The Palestinians and Israelis at the Crossroads

by Nafez and Laila Nazzal, Ramallah

The summit at Sharm El-Sheikh on February 13, 2005 culminated in a series of understandings between the Israelis and the Palestinians to put them back on the track of the Roadmap and negotiations in the hope of attaining the elusive peace they have been seeking. The Israelis would redeploy from the Palestinian cities they had occupied in September 2000, and would cease their invasions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians as well as remove the three hundred checkpoints that have rendered the Palestinians immobile. The Palestinians would maintain law and order and disarm the militants, ensure that the Palestinian factions stop their attacks against the Israelis, and end the Al-Aqsa intifada or uprising.

The Palestinian and Israelis are still haggling over the withdrawal from the cities of the West Bank and the release of Palestinian prisoners and waging a war of semantics. The Israelis insist that the withdrawal should only be from the cities, which technically means that they move out of the cities and set up the checkpoints a few meters outside the entrances to these cities. The Palestinians, on the other hand insist that the redeployment should be from the districts and environs of these cities, so that people can travel back and forth between their villages and towns. So far, the Israelis have only redeployed from the cities of Jericho and Tulkarem. At present, the Israeli government stopped the redeployment from the other cities of the West Bank altogether until the Palestinian Authority fights terrorism and disarms the militants, particularly the members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al-Aqsa Brigades, a Fateh group.

Liberation of all prisoners

The Israelis are also refusing to release additional prisoners because they claim that many are security risks, and may carry out attacks against Israel upon their release, and some have “Jewish blood on their hands” and must remain incarcerated. The Palestinians insist on the release of all prisoners because they are prisoners of war. The Palestinians are also frustrated because they do not see Israel implementing any significant measures on the ground as the Sharm El-Sheikh understanding stipulates. Israel is continuing to build the apartheid wall in the West Bank, which is double the size of the “green line” or the 1967 border between Israel and the West Bank. By the time the construction of the wall is completed, Israel would have expropriated 7% of the total land of the West Bank. Israel is also continuing with its settlement building and adding additional housing units to existing settlements, to make up for the withdrawal of the six thousand settlers from the Gaza Strip.

Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip, set to begin July 20, 2005, has caused great consternation among many Israelis who oppose the withdrawal vehemently. The resistance comes from all sectors of Israeli society, settlers, civilians, soldiers, and members of the Knesset, even from Sharon‘s own Likud party. There is trepidation that once Israel starts its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, civil war will erupt in Israel. The settlers have campaigned vigilantly to stop the withdrawal. They have collected signatures for petitions calling for a referendum or vote on the withdrawal. They have fought with soldiers at demonstrations. They have attacked Palestinian in their villages; in the week of March 20, 2005, alone, six villages where attacked around Hebron and Nablus. Even rabbis have called on soldiers to disobey orders to evacuate the six thousand settlers from the Gaza Strip.

Does Israel face a civil war?

Sharon’s government has attempted to neutralize the opposition against the withdrawal from Gaza by taking specific steps to assure the settlers that Israel is withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, but definitely not from the West Bank. Recently, the government has approved the construction of 6400 housing units to existing settlements in the West Bank; 3500 units are planned for the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem which the Israelis are planning to include within the apartheid wall that they are planning. Israel is also building a new neighborhood in the south of Jerusalem and in the area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim. The building of this area would prevent East Jerusalem from expanding in the future and using this land to enlarge the Palestinian suburbs that surround the city of Jerusalem. The wall would then encircle Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and prevent the contiguity of the north and southern parts of the West Bank. In addition, thousands of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem now find themselves living outside the city, separated by the wall. The Palestinians are indignant at these measures, which affects their lives and the future negotiations regarding the status of Jerusalem.

Desire for peace on both sides

The Palestinian government has recently issued a law prohibiting the carrying of unlicensed arms in an attempt to end the state of anarchy and to bring an end to the flaunting of weapons as has been the case for the last four years. Palestinian security forces have been deployed along the Gaza/Israel border, in order to prevent militants from shooting missiles at Israel settlements. The Palestinian Minister of Interior, Yousef Nasser has also begun unifying the thirteen security forces that make up the policing authority of the Palestinians under three branches in order to maintain law and order in Palestinian cities and to comply with Israeli, European Union and United States demands. Abu Mazen has also appointed a new Palestinian cabinet composed of technocrats unlike the previous cabinets, which consisted of Arafat cronies, members of “the old guard” and the Palestinian Legislative Council, until new elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council take place on July 9, 2005. Furthermore, Abu Mazen to his credit has since his elections held a series of meetings in Gaza and Egypt with all the Palestinian factions to persuade them to stop their militant activities against Israel. As president of the PLO, Abu Mazen has agreed to restructure the organization to allow Islamic Jihad and Hamas to become members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In the past, Arafat had invited the two organizations to join, but they refused to join because the PLO had recognized Israel’s right to exist. Hamas has undergone a restructuring of its organization, particularly after the assassination of its spiritual leader Ahmad Yassein and his successor, Abd Al-Aziz Rantisi. They have also suffered financially as donors have reduced their contributions to the organization given the over-all watchfulness of governments and financial institutions worldwide on Islamic organizations since the September 11, 2002 on the World Trade Center. It is for these reasons that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have risen to the situation and agreed to the one-year cease-fire, to participate in the forthcoming Palestine Legislative Council or the Palestinian parliament elections in July 9, 2005 and to join the PLO. Recently, Hamas has been jubilant since its victory in the municipal elections held in February 2005 in the Gaza Strip, where it won seven out of the nine municipalities, much to everyone’s surprise.

Fateh in trouble

The Palestinian factions have begun assessing their internal affairs. Fateh, Arafat’s faction and the ruling party is currently engaged in an intensive soul-searching process to understand why its popular support has declined significantly among the masses. Two hundred and seventy young leaders of the faction resigned en masse because of growing dissatisfaction with the administration of the movement by the “old guards”. They are unwavering in their demands for political, economic, and administrative reforms to make Fateh more democratic and transparent. The dissenting members are calling for the restructuring of Fateh, placing younger members in top leadership positions, and undertaking a campaign to uncover and deal with corruption, since it has lost its popular mass support and is fast becoming a member-only movement. Recently, Fateh lost the student union elections at Hebron University and the Islamic University in Gaza to the Islamic groups. The younger leadership of Fateh is also insisting that the Fateh Revoultionary Council and the Fateh Central Committee actively garner support of the masses in order to win the July 9, 2005 election and regain the support that they once had.

Israel had hoped that Abu Mazen would disarm the militants by force leading to a bloody civil war between the Palestinians. A Palestinian civil war would definitely devastate and impoverish Palestinian society. It would also last for several years during which Israel would continue to swallow more of the land of Palestine, beef-up the settlements by building thousands of additional housing units and complete the apartheid wall that it has carved into the heart of the Palestinian territories. By the time the Palestinians stopped fighting among themselves, they would be so weak and divided, that they would have no recourse but to accept the crumbs that the Israelis offer with very little resistance.

Palestinians and Israelis do want peace and a resolution to their conflict. The question is when will it happen, how and at what cost?

Only time will tell.