In the middle of the crisis surrounding Olmert and his cabinet, he is eager to show that his government is still intact and is capable of taking decisive decisions... True, he suffered a hard blow for his impeachment during the 2nd Lebanon war; however, he is willing to show the Israeli public that he is still the tough guy who can take serious and courageous decisions. His failure during the war against the Lebanese Hezbollah can be rectified in being more successful against the weaker Palestinians. Since decades, reigns the formula “the more you kill Palestinians, the more your star goes sky high” in Israeli politics, and “the more you build Jewish settlements on confiscated Arab lands, the more you emerge as a historic Jewish leader. And this is exactly what is going on in Israel right now.
Recently, a U.S. security proposal presented to the Israelis and Palestinians implying the easing of restrictions on the ground in return for missiles stop from the Gaza strip against the Jewish settlement of Sderot. But the proposal was rejected by Israel and Olmert and his cabinet opted for a military solution to the missile problem.
Moreover, the Olmert Government declared a series of aggressive measures to tighten the grip on Arab Jerusalem by announcing the creation of three new Jewish quarters surrounding the holy city in the vicinity of Qalandia to the east of Jerusalem close to Ramallah. In order to justify their aggressive measures, the Israelis published fake statistics about a so called demographic Palestinian swelling in Jerusalem which could threaten the Jewish majority inside the Old City. Therefore they announced the construction of new Jewish quarters in and around occupied Arab Jerusalem. It is worth saying that the Israeli successive governments have been working intensively on the changing the Arab Oriental character of the old city since its military occupation four decades ago.
After 40 years of military occupation and relentless Judaization efforts of the City, Olmert’s cabinet believed that the worst has already been achieved and it is time to go a step further in the same direction. He declared to shift Israeli government offices from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in order to perpetuate the occupation of the Holy City and to transform it as declared before “the eternal and unified Capital of Israel...
Olmert declared to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the annexation of Jerusalem, unilaterally and illegally declared by the Israeli Authorities. Foreign Diplomatic Missions were invited to attend the ceremonies. Logically such an illegal act contradicts with UN resolutions prohibiting the acquisition of foreign territories through military force, or as a result of military confrontations during the war.
However, “Western Democracies” which have been so far the staunchest allies of Israel’s military occupation measures, boycotted the festivities and refused to be dragged in to Israel’s illegal ambitions. Some Western countries criticized Israel’s settlement policies and asked Olmert to refrain from implementing his expansionist schemes at the expense of the Palestinians. Indeed, with such hasty decisions Olmert is trying to sabotage the peace process and forestall the Saudi Peace Initiative, President Bush’s Road map, as well as the U.S. recommendations to ease restrictions on the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
In the meantime, Olmert is busy with escalating the air strikes on the Palestinians in Gaza, aiming at silencing Hamas’ hand made missiles killing and harming more innocent civilians than killing armed elements. In the West Bank he is stepping up his repressive measures through daily assassinations and detentions of Palestinian patriots “terrorists” and continues to strangle Palestinian daily life through hundreds of checkpoints. New Hamas Ministers and government officials were recently detained and the number of Palestinian prisoners exceeds nowadays eleven thousand who are languishing in Israeli jails; with women and children amongst them.
The West Bank and the Gaza strip has become an open field of military operations for the Israeli armed forces. Nowadays, the Israeli government is discussing the possibility of a large scale military invasion against Gaza which has become more imminent than ever.
The Israelis are asking for retaliation and more violence in order to win the war of the Hamas primitive missiles. Some Israeli leaders claim that the Israeli army is not applying enough violence to win the war of missiles as they won the war against suicide bombers in the past year. Some Israeli leaders have asked even to cut water and electricity on the Gaza-strip. Ironically, very little was heard about resuming the peace process, the withdrawal from the occupied territories, or the self-determination right of the Palestinian people. Along the last two weeks from 15.05.-29.05.2007 and with all the public relations and propaganda and the tough Israeli statements around Sderot only two Israeli citizens were killed and 29 were injured, 8 houses were hit and 13 cars.
While on the Palestinian side the balance is much higher on the level of human sufferings and material losses. They averaged one Israeli killed to 28.5. Palestinians and one Israeli lightly injured to 6.8 Palestinians heavily wounded or permanently maimed. During the same period 57 Palestinians were killed, 197 were maimed or injured, 185 were detained, 6 houses totally destroyed, 35 partial destruction, 10 cars were destroyed, 5 grocery shops, 10 smith workshops, 2 fisher boats, the confiscation and bulldozing of 300 Dunums, and the destruction of 32 posts belonging to the national security guards loyal to President Abbas and the executive forces loyal to Hamas and the destruction of one school.
Needless to say that the balance of power is by large on the Israeli side and no body thinks that the Palestinians will be ever capable of matching the Israeli super power. However, those Hamas missiles could have one simple target if any, that is to draw the attention of the international public opinion on the plight of the Palestinians and their miserable lot. They could be considered as a cry in the emptiness of the world consciousness and the urgent need to live up to its responsibilities and find a political settlement to this everlasting tragedy.
After 40 years of Israeli military occupation the Palestinians are tired of the checkpoints, the daily killing and detention. They are fed up of asking permanently for permits to travel or to go to work in order to earn their living. The continuous strangling of the Palestinians on all levels can only lead to violence and terrorism. The international community is requested to help Palestinians out of this vicious circle of violence and put an end to the endless procrastination and fruitless negotiations with the Israelis. It is a crime to sabotage the peace process for the sake of maintaining a ministerial post while Israelis and Palestinians are suffering under the fire of the primitive Kassam missiles or the fire of the much more sophisticated Israeli war machine.
* A Palestinian writer based in Ramallah. He was PLO spokesman during the Lebanon period until 1983 and was the Director General of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) until 2005. He is author of three books on Media, a Novel in Arabic and other publications.
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