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4/14/2002 (13:17) |
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http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/pal2.html
A PALESTINIAN VIEW
We will not work with Israel against our own people
an interview with Yasser Abed Rabbo
bitterlemons: What do you see as the way out of this crisis situation?
Abed Rabbo: The only way is to withdraw the Israeli military forces that have occupied the Palestinian cities of the West Bank. When the withdrawal is competed and when there is the chance to sit and negotiate, we need to have international protection. We cannot negotiate under the threat of Israeli tanks and artillery and airplanes; we cannot negotiate under threat of the renewal of occupation at any moment. There is a need for international protection. We are asking for it, we are in need of it and it is an essential part of the negotiations process.
bitterlemons: Do you see this coming from the American administration?
Abed Rabbo: I think that the international protection should come not only from the Americans, but from the United Nations, Russia and the European Union.
bitterlemons: There are some who say that the United States' reputation has been so damaged in Arab eyes that it cannot be involved.
Abed Rabbo: I think that the United States has destroyed its credibility in the Arab world for a very long time. It cannot regain this credibility unless it starts taking a position that departs from complete support of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's policy of Israeli war against the Palestinian people and of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Authority areas.
Every time we started implementing the Tenet Plan, for example, which is originally an American plan (all the plans are American plans), the American administration tends to explain these plans according to the Israeli interpretation. In Tenet, we refused from the beginning the condition of seven days without any incident. But the Americans accepted it and this gave Sharon months of continuing violence against the Palestinian people, under the pretext that there had not been seven days of non-violence.
We don't want to have hostile relations with the United States. On the contrary, we were among the first in the Arab world who condemned the attacks of September 11, we were the first in the Arab world who said to Bin Ladin, 'You cannot use the Palestinian cause and you do not represent Palestinian aspirations.' We were the first in the Arab world to say that terrorism is not the way to help the just causes of the Arab states, whether they be national, political or social. But these positions were not taken into consideration.
On the contrary, the United States has increasingly adopted Israeli conditions. The Americans themselves say they know that these conditions are impossible to implement. But they accepted some of them and wanted us to accept them even though [they knew] that Sharon was playing a game and asking the US to pressure us.
bitterlemons: It has been said that all of this has happened because the Palestinians were not willing to accept the Zinni paper.
Abed Rabbo: Well, look at that paper and you will see why we don't accept it. In that paper, there are parts and phrases that if we accept them, we will have to accept what the Israelis are doing now to our people. We would have to accept the incursions and attacks under the pretext that this is [Israeli] self-defense to counter imminent so-called terrorist attacks against Israel.
This paper added a phrase that was not originally in the Tenet plan, and which contradicts the Tenet plan completely--that Israel will not make incursions in the Palestinian Authority areas, unless they are in self-defense or against imminent attacks. Who will interpret this? Of course, the Israelis, who will consider every attack as self-defense and say that they have information that a terrorist attack is imminent.
If we accepted this, we would be worse than [South Lebanese Army commander] Antoin Lahad--not only an agent, but an accomplice with the Israelis against our own people. The Israelis knew that it would be impossible for us to accept such conditions and the Americans, either with goodwill or full knowledge, fell into that trap.
bitterlemons: What about the Saudi proposal?
Abed Rabbo: The Saudi proposal represents our policy. We have said from the beginning that we want normalization of relations between the countries of the region, but on the basis of international resolutions, especially 224 and 338, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967 including East Jerusalem.
This is our policy, in spite of the current difficult moment, in spite of the bloodshed, the war crimes against our people, in spite of the destruction we are facing in our cities and infrastructure, in spite of the Israelis killing hundreds and injuring thousands and despite that their army has entered every ministry and Palestinian institution. Nobody should believe that they are targeting terrorism. They targeted those who made peace with them and whom without them there would be no peace: the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian leadership.
For Sharon, the enemy is not terrorism, the enemy is peace. The representative of peace on the Palestinian side is the Palestinian Authority and its institutions. That is why they targeted them and did great damage to the security services--the same security services that the Americans are asking to control violence and put an end to the situation.
They have created an atmosphere of utmost nationalist hatred among the Israeli people against the Palestinian people and some of our extremists helped them in doing this through the suicide attacks, which we condemn and do not represent us, nor the Palestinian people. These have been used to destroy the bridges of peace and to create channels of blood between us. We believe that peace will be the future. The enemies of peace, those who are ruling in Israel, will be defeated. -Published 8/4/02(c)bitterlemons.org
Yasser Abed Rabbo is Palestinian Authority Minister of Information and Culture.
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