaty in Washington we were
jubilant. At last we thought we were to get rid of that miserable life of military
occupation, at last. So we had hope. We could not believe our eyes when there
were no more curfews and we could actually spend our evening on the beach or
wander in streets which were now ours after eight o'clock at night. We were ecstatic.
We even had elections and we had a parliament, so we were told.
Then came Binyamin Netanyahu. He refused to meet Arafat and was clearly forced
to shake hands in obvious disgust. He refused to free our prisoners, to have
a safe passage for us to move between the West Bank and Gaza. He even surrounded
our towns and villages with his tanks and arrested our policemen. Then he went
after our holy places and opened a tunnel under our holiest Mosque. Tens of our
children and also Israeli soldiers were killed because of that tunnel, but he
went on insulting us and driving out our sanity.
Arafat called for patience and we were patient, then Netanyahu started to build
settlements in Jerusalem and drive the remaining Palestinians out. Settlers in
Hebron spat on our prophet and called him a pig. All in the name of peace we
were humiliated, even arrested and tortured by Palestinian forces to protect
the peace. Our Authority was turning against us to please Netanyahu. Our officials
were driving in big cars and building big villas. They have VIP cards and cross
the check posts like human beings while we are left to rot.
I've told you a few things. Now do you understand why we have turned into suicide
killers?
*Dr Eyad Sarraj - Palestinian Psychiatrist, Chairman of the Commission of
Citizens Rights and Physician for Human Rights Awardee. Dr. Sarraj was
himself arrrested three times last year by Arafat forces, tortured and
threatened with death. Last year Dr. Sarraj was featured on MER-TV
speaking at Georgetown University.
MiD-EasT RealitieS - www.MiddleEast.Org
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