Protestors called Barak a “peace faker” and dismissed his talk as official Israeli propaganda

By Roya Aziz, IOL California correspondent

BERKELEY, California, November 21 (IslamOnline) - Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said in a speech in the University of California Tuesday, November 19, that a Middle East peace process cannot resume until a new Palestinian leader emerges.

Amid tight security, Barak spoke while over 250 people protested his appearance on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Barak began his speech by praising the U.S. so-called war on terrorism, and warned that the fight will demand a worldwide effort.

“We’re just in the opening chapter of this ordeal,” he said. “But we have to win this first World War of the 21^st century.”

He said “Muslim terror,” has three goals: bringing down the United States, toppling moderate Arab regimes in the Middle East, and from there, moving on to the destruction of Israel.

“The choice is clear, destroy world terror or be destroyed by world terror,” he said.

In his talk, Barak blamed Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for the failed Camp David summit in 2000. Quoting the recently deceased Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, he said Arafat “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity” for peace.

He also said Arafat does not have the “character of a president Anwar Sadat or King Hussein of Jordan.”

While the doors to peace should remain open, he said, talks could not move forward until bombing attacks cease. He also said peace depends in part on the construction of a “security fence” along the West Bank to physically disengage Israel from the Palestinians.

Barak repeated the U.S. and Israeli position that Camp David would have given Palestinians a contiguous state across 90 percent of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip, with “access” to neighboring Arab states. Instead, he said, Arafat rejected the offer and launched a “terror campaign” as a tool of negotiation.

At that moment, over a dozen protestors inside the auditorium stood, revealing white T-shirts with the word “LIE” written in bold, black letters. They would get up several times during his Camp David defense.

Barak denied that the Israeli occupation is the reason for the continuing intifada. He also defended the building of illegal settlements during his term as the result of previously signed contracts that he would not break.

“Whenever a Palestinian spokesman tells you it is about occupation, occupation, occupation, I tell you no — it is about terror,” he said.

A few moments later, the protestors walked out as a group, some of them shouting at Barak as they left under police escort. Barak’s security on stage took a step forward but protestors left without further incident.

“I suggest to you instead of shouting now, ask questions later and I will answer all of them,” Barak said to them, drawing applause from the audience.

At the end of his speech, most people in attendance gave Barak a standing ovation. Media in the United States hailed Barak as a general-turned-peacemaker.

But outside, at a teach-in, protestors called Barak a “peace faker” and dismissed his talk as official Israeli propaganda.

Critics of Camp David note that under the agreement, the future Palestinian state would have no territorial integrity or sovereignty. Under the proposed plan, Israel would have annexed valuable land with water resources and retained “security control,” over Palestinian lands and borders.

Osama Qasem, president of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, said Camp David would only have expanded the “jail cells” of the Palestinians inside the occupied territories.

“The biggest lie is Barak’s so-called generous offer to the Palestinians,” he said. “It was only a historic offer in the sense that up until then, Palestinians were offered nothing.”

Berkeley students are among those across U.S. campuses calling for divestment from Israel, which they say is an apartheid state. Barak, during a question and answer session, said such claims are “baseless.”

“The propaganda  is not going to work,” Ishay Rosen-Zvi told a crowd of protestors.

“We’ve seen what’s going on. We’ve seen the horror [in Jenin].”

Rosen-Zvi said he was arrested by the Israeli army for refusing to serve in the occupied territories.

Activists included Students for Justice in Palestine, a Jewish Voice for Peace and various anti-war groups. Students wore kuffiyehs and carried large Palestinian flags in support.

Dozens of police were at hand, barricading the area in front of the auditorium where Barak spoke. Ticket-holders to the talk were screened by security before entering.

Two years ago, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli foreign minister, canceled his planned talk at the Berkeley Community Theater after protestors blocked the theater’s gates.

Last month, former Camp David negotiator Dennis Ross spoke without facing protest. Ross, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, is director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israeli think tank.

Barak’s talk was sponsored by the university and the Israel Action Committee, a student group.

Columbia professor Edward Said is scheduled to speak here in Berkeley in February as part of university-sponsored dialogues on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  

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