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A Palestinian state is the only road to peace
Posted: Thursday, August 1, 2002
By Ash Pulcifer, YellowTimes.org
Nine days after Israel's devastating attack on Palestinian civilians and a known Hamas militant in Gaza, the Palestinian extremist group Hamas quickly claimed credit for a bomb unleashed in Hebrew University's school cafeteria on July 31. At least seven people were killed and more than eighty wounded.
According to a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Jerusalem's Deputy Police Chief Ilan Franco stated that this was believed to be an explosive device rather than a suicide bomber. The same report quoted Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leading Hamas figure: "Now [the Israelis] are paying the price of killing our children, women and leaders."
This cycle of violence will continue as long as world leaders continue to drag their feet over the creation of a Palestinian state, watching as more innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians are murdered. Moreover, as long as the Bush administration, being the primary supporter of Israel, continues to cower away from making a bold policy decision in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the longer the stench of death will hang over Israel and the Occupied Territories.
The mainstream media in the United States, while decrying the injustice caused by Palestinian militants, has failed to recognize or comment on the injustice caused by the Sharon government. While correctly condemning the tactics of suicide bombers and with the exception of the recent barbaric attack on Gaza, the media has continually failed to scold the Sharon government for its murderous assaults on both Palestinians and all those who aid the Palestinian movement for the creation of a state alongside Israel.
Frequently, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have shot unarmed human rights activists from Europe, the United States and elsewhere who have marched with the general Palestinian population.
Even well-known and credible news agencies have been subject to hostile responses from the IDF, as seen in a CNN news report of April 5 titled "Israeli troops throw stun grenades at journalists." According to this report, CNN's Michael Holmes reported that "two Israeli military jeeps pulled up along with another unmarked car and ordered the journalists to leave, but not all members of the group heard what the soldiers said. At that point, about six stun grenades were thrown into the midst of the journalists by Israeli soldiers."
Even as the journalists drove away in five armored media vehicles, Holmes stated that "the soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets on them. … Two bullets struck the back of the vehicle being driven by the CNN crew, damaging a rear window."
We don't have to imagine how the IDF responds to less-prominent media crews who are known to favor the Palestinians. These reporters have been shot with live bullets and, in some cases, murdered by IDF snipers with their cameras still clutched in their dying hands.
The explanation of the Sharon government for these acts of extreme violence always circles around the fact that Israel is in a time of war and anyone on the modern battlefield could be subjected to accidental shooting or harassment; however, these explanations are not acceptable.
The internationals, along with the media, are there because they have read reports of hundreds of Palestinian innocents who have been killed by the IDF, only to be written off as collateral damage. Israeli or American press reports somehow always come to the conclusion that the state of Israel does not target civilians. Unfortunately, whether they target civilians does not change the fact that hundreds of Palestinian innocents are dying directly and indirectly due to Israeli policy – a rate much steeper than that for Israeli innocents.
Despite both sides having blood on their hands, the mainstream media in the United States still fails to label irrational acts of violence by the Israeli government upon Palestinian civilians as acts of terrorism; in fact, they will not even call it injustice. The media, along with the Bush administration, continues to point out that Israel is fighting against terror and that their means are justified. Frankly, the Palestinians believe it is they, not the Israelis, who are fighting terrorism.
But how many more suicide bombings and murdered Israeli civilians will it take for the proponents of current Israeli policy to realize that terror only fuels the flames for more terror? No matter how many assassinations, no matter how many more curfews enforced by sniper fire, no matter how many more helicopter gunship and F-16 bombings, no matter how many more tank attack and destroy missions into refugee camps: the Sharon government will not be able to stop the anger of Palestinian militants who will unleash their fury on any available Israeli target.
Benedict Carey from the Los Angeles Times, in an article published on July 30, 2002, confirmed the belief that terror creates terror. In "Method without madness?" Carey studied the motives behind suicide bombers. His conclusions were that "people who have witnessed or been subjected to violence are particularly susceptible to [suicide bombing] … the families of Palestinian suicide bombers often cite motives of revenge for a father or brother killed or beaten by Israeli soldiers."
According to this logic, what the Sharon government is doing is turning more Palestinian civilians into Palestinian militants as more and more Palestinians are exposed to extreme amounts of violence and hardship that come with the constant occupational and oppressive conditions they are forced to endure.
The best way to alleviate these horrible conditions is for Israel to give up the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinian leadership. Judging by the history of independence movements, the Palestinian people will not stop their quest for self-determination until they receive it.
It is up to the United States government, being the primary supplier of Israel's war and oppression machine, to pressure the Sharon government into reaching out for peace.
[Ash Pulcifer, a lifelong activist for international human rights, lives in the United States. Ash finds it unacceptable that the world often turns its back to those less fortunate members of our species who live in poverty.]
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