[GuShalom] Barghouti-led doc: end violence from Gaza for full Gaza sovereignty
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Tue Apr 20 22:49:03 IDT 2004
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/
Two Palestinian reactions which you shouldn't miss:
[] Barghouti-led doc: end violence from Gaza for full Gaza sovereignty
[] Afif Safieh on Sharon's banana republics (yes: plural)
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N.B. last minute action news:
Tomorrow 8.30 Yafo Military Court CO Yoni Ben-Artzi's final sentence
(will need every solidarity he can get - same time as Vanunu release).
Army insists on long further imprisonment even after declaring Ben-
Artzi "unfit for military service".
Bayit Hayarok, Shivtey Yisrael 91-93 corner Yefet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[] Barghouti-led doc: end violence from Gaza for full Gaza sovereignty
Arnon Regular
Tue., April 20, 2004
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/417205.html>
Hebrew:
<http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=41742>
Barghouti-led document calls for cessation of attacks from Gaza
A memorandum of understanding issued by the leadership of
Palestinian prisoners in Israel under the patronage of jailed Tanzim
leader Marwan Barghouti calls for a total end to the armed struggle
emanating from Gaza if a series of conditions are met. The conditions
detailed in the document, or "proposal," sent to Fatah, Hamas and
Islamic Jihad, includes "complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza,
including the `Philadelphi Route' on the Israeli-Egyptian border; full
Palestinian sovereignty over the Strip, including the sea and air ports;
and the release from Israeli prisons of all Gaza residents. In exchange
for fulfilling the conditions, "the armed forces in Gaza will be obligated
not to conduct any armed
actions from Gaza," according to the document.
The document is described as an attempt to complement the dialogue under
way among all Palestinian factions in Gaza, and serve "as an appropriate
response, which will satisfy factions in Gaza, to the assassination of
Abdel Aziz Rantisi." The document proposes defining the Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza "as the most important achievement of the
Palestinians in the intifada after 10 years of Oslo did not move a single
mobile home and during those years, the settlements doubled."
The document is the first clear expression of Barghouti's readiness to
commit to a cessation of violence from Gaza following an Israeli
withdrawal, and reflects the dialogue between Palestinian factions within
Israeli prisons and camps. Outside the prisons, the organizations tend to
take a harder line, and it is unclear whether they will accept the
prisoners' lead.
A senior Fatah official in Gaza yesterday said the dialogue among the
three main factions - Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad - that began after
the assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last
month, but was ceased after Rantisi's killing, will resume in the
upcoming days. The official, one of the most powerful in the Strip, said
the prisoners' document will serve as the basis for discussions meant to
set a date for local elections in the area and to try to reach clear
understandings among the organizations over how Gaza will be run once
Israel departs.
The official did not provide details, but said that "if there is no
agreement on general partnership between the organizations, then there
will be a narrower agreement on the management of the Strip."
He did not rule out enlisting Hamas and Islamic militants into the PA's
security services "on condition that they cut ties to those
organizations. It would be in a new framework of the security services in
Gaza and a new definition of their goals and purposes."
Head of Preventive Security in Gaza, Rashid Abu Shbak, also is not ruling
out integrating Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the security forces as long as
there are clear rules for their participation.
Earlier this month, Haaretz published a draft agreement between Fatah and
Hamas that was hammered out between Rantisi, senior Fatah officer Ahmed
Halas, and Islamic Jihad representatives. In addition to Hamas
recognition of Fatah's dominance and its demands for getting involved in
decision making in Gaza, the organizations agreed to discuss a cease-fire
from Gaza.
[] Afif Safieh on Sharon's banana republics (yes: plural)
Sharon's banana republics
Afif Safieh
Monday April 19, 2004
The Guardian
Bush and Blair have allowed Israel to dictate their Middle
East policy and carry out a Palestinian politicide
The study of American-Israeli relations has preoccupied two generations
of scholars. Two competing schools of thought addressed the "who wags
whom" debate. The first school spoke of "an American Israel", with the
United States dictating to the local ally its regional policy in
accordance with the American global vision. Noam Chomsky wrote two
decades ago that Washington was the contemporary Rome and Israel its
regional belligerent, Sparta. The second school projects the image of "an
Israeli America", a complex relationship where the global superpower
adopts the regional policy of its client state and integrates it in its
global strategy. This is seen as a result of a powerful pro-Israel lobby
that succeeded in turning "Capitol Hill into another Israeli-occupied
territory".
I have always believed that both schools of thought were correct but at
different moments in history, depending on the strength of the American
president, how comfortable he is in the country and in Congress, and how
comfortable the US is in the world.
After the horror of 9/11, when the predictable retaliation was being
discussed, the pro-Israel lobby emerged as the "maximalist school", which
wanted to expand the theatre of operations beyond Afghanistan to engulf
Iraq, Syria and Libya. That lobby has grown accustomed to using one muscle
too many and one pressure too far. The collusion between the US and
Israeli agendas has put America on a collision course with the Arab
World, which now perceives the US as Israel's belligerent Sparta and the
aim of American foreign policy to be docility, not democracy.
Tony Blair has always had a more sophisticated approach than George Bush.
Blair knew that military challenges and security threats needed political
responses. That to win the battle of hearts and minds, the west had to be
seen as engaged in resolving the Palestinian problem. The test and the
extent of his influence in Washington depended on who Bush needed more:
Blair internationally or Ariel Sharon domestically.
Last week was a sad moment for international diplomacy. The world's two
most powerful leaders, Bush and Blair, caved in to the most unscrupulous
politician in the Middle East, who was found to be "unfit for public
office" by an Israeli inquiry committee after the massacres of Sabra and
Shatila in 1982.
Sharon is not hiding his game. In a recent interview with the leading
Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea, he said Israelis should see his plan of
unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip not as a reward but as a
punishment of the Palestinians. He announced that the Palestinians could
operate neither a port nor an airport in Gaza, and that Israel intended
to keep control of territorial water and airspace. Nor would they have
control of the borders. He added that this would delay the discussion of
a Palestinian state for many years. He forgot to mention was that Gaza,
with its 1.3 million inhabitants, is only about 1% of historic Palestine.
Why Bush considered Sharon's intentions "courageous" and "a golden
opportunity" can be explained by the electoral considerations of an
embattled president. But I remain puzzled by Blair's enthusiasm for
Sharon's machinations and his conviction that they are in harmony with
the road map. He has more experience in power than Bush, is better
advised, and electoral considerations in Britain run in the opposite
direction. Opinion polls show a 2-1 ratio in favour of Palestinian
aspirations as compared with the Israeli position. Debates in parliament,
across the political divide, should encourage him to be more assertive.
All indicationsshow that, on Palestine/Israel, Blair does not reflect the
depth of feeling in Britain.
Sharon has been dealing with the US and Britain as though they were his
own banana republics. To his intransigence they constantly respond with
abdication of responsibility and self inflicted impotence. The way ahead
under the road map would have been to secure a reciprocal cessation of
violence that all Palestinian factions accept; pressure Sharon to couple
a complete withdrawal from Gaza with a pull-out of the urban centres in
the West Bank to allow the creation of a Palestinian state "with
temporary frontiers"; and to make Palestinian elections possible -
presidential, parliamentary and municipal - and pave the way for
final-status negotiations.
None of that has been undertaken. Bush and Blair are allowing Israel to
dictate what is possible. Sharon will pursue his policy of politicide,
vandalising Palestinian society and the economy, and crushing any national
representation and government. Despite Hamas's self-restraint since the
assassination of Sheikh Yassin and its dialogue with other factions to
minimise civilian deaths on both sides, he has pressed ahead with
decapitating the Palestinian leadership by killing Abdul-Aziz Rantissi.
For years it has been my belief that the ideal US president for Middle
East peace would be one who had the ethics of a Carter, the popularity of
a Reagan and the strategic audacity of a Nixon. Alas, we have a president
who has the ethics of a Nixon, the popularity of a Carter and the
intellectual agility of a Reagan.
[Afif Safieh is Palestinian General Delegate to the UK and the Holy See]
--
Ongoing struggle
#Vanunu to be released April 21 (more details to follow separately)
#Against the Wall (contact addresses) #Refusniks (prisoner addresses &
links to constantly updated sites)
#Vanunu to be released April 21
Instead of sending flowers
Wordlwide campaign WELCOME VANUNU by donating a few dollars
(N.B.: online but ALSO otherwise) as a welcome gesture:
<http://www.vanunu.org/>
List of international vigils on day of Vanunu release (April 21):
http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/
http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/
Online petition for the unconditional release of Vanunu
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/freemordechaivanunu/
For details about Free Vanunu vigils and activities in Israel,
Call: 02-6254530 or 051-368236
or email: legalese at netvision.net.il
#Against the Wall
ðåëçåú éåîéåîéú áëôøéí îàéîéí ò"é äçåîä ìúàí òí
àééáé 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
àøé÷ 050-607034 info at rhr.israel.net
Day to day presence at villages threatened by route of wall.
Contact: Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il who set's up a
list for people who can come at short notice, or: Arik Asherman 050-
607034 info at rhr.israel.net
#Refusniks
Constantly-updated refusniks lists:
English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/
English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.newprofile.org/
For the latest news about the five:
http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html
NB:
Letters of support to
Noam Bahat / Haggai Mattar / Matan Kaminer
AGAF BET
Ma’asiyaho Prison
P.O.B 13
Ramla
Israel
Adam Maor / Shimri Tzameret:
Hermon Prison
P.O.B 4011
KFAR M’RAR
Israel
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