Under Siege
Palestine, 14 April 2002
"Never, never, in anything great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.'' (Winston Churchill, 29 October 1941, from a speech at Harrow School)
The recent Israeli military actions aiming to crush the legitimate Palestinian resistance movement against the Israeli occupation were given a green light by the United States administration. In essence, the US made two points: first, go ahead with the war against "terrorism" and second, make it short. (The United States has its own agenda, including the recognition of a Palestinian State.) Sharon, however, seems to have his own agenda too: first, teach the Palestinians a lesson they will never forget by killing as many as possible and destroying as much as possible; and second, to bring the Palestinians to their knees in surrender, obliterating all hope for a Palestinian State. (Sharon had a similar (hidden) agenda when he entered Beirut in 1982.)
Sharon began this murderous campaign and dragged Israeli society into it with him by promising absolute security. He also promised further confiscation of Palestinian lands and further building of Israeli settlements. (According to B’Tselem human rights organization, Sharon has established 34 new Israeli settlements on occupied land during the last year.) In addition, he wants to keep the occupied territories as a market for Israeli goods and the Palestinian people as cheap laborers.
Sharon declared a comprehensive war, which is in fact nothing else but the continuation and preservation of the Israeli occupation. He called his operation "preventive shield." (We have seen many other operations of this kind in the last 18 months under various names such as revolving door, intimate night, colored journey, field of thorns etc.)
The timing of this operation had nothing to do with this or that explosion. More importantly, it began only one day after the participants at the Arab Summit declared openly and publicly their commitment to live in peace with Israel AFTER Israel complies with United Nations resolutions by withdrawing to the borders of 4 June 1967.
On the contrary, he invaded Palestinian villages and cities, including Ramallah where President Arafat has been confined to his political residence since December. He has surrounded him and tried to isolate him. He has destroyed his residence and confined him to a small space in this destroyed compound, cutting off water and electricity. He has prevented European and UN diplomats from meeting with him.
The destruction that Sharon has inflicted on the Palestinian community is beyond comprehension. Hundreds have been killed, thousands have been injured, and more than 5,000 Palestinians have so far been arrested. The infrastructure is almost completely destroyed.
Although our backs have been pushed against the wall, our chests continue to face the tanks, and our hearts are with all of those who are resisting the occupation. And our eyes, the eyes of every single Palestinian – man or woman, old or young, disabled or sick -- are firmly fixed on the goal of freedom and independence, and finally peace. There is no going back. We have never been as close to our freedom and independence as we are these days.
Surrender to the Israeli occupation means death. Resistance to the Israeli occupation means life and dignity even in the face of death. The Palestinian people are saying a clear NO to the Israeli occupation and a clear NO to surrender. Sharon will never gain the submission of the Palestinian people.
We are under curfew at home or at work, among family and friends, surrounded by the strongest army in the region. We are witness to the humiliation, mutilation, and murder of our friends and relatives. And we are just as afraid as our children of the sounds of the shells and the bombs. But our fear is turning slowly but firmly into an unbreakable resistance.
A mad general has led his people to the worst security situation ever experienced in the country. The economy has not been as bad since 1953. Many Israelis are leaving the country. More and more soldiers are refusing to serve in the army. And in the past year alone, over 11,000 soldiers have deserted the army. The tourism industry is catastrophic. Agriculture and other industry are suffering immense losses. All that Israel has gained during the past fifty years has been put at risk in the one year of Sharon's reign of terror. Even when he had the chance to have peace with the Arab States, he refused. The Israeli public is beginning to wonder where all this is leading. Where is he taking Israeli society?
In the arrogance of his own power he turned the whole world against him, except the US administration (Micronesia may have also have changed its position). He has single-handedly exposed Israel as a colonial expansionist state. In his attempt to isolate Arafat, he has instead made him the most popular figure in the Arab World. Arafat's picture is now displayed from Morocco to Bahrain. (Only Jamal Abdel Nasser enjoyed as much popularity.)
Although confined in his destroyed residence, Arafat has affirmed his indisputable leadership of the Palestinian people: "They want me captured. They want me hunted. They want me dead. But I tell them: they can have me only as a martyr."
Sharon was wrong when he thought he could bring President Arafat to his knees. Sharon was wrong when he thought that he could find an alternative to Arafat. (We should not forget that Arafat has been elected by the majority of the people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and no matter who comes after him must be elected in the same way. (Palestine is not Pakistan.) Sharon was wrong when he thought he could force the Palestinians to surrender. Sharon was wrong when he thought he would crush the Intifada, the legitimate resistance movement, within ten days or hundred days. Sharon was wrong when he thought the Palestinian people would not stand united against his aggression. Sharon was wrong when he thought that the Palestinian people would not sacrifice everything they have, even their lives, in order to be free from Israeli occupation. Sharon was wrong when he thought he could smash the Jenin refugee camp in a "blitzkrieg."
Sharon was wrong when he thought he would not lose soldiers and other Israeli lives by continuing the occupation. Sharon was wrong when he thought that the Israeli settlement interests were above the interests of Israeli citizens inside Israel. More than 62% of Israelis are now in favor of the evacuation of the settlements. It borders on insanity that even the Likud party cannot explain why a few thousand settlers are living in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas of the world. There they must "protect" themselves with troops and tanks from the one million Palestinians on whose land they have chosen to build their colonies.
Sharon's actions during the past weeks have not only cost Israel sympathy in the world, they have also fueled a worldwide campaign against the Israeli occupation. (Israel, predictably, would like to equate any anti-Israel or anti-occupation campaigns with anti-Semitism. Another wrong move. You cannot fool all the people all of the time).
Protests against the Israeli occupation have been carried out everywhere, from New Zealand to Canada, and from Brazil to China. The whole of Europe is demonstrating against the Israeli occupation. Fifty thousand in Rome, and similar numbers in Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Athens, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Amsterdam, Istanbul, and Oslo. During a demonstration in Oslo, Norwegian ambulances even circled the Israeli embassy in protest against the atrocities committed against Palestinian paramedics and medical teams. In the United States similar demonstrations took place in the cities of New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and many others.
The masses of the Arab World are demonstrating in every major city. In Bahrain over fifty thousand people marched in the funeral of a young man who was shot dead by the Bahraini police. One million people demonstrated in Yemen. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Egypt and the students in Alexandria also had their first victim shot by the Egyptian police. (The families of Israeli embassy personnel have already left Egypt, although the official version is that they are all on vacation outside the country.) The Jordanian police are attempting to quell the demonstrations with water and clubs. Due to serious threats, a scheduled large-scale demonstration was cancelled in Jordan for Friday, 13 April. People coming from Aqaba in the south to Irbid in the north were supposed to march in protest in front of the Israeli embassy. Similar demonstrations are taking place in Damascus, Sudan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, and Beirut.
In defiance of US calls to pull out of West Bank towns immediately and without delay, the Israeli government is still invading and attacking and killing and destroying. A massacre of as yet unknown proportions is taking place. The city of Nablus, in particular the historic old city, has been bombarded beyond recognition by Apache helicopters, F16s, bulldozers, and tanks. There are unofficial estimates that over 65 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded. How many are under the rubble is still unknown.
Yet what happened in Jenin refugee camp equals a war crime for which Mofaz and Sharon will one day have to face an international tribunal.
The Palestinian resistance movement inside the camp fought till the end. Sharon's invincible army had severe losses there leading Sharon to respond by destroying the camp completely. The camp resisted with all its strength sending a message to Sharon and to the world that they preferred to die rather than to live under Israeli occupation. We have no idea how many are dead or how many were executed by the Israeli army. The number of people killed there is unknown. Many are buried now under the ground after Israeli bulldozers "cleaned the streets." The bulldozers of the Israeli army have destroyed every house, every fence, and every piece of land to cover their crimes so that no one knows how many Palestinian people are buried under the rubble.
Sharon is repeating the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Jenin refuge camp. As far as Foreign Minister Peres is concerned, he will be standing alongside Sharon facing charges of war crimes after his Nobel Peace Prize has been rescinded. (The Peace Prize committee is already examining this possibility.)
All this happened while Collin Powell was in the region or even in Palestine. He found words to exonerate Israel by saying that Israel has a right to defend itself. Only after he was bombarded by questions regarding Jenin, did he say that he was sorry about what was happening there. He did not find it important to go to Jenin to see for himself.
The Jenin refugee camp is silent. There were about 15,000 refugees living there. The resistance movement inside the Jenin refugee camp is silent. The camp is completely destroyed.
For us, the people of the camp are our heroes. The heroism of the resistance movement inside Jenin refugee camp in the face of impossible odds and against an overwhelming military power will be in our hearts forever.
Despite all the grief, the pain and the anger that we suffer every day, we know that we are engaged in a struggle that will ultimately lead to peace for both peoples. Our cause is just. It is shared by many throughout the world who are standing against injustice and for peace with justice.
We are not alone.
We recognize our friends in the millions who are protesting the Israeli occupation. We see them on TV screens carrying slogans, marching together, gathering signatures, writing letters, raising funds, raising the Palestinian flag and even being beaten or arrested because of their support of the Palestinian cause. These friends write to us in solidarity and they visit us in solidarity. To the Israeli people we say: The more your government suppresses the Palestinian people, the more we will resist you. Do not try to hide behind your ignorance and try to negate our existence. Listen to what we and the rest of the world are telling you. Sharon and Peres are leading you and the entire region to catastrophe. Do not be fooled by your military power. The United States lost the war in Vietnam even though it had military supremacy. You simply have no moral ground.
Your government is actually risking your security because of its colonial expansionist appetite. Stand up and join the progressive Israeli movements that demand an end to the occupation, which is the cause for your insecurity and for all the bloodshed. Sharon has only wrought more destruction and insecurity on your community and on ours.
Sharon wanted to isolate Arafat. Instead he isolated himself and you. He still has to stand trial in Belgium for his culpability in the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Beirut in 1982. When the massacre in Jenin becomes fully known, it will be impossible for him to feign innocence.
You will never have security with Sharon. Sharon's "victories" are a mirage. No matter what he tries to tell you he will eventually sit with President Arafat and reach an agreement. And no matter how much he tries to find a replacement for Arafat he will not succeed. This policy failed miserably in the past (Village Leagues experience). The democratization of Palestine and its civil society will not allow for a Vichy solution. Sharon will search in vain for a regime similar to one of those banana (oil) republics.
Sharon's "war" will come to an end and the moment of truth will appear: We will still be here defying your tanks and your airplanes. We will remain steadfast and we will resist you until your last soldier leaves the occupied territories. We will never give up our right to freedom and independence.
Sharon's "war" will come to an end and Israeli society will find that the source of the problem and the cause of all the bloodshed on both sides was and is the Israeli occupation.
We are here in our villages, refugee camps, and cities among our families and friends. Our cry for freedom cannot be silenced.
Dr. Majed Nassar, Health Work Committees
Nassar Ibrahim, Alternative Information Center
Palestine, 14 April 2002
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