Stealing Territories In Times Of Truce

Maher Othman     Al-Hayat     2003/07/4

Is the ongoing peace process, known as the Roadmap, of any use to the Palestinians, if all Israel leaves for the Palestinian state mentioned in the map only the territories of the main cities that hinder the Jewish settlements, which are continuously expanding in Gaza Strip and the West Bank?

One might risk saying that the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from these cities is an advantage that will be secured thanks to the three-months truce announced by the Palestinians. But Sharon's government has made it clear that it does not want peace with the Palestinians, but is seeking to guarantee its surrender with an indirect American approval, veiled by soft words about a better future for the Palestinians if they "dismantle the terrorist organizations"! In other words, if they stop resisting the illegal occupation armed, financed and politically veiled by the U.S. It is to note that, although the Palestinians have declared a truce, Israel continues perpetrating war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, for it did not freeze the building of settlements, stopped stealing Palestinian land or destroying their houses, just as it did not stop controlling their moves. It also pursued its murders in the Balata refugee camp yesterday and Wednesday night in Qalqiliyah. In both attacks, two activists of Al Aqsa Brigades related to Fatah were killed. Yesterday, the occupation forces closed again the Northern-Southern road in Gaza Strip.

However, Israel's most dangerous violation of the international laws and UN resolutions, especially under Sharon, is the building of the separation wall, which it pretended was for security purposes, even though it is confiscating thousands of square meters of fertile Palestinian land. When the U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice discussed with Sharon the issue of the wall upon a Palestinian request, he was very clear that he was not ready to stop building it, "even though this will cause a conflict with Washington!" Israel's expansion reached Jerusalem and the Jordan River it wants to steal its territories.

Dr. Azmi Bishara, the Arab deputy in the Knesset, wrote in an article published by Al-Hayat entitled The Wall: Its Meaning, Danger and Necessity of Resisting it, that the eight meters racist separation wall Israel built to separate it from the majority of the Palestinians in the West Bank, has caused damages to 67 Palestinian families, whose territories were confiscated or destroyed, among which are 15 villages that were separated of their agricultural land, which remained in the western side of the wall.

We will find as far as we get closer to the end of 2005, the date for the establishment of the "independent" Palestinian state, that the surface of this promised state is as wide as Israel left it, its neighbor it is supposed to live next to it in security and peace.

Is the Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas objective when he says that the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis is a political one and hence, cannot be settled by force but by political means, especially if the U.S. is overlooking Sharon's actions? Are the Israelis treating the Palestinians with politics and diplomacy or with heavy bulldozers, F16's, tanks and American Apache helicopters to complete the establishment of "Eretz Israel"?