It's the occupation, stupid!

It’s the occupation, stupid
by Jamal Kashoggi

Original article: http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=13993

Dier Yasin Massacre - 1948

The American readers who frequently visit our website keep on asking our opinion about Palestinian “suicide operations”, as though they are completely unaware of the gruesome human rights violations committed by the Israelis in the last occupied piece of land on earth.

The suicide attacks are undoubtedly as horrible as the Apache helicopters shooting at the Arab woman and her children while they were on their way home from school in Nablus, tearing them to pieces. Or as much as Israeli soldiers leaving a wounded Palestinian to bleed to death on the street. Or detaining hospital-bound pregnant women at checkpoints, so they have to give birth on the side of the road.

This is all a daily reality. But my Americans friends never refer to it. Instead, they keep on asking about the “legality” of killing an Israeli woman pregnant with twins during a suicide operation.

For my part, I would ask them about the “legality” of Israeli soldiers murdering hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including women and children. I would also ask them about how they can justify subjecting the entire Palestinian population to virtual imprisonment. We would end up being like deaf men engaging in a heated debate, while all around them the death toll mounts.

If he wanted to, the American president could bring peace to the holy land. All he would have to do is telephone Sharon. The president, unfortunately, sees only “terrorism and suicide attacks”. He refuses to look into the causes that provoke such desperate behavior.

Bill Clinton coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” during his election campaign against Bush Sr.

Now is the time for us to say: “It’s the occupation, stupid”.

Israelis did not found their state in Palestine by persuasion. Rather, they did it through violence, war, the murdering of civilians and the forcible eviction of Arab inhabitants from their land — to whom they have subsequently denied their historical rights.

This is why Israelis still live by the gun. They know, deep in their heart, that the land does not belong to them. It will take generations before they can get over that complexity.

Despite all this, the Palestinians still have the humanity to express their willingness to share the land of their forefathers with a Jew who has just arrived from Brooklyn and elsewhere. It was just this stance that was supported by the whole Arab world at the Beirut summit.

However, the Israelis, supported by the Americans, refuse to withdraw from the land which they occupy. They refuse to agree to an independent, sovereign Palestinian state. Instead, they circulate the Big Lie: that the Palestinians were granted at Camp David II the right to establish an independent state, while Israel would withdrawal from 99 percent of the occupied land. No Israeli or pro-Israeli journalist or politician ever misses a chance to repeat this allegation.

Those who want to know more about Israel’s “generous offer” at the Camp David needs only visit the Gush Shalom (Israeli) web site (www.gushshalom.org/generous/generous), or that of the (Israeli) Foundation of Middle East Peace (www.fmep.org).

So it would seem that there remains a huge void between the Americans and us. To fill it, we have to agree on the meaning of words and phrases such “occupation, settlements, bypass roads, areas under temporary Israeli control,” and, of course, their favorite one, “terrorism”.