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10 September 2012 By Stephen
Lendman Haaretz contributor Amira Hass is
right saying so. Current headlines highlight thousands
of West Bank protesters. Palestinians took to the streets
against unaffordable rising prices. In some areas,
things got violent. Demonstrators smashed windows,
tried to storm a municipality building, and clashed
with police. On Sunday, trucks and taxis
blocked the Bethlehem to Hebron road. In Ramallah,
tires were set ablaze. Streets were blocked.
University and other school classes were cancelled. Duheishe refugee camp residents
marched on Abbas' headquarters. Beit Jala protest
leaders urged nonviolence but joined others expressing
outrage. Balata refugee youths blocked Al-Quds
Street. They forced traffic onto bypass roads. Traffic
was also blocked in Jenin. Taxi union director Abu al-Wafa
said strike action shut down 700 cabs and 120 buses.
At issue is unaffordable fuel prices. Public transportation across the
West Bank is paralyzed. Thousands of drivers walked
out. Tulkaren and Jericho residents also staged
protests. Hundreds turned out. One protest sign read: "We're tired of hearing about
reform….a council after another….a minister after
another….and corruption that hasn't gone away." General strike calls resonate.
Unelected Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is a longtime
Israeli collaborator. He's neoliberal, corporatist,
and hardline. Rage targets him. He claims budget
shortfall constraints. Palestinians want him out. One youth spoke for others,
saying: "We'll do anything, throw rocks,
to get rid of the Fayyad government. They call it
sabotage, but we'll do whatever we need to get rid of
him." He agreed to resign to cool
things down. Fellow longtime Israeli collaborator
Abbas defended him. He's doing his job, he said. At the same time, Civil Affairs
Minister Hussein al-Sheikh asked Israel to amend the
1994 Paris Protocol. It's the Oslo Accords economic
agreement. Abbas was chief negotiator. He
sold out his people for benefits he derived. He got to
be president. Israel rigged his election. He bears
full responsibility. He agreed to burden Palestinians
with the same value-added tax as Israel. In September,
it rose to 17%. Impoverished Palestinians are severely
harmed. Oslo also denies Palestinian
farmers and businessmen normalized foreign trade.
Those permitted can only go through Israel. Partial and delayed salary
payments compound intense public anger. Palestinian
civil servants see no end in sight. Israel deserves
most blame. Abbas, Fayyad, and other Palestinian
collaborators share it. Hass called Israeli negotiators
"geniuses." Negotiating a Palestinian Versailles
assured they'd be blamed for economic crisis
conditions they caused. PA concern became panic.
Speeches, interministerial committees, and other ways
are sought to diffuse public anger and lower prices.
Condescending paternalistic language doesn't help.
Protesters understandably are angry. Venting rage at
PA officials lets Israel off the hook. Oslo shackled Palestine's economy
to Israel. Palestinian salaries don't approach Israeli
ones. Regressive taxes make things harder.
Unaffordable prices compound crisis conditions. In all respects, Oslo was a
Palestinian Versailles. Unconditional surrender
defines it. Arafat, Abbas, Ahmed Qureia, and others
went along. Eighteen years later, conditions are
considerably worse. More land's been stolen. Israel
has the choicest parts. It controls water and other
valued resources. Settler numbers increased greatly.
Intensified violence accompanied them. So has
repression. PA security forces serve as Israeli
enforcers. It's unsurprising they're blamed
for occupation harshness. Israelis get off largely
scot-free. They establish rules. Militarized
occupations enforces them. Gaza's isolated and suffocating.
Extreme hardships exist. It's economy is in shambles.
Around 80% of its factories remain shut or barely
operate. Unemployment is high. Poverty is severe. Most exports are prohibited.
Farming on much of its most arable land is prohibited.
Its best fishing waters are off limits. Food
insecurity, power shortages, inadequate healthcare,
other unavailable or inadequate services, and extreme
aid dependency punish 1.7 million people. It's called the world's largest
open-air prison. Frequent land, air and sea attacks
target it. World leaders turn a blind eye. They're
mindless of West Bank abuses. Israel's worst crimes
are supported. Palestinian suffering remains out of
sight and mind. Everything benefitting Israel
harms Palestinians. Zero sum repression works that
way. They're locked down and
economically strangled. Locking them up is policy if
they resist. Institutionalized racism persecutes them.
Sovereignty over their own lives is denied. Security forces and settlers
attack them. Children are treated like adults. Anyone
not Jewish is considered subhuman. Muslims are
persecuted for their faith, ethnicity and presence. They're unfairly called
culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy,
religiously fanatical, violent, gun-toting terrorists.
They're targeted for wanting to live free. Innocent
men, women and children are punished. Punitive taxes harm them. Vital
services are withheld. Wages are too low to live on.
Land belonging to them is stolen. Homes and other
property are destroyed. Refugees are prohibited from
returning. Their rightful capital is called Israel's
alone. Peace roadmaps go nowhere. Fear traumatizes children. Closed
borders, checkpoints, roadblocks, electric fences,
enclosed population centers, Jew's only roads, and
Israel's Annexation Wall prevent free movement.
Regular curfews are imposed. Heroic freedom fighters fill
Israel's gulag. Collective punishment is policy. So
are daily incursions, home invasions, lawless arrests,
torture, targeted assassinations, and denial of
fundamental human and civil rights. Crimes of war, against humanity,
and genocide are committed with impunity. Rule of law
principles don't protect them. A repressive foreign
army occupies their land. Lives are lived in limbo. Besides other notable areas, hell
on earth resides in Palestine. Gaza is its epicenter.
It's been that way for 45 years and counting. Occupied Palestine isn't occupied
said former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy. During
his judicial tenure, he supported this view in a 2005
case. Other High Court justices rejected it. Militarized occupation controls
Palestine. Israel admits it. Permanency defines it.
Anything Israel does is OK because what it says goes.
Who'll challenge policy no matter how lawless,
ill-conceived, unjustifiable, and against even the
most fancifully stretched normative standards. Yes, we can, no, you can't is
policy. That's what occupation is all about. Tyranny
defines it. Author Sandy Tolan calls it the "show that
time and the world forgot." It covers land the size of
Delaware. It's out of sight and mind to most people.
Headlines don't explain. Anything Israel does is OK no
matter how lawless, disturbing, and harmful.
Palestinian resistance is called terrorism. Symbols matter. Lies become
truths. Israel's winning the battle for control over
every square dunum it wants. Palestinians are
marginalized and denied. Who cares about unwanted
people? They're forgotten out of sight and mind. Palestinians thought Oslo granted
them 22% of historic Palestine. Instead they got a 10%
no-state solution at best. Once Israel steals all
parts of Judea and Sumaria it wants, they'll have
canonized rump state isolation without sovereignty on
worthless scrubland. Control over their own land, air,
resources, or borders is denied. Drilling for fresh
water is verboten. Challenging Israeli authority risks
injury, imprisonment or death. It's the occupation, stupid.
Israeli intransigency perpetuates it. Freedom remains
an unfulfilled hope. It springs eternal. Maybe next
time. Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is
titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized
Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html Visit his
blog site at
sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the
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