Palestine Remains the Problem
By Michael S. Ladah
The Bush Administration is fumbling with
its Middle East policy. It is alienating both
the Arab and Moslem masses, antagonizing governments and preparing for a major blunder
with its war plans against Iraq. The
Administration flip flops from blaming terrorism against America on one group one day, and
on another group the next; so far it has blamed directly or indirectly Bin Laden, Iraq,
Iran, Syria, and extremists in Pakistan. What
the Administration does not understand is that the main catalyst for antagonism directed
toward America remains its policy on Palestine.
The people and governments of the Arab
and Moslem worlds, as well as people everywhere who identify with the suffering of the
Palestinians, continuously watch the actions of the U.S. as they pertain to any aspect of
Palestine: military and financial aid to Israel, exercising veto power to block UN action
to protect Palestinian civilians, and a myriad of other actions through which the U.S. has
exhibited its unqualified support for Israel. These
watch groups, constituting over half of the world population, see the U.S. administration
applying double standards, one to Israel and the other to the rest of the world.
During the military assault on the
civilian population of the West Bank in early 2002, the Israeli military destroyed
buildings, educational infrastructure, security forces, public services and other
essential elements of civil society. They
obliterated records of the education system, including records of school attendance,
graduation and other education credentials. They
obliterated public records and destroyed the files, desks, computers, computer disks and
buildings where these records and files were maintained.
Our own President, George W. Bush, gave the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon an ultimatum on April 6, 2002 to withdraw Israeli forces from the West Bank
“without delay” but, regrettably, President Bush backed down when the Israelis
defied him, once again, with utter contempt.
There is no disputing that the
Palestinians have suffered countless injustices. Actions
taken against the Palestinians should not be viewed in isolation, but should be considered
in the historical context of the Palestinian problem.
When these actions are considered together, one must admit that the
Palestinians continue to suffer a great atrocity, a crime against humanity at the hands of
western society. Arab nations and Moslems
around the world do not see the Palestinians as being victimized by Israel alone. Because of the unqualified support that the United
States has given Israel, they see the Palestinians as the victims of U.S. foreign policy:
- Palestinians
have suffered immensely because of U.S. support for the occupation of Palestinian land and
oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli armed forces. We, the American people and government, are
complicit in the oppression of the Palestinians. Israel
kills civilians, commits acts of torture, and imposes collective punishments using U.S.
financial aid and U.S. military equipment. Our
money is given unconditionally with our full knowledge of these heinous human rights
abuses.
- The
Palestinian population is entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. We must urgently facilitate such protection by
either providing a protection force, or by participating in an international (UN) force,
that would disengage the two sides from their daily conflicts, end the human rights abuses
and monitor compliance with international law. The
U.S. has opposed, even blocked, any United Nations initiatives to provide such protection.
- There is
tremendous disparity in the economic and military strength of Israel and the Palestinians.
The two sides can not reach a negotiated
settlement on their own. One is an occupying
military force and the other is an occupied population engaged in a popular uprising. A just solution must be imposed by the world
community with the support of the U.S., taking into account the history of the conflict
and recognizing that Israel has acquired most of its territory, by force, through illegal
acquisition. Successive U.S. administrations
have failed to see this disparity, or have deliberately overlooked it.
- Israel must
end its illegal occupation of the entire West Bank and Gaza including East Jerusalem. The Jews in Palestine were granted 55% of the land
of Palestine by the UN Partition Resolution of 1947. By
the middle of 1948, the Zionist paramilitary had occupied an additional 23% of Palestine. The state of Israel was established on 78% of the
land that was once Palestine. At that time,
the remaining areas of Palestine (the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and Gaza) fell
under Arab protection (by Jordan and Egypt) constituting only 22% of the original
territory.
In
1967, the West Bank and Gaza, a mere 22% of the original Palestinian mandate established
by the British in 1919, came under Israeli military occupation. Since then, Israel has been building illegal
settlements with the objective of annexing even more land.
Between 400,000 and 600,000 settlers are now estimated to live in the West
Bank and Gaza on land confiscated by Israel from Palestinian land owners, all in the name
of Israeli security. This illegal Israeli
occupation of Palestinian land has been made possible with the support of the U.S. The illegal settlements have been built with U.S.
foreign aid given to Israel and loans which are routinely forgiven.
- Through no
less than fifty UN Security Council Resolutions, the community of nations has called upon Israel
to provide “immediate” protection for the Palestinian population and vacate the
occupied West Bank and Gaza. Instead, Israel
has accelerated its building of settlements on occupied land and has continued its
mistreatment of the civilian population. The U.S.
is anxious to enforce UN Security Council Resolutions pertaining to Iraq and other
countries, but ignores the need to force Israel to comply with almost unanimous worldwide
consensus.
- The Israeli
government and the Jewish settlers in the West Bank are depleting the underground water
aquifer and wasting a precious resource. Over
three million Palestinians are restricted to using 250 million cubic meters per annum (83
cubic meters for each Palestinian) while six million Israelis enjoy the use of 2.0 billion
cubic meters (333 cubic meter for each Israeli per year). One
Israeli, on average, consumes as much water as four Palestinians. Each Israeli settler, however, is allocated 1,450
cubic meters of water per year, giving each settler the share of 18 Palestinians.
- Palestinians
have been prevented from using whatever little share they have been allocated of the West
Bank water resource: Water tanker-trucks,
relied upon by villagers to supply their share of the water, continue to be blocked by the
military during the closures and curfews, leaving many villages without water for human
consumption. Many of the city water reservoirs
and pumping systems have been, and continue to be destroyed by the Israeli
“defense” forces during military incursions, leading to disruptions of the water
supply to numerous Palestinian towns.
- Palestinians
continue to suffer from Israeli military operations against civilians, curfews,
check-point searches and raids by armed settlers, all of which have brought the
Palestinian economy to its knees. Palestinian
factories are closed. Palestinian farms are
made inaccessible to farmers. Schools and
universities are not allowed to function, all through intimidation by the Israeli military
or by militant settlers. This also has been
made possible courtesy of our U.S. tax dollars and military equipment gladly given to Israel
by our politicians.
- New Jewish
settlers are imported regularly by Israel into the Palestinian areas from around the world
with the objective of populating new settlements built illegally on Palestinian lands. At times, when Jews around the world are not
interested in immigrating, non-Jews from Latin America and the republics of the ex-Soviet
union are enticed, with the support of the Israeli government, to convert to Judaism and
are sent to Israel, then the Palestinian areas. The
new converts are offered free transportation, cash allowances, and subsidized living and
housing on confiscated Palestinian land. In
late November 2001, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared that Israel had plans
to bring in one million more immigrants with the unstated intention of illegally
populating more settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel is able to do this only with the assistance of the United States. The Bush Administration has recently denied a $2
billion loan to United Airlines forcing it into bankruptcy, while at the same time looking
favorably on granting new loans to Israel in amounts close to $14 billion. These loans are typically not repaid by Israel. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
reports on its web site that for the period 1949-1997 the total U.S. aid to Israel,
including foreign aid grants and loans, other U.S. aid, interest from advanced payments
and interest costs borne by the U.S. amount to a whopping total of over $134 billion all
borne by the U.S. taxpayer [http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm] This is equivalent to $23,400 for each Israeli.
- Israel has
started the process of building the infamous “Sharon’s Wall,” their version
of the Berlin Wall. While the wall is reported
to be a security wall, Israel’s motive from building it is to protect their West Bank
expansion program and illegally grab more Palestinian land.
- Speculation
abounds that Israel is waiting for an American invasion of Iraq to use as a cover for the
transfer of Palestinians. Israeli academics
and a large number of their American colleagues have already warned about Israel’s
plan to transfer masses of West Bank Palestinians across the Jordan River, and Gaza
Palestinians across the international border with Egypt.
This plan is already in effect, albeit on a small scale, through the systematic
policy of terror that Israel has imposed upon Palestinian civilians, and the resulting
collapse of the Palestinian economy. Why is
the world standing by and watching? Because peace-loving nations are prevented from taking
any action in the UN because of the U.S. veto on the Security Council. Implementation of this transfer program could only
be made possible with the support or acquiescence of the United States.
It is unfortunate that many Americans,
especially our politicians, do not examine the parallels between racism in the U.S. and
Apartheid in Palestine. They condemn racism in
all its forms, but they accept, or are silent about, Israeli Apartheid and the Israeli
oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians. What
has been mischaracterized as irreconcilable religious differences is more accurately
described as one “chosen” race oppressing another less fortunate.
Americans especially, through their struggles for civil rights, know first hand that
racism and Apartheid are an affront to human dignity and the very principles upon which
our great nation was founded. How can some among the American public, especially the
American Jews with vivid memories of unparalleled suffering at the hands of the Nazis,
condemn one form of racism and defend, even glorify another?
The intentions of Israel have been the
destruction of Palestinian civil society. Let
the Israeli public not rationalize their silence by their ignorance of what their country
and their military do in the occupied territories. And,
let the American public not rationalize that we are not involved, for it is with our
financial, military and moral support that the State of Israel is able to perpetrate its
crimes against Palestinian civilians.
Our politicians, mainstream news reporters
and career diplomats do not speak out against our complicity in the oppression of
Palestinians until they retire their career aspirations. It
is only then that they will no longer feel the wrath of AIPAC (the pro-Israel lobby) and
their hard-line supporters. Moral integrity
among our U.S. politicians and journalists is on its death-bed if not dead. We, all
of us, can not claim to be free in these United States until we have liberated ourselves
from the political influence of Israel and those who support Israel’s policies
unconditionally. It will be a day of freedom
for America when we can claim that any of us, among the public, in the Administration or
in Congress can act, lobby or legislate independently in the interest of the United States
and in accordance with the principles of our founding fathers without fear of reprisal
from the AIPAC whose primary objective is to defend the interest of a foreign country, at
the expense of all else.
The Bush Administration can invade Iraq,
blame the Arabs and Moslems or wage a campaign of intimidation against the so-called
“axis of evil.” But, it must
understand that Palestine remains the problem.
Coutesy of
and © 2003 by Michael S. Ladah. The
author is an Arab American who lived and worked in various parts of the Middle East. He is
the author of “Quicksand, Oil and Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million
Dispossessed Palestinians.” This article may be reprinted
in any form, with proper citation and without any further permission.
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