[WCUSP] "Aggression Under False Pretenses" by Ismail Haniyeh

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Aggression Under False Pretenses

By Ismail Haniyeh
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; Page A17 
_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR20060710011
08.html_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR2006071001108.html) 
 
GAZA, Palestine -- As Americans commemorated their annual  celebration of 
independence from colonial occupation, rejoicing in their  democratic 
institutions, we Palestinians were yet again besieged by our  occupiers, who destroy our 
roads and buildings, our power stations and water  plants, and who attack our 
very means of civil administration. Our homes and  government offices are 
shelled, our parliamentarians taken prisoner and  threatened with prosecution. 
The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to  destroy the results 
of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the  explosive follow-up 
to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare  directed by the 
United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy  was to force 
the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with  deepening 
hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military  aggression 
and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The  "kidnapped" Israeli 
Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled  months ago. 
In addition to removing our democratically elected  government, Israel wants 
to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that  there is a serious 
leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this  notion definitively. The 
Palestinian leadership is firmly embedded in the  concept of Islamic shura , 
or mutual consultation; suffice it to say that  while we may have differing 
opinions, we are united in mutual respect and  focused on the goal of serving our 
people. Furthermore, the invasion of Gaza and  the kidnapping of our leaders 
and government officials are meant to undermine  the recent accords reached 
between the government party and our brothers and  sisters in Fatah and other 
factions, on achieving consensus for resolving the  conflict. Yet Israeli 
collective punishment only strengthens our collective  resolve to work together. 
As I inspect the ruins of our infrastructure -- the largess  of donor nations 
and international efforts all turned to rubble once more by  F-16s and 
American-made missiles -- my thoughts again turn to the minds of  Americans. What do 
they think of this? 
They think, doubtless, of the hostage soldier, taken in  battle -- yet 
thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of women and  children, remain in 
Israeli jails for resisting the illegal, ongoing occupation  that is condemned by 
international law. They think of the pluck and "toughness"  of Israel, 
"standing up" to "terrorists." Yet a nuclear Israel possesses the  13th-largest 
military force on the planet, one that is used to rule an area  about the size of 
New Jersey and whose adversaries there have no conventional  armed forces. Who 
is the underdog, supposedly America's traditional favorite, in  this case? 
I hope that Americans will give careful and well-informed  thought to root 
causes and historical realities, in which case I think they will  question why a 
supposedly "legitimate" state such as Israel has had to conduct  decades of 
war against a subject refugee population without ever achieving its  goals. 
Israel's unilateral movements of the past year will not lead  to peace. These 
acts -- the temporary withdrawal of forces from Gaza, the  walling off of the 
West Bank -- are not strides toward resolution but empty,  symbolic acts that 
fail to address the underlying conflict. Israel's nearly  complete control 
over the lives of Palestinians is never in doubt, as confirmed  by the 
humanitarian and economic suffering of the Palestinians since the January  elections. 
Israel's ongoing policies of expansion, military control and  assassination 
mock any notion of sovereignty or bilateralism. Its "separation  barrier," 
running across our land, is hardly a good-faith gesture toward future  coexistence. 
But there is a remedy, and while it is not easy it is  consistent with our 
long-held beliefs. Palestinian priorities include  recognition of the core 
dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the  rights of all its people; 
resolution of the refugee issue from 1948; reclaiming  all lands occupied in 
1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and  military expansion. 
Contrary to popular depictions of the crisis in the American  media, the dispute is 
not only about Gaza and the West Bank; it is a wider  national conflict that 
can be resolved only by addressing the full dimensions of  Palestinian 
national rights in an integrated manner. This means statehood for  the West Bank and 
Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948  Palestinian 
refugee issue fairly, on the basis of international legitimacy and  established 
law. Meaningful negotiations with a non-expansionist, law-abiding  Israel can 
proceed only after this tremendous labor has begun. 
Surely the American people grow weary of this folly, after  50 years and $160 
billion in taxpayer support for Israel's war-making capacity  -- its 
"defense." Some Americans, I believe, must be asking themselves if all  this blood and 
treasure could not have bought more tangible results for  Palestine if only 
U.S. policies had been predicated from the start on historical  truth, equity 
and justice. 
However, we do not want to live on international welfare and  American 
handouts. We want what Americans enjoy -- democratic rights, economic  sovereignty 
and justice. We thought our pride in conducting the fairest  elections in the 
Arab world might resonate with the United States and its  citizens. Instead, 
our new government was met from the very beginning by acts of  explicit, 
declared sabotage by the White House. Now this aggression continues  against 3.9 
million civilians living in the world's largest prison camps.  America's 
complacency in the face of these war crimes is, as usual, embedded in  the coded 
rhetorical green light: "Israel has a right to defend itself." Was  Israel defending 
itself when it killed eight family members on a Gaza beach last  month or 
three members of the Hajjaj family on Saturday, among them 6-year-old  Rawan? I 
refuse to believe that such inhumanity sits well with the American  public. 
We present this clear message: If Israel will not allow  Palestinians to live 
in peace, dignity and national integrity, Israelis  themselves will not be 
able to enjoy those same rights. Meanwhile, our right to  defend ourselves from 
occupying soldiers and aggression is a matter of law, as  settled in the 
Fourth Geneva Convention. If Israel is prepared to negotiate  seriously and fairly, 
and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the  secondary ones from 1967, 
a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a  hudna (comprehensive 
cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the  Holy Land still has an 
opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic  powerhouse for all the Semitic people 
of the region. If Americans only knew the  truth, possibility might become 
reality. 
The writer is prime minister of the Palestinian National  Authority.


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