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CounterPunch
February
27, 2003
Snow Covered Rubble
The Occupation
in Winter
by SAM BAHOUR and Dr.
MICHAEL DAHAN
Without even watching the news (our satellite
dishes were buried in the snow 48 hours ago) we can imagine that
newspapers and TV stations around the world are running pictures
of a snowy Jerusalem and Ramallah. Pastoral pictures of a snow
covered Dome of the Rock and Wailing Wall, or perhaps a snow
covered Israeli tank in Hebron, or Palestinian children throwing
snowballs at Israeli soldiers.
What you won't see on prime time are
the thousands of Palestinians sitting in frozen homes and makeshift
shelters (for those that have had their homes demolished by the
Israeli military), economic deterioration in the Occupied Territories
and insane levels of unemployment. For them, the snow is neither
pastoral nor uplifting. Even if heating oil can get through the
military blockades, people still can't afford to heat their homes.
Many are forced to scavenge wood and other combustibles in order
to provide at least a minimal amount of heat in a vain attempt
to thwart the sub zero temperatures.
Considering the coalition government
that is being created following the elections in Israel, this
bleak lifestyle for thousands of Palestinians is not likely to
change any time soon. Thirsty for power, the ultra- secular Shinui
Party has joined forces with the ultra-religious National Religious
Party (NRP) whom are supportive of the settlers and uncompromising
in terms of peace with Palestinians. In the past the leader of
the NRP has been quoted as calling Palestinian Israelis (Palestinians
who hold Israeli citizenship) "cancer". They are to
be joined by the even further right "Nationalist Union",
a party that supports "transfer" (read ethnic cleansing)
of Palestinians within Israel and the re occupied Palestinian
Territories. Ten of the 120 Knesset seats will be filled by settlers,
in spite of the fact that settlers make up only 3% of Israeli
citizens. Together with Sharon they will make sure to bury any
hopes of peace underneath blood stained snow covered rubble.
One should not expect Sharon and his soon to be finalized government
to move one inch further toward any solution that is not a military
solution. It is now clear to anyone who had a doubt; a change
in the miserable situation on the ground is not likely to come
from within Israel. A leopard does not change its spots, neither
will Sharon.
What we don't understand, and apparently
millions of people around the world don't understand, is why
focus on Iraq when the core regional conflict is solvable? Here
and now, without war, without tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers,
without the loss of thousands of lives, a conflict that can be
ended by simple and firm U.S. pressure on Israel to move forward,
similar to the pressure that has been relentlessly applied to
the Palestinians. The four corners of the world know the endgame:
two independent nation states, each free from military domination
of the other, is not only possible, but inevitable.
If the U.S. wants to show true leadership
of the "free world" then they should not be pushing
for war in Iraq, a war that seemingly only serves the business
agendas of certain individuals within the Bush administration.
If they want to show leadership, they must rise to their moral,
economic, and most of all, political responsibility to stop the
Israeli-Palestinian cycle of violence and the systematic destruction
of the Palestinian society by Sharon's war machine. Annihilating
a people has never worked in the past; waiting on the sideline
to see if it can succeed today is the epitome of failure for
the world community.
The snow will soon melt and the destroyed
homes, bullet riddled walls, tank-rippled roads will re-appear,
only to jog the collective memories of those Palestinians that
remain the victims of this thirty-six year man- made tragedy
called Israeli Occupation.
Sam Bahour
is a Palestinian-American living in the besieged Palestinian
City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
He is co-author of HOMELAND:
Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994).
Dr. Michael Dahan is an Israeli-American political scientist
and professor living in Jerusalem and can be reached at mdahan@attglobal.net.
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