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Friday, May 07, 2004

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International

Choking protests doesn't kill hope

By Praful Bidwai

RAMALLAH: The West Bank and Gaza are ruled by summary `orders' issued by Israeli Defence Forces commanders, which are rarely subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Human-rights activists say this encourages arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and use of human shields.

Of the 15,000 people arrested during the 2002 reoccupation, 6,000 remain jailed— 649 in "administrative detention" (no charges, no trial). The latest reports say 377 Palestinian children are in Israeli detention. They are routinely placed in adult jails.

Israel is a signatory to the UN Convention against Torture, but does not recognise the relevant investigative committee under it. Between 1987 and 1999, it followed the Landau Ministerial Committee's licence to use "moderate physical pressure" on detainees.

The rights group B'tselem says 850 Palestinians were tortured each year on average. Israel's Supreme Court outlawed torture only in 1999, but the practice continues.

There is evidence that IDF uses "human shields." For instance, On April 22, soldiers tied 13-year-old Mohammed Said Essa Badran to a jeep's hood.

"Yet, it'd be a mistake to think that Israel's strategy against Palestinian statehood is only about blood-and-gore or bulldozing", argues Michael Warschawski, co-chairman of Jerusalem's Alternative Information Centre. "It also employs `softer', insidious, methods designed to cause discomfort and insecurity ... "

The `softer' aspects became recently visible in the arrest of well-known moderate Sari Nusseibeh, Al-Quds University president and co-sponsor of the "People's Voice" peace initiative. He was charged with employing Palestinians without proper work-permits.

Rights activists condemn this as an attempt to "silence the voice of peace." Many Palestinians, they hold, are illegitimately denied work-permits. Israelis too routinely employ undocumented Palestinians. The authorities apply the law selectively.

Other measures include stricter permits for Israel-born Palestinians visiting Gaza/West Bank. Award-winning journalist Amira Hass reports the case of Be'er Sheva-based Israeli-Palestinian anaesthesiologist Ibrahim Ashur, married to a Gaza native (barred from Israel). They can only meet in Gaza — for which Ashur needs a permit, involving restrictive conditions.

After Sheikh Yassin's March 22 assassination, IDF stopped issuing Gaza-visit permits altogether. It recently told Ashur he could get a permit, but must spend three full months in Gaza. The choice is between his family and his job!

Even earlier, thousands of Palestinian families were split by residency restrictions — similar, says Warschawski, to apartheid South Africa's "pass laws".

In Ramallah, I interviewed a young Gazan married to an Israeli-Arab. He hasn't visited his parents for eight years. (If he does, he cannot return). His wife cannot disclose her status for fear of losing her Israeli citizenship — "although we are second-class citizens".

There is systematic discrimination against Israeli-Palestinians (20 per cent of Israel's population) right from school, says Human Rights Watch. A 2003 law illegalises marriage between Israelis and Palestinians (by ethnicity, nationality, or residence).

Even the private sector discriminates by adding a "fine-print" line to job advertisements: "After Military Service" — which is open only to Jewish Israelis.

These harsh conditions leave Palestinians few options: they cannot assemble or protest peacefully. Forums for Israeli-Palestine dialogue/interaction are shrinking. There are no civil society or official negotiations.

"The result is complete and utter frustration, hurt and humiliation," says an activist of Physicians for Human Rights. "All peaceful avenues seem shut. That's where the roots of violence lie. Hamas-style suicide-bombing is totally unjustified. But it becomes almost inevitable... That perpetuates a vicious cycle in which state and sub-state terrorism flourish, making Palestinians and Israelis more insecure."

There is a Palestinian Authority and even an Internet country-domain identity. But the PA's writ does not run even in Ramallah. Its powers are municipal. The Muqaata, and the PA's former police headquarters, are proof of this. One day, IDF just bombed the headquarters to ruins.

Until a few weeks ago, the PA's police dared not wear its camouflage-blue uniform. IDF would shoot at them.

The PA's post-2002 isolation and humiliation by Israel has intensified Palestinian frustration. Under Oslo, the PA assumed responsibilities for health, education, law-and-order, etc. But it could not deliver— because of lack of resources, Israeli obstruction, inefficiency or corruption. Non-performance has further eroded its popularity.

The greatest loser from this is the Arafat-controlled Fatah group. The vacuum has been filled partially by extremists like Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and partly by new groups like Palestinian National Initiative led by Mustafa Barghouthi, and grassroots NGOs working with refugees, which attract the youth with imaginative ideas.

Despite repression aimed at ending all negotiations, there is intellectual ferment and policy-oriented debate in Palestinian society — on non-violent vs violent methods, on two-state and single-state (bilateral or secular) solutions, and on strategies to attract multilateral global intervention (since Washington is transparently a "dishonest broker").

There is popular pressure on Hamas to abandon terrorist attacks on non-combatants, which turn counter-productive, and also accept the reality of Israel.

The greatest hope in the street is that of a unified Palestinian leadership, independent of Washington, which can mobilise the combined resources of people under occupation, the Israeli-Palestinians, the Diaspora, and the international community.

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