2002 – And what has changed? – only the names  

     While our Western media portrays the struggle in the occupied territories of Palestine in the terms of a battle between forces led by Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat, the real dynamic is that of the modern, well-equipped nuclear power Israel clamping a state of siege on a dispossessed people. The origin of this conflict has been recognized by many Israelis to be the repressive Israel occupation. For example, Israeli scholar and lecturer at Hebrew University Nurit Pelet-Elhanan, who lost her 13 year old daughter in a Palestinian suicide bombing, is an outspoken opponent of the occupation. She states that it is the chain of violence emanating from that occupation which caused the death of her daughter and has been awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament for her peace advocacy in the occupied territories. Concurrently, there have been Palestinian voices expressing the need for non-violent resistance to the occupation, such as Edward Said, Mubarak Awad and the current Palestinian Authority representative to Jerusalem Sari Nusseibeh. The tanks, bulldozers and F-16’s provided by the United States to Israel, and the suicide bombers of the desperate Palestinians can only lead to more violence, never to solution or “victory“. 

     Sharon and Arafat will only lead us to more conflict. As a superpower nation which holds the keys to peace, let us identify a path to peace through this strength, instead of pursuing a path of armaments and destruction. The intifada which began with the provocative visit by Ariel Sharon to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the fall of 2000 has become known as the Al-Aqsa intifada: it rages as a cry from a dispossessed people. There are not two nations fighting - there is Israel, a nuclear power and one of the strongest nations on Earth, armed with F-16’s, artillery, Apache and Cobra helicopters - all supplied by the United States, and there is a diaspora of Palestinians. The dream of a Palestinian State is being crushed by the security “needs” of Israel, and by a system of law which has relegated the Palestinian to a second class citizen in his/her own land. The social situation for the Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza can only be described as a system of apartheid. Palestinians cannot own land, buy land, or have security from demolition or destruction in their homes. They are an occupied people without a government. They are not allowed to return to lands from which they have been evicted, and they are being uprooted from lands on which they live. They are not allowed to freely travel in their own land, and many 10 or 20 minute trips take hours, or are impossible, as the Israeli checkpoints force endless delays. This is called “occupation” and has been ruled illegal by numerous United Nations resolutions. This decades-long occupation has bred a desperation which finds its expression in the suicide bombings and fundamentalist Islamism which is the mirror image of the extremist, institutionalized terror of the Israeli occupation. 

     I believe that it is the United States and Israel, with their overwhelming advantage of wealth and power, who can make the first steps toward resolving this conflict. These powerful nations can ease the tension by easing the pressure on the lives of the Palestinian people, and at the same time, increase our own security. For certainly, the policy of the last years, culminating in the brutal Sharon administration, has not increased the security of either Israel or the United States. Each act of institutionalized violence (terror) by the United States-armed Israel, gives justification to the next response. I say let the powerful ease the pressure on the weak, and break the cycle, instead of pursuing the next step in the ladder of brutality. The first step is to freeze all Israeli settlement activity, including the “natural growth” of existing settlements. The Palestinians can see no hope if there exists a continual encroachment of settlements into territories where they live. It is noteworthy that there has been a 60% increase in settlements since the initiation of the much-heralded Oslo Accords. This is one of the key elements of the Mitchell Plan, and has been absolutely rejected by Israel. 

     Next, end the sale of arms to the Middle East. This region is a tinder box. The arms trade only adds fuel to a situation which could explode even more severely. This would be a big step for the United States and is not a realistic expectation since the Bush administration is currently riding a wave of military and war support. However, guns made and sold will be used, and often against United States forces. Again and again, today’s military client and purchaser is tomorrow’s enemy, as with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin-Laden. A long-term policy change on the arms trade is a profound but necessary precondition for a lasting peace in this region. End the extrajudicial execution policy of Israel. It is a policy of terror which has ended the lives of 77 Palestinian leaders and has been universally condemned. Also, it has been used by Sharon to continue the conflict, as with the November 23, 2001 Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Mahmud Abu Hunud, which provoked a round of reprisal suicide bombings and dashed any possible effectiveness of United States envoy Anthony Zinni. Establish a system of internationally recognized human rights for the Palestinians living today in the West Bank and Gaza, with United Nations supervision. 

     The conditions of the occupation are universally condemned and by any objective standard are not acceptable in light of international norms. Third party supervision and policing would create a space for negotiation and security. This measure is unacceptable to Israel at this time, but the United States would be wise to insist on this mechanism as a means to reduce the possibility of heightened conflict. Finally, there are many groups and individuals, Israeli, Palestinian, and international, who are calling for peaceful resolution to this conflict. They should be given diplomatic and financial support by the United States and the United Nations. The region has been in violent conflict for decades. Now, I believe there needs to be an institutionalized call on the people of Israel and the occupied territories of the Palestinians to turn away from violence as a tool for solving their human problems. The fate of two peoples, and the security of the world, hangs in the balance. -Joe DeRaymond