BEIRUT Lebanon — Four years ago this week, the Palestinians erupted in a spontaneous uprising (intifada) against the Israeli occupation that had started in 1967. While Iraq and global terrorism have captured much of the world’s attention since 2001, the intifada and the wider Palestinian-Israeli struggle fester at the core of a concentric circle of conflicts and tensions that continue to spread menacingly from Palestine/Israel, to the wider Middle East, to the entire world. Focusing diplomatic and political energy on this core issue in the Middle East would pay substantial dividends in reducing tensions and active conflicts elsewhere in the region and the world.
As the intifada enters its fifth year this week, two new credible reports highlight the deteriorating situation for Palestinians and the political dynamics that must be addressed to get out of this worsening cycle. A well-documented report by the information clearinghouse of Palestinian non-governmental organizations, the Palestine Monitor, provides a chilling overview of the human and economic toll of occupation and resistance (4342 killed on both sides). Also, the respected independent research organization, the International Crisis Group (ICG), outlines the virtual chaos inside Palestinian political society in the West Bank, blaming this on both the Israeli occupation and indigenous Palestinian political paralysis. These two short but powerful reports make compelling reading, and deserve widespread consideration for what they portend if the current situation persists.
The Palestine Monitor report data shows that 1,008 Israeli and 3,334 Palestinians have been killed in the past four years, with 82% of the Palestinians killed being civilians –- an average of two-to-three Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers, police or settlers every day. A total of 621 Palestinian children under the age of 17 have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces, of whom 411 were shot with live ammunition and 200 were shot in the head, face or neck. Another 10,000 Palestinian children have been injured.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the director of the Palestinian Health Development and Information Project, and a respected independent political democracy activist based in Ramallah who directs the Palestine Monitor, charged Monday that “the telling figures of head injuries among children obviously indicates that Israeli forces were shooting to kill. In fact the majority of Palestinianskilled have suffered injuries to the head and upper body.”
A total of 424 Palestinians have died in “extra-judicial executions” (targeted assassinations) by Israel, of whom 186 were bystanders or “unintended” victims, including 39 children and 26 women. Israel this week assassinated a Palestinian resistance leader based in Damascus, Syria, indicating one manner in which the Palestine conflict spreads to other lands.
A detailed breakdown of these and other statistics on the consequences of the last four years in Palestine is available at the website www.palestinemonitor.org. It includes alarming figures on widespread deterioration in health, economic and education conditions (e.g., Israeli forces have shelled or broken into 298 Palestinian schools), destruction of $1 billion worth of Palestinian infrastructure, severe water problems, and the negative consequences of Israel’s continued expansion of colonies/settlements and construction of its Apartheid-like “separation wall” around the West Bank.
The pain of occupation for Palestinians combines with a continuing quest for appropriate political responses, including non-violent resistance options and how to deal with the fact that Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan from Gaza ultimately offers the Palestinians a “state” on just 11 percent of historic Palestine (the Gaza Strip and some 40 percent of the West Bank).
The ICG report probes more deeply into the political governance dynamics of the West Bank, showing that the Palestinian crisis in decision-making stems from both the consequences of the Israeli occupation and domestic Palestinian factors (see www.icg.org). It states bluntly and accurately:
Although the occupation and the confrontation with Israel that is entering its fifth year provide the context, today’s Palestinian predicament is decidedly domestic. Recent power struggles, armed clashes, and demonstrations do not pit Palestinians against Israelis so much as Palestinians against each other; the chaos is a product not solely of Israel’s policies, but of Palestinian ones as well. The political system is close to breaking point, paralyzed and unable to make basic decisions the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been in virtually continuous crisis since the uprising began in September 2000.
As fragmentation has intensified, a growing number of primarily local actors have stepped into the breach: mayors and governors, kinship networks, political groups, and armed militias. Increasingly, however, they are also vehicles for narrower interests, which have repeatedly brought them into competition and conflict with one another. The result is growing chaos throughout the West Bank.
With continuing Israeli-Palestinian violence and political inaction in the places that count most – the PA, Israel, and the U.S.– the odds against decisive action are high. But the alternative is growing chaos and mayhem in the West Bank. The costs to Palestinians are obvious. But these should be no less clear to Israelis seeking security and to an international community that watches with alarm as one conflict in the Middle East feeds upon another, and as a dangerous blend of desperation, rage and violence steadily takes hold.
For those who have followed events in Israel/Palestine for years, there are no surprises here, as we monitor the persistence of four simultaneous dynamics: the Israeli occupation with its expansion of colonial settlements and construction of the Apartheid wall, Palestinian armed and peaceful resistance, a gradual breakdown in internal Palestinian society, and collective incompetence and irresponsibility on the part of the Palestinian, Israeli, American and Arab leaders whose countries directly suffer the consequences of these ugly trends.
Rami G. Khouri is executive editor of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.
Copyright © 2004 Rami G. Khouri
—————-
Released: 30 September 2004
Word Count: 919 words
—————-
For rights and permissions, contact:
rights@agenceglobal.com, 1.336.686.9002 or 1.336.286.6606