Burning the Oslo candle at both ends Dear friends,
These days we are seeing more and more of the following types of articles in the Israeli press, in English and Hebrew. It may be a small indication that the tide is starting to change in Israel regarding the occupation and violations of International Law being carried out every hour by Israel. Let's hope so. Rgds, Sam ------------------------------------------------ Sunday, June 16, 2002 Burning the Oslo candle at both ends By Gideon Levy Ha'aretz (A leading daily newspaper in Israel) Like the living dead, the Oslo Accords hover overhead: When it's good for Israel, we rush to embrace them; when it's not, we ride roughshod over them. This is an intolerable situation. Perhaps it really is time to declare Oslo dead, as Minister Tsachi Hanegbi repeats ad nauseum on the TV promo for "Politika." But there is a price to pay, for which Israel doesn't seem ready for. Last week, the High Court of Justice heard the petition of a four-and-a half-year old boy from Jericho, Shamas a-Din Tabiyah, diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. The State of Israel has refused to finance oncological treatment for the boy, although there is no children's oncology ward in the territories. What are the parents supposed to do? Let him die? By turning its back on him, that is the fate that Israel has prepared for him. Israel claims that according to the interim agreements, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for "providing medical services to minors and adolescents living in PA-controlled territory." All of a sudden, Israel has remembered the interim agreements. But when the High Court ordered the Physicians for Human Rights association, which submitted the appeal in the child's name, to produce a promise of payment from the PA, representatives of the association discovered that there was no one to talk to: Ramallah was under curfew and no one answered at the Palestinian Ministry of Health. In a nutshell, reality was exposed in all its absurdity. Israel places responsibility for the health of citizens on a ministry that Israel itself has closed or prevented from carrying out its duties. A health ministry cannot be run under prison conditions, and the same goes for other government ministries, some of whose buildings have been destroyed by Israel. After a few days, Shamas' problem was resolved. But that is slight consolation: It took an appeal to the High Court to save the life of a Palestinian child because the state hides behind signed agreements that it ignores itself every day, all for the sake of shirking responsibility for the fate of a sick boy. Think how many ailing Palestinian children never made it to the High Court. If the Oslo Accords are valid, as the attorney representing the state claimed in court, Israel must immediately halt its daily incursions into Area A, perhaps the most flagrant violation of these accords. It must lift the siege and allow the Palestinian Authority to run at least the civilian side of life in the territories. It seems doubtful that the current government will agree. The implication is that Israel perceives the Oslo Accords as null and void. If so, Israel must renegotiate, without delay, its legal and moral responsibility for three million people who are again living under what is actually full occupation. It must provide these people with education, social services, sanitation and health care, as required by international law. Israel cannot continue to burn the candle at both ends. In Operation Defensive Shield, Israel not only destroyed the security services of the Palestinian Authority, but also a large part of its civilian infrastructure. As a result, the population is now facing a situation it has never experienced before: There is no governing body that deals with daily affairs. The civil administration of old is gone, and the Palestinian Authority has basically been destroyed. Who is in charge of sanitation? Who supplies water? Who runs the schools and the welfare system? Israel says it's the PA's responsibility, but in practice, it does not allow the Authority to do its work. It is impossible to collect the garbage and deliver water because of the blockades. How, for example, can water reach the Furik family, whose house is not connected to the water supply, if the roads are closed? How can teachers get to Beit Dajan, or students to Bir Zeit? And this is without even mentioning the empty coffers of the Palestinian Authority, the tax money that Israel refuses to hand over, the closure of Israeli markets to Palestinian produce, the restrictions on the transport of farm products and industrial goods within the territories and the high unemployment rates - all resulting from the Israeli siege. Amid all this chaos, all this desolation and destruction, one needs quite a bit of cynicism, insensitivity and moral obtuseness to claim, as Israel has, that the Palestinian Authority is responsible for the medical care of its citizens, among them a little boy with cancer. Ha'aretz ------------------------------------------ Although I believe ALL settlements are illegal this is revealing: Sunday, June 16, 2002 How the settlers are defeating the IDF By Ze'ev Schiff Ha'aretz It's not the Palestinians and their terrorist organizations who are defeating the Israel Defense Forces - the IDF is able to cope with them pretty well. It's the settlers who are triumphing over the army in a constant war of attrition, using stratagems and tricks, slandering the IDF on the one hand, flattering it on the other. In the end, the settlers will discover they have defeated themselves in the eyes of the Israeli public. The danger, however, is that this defeat will spread into the Israeli society. This is the conclusion to be drawn from the story of the illegal outposts, which have once again hit the headlines following the infiltration of Palestinians into the mobile-home neighborhood of the West Bank settlement of Karmei Tzur - a "neighborhood" that is, in reality, an illegal outpost - where Eyal and Yael Shorek and First Sergeant Shalom Mordechai were murdered. The incident again sparked the question of what to do about the illegal outposts. A meeting on the subject that had been scheduled to be held at Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer's office this week was postponed due to the prime minister's visit to the United States. Let's say, though, that when the meeting is held, the decision will be - as Ben-Eliezer decided in July 2001 - to remove 15 illegal outposts. At the time of that decision, there were 66 illegal outposts of various types in Judea and Samaria. However, even though the decision was almost fully implemented, now there are 61 outposts that are illegal in one degree or another. How did that come about? Ask the settlers. Some of the outposts were dismantled, but others sprang up in their place. The political conclusion is that no one is willing to face up to the settlers, and that they and their actions are what decide things. Even if some of the outposts are removed now, the settlers will probably conclude that those not taken down thereby ostensibly become legal. The IDF is effectively lending a hand to this deception. Under the law, the Home Front Command may not provide the various "security components" to any settlement that is not legal. However, in this case the IDF is breaking its own law and collaborating in an illegal action. The IDF sends soldiers to illegal settlements, including new recruits who are insufficiently trained. Some of the occupants of the illegal settlements who are serving are career soldiers. Incidentally, not all of the outposts are isolated - in some cases they are very close to a settlement or a cluster of settlements. On the other hand, the majority of isolated outposts are legal. For example, when the neighborhood of mobile homes was established at Karmei Tzur, following the murder of a resident of the settlement, Dr. Shmuel Gillis, in February 2001, it was suggested that the trailer homes be moved inside the settlement, but the occupants refused. The upcoming discussion on the illegal settlements will shed light on the question of where Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stands regarding the possibility of negotiations with the Palestinians and what he means when he talks about territorial continuity of the Palestinian entity. The results of the discussion will also clarify the position of Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ben-Eliezer. Are the outposts only a security question for him, or do they constitute a matter of principle, as the settlers maintain when they declare that the purpose of the outposts is to seize more territory? By taking this stance, the settlers will discover they are reinforcing the phenomenon of the "refuseniks" - soldiers who refuse to do military service across the 1967 Green Line. To date, the IDF has overcome this problem with surprising ease. One reason for this is that the debate has centered around Palestinian violence and not around the settlements. The illegal settlements will divert the debate toward the settlements, especially if reserve soldiers are killed while serving there. If we add to this the decision by the expanded Yesha Council - which represents the settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip - against the building of a security fence more or less along the Green Line, many Israelis will translate this to mean that it makes no difference to the settlers whether security is improved in Hadera, Netanya, Kfar Sava and other localities in the "seam line" area. At the same time, the settlers want more emergency orders to be sent out for reservists to defend illegal outposts. By taking this position, they are alienating the majority of the Israeli public. -- Sam Bahour _______________ Ed. note: Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the besieged Palestinian City of Al-Bireh/Ramallah in the West Bank. This article was written after a series of US moves in support of Israel that were made while Israel was committing war crimes against Palestinians. Serious commentary by Sam may be found at http://www.amin.org/eng/sam_bahour/index.html. There are two Bahour articles in particular that deserve your time and attention for a better understanding of just exactly who is doing what to whom and why and how the United States has some responsibility here, folks! Israel: A Failing Experiment - September 9, 2001 Corporate America and Israeli Occupation - May 1, 2002 |
Taliaferro Think Tank (TTT) and NATIONAL MAD AS HELL DAY.
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