>From: Rewand Nakad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Occupation is the Atrocity >Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 06:04:03 -0400 (EDT) > >http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/547/op2.htm > >Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo) > >16-22 August 2001 [Issue No. 547] > >[What the Palestinians need now, writes Edward Said, is a >united leadership that takes positions and plans mass >actions designed not to return to Oslo but to press on with >resistance and liberation.] > >Occupation is the Atrocity > >By Edward Said <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >In the United States, where Israel has its main political >base and from which it has received over $92 billion in aid >since 1967, the terrible human cost of Thursday's Jerusalem >restaurant bombing and Monday's Haifa disaster settles >quickly into a familiar explanatory framework. Arafat hasn't >done enough to control his terrorists; suicidal Islamic >extremists are to be found everywhere, bringing harm on "us" >and our strongest allies, driven by sheer human hatred; >Israel must defend its security. A thoughtful individual >might add: these people have been fighting tiresomely for >thousands of years anyway; the violence must be stopped; >there has been too much suffering on both sides, although >the way Palestinians send their children into battle is >another sign of how much Israel has to put up with. And so, >exasperated but still restrained, Israel invades unfortified >and undefended Jenin with bulldozers and tanks, destroys the >Palestine Authority's police buildings plus several others, >and then sends out its propagandists to say that it has sent >a message to Arafat to curb his terrorists. In the meantime, >he and his coterie are begging for American protection, >doubtless forgetting that Israel is the one with US >protection and that all he will get, for the 6,000th time, >is an injunction to stop the violence. > >The fact is that in America, Israel has pretty much won the >propaganda war, and America is where it's about to put >several more million dollars into a public relations >campaign (using stars like Zubin Mehta, Yitzhak Pearlman, >and Amos Oz) to further improve its image. But consider what >Israel's unrelenting war against the undefended, basically >unarmed, stateless and poorly led Palestinian people has >already achieved. The disparity in power is so vast that it >makes you cry. Equipped with the latest in American-built >(and freely given) air power, helicopter gunships, >uncountable tanks and missiles, and a superb navy as well as >a state of the art intelligence service, Israel is a nuclear >power abusing a people without any armour or artillery, no >air force (its one pathetic airfield in Gaza is controlled >by Israel) or navy or army, none of the institutions of a >modern state. The appallingly unbroken history of Israel's >34-year-old military occupation (the second longest in >modern history) of illegally conquered Palestinian land has >been obliterated from public memory nearly everywhere, as >has been the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 and >the expulsion of 68 per cent of its native people, of whom >4.5 million remain refugees today. Behind the reams of >newspeak, the stark outlines of Israel's decades-long daily >pressure on a people whose main sin is that they happened to >be there, in Israel's way, is staggeringly perceptible in >its inhuman sadism. The fantastically cruel confinement of >1.3 million people jammed like so many human sardines into >the Gaza strip, plus the nearly two million Palestinian >residents of the West Bank, has no parallel in the annals of >apartheid or colonialism. F-16 jets were never used to bomb >South African homelands. They are used against Palestinians >towns and villages. All entrances and exits to the >territories are controlled by Israel (Gaza is completely >surrounded by a barbed wire fence), which also controls the >entire water supply. Divided into about 63 non-contiguous >cantons, completely encircled and besieged by Israeli >troops, punctuated by 140 settlements (many of them built >under Ehud Barak's premiership) with their own road network >banned to "non-Jews," as Arabs are referred to, along with >such unflattering epithets as thieves, snakes, cockroaches >and grasshoppers, Palestinians under occupation have now >been reduced to 60 per cent unemployment and a poverty rate >of 50 per cent (half the people of Gaza and the West Bank >live on less than $2 a day); they cannot travel from one >place to the next; they must endure long lines at Israeli >checkpoints that detain and humiliate the elderly, the sick, >the student, and the cleric for hours on end; 150,000 of >their olive and citrus trees have been punitively uprooted; >2,000 of their houses demolished; acres of their land either >destroyed or expropriated for military settlement purposes. > >Since the Al-Aqsa Intifada began late last September, 609 >Palestinians have been killed (four times more than Israeli >fatalities) and 15,000 wounded (a dozen times more than on >the other side). Regular Israeli army assassinations have >picked off alleged terrorists at will, most of the time >killing innocents like so many flies. Last week, 14 >Palestinians were murdered openly by Israeli forces using >helicopter gunships and missiles; they were thus "prevented" >from killing Israelis, although at least two children and >five innocents were also murdered, to say nothing of many >wounded civilians and several destroyed buildings -- part of >the somehow acceptable collateral damage. Nameless and >faceless, Israel's daily Palestinian victims barely rate a >mention on America's news programmes, even though -- for >reasons that I simply cannot understand -- Arafat is still >hoping that the Americans will rescue him and his crumbling >regime. > >Nor is this all. Israel's plan is not just to hold land and >fill it with dreadful, murderous armed settlers who, >defended by the army, wreak havoc on Palestinian orchards, >schoolchildren and homes; it is, as the American researcher >Sara Roy has named it, to de-develop Palestinian society, to >make life impossible so that the Palestinians will leave, or >give up somehow, or do something crazy like blow themselves >up. Since 1967, leaders have been jailed and deported by the >Israeli occupation regime, small businesses and farms made >unviable by confiscation and sheer destruction, students >prevented from studying, universities closed (in the >mid-'80s Palestinian universities on the West Bank were >closed for four years). No Palestinian farmer or business >can export to any Arab country directly; their products must >pass through Israel. Taxes are paid to Israel. Even after >the Oslo peace process began in 1993, the occupation was >simply re-packaged, only 18 per cent of the land given to >the corrupt Vichy-like Authority of Arafat, whose mandate >seems to have been only to police and tax his people for >Israel's sake. After eight fruitless immiserating years of >the Oslo negotiations masterminded by an American team of >former Israeli lobby staffers like Martin Indyk and Dennis >Ross, Israel was still in control, the occupation packaged >more efficiently, the phrase "peace process" given a >consecrated halo that allowed more abuses, more settlements, >more imprisonments, more Palestinian suffering to go on than >before. Including a "Judaised" East Jerusalem, with Orient >House occupied and its contents looted or carted off (there >are invaluable records, land deeds, maps, that in a >repetition of what it did when it stole PLO archives from >Beirut in 1982, Israel has simply stolen), Israel has >implanted no less than 400,000 settlers on Palestinian land. >To call them vigilantes and hoodlums is not an exaggeration. > >It is worth recalling that a couple of weeks after Ariel >Sharon's gratuitously arrogant visit to Jerusalem's Haram >Al-Sharif on 28 September, with 1,000 soldiers and guards >supplied by Prime Minister Barak, Israel was condemned for >this action by a unanimous Security Council resolution. >Then, as even the merest child could have predicted, the >anti-colonial rebellion broke out, with eight killed >Palestinians its first victims. Sharon was swept to power >essentially to "subdue" the Palestinians, teach them a >lesson, get rid of them. His record as an Arab-killer goes >back 30 years, before the Sabra and Shatila massacres that >his forces supervised in 1982, and for which he has now been >indicted in a Belgian court. Still, Arafat wants to >negotiate with him and come perhaps to a cozy arrangement >with him so as to safeguard the very Authority that Sharon >is systematically dismantling, destroying, razing to the >ground. > >But he isn't a fool either. With every Palestinian act of >resistance, his forces ratchet up the pressure a notch >higher, tightening the siege more, taking more land, making >a habit of more and deeper incursions into Palestinian towns >like Jenin and Ramallah, cutting off more supplies, openly >assassinating Palestinian leaders, making life more >intolerable, redefining the terms of his government's >actions, that it once made "generous concessions" while >"defending" itself, that it "prevents" terrorism, that it >"secures" areas, that it "re-establishes" control, and so >on. Meanwhile he and his minions attack and dehumanise >Arafat, even saying that he is the "arch-terrorist" >(although he literally can't move without Israeli >permission), and that "we" have no war with the Palestinian >people. What a boon for that people! With such "restraint," >why should a massive invasion, carefully bruited about to >terrorise the Palestinians even more sadistically, be >necessary? Israel knows that it can retake their buildings >at will (witness the wholesale theft of Jerusalem's Orient >House, plus nine other buildings, offices, libraries, >archives there and in Abu Dis), just as it has all but >eliminated the Palestinians as a people. > >This is the real story of Israel's pretended >"victimisation," constructed with such premeditated care and >evil intent for months now. Language has been sundered from >reality. Pity not the inept Arab governments who can and >will do nothing to stop Israel: pity the people who bear the >wounds in their flesh and the emaciated bodies of their >children, some of whom believe that martyrdom is the only >way out for them. And Israel, stuck in a futureless >campaign, flailing about mercilessly? As James Cousins, the >Irish poet and critic, said in 1925, the coloniser is in the >grip of "false and selfish pre- occupations that stand in >the way of its attention to the natural evolution of its own >national genius and pull[ed] from the path of open rectitude >into the twisted byways of dishonest thought, speech, and >action, in the artificial defense of a false position." All >colonisers have gone that way, learning or stopping at >nothing, until at last, as Israel turned tail from its 22 >year occupation of Lebanon, they exit the territory, leaving >behind an exhausted and crippled people. If this was >supposed to fulfil Jewish aspirations, why did it require so >many new victims from another people who had nothing to do >with Jewish exile and persecution in the first place? > >With Arafat and Company in command, there is no hope. What >is the man doing, grotesquely fetching up in the Vatican and >Lagos and other miscellaneous places, pleading without >dignity or even intelligence for imaginary observers, Arab >aid, international support, instead of staying with his >people, trying to aid them with medical supplies, >morale-boosting measures and real leadership? What we need >is a unified leadership of people who are on the ground, who >are actually doing the resisting, who are really with and of >their people, not the fat, cigar-chomping bureaucrats who >want their business deals preserved and their VIP passes >renewed, and who have lost all trace of decency or >credibility. A united leadership that takes positions and >plans mass actions designed not to return to Oslo (can you >believe the folly of that idea?) but to press on with >resistance and liberation, instead of confusing people with >talk of negotiations and the stupid Mitchell Plan. > >Arafat is finished: why don't we admit that he can neither >lead, nor plan, nor do anything that makes any difference >except to him and his Oslo cronies who have benefited >materially from their people's misery? All the polls show >that his presence blocks whatever forward movement might be >possible. We need a united leadership to make decisions, not >simply to grovel before the Pope and the moronic George W >Bush, even as the Israelis are killing his heroic people >with impunity. A leader must lead the resistance, reflect >the realities on the ground, respond to his people's needs, >plan, think, and expose himself to the same dangers and >difficulties that everyone experiences. The struggle for >liberation from Israeli occupation is where every >Palestinian worth anything now stands: Oslo cannot be >restored or re-packaged as Arafat and Company might desire. >It's over for them and the sooner they pack and get out, the >better for everyone. > >Copyright (c) 2001 Al-Ahram Weekly. All Rights Reserved. > > >[IMPORTANT NOTE: The views and opinions expressed on this >list are solely those of the authors and/or publications, >and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official >political positions of the Black Radical Congress (BRC). >Official BRC statements, position papers, press releases, >action alerts, and announcements are distributed exclusively >via the BRC-PRESS list. As a subscriber to this list, you >have been added to the BRC-PRESS list automatically.] > >[Articles on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and posted on other >mailing lists, as long as the wording/attribution is not altered >in any way. In particular, if there is a reference to a web site >where an article was originally located, do *not* remove that. > >Unless stated otherwise, do *not* publish or post the entire >text of any articles on web sites or in print, without getting >*explicit* permission from the article author or copyright holder. >Check the fair use provisions of the copyright law in your country >for details on what you can and can't do. > >As a courtesy, we'd appreciate it if you let folks know how to >subscribe to BRC-NEWS, by leaving in the first seven lines of the >signature below.] > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News Articles/Reports >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=unsubscribe%20brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=subscribe%20brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=subscribe%20brc-news-digest> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Archive: <http://groups.yahoo.com/messages/brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Archive: <http://www.escribe.com/politics/brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ><www.blackradicalcongress.org> | BRC | <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >--------------------------------------------------------------------------
