ZGram - 1/18/ 2002 - "The Paul Revere Series: Marwan Barghouti"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

January 18, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Another voice for my Paul Revere Series!

This stunning opinion piece was printed yesterday in the Washington Post
and picked up by several other papers.  The International Herald Tribune
was one.  The title is "To Get Deserved Security, End the Occupation" by
Marwan Barghouti,  general secretary of Fatah on the West Bank and an
elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.  Print it out and
hand it to your friends - in multiples!

[START]

 RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israel's assassination of the Fatah activist Raed
Karmi on Monday was predictable. Despite Israel's having killed more than
18 Palestinians since President Yasser Arafat's call for a cease-fire on
Dec. 18, there had been no Israeli civilian casualties since that time
until Mr. Karmi's assassination.

 That, according to world governments and the international press,
constituted a "lull in the violence." But a lull in the violence is exactly
what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cannot afford. He was elected in a time of
crisis and knows that his rule is sustainable only in a time of crisis. For
his political survival, he will do whatever it takes, and look for any
excuse, to stoke the flames of unrest and avoid a return to peace
negotiations.

 Hence, more than 600 Palestinians, already refugees, were recently made
refugees yet again as Mr. Sharon's bulldozers razed their homes in Gaza. A
day later, Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem were destroyed. And
then, just to ensure that Palestinians are sufficiently provoked and the
cycle of violence starts again, Israel assassinates Raed Karmi.

 Mr. Sharon justifies such barbaric and illegal measures in the name of
"security." But as someone often considered a candidate for Israeli
assassination myself, I can assure the Israeli people that neither my
assassination nor any of the other 82 assassinations during the past 15
months will bring them any closer to the security they seek and deserve.

 The only way for Israelis to have security is, quite simply, to end the
35-year-old occupation of Palestinian territory. Israelis must abandon the
myth that it is possible to have peace and occupation at the same time,
that peaceful coexistence is possible between slave and master. The lack of
Israeli security is born of the lack of Palestinian freedom. Israel will
have security only after the end of occupation, not before. Once Israel and
the rest of the world understand this fundamental truth, the way forward
becomes clear: End the occupation, allow the Palestinians to live in
freedom and let the independent and equal neighbors Israel and Palestine
negotiate a peaceful future with close economic and cultural ties.

 We Palestinians have recognized Israel on 78 percent of historic
Palestine. It is Israel that refuses to acknowledge Palestine's right to
exist on the remaining 22 percent of land occupied in 1967. And yet it is
the Palestinians who are accused of not compromising and of missing
opportunities.

 Frankly, we are tired of always taking the blame for Israeli intransigence
when all we are seeking is the implementation of international law.

 And we have no faith in the United States, the provider of billions of
dollars in annual aid to fund Israel's expansion of illegal colonies, the
"fighter of terrorism" that supplies Israel with the F-16s and helicopter
gunships used against a defenseless civilian population, the "defender of
freedom and the oppressed" that coddles Mr. Sharon even as he faces war
crimes charges for his responsibility in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian
refugees.

 The role of the world's only superpower has been reduced to that of a mere
spectator with nothing to offer other than a tired refrain of "Stop the
violence" while it does nothing to address the root causes of that
violence: denial of Palestinian freedom.

 Watch as the hapless General Anthony Zinni focuses his efforts on
"violence" while Jewish settlers violate international law and even
American policy by moving into a new illegal colony in occupied East
Jerusalem. We Palestinians are not impressed.

 In the past 15 months Israel has killed more than 900 Palestinian
civilians, 25 percent of them under the age of 18. And still the United
States has the audacity to veto a United Nations plan for an international
protection force to stop the onslaught. So we will protect ourselves. If
Israel reserves the right to bomb us with F-16s and helicopter gunships, it
should not be surprised when Palestinians seek defensive weapons to bring
those aircraft down. And while I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong,
strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our
future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the
Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom.

 If Palestinians are expected to negotiate under occupation, then Israel
must be expected to negotiate as we resist that occupation. I am not a
terrorist, but neither am I a pacifist. I am simply a regular guy from the
Palestinian street advocating what every other oppressed person has
advocated - the right to help myself in the absence of help from anywhere
else.

 This principle may well lead to my assassination. So let my position be
clear in order that my death not be lightly dismissed by the world as just
one more statistic in Israel's "war on terrorism."

 For six years I languished as a political prisoner in an Israeli jail,
where I was tortured, where I hung blindfolded as an Israeli beat my
genitals with a stick. But since 1994, when I believed Israel was serious
about ending its occupation, I have been an advocate of a peace based on
fairness and equality.

 I led delegations of Palestinians in meetings with Israeli
parliamentarians to promote mutual understanding and cooperation. I still
seek peaceful coexistence between the equal and independent countries of
Israel and Palestine based on full withdrawal from Palestinian territories
occupied in 1967 and a just resolution to the plight of Palestinian
refugees pursuant to UN resolutions. I do not seek to destroy Israel but
only to end its occupation of my country.

[END]

Thought for the Day:

"Things are in the saddle and ride mankind."

(Emerson)