A Conflict Gets Dirty
A Conflict Gets Dirty
Story & Photos by Andy Rain
When one recalls the sunny September day in 1993 in a ceremony that took place on the White House lawn, Yitzak Rabin, then Prime Minister of Isarel and Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, shook hands in the name of peace for both Israeli’s and Palestinian’s. That day of hope seems somewhat surreal now. They stood together for the security of the whole of the Middle East and rightly or wrongly they were jointly awarded the noble peace prize for their attempt at reconciliation. But how things can change. Nobody talks of peace these days. The Peace Process has become a thing of the past.
Since the ‘intifada’, (uprising), began late September some 460 people have lost their lives, mostly Palestinians, with both sides pointing the finger of blame at the other. The upsurge in violence is erasing years of negotiations, and the two sticking points that remain an obstacle to peace – who gains sovereignty over Jerusalem and the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees, are slowly but surely disappearing behind clouds of tears gas and daily gun battles.
Israel’s economic blockade of Palestinian areas is crippling Palestinian livelihoods across the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian’s are restricted from traveling outside their own areas, much needed produce is simply not coming in. “People are suffering on a daily basis”, Jaffa Jilin, 36, a Palestinian Authority employee from Gaza. “We are tired of this situation. But we have dreamed to have a state since the history of Palestine. The Turks, British, Egyptians and Israeli’s have ruled over us. We dream to rule ourselves, and we will always try to achieve this dream. The Israeli’s are trying to build new maps for the region. We are tired of this, but we will never tire of the idea of our own state”.
Nevertheless, through all the hardship Palestinian’s have not lost their dignity or even sense of humor it seems. As I travel across the West Bank toward Ramallah, Palestinian car bumper stickers read, “LIVE FREE OR DIE”. A subtle but nevertheless clear statement of defiance. At an IDF checkpoint scores of Palestinian’s are held up by Israeli troops who check I.D’s, a Palestinian man drives through the barricades but instead of handing over identification papers, waves a large pita bread, the local staple, in the faces of Israeli soldiers. A moment of David and Goliath. Even against the military might of Israel, one man and his pita bread can make a stand against Israeli occupation.
“My business is finished”, says Mohammed Said, 35, a butcher who lives at the Nablus Junction in Ramallah, that has seen much of the clashes. “I have had no business since the fighting started. I can survive for a while from savings but I hope things get better, not just for myself, but for everybody, its hard on everyone”.
The uprising has brought to light again the tragedy of millions of Palestinians who fled their homes more than 50 years ago. Fighting broke out between Israeli’s and Palestinian’s after the UN introduced a British plan to divide Palestine and place Jerusalem under UN control. Both Palestinian’s and Israeli’ s, who were flocking back to the region following World War 2 rejected the plan, and almost as the British pulled out Israel declared an
Independent state. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian’s fled their homes during the fighting that followed, and are still waiting to return to this day.
I meet Mohamed Ahmed , 59, a refugee living in Beach Camp, Gaza,, a crowded concrete enclave for tens of thousands of refugees. Mohamed has been a refugee 53 years. He shows me his land registration of the home he fled over 50 years ago. in Ashkelon, now Israeli land. The registration reads 1941. “ With the will of God we will get home”, Mohamed says, “but I am already old, I can only hope for my children”. Mohamed has lived most of his life as a refugee dreaming about what is right – that he should be able to go home. Thousands of Palestinian families still hold the keys to the houses they lived in over 50 years ago, with the hope that someday they will return.
But with time of course their homes have disappeared or are being lived in by Israeli’s. Most will never see home again
President Ariel Sharon has brought a change of government to Israel and with it a change of policy on how he will deal with the Palestinian’s. He has abandoned the policy of restraint that has been in force until now and will now show no mercy in striking Palestinian sources of terrorism and violence. Arafat’s elite Force 17 has been targeted and Israeli security has said more raids will continue. Meanwhile Palestinian’s are hitting back with car bombs and attacks on Israeli settlements.
“This land is ours, says Avram Meiri, 59, from the settlement of Ofra, just a few kilometres south of Ramallah. “ Jews should live all over this land. We can live with the Palestinian’s, as long as the land is ours and they are living on their private property. One of the main reasons there is fighting is because we are here by right. There is a paper that says this land is ours, and it is called the bible”.
The Palestinian’s on the other hand have recently issued a bitter attack on the Bush administration for having disengaged from the Middle East conflict, which they say is encouraging Israel to dismiss negotiations and pursue a policy of escalation. Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian information minister, complained in a recent statement that by treating the conflict as a war between equals, Washington is supporting Sharon’s blatant attempt to divert attention from the real root causes of the conflict, namely the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. ‘The Bush administration has adopted a worldview in which the Palestinian people living under occupation are the aggressors, while Israel the military power is the victim”, Abed said.
The fighting on the ground is clarifying how far the two sides have drifted apart, over the Peace Process. Daily battles across the West Bank, in Hebron and Ramallah particularly, are fuelling nationalist and religious hatreds on both sides, and with the loss of further blood, chances of finding a peaceful solution become all the more insurmountable. Both Israel’s and Palestinian’s cannot prosper without peace, both sides might do well to heed a lesson from the lives already lost to this conflict. That beneath the grave there is only darkness and destruction.
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