The only logical way to read the Sharm al-Sheikh summit is in accordance
with the recommendation of Ariel Sharon: "only actions and not words--this
is the only way to attain the vision of two states". We must judge by facts
on the ground and not by the verbal promises that were disseminated. If this
lesson has not been learned from the Oslo years with their stream of
promises of peace and prosperity for two states, then why waste words?
The summit produced an admission of fatigue on the part of both sides,
however asymmetrical they are--fatigue from the bloodletting. The summit
itself featured an attempt at chumminess (Sharon inviting himself to
Ramallah, joking with Abu Ala about the fence at Abu Dis, etc.) that created
the appearance of parity between two equal antagonists who promise from
herein to behave themselves. But the moment mortar shells began falling on
the Qatif Bloc, we returned to the language of "you'll be sorry" and the
clank of tank treads. These admonitions brought us back to the summit's real
point of departure in Israeli eyes: the Palestinians are the aggressors;
they started it. Abu Mazen rose to the challenge. He knows that the weak
Palestinian position requires him to act like the aggressor who now regrets
his act.
Yet just because this is the impression enforced by Israeli superiority
doesn't make it right. The brutal, violent gap between the promises of Oslo
that the "occupation was over" and the reality experienced by the
Palestinians--of ever tighter Israeli control, direct and indirect, over
their lives and their chances to progress and develop--is what ignited the
"second intifada". If we now achieve a temporary calm due to fatigue on both
sides without eliminating the cause--the Israeli occupation of the entire
West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip--no one can predict
when that calm will end. But it will. And so will the calm to follow.
Sometimes the absence of a reply points to the reply. From July 2005 the
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, carriers of Israeli IDs, will no
longer be permitted to enter Ramallah. That is when construction will be
completed on the wall and the Erez-type passage at Kalandia, deep inside
Palestinian territory. Only those who obtain an entry permit (and experience
teaches us how difficult that is) will be permitted to pass. I asked the
Prime Minister's Office and the IDF whether this doesn't this contradict two
developments: first, permission for residents of East Jerusalem to vote in
the elections for the head of the Palestinian Authority, and second, the
possibility of calm and a return to final status negotiations. I received no
answer.
That silence tells us, just as the bulldozers and the soldiers who
already prevent Jerusalem Palestinians from traveling to Ramallah tell us,
that Israel is following her plan: East Jerusalem will be separated from
Ramallah, and of course from Bethlehem. Only if those bulldozers cease
working immediately, if the soldiers immediately stop preventing East
Jerusalemites from passing through Kalandia, will we know that the
government of Israel seeks calm; that it is prepared to cease the violence
of its arrogance and domination.
According to media reports, Israel rejected the Palestinian demand
(demand? the Palestinians can demand something?) to remove the roadblocks
put up during the past four years. The message is clear: the party that does
not intend to cease building settlements cannot remove roadblocks. After
all, they are intended to ensure the safety of the settlers and of ongoing
settlement expansion. Thus only if all the roadblocks and checkpoints are
removed and the West Bank roads cease to be strictly for Jews, will we know
that Israel wants calm.
Sharon talked at the summit of "two states". Just like the Communist
Party of Israel and the Sheli Party more than 30 years ago. But when you
look at what is happening on the ground you realize that this is not a
matter of two states for two peoples but rather of 11 states: the state of
Israel, and alongside and within it the states of Gaza, Hebron, Bethlehem,
Ramallah, Jericho, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Salfit, Nablus, and Jenin. Each of
these states is separated from the others by growing Jewish territorial
contiguity: a network of expanding settlements, separate, highly developed
and enticing road, electricity and water infrastructure for Jews only,
military emplacements, and permanent and mobile checkpoints.
Judging by the facts on the ground today, the biggest compromise that
Israel under Sharon will accept is in the number of Palestinian states,
e.g., seven instead of 11.- Published 14/2/2005 (c) bitterlemons.org
Amira Hass has been the Haaretz correspondent in the occupied
territories since 1993.
