The timing of this so-called peace plan is like an approach used by Bush Sr. 12 years ago. In 1991, after three years of the first Intifada (uprising), Israel was unable to defeat the Palestinians. But the defeat of Iraq (along with the collapse of the Soviet Union) weakened international support for Palestine. So the first Bush administration proposed negotiations. The plan was to end the Palestinian struggle by creating something that would resemble a Palestinian state, but not have real independence or sovereignty.

The Oslo 'peace process' dragged on for seven years. While Israel refused to meet the deadlines in the agreements, the mainstream U.S. media blamed Palestinians for breakdowns in the process. In September 2000, the failure to achieve anything resembling true independence led to the eruption of a new Palestinian Intifada, which continues to this day. And now, after another attack on Iraq, Junior is trying Dad's old strategy in Palestine.

The so-called Roadmap for Peace, designed by the United States and minor partners (United Nations, European Union and Russia), follows many difficult roads. None of them lead to peace. The plan outlines a few steps, ending with a meeting to talk about the issues at the heart of this conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people.

Step one of the Roadmap calls for an end to acts of violence by Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is charged to disrupt and disarm organizations, and jail Palestinian leaders, that have supported armed struggle against Israel. In its attempts to destroy the militant section of the Palestinian resistance, the PA is doomed to fail. Most Palestinian groups have not agreed to the Roadmap, and won't stop their militant actions. And the Palestinian people will not give up their resistance in the face of continuing attacks by Israeli settlers and a massive Israeli military presence in the Occupied Territories.

A just peace will never come from treating the Palestinian resisters as criminals. Palestinians, and all occupied peoples, have the right to resist an occupying force by any means necessary. This right is guaranteed by international law.

The fundamental problem with the Roadmap, and all U.S.-supported 'peace' proposals, is its support for the state of Israel. The Roadmap asks the world to accept a racist state, where citizenship, political power and economic rights are granted based on race and religion, not on birthplace or family ties to the land. The Roadmap ignores over 1.3 million Palestinians (20% of the entire population), who live as second-class citizens or non-citizens, inside 'Israel.' More importantly, it dismisses the right of 4 million Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

UN General Assembly Resolution 194 stipulates that all Palestinian refugees must be granted the right to return. Resolution 194 is never mentioned in the Roadmap, even after the world has heard the Sharon government say it will never consider allowing the Palestinians back. Bush can't talk about peace in the Middle East while ignoring almost half of the Palestinian population.

The Roadmap fails to address the core question of, “Where will Palestine be?” Sharon has made clear his plans to leave Palestinians in control of a few disconnected pieces of land, totaling less than half the Occupied Territories. Israel will control the borders, airspace, water and underneath all of Palestine. Settlements and Israeli-only highways will carve up Palestinian territories. Israeli armaments, in the name of the national defense, and paid for by U.S. tax dollars, will patrol every border of any land left to the Palestinians.

Palestinians will continue to fight to win back their lands and their lives. The real road to peace begins with an end to the constant flow of U.S. dollars to Israel.

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Fight Back!: What are some of the conditions faced by Palestinian women?

Maha Nassar: Palestinian women, being part of the society, are involved in the struggle, and are also subject to all the oppression by the Israeli government – such as check points, confiscation of land, killing our children, destroying the schools and being arrested. So this is one part of our conditions.

Palestinian women are also confronting the traditional view of women in our society, which considers women to be second or third class in our society. We are challenging the fundamentalist groups and their views of women and their roles. To an extent, some forget our role, which is very important in the whole national struggle, especially during both intifadas.

The third point is the legal situation for women. Laws in our society are biased towards men, so women have to struggle to change the laws. Women need to initiate new laws that protect women from any kind of discrimination and violence, and for workers' rights and family and civil rights.

Fight Back!: How does your organization, the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, work with women to address these issues?

Maha Nassar: First of all, our union is concerned and works hard to raise the consciousness of women on the national and social struggle, because we believe the three factors of oppression – economic, social and national – that lay on women are interrelated.

The first step we take with women is to organize a lot lectures, workshops and training courses to address women in villages and the poor neighborhoods. The second step is our union tries to create opportunities for women to work, so they can be economically independent – so that they can be socially independent. Then they can be more involved in the national struggle. We also have leadership programs for the young women to become leaders in the future by training them on different levels like advocacy, networking, computer skills, social advising and health advising, so that they can be able to reflect their concerns for women and the national struggle in a better way.

The Union of Palestinian Women's Committees has emergency relief programs. Family sponsorship provides more than 350 families monthly support that can help them overcome the deteriorating economic situation. We do not believe in and we are not a charity organization. We believe that women should find jobs rather than look for charity.

We also organize kindergartens, because it lifts a big burden from women, especially poor women. By having their children in a kindergarten, where they taught the principles of democracy, human rights and gender, women will have the time to go to their work, or to plant, or even to find time for herself.

Fight Back!: Given the heavy repression by the Israeli regime, what is it like to be an activist during the intifada?

Maha Nassar: The Israeli government does not believe that the social struggle is split from the national struggle and they target all social activists because they know their energy is going to be brought in to the national struggle. I'm talking here about those activists who are affiliated with political organizations and mass-based organizations, not those affiliated with intellectuals, academics and charitable organizations. So our activists in the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees and women activists that are affiliated to other political organizations are targeted by the occupation.

I myself was arrested several times during the first intifada for women's politically related activities. I was also under house arrest. And as another example, they have imprisoned the wife of Ahmed Saadat [the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] because they want to pressure her husband and because she is a woman activist.

To be an activist in the national and social struggle is the same, and you have to expect to be jailed, lose freedom of movement, or even to be subjected to bullets of occupation when you are going to bring food, medicine or clothes to a closed area. You should also expect to give most of your time to the cause of your people and to be always ready to respond to any call for any emergency that takes place. You should be ready to take the risk of doing that.

Fight Back!: The Bush administration has proposed a new 'peace' plan, called the Road Map. What do you think of this plan?

Maha Nassar: When Bush proposed this peace plan, it was obvious that our people were going to reject it. It's not a matter of emotions; it is a matter of knowledge, since even our children know that the U.S. government supplies the airplanes, F16 and Apaches, to Israel. They know that these airplanes are used by the Israelis to end our children's lives. And the rockets are American manufactured. So it's obvious, without a prolonged political analysis, that the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, is a tool in the hands of the Americans and Israelis.

The road map is only a way to bring security to Israel and does not take into consideration any of the rights of the Palestinian people that were acknowledged by the UN resolutions – such as the right to have a state, the right of return, Jerusalem as a capital and releasing prisoners; and the stopping of land confiscation, building settlements and stealing water resources. The Palestinian state proposed by the road map – which has no borders yet and that is supposed to be in established 2005 – is only a matter of gaining time for the Israelis to create realities on the map that will make it impossible for the Palestinians to struggle.

Fight Back!: How is the Palestinian movement responding to the Road Map?

Maha Nassar: From the beginning, Palestinians started demonstrating against the Road Map because none of the promises of the new Palestinian prime minister were achieved. People started writing slogans on the walls and shouting at demonstrations calling for the prime minister to resign because of his poor negotiating. They were criticizing him for giving up the right of return and asking him to take a step forward on the political prisoners.

The Palestinian Authority should release the prisoners, especially the General Secretary of the Popular Front, Saadat, and his comrades who are kept in Palestinian jails under the watch of American and British soldiers. This is shameful, because the Palestinian government is supposed to be democratic and respect the different ideological affiliations of Palestinians. Keeping the historical leader of the national movement in jail and confiscating simple weapons from people is the role of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is doing this to please the occupier. This is raising more and more anger towards the practices of the Palestinian security system, and moving Palestinian people towards revolution against this authority.

Fight Back!: Why are you in the U.S.?

Maha Nassa r: I'm here to raise the consciousness about our cause as Palestinian people and the Palestinian women's movement, and its role in both the national and social struggle through meetings with different representatives, groups and associations and public meetings. I am here to try to make clear that our resistance is not terrorism. Terrorism is the practice that is led by the organized state with a well-developed military against civilians and by the support of the global powers, which is the worst face of colonialism.

I am also here to let the U.S. people know as a fact – Palestinian mothers are not like what is said about us in the mass media – as being with no hearts or feelings. On the contrary, Palestinian women struggle to end occupation because they have hearts, and don't care about themselves as much as they care about the future for their children. Mothers suffer daily when they see their children subject to different kinds of humiliation and neglect, which raises their fear about even their psychological situation when they become older. Palestinian women are peace seekers and cannot be easily deceived by partial solutions of ending the Palestinian cause.

Fight Back!: What can progressive people in the U.S. do to support your work in particular, and the Palestinian resistance in general?

Maha Nassar: When the people in the U.S. pressure their government to change their external policies to terrorize and kill the children of Palestine, it makes a big difference to Palestinian women, that women around the world are supporting them and are giving them the hope of a legitimate peace.

Also, progressive people in the U.S.A. should support the different projects of women; through which they are helping the society, such as kindergartens and advocacy. Progressives here should call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and they should make an alternative media to the ongoing mainstream media.

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