Posted on October 31, 2001
By Uri Avnery, distributed on the internet on October 21, 2000
Uri is one of the loneliest peaceful voices in Israel. He is an Israeli Jew
who heads a peaceful movement known by Gush Shalom.
- Barak has turned every stone to achieve peace
Truth is, he has turned every stone to build settlements. Since his first day
in office, he has accelerated the pace of setting up new settlements (in the
guise of "enlarging" existing ones), confiscating lands, demolishing Palestinian homes and building "by-pass roads" (whose main purpose is
to add Palestinian lands to the 'settlement blocs" which he wants to
annex to Israel.) In all these activities, Barak has done more than
Netanyahu. In the political field, too, Barak has upstaged Netanyahu: Bibi
returned at least the greater part of the town Hebron to the Palestinians.
Barak has not returned one single inch of occupied territory.
- At Camp David, Barak went further than any previous Prime
Minister
Even if this were true, it would mean very little. If one Marathon runner
(Netanyahu) falls down after one mile, and another (Barak) falls down after
three, the difference between them is not really important. What is important
is that neither of them got even near the finishing line (26 miles). Barak's
proposals at Camp David were far from the minimum necessary to make peace
with the Palestinian people and the whole Arab world: Palestinian
sovereignty over East Jerusalem, and especially the compound of the holy
mosques (Haram al-Sharif). Barak indicated at Camp David that he might
"consider" some cosmetic changes (and thereby he indeed broke some of
the Israeli taboos concerning Jerusalem) " but as a matter of fact he denied the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims sovereignty over the
compound of the holy mosques and the major Arab neighborhoods in the city.
That's why the summit failed and the escalation started, leading up to the
"al-Aksa intifada".
- Arafat blew up the Camp David summit
On the eve of his departure for the summit, Barak announced five "Red
Lines", which he would not cross under any circumstances. Among them:
Israeli sovereignty over the entire city of Jerusalem, No return to the 1967 border, Keeping 80% of the settlers were they are, No return of a single
refugee to Israel!!! Afterwards he softened some of these stands, but not
enough to come anywhere near an agreement.
- All the time, we give, give, give. Arafat doesn't give
anything
When the Palestinians agreed to a peace settlement based on the pre-1967 border
(the Green Line), they were already giving up in advance 78% of the land between
the sea and the Jordan river. They are ready to set up their state in the
remaining 22%. Our government wants a "compromise" over this
area. Meaning: "What's mine is mine, about what's yours, we shall
compromise". (Factual background: the November 29, 1947, UN partition
resolution gave the Jewish state 55% and the Arab state 45% of Palestine. In the
ensuing war [started by the Arabs], we conquered half of the territory
allotted to the Arab state. Thus the "Green Line" came about, leaving
78% of the country in our hands.) The problem is not expressed in
percentage points only. Barak appears to be asking for only 10% of the
occupied territories. In reality, it's closer to 30%, taking into account
the territories he wants to annex in the Jerusalem area and place under
his "security control" in the Jordan valley. But even worse, in the
map submitted to the Palestinians, these percentage points cut the country
up from East to West and from North to South, so that the Palestinian
state will consist of a group of islands, each surrounded by Israeli
settlers and soldiers.
- How can one make peace with the Palestinians when they break every
agreement?
Well, Palestinian violations pale in comparison with ours. Before the end of
the 5-years interim period (May 1998), the IDF had to withdraw from all the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip except 'specified military locations", settlements and Jerusalem. Barak refuses to do this even at this late
date. Also, four 'safe passages" between the West Bank and Gaza should have been in operation long ago. In practice, only one was opened, and this
one can only be used by Palestinians after much
harassment.
- Barak is the heir to Rabin
Far from it. Within a few months he has succeeded in destroying not only all the achievements of Rabin, but those of Begin, too. He has buried the
Oslo agreement (to which he objected from the beginning) and destroyed the relations built up with much effort between Israel and a number of Arab
countries. He has created ferment among the Arab citizens in Israel itself. In many respects, he has thrown us back to 1948, even 1936.
- The lynching in Ramallah shows that the Arabs are
animals
In a confrontation like this one, each side points to the atrocities committed by the other, "forgetting" the atrocities committed by his own side.
Israel points to the horrible lynching, the Palestinians point to the
killing of 12- years old Muhammad al-Dira in the arms of his father and the
brain-killing bullets used by Israel army snipers against stone-throwing
children. Our acts of violence come in response to the actions of the
Palestinians, theirs come in response to ours. It's a vicious circle.
- The Palestinian media are instruments of
incitement
That is true, but unfortunately there is no great difference between theirs and
ours in this respect. Ours and theirs speak the same language, following guidelines from above. When Palestinian TV shows over and over again
the
picture of the boy dying in the arms of his father, that's incitement. When our TV shows dozens of times a day, day after day, the atrocious lynching
in Ramallah, that's incitement.
- They shoot at us and the Israeli army is exercising
self-restraint
It is strange that in two weeks of "self-restraint" about 110
Palestinian and 3 Israeli soldiers have been killed. No Israeli officer
has explained (or was asked to explain) this curious ratio. (The
explanation is, of course, that the Israeli army has long in advance
trained snipers to choose a person from among the demonstrators, take
exact aim through a telescopic sight and hit him with a special deadly,
high-velocity bullet. Instead of "pacifying" the area, as
intended, this method has inflamed it even more. Every funeral has led to another
confrontation.)
- The Arabs send their children against our army positions, so that
they can be killed, in order to provide pictures for the world media
This is a horrendous accusation, betraying an obnoxious racism. It contains the belief that Arab parents do not care about their children dying. In
the struggle waged by our underground organizations before 1948 and during
our War of Independence, boys and girls played an important part. The arms training of Palestinian boys is no different from the training of our own Gadna
youth battalions. The boy who, in 1948, destroyed a Syrian tank at kibbutz Deganya has become a national hero. When a people fights for its
very existence and freedom, its youth cannot but take part. (I joined the
Irgun, defined by the British as a terrorist organization, at the age of 14 and a
half. By the age of 15 I carried guns.) It is an illusion to think that
Palestinian parents can restrain their children from going out into the street and
throwing stones, when they live under a cruel occupation and their brothers
and sisters provide examples of heroism and self-sacrifice. It is quite natural
for the Palestinian people to be proud of them. Joan of Arc, by the way, was
16 years old when she led the French army into battle. The settlers routinely exploit their children and babies, not hesitating to put them in
harm's way.
Click here to get our
response to this racist Israeli argument.
- Again it is proved that the whole world is against us. They are
all anti-Semites
World public opinion is always on the side of the underdog. In this fight, we are Goliath and they are David. In the eyes of the world, the Palestinians
are fighting a war of liberation against a foreign occupation. We are in
their territory, not they in ours. We settle on their land, not they on ours. We
are the occupiers, they are the victims. This is the objective situation, and
no minister of propaganda (like Mr. Nachman Shai) can change that.
- We have no partner for peace
True, we have no partner for a peace that Palestinians see as a capitulation to Israeli ultimatums. We do have a partner for a peace based on
equality and mutual respect. The solution is quite clear: the State of Palestine
must be set up within the pre-1967 border, with Jerusalem serving as the capital
of the two states - East Jerusalem with the Haram al-Sharif must belong to Palestine, West Jerusalem with the Western Wall and the Jewish
quarter must belong to Israel.. When this solution is accepted in principle,
negotiations can start about the other problems: mutual security, exchange of territories, a moral and practical solution for the refugee problem,
water allocation etc. This peace will come about, because the only alternative
is hell for both sides.
DisclaimerThe above documents, article, interviews, movies, podcasts, or stories reflects solely the research and opinions of its authors. PalestineRemembered.com makes its best effort to validate its contents.
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