Trying Times for Palestinians

Gangs united under Fatah's umbrella are managed by war profiteers affiliated with the PA and serving as Israel's allies (Reuters photo)..

And a time of crisis it is. Never since the creation of the Israeli state, and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of nearly one million Palestinians in 1947-48, has an Israeli government been as determined to settle its account with the Palestinians as that of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in so vile and careless a way.

There is a growing sense of fear and anxiety, among Israeli politicians, from a possible relegation of the US political hegemony and import. The United States has served — and paradoxically inconsistently with its own interests — the role of the protector and provider, leaving Israel exempt from any regional and international accountability, free to pursue its own agenda — imperialistic and racist as it were — at the expense of the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors. The Israeli heyday may be over soon; there are growing predictions that the American project — for various reasons, notwithstanding the disaster-prone Iraq war — is likely to diminish in the coming years. And without US patronage, Israel is much less capable of serving as the region’s bully.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seemed fully aware of this reality. As one of Israel’s last pioneers and also the last of its great Zionist figures, he wished to "secure" Israel by unilaterally claiming whichever territories he found strategic — based on military logic, and access to water aquifers and fertile lands — and ditching smaller pockets of land that constituted a demographic liability and were strategically irrelevant.

Sharon’s unexpected incapacitation didn’t mean the end of his historic mission. To the contrary, his sudden absence helped his successor, Olmert, to rally overwhelmed Israelis around Sharon’s Kadima party — established precisely to carry out the latter's vision of a secure Israel. Olmert has acquired three significant mandates to follow up on what Sharon has already started in his "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip: that of the Israeli voters through the country’s recent elections; a subtle understanding among the Knesset’s major political parties, not withstanding his Labor partners; and a less convincing nod from President George W. Bush, which was understood by the Israeli media as a "green light" for Olmert to carry out his "convergence" plan.

The term "convergence" is another Israeli newspeak word and is as deceiving as Sharon’s "disengagement." It is aimed at the seize of the West Bank’s most fertile land in the west and the inclusion of major Jewish settlement blocks — all illegal under international law — to become part of the so-called Israel proper.

Moreover, Olmert’s plan is to also usurp large swathes of Palestinian land in the east — parallel to the fertile Jordan valley — estimated to make up some 40 percent of the total size of the West Bank. The remaining Palestinian-"controlled" territories of the West Bank will be carved up into several major pockets — over populated, some completely fenced; and movement in and out of such enclaves necessitates an Israeli permit.

Such a system has already been put into practice, especially between Occupied East Jerusalem and surrounding areas. With the conversion of the Israeli military checkpoint at Qalandia — adjacent to Jerusalem — into an "international border" point, West Bank Palestinians wishing to enter Jerusalem, and those from Jerusalem wishing to go into the West Bank, are treated like foreigners trying to enter alien territories. In other areas, Palestinian farmers are urged to acquire permits to farm their own land, as school kids queue up everyday, sometimes for hours, in front of Israeli fences, walls, and checkpoints, just to be allowed passage to their schools.

One need not be a world-class economist to deduce that such physical restrictions will make it impossible for any economy to thrive in the Palestinian territories, even after the Israeli unilateral disengagement from the West Bank, expected within two years.

Israeli acts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are a violation of international law and represent the most obscene disregard for human rights, as they aim to imprison an entire population, holding its hopes and aspirations hostage to the decisions of some Israeli boy soldiers manning hundreds of checkpoints dotting the West Bank.

To achieve its grand design, Israel needs time and money; the latter has been provided with enthusiasm and in abundance — courtesy of Uncle Sam, who is ironically broke. But to acquire time, Israel is relying more than ever on Palestinian divisions and infighting.

The internal Palestinian strife preceding the advent of Hamas’s rise to power resulted in numerous gangs uniting under the umbrella of the Fatah party. The gangs are largely managed by rich war profiteers, who were affiliated with the Palestinian Authority and served as Israel’s allies in the region. (Through their VIP cards, they traveled around, in and out of the Occupied Territories, without any hindrances.) Neither the profiteers nor their clan-based gangs held on to any ideological preference, nor did they seem wary of the encroaching Israeli danger and what it means to the Palestinian people and their enduring struggle for freedom.

Through their privileges — with the Israelis, the PA and outside "donors" — they knitted an intricate system that is based on nepotism and corruption. While the PA’s top echelons turned a blind eye to the belligerence of this crowd, both Israel and the United States fully supported them: Israel with free travel access and often weapons, and the United States with political validation and cash.

The results were devastating and pushed ordinary Palestinians to the brink. In the March Parliamentary elections, Palestinians from all walks of life voted for what they perceived as the only viable political alternative: Hamas. They did not vote for Islamic governance, nor did they wish to see a rise in suicide bombings. (It’s unfortunate that the media’s inane understanding of the conflict insists on seeing Palestinian politics within these unrepresentative parameters only.)

The Hamas win was perceived as dangerous; yet it embodied an opportunity of sorts for Israel. It was an opportunity in the sense that it would absolve Israeli completely from ever engaging in any sort of dialogue with the Palestinians; it was dangerous because if the elected Palestinian government managed to moderate its position, it would heap pressure on Israel to engage the Palestinians, which could slow down the ultimate Israeli project in the Occupied Territories. To use the opportunities and avoid possible negative repercussions, Israel schemed to isolate the Palestinian government internationally, through cutting funds and diplomatic contacts, and internally, by using its Palestinian allies to create wide disturbances, instability, and a state of chaos. Ironically, Palestinian security forces have been sent on a mission aimed at ensuring the opposite of both. The fact that a wider conflict has been averted thus far is, in my opinion, a wonder.

Time is running out. Palestinians are under total isolation, aside from friendly but superficial gestures from some Arab and Muslim countries. Coupled with their failure to transcend factional divides and pitiful, untimely quarrels, Palestinians are giving Israel the time and pretense to carry out Sharon’s racist vision to the last letter. The Israeli wall, in its most literal and figurative senses, is closing in, and ordinary, defenseless Palestinians are feeling the brunt of the siege and the inhumanity of the Israeli occupation more than ever before. It is time for Palestinian factions, and those who still posses the wisdom and the courage to unite, to speak out and to divert their energies to serve their nation’s honorable fight for freedom.

Indeed, Palestinians are living in one of the most critical and historic times. Let it not be the most shameful as well.

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers, journals, and anthologies around the world. His latest book is, "The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle" (Pluto Press, London), and his forthcoming book is, "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story" (Pluto Press, London).