The Bush administration is scrambling to maintain the U.S. hold on the region. Plans for a quick strike against Iraq are going up in flames. On one hand, the U.S. is encouraging Israel, and attempting to demonize the Palestinian resistance. On the other hand, Bush is trying to shore up the puppet governments in the region. Not an easy task, when people all over the Arab world can turn on their TV's and watch Israeli troops fire on children and ambulance drivers. From Egypt to Saudi Arabia, people want their governments to take action in defense of Palestine.

U.S. representatives dispatched to the Middle East say they are attempting “revive the peace process.” In truth, they are working to prolong the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They hope the Palestinian people will surrender. This will not happen.

Since Sept. 28, 2000, the Israeli military and the illegal Jewish settlers have killed more than 1300 Palestinians, 30% of whom are children. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been injured, many maimed for life. Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel and the architect of the last eighteen months of continuous war on the Palestinian people, has shown no signs of letting up or slowing down.

Sharon is a man of war, the former Defense Minister during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the person responsible for over 3000 deaths – mostly women, children, and the elderly – in the refugee camp massacres of Sabra and Shatila. When one hears the term “terrorist,” Sharon's name immediately comes to mind. He knows nothing but war, and is terrorizing the entire Palestinian population; again including those who live in refugee camps, but this time, refugee camps in Palestine itself.

Israeli incursions into the illegally occupied territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem have extended to the refugee camps of Balata in Nablus, Rafah in Gaza, Tulkarem, Jenin, and Dheisheh in Bethlehem. The result of this escalation has been over 200 murders, including women and children, and the decimation of the already dreadful infrastructure in the camps. Dozens of homes have been demolished and thousands of men and women have been arrested.

The most recent attacks on the refugee camps have set a new standard for Sharon's barbarism. The Palestinians living in these camps are the people who were originally exiled from their homes in 1948. Their land was confiscated and their homes destroyed. Now they and their children are once again experiencing the destruction of their lives and property.

The Oslo Accords and all the other “peace” agreements between the Israelis and the Palestinians have essentially been made null and void by Sharon and his total disregard for human and civil rights. He has effectively made a prisoner of Yassir Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and even refused to allow Arafat to travel to Beirut for the recent Arab League summit.

Now, the Palestinian people have come to the realization that peace can never be negotiated with a person like Sharon. They have even begun to develop a deep-rooted resentment for those fellow Palestinians who continue to claim that there is a “peaceful” way out of the current Israeli escalation of violence. Palestinians know that the cause of the violence is, and always will be, the Israeli occupation. For anybody to claim otherwise is foolish and short-sighted. The Oslo Accords proved that any peace initiative not based on the complete and total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian lands cannot survive.

It is obvious that Arafat, his ministers and negotiators have failed to protect the Palestinians. It is also clear that Sharon is a despicable human being who has absolutely no regard for Palestinian lives. For this reason, the Palestinian workers and peasants are waging a heroic resistance against Israeli tanks, helicopter gun ships, and fighter jets. They are resisting Israeli occupation by every means at their disposal.

The U.S. is sending four billion of our tax dollars every year to Israel and Sharon. Then they have the nerve to demand that the Palestinians curb their “violence.” If that rhetoric were not so disturbing, it would be laughable. Palestinian homes are being destroyed; Palestinian land is being confiscated; Palestinian civilians are trapped in their homes and villages; Palestinian men, women, and children are being killed – and Bush and Sharon want the Palestinians to curb their “violence?”

The immediate future does not look promising. There is a personification of evil involved in the conflict – Ariel Sharon. He's responsible for more than one massacre and he is proud of it. He wears his record of murder as a badge of honor.

The Israelis will continue to do what they have been doing. The U.S. government will back Sharon up. The Arab governments, tied to the U.S., will sit back and do nothing. It is the courage and commitment of the Palestinian people themselves that will bring the complete liberation of Palestine. Any form of their resistance and struggle is justified. Palestine must be free!

#Palestine #Editorial #Editorials #WestBank #Sharon #MiddleEast

A 17-year-old Palestinian was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers in Al-Khalil (Hebron) for violating an Israeli-imposed curfew. These curfews resemble something of a ‘medieval siege’ against the Palestinians, who are not allowed to leave their homes for weeks or months at a time, and making it impossible to work, to buy food or to access medical services.

Since September of 2000, the Israeli army has killed over 1900 Palestinians. Recent weeks have seen an unrelenting and vicious assault on the Palestinian people, allowing the army the freedom and authorization to detain, kill and beat everything in its path.

Israeli checkpoints throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have broken up Palestinian territory into over 300 small land areas that people cannot travel in to or out of – essentially prison camps without bars. These closures are destroying the health and education systems, while forcing up the poverty rate to record levels. An estimated 75% of the population now lives below the poverty line of $2 a day, while unemployment stands at a staggering 62%.

Despite their illegality, dozens of new Jewish-only settlements have been established since the Palestinian Intifada, or Uprising (in resistance to Israeli rule) began two years ago. Some of them are connected to well-established settlements; others break ground in new areas. The new construction brings the total number of settlements built since the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords (which, in part, were supposed to put a freeze on settlement-building) to almost 100, expanding the settler population by 70%.

The settlements are on stolen Palestinian land. While the immediate physical ground occupied by these settlements represents only 1.6% of the West Bank, an incredible 41.9% total land area is controlled by the Israelis to keep the settlements to functioning. Every inch of this land has been taken from Palestinian workers and farmers. Many have seen their homes demolished to make room for the settlers.

This is part of a ‘master plan’ developed by Sharon and his administration. The plan strives to destroy the morale and economy of the Palestinian people so they will accept life under occupation, or to force what is left of the Palestinian Authority to accept a ‘peace agreement’ under Israel’s terms.

Sharon and the Israeli government are using the expansion of settlement blocks and the brutal repression of Palestinians to prepare for the complete Israeli reoccupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and services by the Israeli military paves the way for a return to Israeli civil administration in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli military strategy aims to repress and strangle the Palestinian people and their resistance. It is financially supported with U.S. tax dollars. This strategy is not a short-term measure; rather, it is the implementation of a pre-arranged plan that will eventually lead to complete Israeli occupation of Palestine. Coupled with the impending war on Iraq, these developments in Palestine are attacks against the self-determination and freedom of all the Arab peoples. These attacks can and will be resisted. Palestine will be free!

#Palestine #Editorial #Resistance #Editorials #Sharon #MiddleEast