People's Democracy

THE last two months have been among the most harrowing for the Palestinian people in their recent history as the Israeli State, encouraged by the Americans, is systematically destroying the political authority of President Yassar Arafat. The Israeli government has made it clear to the international community that it no longer considers the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a negotiating partner. Palestinian autonomy has now been reduced to a myth as the Israeli army attacks and occupies areas under the PA with impunity. Not a single day passes without Israeli tanks and troops encroaching into more and more areas that have been under Palestinian self-rule. At the same time the number of Palestinian civilians assassinated by the Israeli security forces is increasing daily.

In the second week of January, Israeli security forces had assassinated the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs brigade, Raed Karmi. The group is affiliated to the Al Fatah. The killing had signaled the end of the three-week de facto truce between Israel and the Palestinians. Despite the truce, more than 18 Palestinians had been assassinated by the Israeli security services, but the various Palestinian factions had not retaliated in a bid to strengthen Arafat’s negotiating hand. 600 Palestinians were made homeless in Gaza in the third week of January after Israeli bulldozers razed their homes, again in a pre-dawn strike. Before the brutal attack on the town of Tulkarm in the fourth week of January, the main broadcasting station of the PA was demolished in a pre-dawn attack by the Israeli army.

Israeli armoured vehicles had pushed to within 100 feet of Arafat’s compound in Ramallah in the third week of January. More than half the town is now under Israeli occupation. Arafat has been forcibly confined to his compound in Ramallah since the middle of December. The Israeli government had prevented Arafat from attending even the traditional midnight Mass at Bethlehem. Arafat has been unfailingly attending Christmas festivities in Bethlehem since 1995, after the holy city was handed over to the Palestinian Authority. After the new Palestinian uprising started in September 2000, Bethlehem was among the Palestinian towns which bore the brunt of Israeli aggression.

Before Christmas, Arafat had prevailed on the two militant Islamic groups, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, to make a public announcement that they were discontinuing their "suicide missions". The two groups had said that the decision was taken to maintain Palestinian unity. Sharon’s major demand had been that Arafat rein in the two militant groupings, and for the first time in more than a year, the scale of violence in the occupied territories witnessed a dramatic de-escalation. For around three weeks not a single Israeli was killed.

To the chagrin of the international community, the Bush administration has held president Arafat responsible for the escalation of the violence, and virtually given the Israeli prime minister a clear chit. The Bush administration is said to be thinking of cutting off links with Arafat. There has been absolutely no criticism from the Americans about Israel’s killings of Palestinian civilians or invasion of Palestinian territory. The White House has in fact supported Arafat’s forcible confinement by the Israelis. President George W Bush’s spokesman said in the last week of January the "president understands the reason that Israel has taken the action to confine Arafat to his West Bank headquarters".

Sharon however was out to fulfill a long term agenda. As the American special envoy to the region, Anthony Zinni, was set to return in the first week of January, Israel announced with great fanfare, that a shipload of weapons meant for the Palestinian Authority was intercepted in the high seas. Arafat, denying the Israeli allegations that he had personally ordered the consignment, has instead demanded an impartial international enquiry into the incident. Israel is also trying to implicate the Iranian government in the incident, but Teheran has strongly denied involvement. There is no question, the beleaguered Palestinian people are in dire need of arms for their self-preservation, due to the undeclared war being waged on them.

The American vice-president, Dick Cheney, using the arms smuggling incident as an excuse, declared in the last week of January, that Arafat was not sincere about peace. He said that the American envoy to the region, Anthony Zinni, will be going back to the region only if Arafat cracks down on his people.

The Arab governments in the region are finally showing some signs of standing up to the US and demanding justice for the Palestinians. The Saudi Arabian government has warned the Bush administration that any attempts to weaken Arafat will destroy the prospects of peace in the region and have serious repercussions.

The repeated calls by Israel and the West on Arafat to make arrests and curb terrorism, according to a leading West Asia Watcher, is "an insane demand that Arafat remain stateless but act like a dictator, and he accomplish today in Gaza, what Israel in thirty four years could not, even when it had the powers of martial law".

After Zeevi’s assassination, the trigger-happy Israeli security forces had gone on the rampage in many Palestinian-controlled areas, killing more than fifty Palestinians. Despite the provocations, Arafat had apparently convinced the leadership of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad to hold their fire. But the prospects of a lasting peace did not evidently suit Ariel Sharon’s long term game plan.

On November 23, Israeli forces assassinated the Hamas leader Mehmoud Abu Hanoud. Alex Fishman, a respected commentator of the largest selling Israeli daily, Yediot Ahronot wrote.

"Whoever gave the green light to this act of liquidation knew full well that he was thereby shattering in one blow the gentleman’s agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority; under that agreement, Hamas was to avoid in the near future suicide bombings inside the Green Line (Israel’s pre-1967 borders –".

Fishman is known to have excellent contacts within the Israeli security apparatus.

Sharon knew that the assassination of the Hamas leader would lead to a violent reaction. Two suicides bombings followed in Jewish populated centres inside Israel. The latest actions of the Israeli government have evoked criticism even from Jewish groups settled outside. A "declaration of conscience" signed by 220 prominent Jewish personalities in South Africa asserted that it is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories that is fueling the violence in the Middle East. The statement denounces Israel’s campaign of violence and compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid regime’s treatment of South African blacks.

The Palestinians have never had any illusions about Sharon. In fact, in the last week of December a court in Brussels had started hearing a case against Sharon brought by the close relatives of the victims of the massacre in Sabra and Shatila, that happened nineteen years ago. Belgian law allows war crimes charges to be made regardless of time, status and nationality.

The complaint accuses Ariel Sharon and others of acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and contravention of the Geneva Conventions protecting civilians in time of war. The case was admitted last June, but Sharon has refused to appear before the court. Israeli officials are trying to downplay the importance of the court proceedings in Belgium. In this exercise they are aided to a large extent by the western media and the United States government. However, Sharon was careful not to include Belgium in his tour itinerary when he visited Europe in July this year. Israeli officials also claim that there is no "new" evidence to try Sharon as a "war criminal".

But the "Kahan Commission" set up by the Israeli government led by the Likud leader, Menachem Begin, in the early eighties, had accused Sharon of "personal responsibility" for the massacre, one of the most horrific of the twentieth century. It is another story that no action was taken by the Israeli government of the time. After the "Kahan Commission" Report came out, Sharon was forced to resign from the cabinet. An independent International Commission of Enquiry chaired by Sean MacBride, formed to look into the massacre, came to the conclusion that Israel had violated international law in the conduct of the war in Lebanon. Ariel Sharon was in charge of the Israeli army during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

The International Commission underlined Israel’s responsibility as an "occupying power" and the "civilian status" of the residents of Sabra and Shatila. The commission found evidence of direct Israeli military involvement in the massacres. One of those testifying in the Brussels court is a survivor of the massacre. Suad Surur is semi-paralyzed by a bullet lodged in her spine.

In the last week of January, one of the key witnesses to the massacres, Elie Hobeika, a former Lebanese Christian warlord, was killed by a car bomb. A former close ally of Sharon when Israel was occupying Lebanon, Hobeika had publicly stated that he would provide evidence on Sharon’s culpability in Sabra and Shatila. Lebanese officials believe that Israel was behind Hobeika’s assassination, to prevent him from going to Belgium to testify. Israel is known to have indulged before in cross border assassinations. The Belgian Court will decide in early March, whether Sharon will stand trial for war crimes.