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TechnoratiIt Is Unjust and Absurd To Apply Economics To The Hell That Is Palestine
The government must acknowledge the present catastrophe in Palestine is a direct consequence of Israeli intransigence
No people, territory or issue on earth have had more international attention devoted to them than Palestine and its people. Yet no conflict looks further from resolution, and no people further from achieving the freedom promised them. More Palestinians lack more basic freedoms today than they did 60 years ago. While an expensive and extensive peace process was in full swing, Israel managed to illegally expropriate most of the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, install hundreds of thousands of illegal settlers, kill more Palestinian families, arrest more young men, destroy more crops, homes and businesses, build a monstrous wall deemed illegal by the international court of justice, and set forth, unchecked, a policy of aggressive expansionism in Palestine that continues until this moment.
Citizens of this country may wish to ask why this is so, and what on earth their government has been doing all this time with their money. Yesterday the government attempted to answer this question with the launch of a report on the Economic Aspects of the Peace Process. What the report doesn't explain is the direct link between throwing economics at this conflict and the repeated failures to solve it.
The symbiotic relationship between the illegal "facts on the ground" created by Israel in occupied Palestine; the simultaneous loss of nerve by almost all international leaders and institutions to reverse those facts; the subsequent flurry of international activities designed to avoid challenging illegal Israeli actions - this triangle of desolation has been masterfully described in a remarkable publication by Chatham House, entitled Aid, Diplomacy, and Facts on the Ground: the Case of Palestine. Its authors - World Bank representatives, UN officials, humanitarian agencies - detail the economic, political and diplomatic strategies by which international donors have (by deafault or by design) encouraged illegal Israeli practices that have made peace impossible. Without polemics or partisanship, these expert contributors coolly demonstrate the calamity of this approach, and suggest practical solutions to redirect attention towards doing good.
Two of the most treacherous mechanisms of avoidance need highlighting: diplomacy through international negotiations, and the type of economic assistance given to an increasingly impoverished Palestinian people. Since the Oslo agreement in 1993, every subject Israeli governments refused to discuss was removed from the negotiating table. Unfortunately this required excluding the people and issues essential to resolving the conflict: the Palestinians and their right to their land.
First it was the refugees, the majority of the Palestinian people; absurdly, the main victims of the conflict were denied respect, involvement, and participation in peace. Next came the elimination of an entire sector of Palestinian representation under occupation: some assassinated, others now languishing in Israeli jails in their thousands, most of whom want peace - just not one entirely on Israel's terms. And finally an international boycott of any elected party whose political views unsurprisingly run counter to its enemy's. An inevitable outcome of these exclusions is that all civic-minded, active and representative Palestinians have quit, in revulsion, the corrupted public space and secret backrooms of such negotiations.
As well as entire sectors of people, political issues Israelis deemed unacceptable have also been pushed off the agenda. This is the ugly shape of the international conference President Bush is seeking to convene in November. Its purpose is to legitimise the intolerable status quo, especially Israel's recent military conquests. Worse, it will endeavour to demonstrate, through a PR campaign by paid-up pro-Israel lobbyists, that the deal is authentic and supported by ordinary people uniting for peace. Everyone who disagrees will face being smeared as marginal, anti-peace, or dangerously extremist.
The "problem" of Palestine is now restricted to a discussion in purely economic terms. It is not the military occupation, the enforced exile and statelessness of millions of Palestinians, or the daylight robbery of Palestinian land that needs confronting, but the lack of economic stability in occupied Palestine for jobs and development.
The latest initiative from the government suggests improvements driven by private investment. The absurdity of proposing to stimulate investment in this hell - where because of Israeli closures and checkpoints Palestinians cannot trade between their own towns much less with the outside world - or the fact that the present economic catastrophe is a direct consequence of the military occupation, gets no acknowledgement here. By avoiding the real issue of Israeli intransigence, and with no plan on tackling it, neither jobs nor justice are on offer to Palestinians. They expect international support to help them win their freedom - or at least not assistance in their oppression. As Mary Anderson, a contributor to the Chatham House book, explains: if you can do no good in Palestine, at least do no harm.
Karma Nabulsi is a fellow in politics and international relations at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University karmanabulsi@hotmail.com
© 2007 The Guardian
20 Comments so far
Show AllWindy jokes like a jolly Nazi.
Oh... I'd be happy to carve out a chunk of Texas to give to anyone that wants it. I would build a wall of course to keep whoever in "whateverstan" and out of America.
Must be getting pretty hungry there in Gaza. Maybe its time to stop shooting at the Israelis and make peace. Of course based on what we know of Arabs, they'd rather starve than act rationally.
Oh well. Doesn't effect me in the least other then being great entertainment. Starve away. :-)
Off to make lunch for my son. We have lots of food here of course.
What say we carve out a nice sized chunk of Texas including a decent stretch of coastline and call it New Israel? The displaced Americans can be compensated and there is plenty of room for them elsewhere in the country. What could go wrong? ha.
The only reason we care about Israel is because they give us an excuse to keep our big boots planted in the region.
well written Mark, precise and to the point
Boycott everything and anything to do with Israel.
Resolutely refuse to have anything to do with that vile country.
Do not visit there, purchase nothing from there.
Mail, e-mail, fax, phone and button-hole your elected representatives to get them to do the same.
Pariah Israel Rogue USA the ugliest pair.
mikep says: "The history of the conflict clearly shows that the Palestinians started it and are the ones perpetuating it."
Well then, the answer is clear: Just kill all the Palestinians, maybe nuke em, and the problem will be solved.
No kidding Mr. Abram! Let's talk about the poisoned wells and the poisoned land that is what Israel has left the Palistinians. Good God almighty.
The Palestinians didn't start the conflict, neither did the Israelis. What history shows clearly is that a pattern of reciprocal violence between the Arab and immigrant Jewish populations in Palestine began in the early 20th Century. The fundamental reason for this is that the Zionist project was colonial, led by European Jews intent on taking over a land the Arabs had lived on for centuries.
The Zionists emerged as the militarily stronger force after World War II and have been since. They have killed many Palestinians for every Israeli killed, and have practiced ethnic cleansing, military occupation and terrorism against the Palestinian population on a scale several times larger than ever directed against them by the Palestinians.
The Palestinians have been suing for peace since the 1970s. Israel has slowly moved to recognize their existence and agree in principle to a two-state solution, yet continued its program of ethnic cleansing, expropriation, territorial expansion and wholesale terrorization of the Palestinian population under its control.
Israel today is a heavily militarized, deeply racist state, supported in the United States by a highly organized "Israel lobby" which manipulates a brainwashed American Jewish community and an American nation kept ignorant of both history and ongoing developments by a media and political culture which portrays Israel as a US ally menaced by dirty Arab terrorists and equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Anything else you want to know?
Mikep, a zionist shill, will come in with revisionist history...Pick a book, any boo, except those fro planet zion, and learn a little.
AAAAAHHH Mikep,
Now you've done it. We have been talking about Israeli actions which are really secular in nature. They are nothing but illegal and unhuman actions that steal land and water- two commodities in short supply in the Middle East.
We said NOTHING about Judaism, just Zionism and Israelis. And yet you raise the old chestnut - anti-semitism. The Palestinians are semitic as well
Everytime anybody tries to bring ALL the facts about Israeli's unprovoked and pre-emptive attack on the USS Liberty, howls of 'anti-semitism ' arise. Even today when members of the crew pass and the USS Liberty is mentioned, there are attendees who jump up and shout 'anti-semitism'. It is a vey unpalatable chestnut.
Now let's talk about why we treat Israel as the 51st state in spite of the USS Liberty.
mikep -
You lie like crazy. Although you may believe your lies, they are lies previously promulgated by others. They are also obviously lies.
The Zionists were always clear in their intent, and it has always been obvious their intent could not be achieved without ethnic cleansing. Anyone with at least a minimal understanding of history knows that ethnic cleansing is unachievable without killing many innocent members of the "cleansed" population. To say the Palestinians began this mess is totally ridiculous.
Try following the news, and remembering what you read. (The US MSM is notoriously bad for its short memory on this issue.) The Palestinians have halted lethal violence many times against Israel. But, while Israel may have lessened their rate of killing Palestinians, they never stop killing them. When Palestinians can't take it anymore and find a way to kill Israelis, it is reported they are breaking a cease-fire. What is not reported by the US MSM is the number of Palestinians killed by Israel during the "cease-fire".
You are correct the Palestinians fight among themselves for power, and too many die as a result. They are in a desperate situation. Israel has done its best to encourage this violence. Many times Israel has attacked the Palestinian authorities responsible for maintaining order. Since Israel kills far more Palestinians than any all internal Palestinian killings combined, it is more than reasonable to expect total violence would go down by a large amount if the Jews packed up and left.
Nowhere in this article is there a mention of the effects of Israeli economic warfare on the Palestinian infant and child mortality rate.
Martin Luther King said it best "injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere"
The freedom to make a living from the resources of one's land, and have one's rights lawfully acknowledged in that land is what makes mankind free.
If you take away peoples land you take away their dignity. You take away peoples dignity then they have no self-respect.
When people have no self-respect, they cannot respect others. When people do not respect each other you have conflict.
The moral universe is vast, but I believe it still arcs back towards justice.
I think we all could make a difference in this world if we meditate on Contentment, Lovingkindness, Compassion, and Humility.
Land right's is human right's.
Peace unto all
As long as the PNAC bunch control both the US and Israel, there will be nothing for Palestine but more suffering. First, all the PNAC and AIPACers must be hauled before the International Court and tried for their crimes against humanity. It seems to me that the Israelis have totally forgotten what it was like to live in Nazi Germany and are treating the Palestinians just like they were treated under the Nazis. For Shame!!
It's easy to blame the Israelis for Palestinian violence, but it doesn't make much sense. The history of the conflict clearly shows that the Palestinians started it and are the ones perpetuating it. All the Palestinians have to do to end the war and get their state is to make peace with Israel. Very simple. They've been offered peace and a state many times. The rest of the world, including Israel, is ready and willing to make peace. The only ones who aren't are the Palestinians.
Not that I expect anyone to agree with me. Anti-semitism, like other forms of bigotry, isn't based on anything rational, and so won't be changed by rational arguments. But if people want the Palestinians to continue to suffer, just keep beating the same dead horse they've been beating for 60 years. See where it gets them.
It should also be obvious that even if Israel were eliminated the violence would continue. The Palestinians would fight themselves if they can't find anyone else. They already are in fact.
Hugh Mainly agreed. Only way to end the apartheid is for everyone to be free in a binational state.
bligh September 18th, 2007 11:21 am
"The Israeli government should move towards removing the settlements that did not exist pre-1967, and remove any checkpoints that do not control access to Israel proper. At the same time, Hamas must amend their charter to remove the demand that Israel be destroyed. Without good will on both sides, nothing will happen."
This is the only way justice and peace will triumph. Mutual respect goes a long way.
There will be no peace in Palestine until Zionism is defeated. The underlying injustice that the theocracy of Israel represents, must be replaced by a secular government favoring no one religion above others. Mahatma Ghandi predicted what Zionism would lead to, back in 1938. See:
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_faq_palestine_gandhi.php
Hear hear bligh. Good first steps - for both sides. Peace is possible, but the window is closing. Without negotiations in good faith now, the wall will be finished and then there won't be any reason for Israel to negotiate at all. They are bringing in foreign workers to replace Palestinians now, so they won't even need the labor soon. At that point, there won't need to be a solution for generations.
The Israeli government should move towards removing the settlements that did not exist pre-1967, and remove any checkpoints that do not control access to Israel proper. At the same time, Hamas must amend their charter to remove the demand that Israel be destroyed. Without good will on both sides, nothing will happen.
One encouraging note is the fact that a majority of Israelis support an independent Palestinian State. Twenty years ago, even the most liberal Israelis were not prepared to go this far. Maybe public perception in Israel itself has changed to recognize that this situation cannot continue. We can only hope.