| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| "The days of dealing with the Palestinians as occupier and occupiee, victor and vanquished, master and slave should be the past, not the present, and certainly not the future. That is in fact what the Intifada is all about!" |
The very notion these days of simply "trusting" anyone associated with the Israeli political establishment or more specifically in this case Israel's Labor Party is pretty difficult -- there's such a long history of deceit and mistrust, and such good reasons.
So when Israel's Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg wants to "address" the Palestinian "legislative council" in Ramallah -- in the first place a group essentially castrated by both the Israelis and the Arafat Regime long ago -- one has to wonder. And then when Burg wants to insist that his speech must be broadcast live far and wide -- eyebrows should be raised. And then when Burg further conditions his appearance on an immediate vote on a "resolution" that he and the various cronies involved draft in advance, and away from the country in Greece -- eyebrows should start fluttering.
First of all this is hardly the time for the Palestinians to contemplate such deceptive and largely imposed "gestures". Their "leader" -- shaken, compromised, and corrupt as he and his regime are -- is under a novel kind of Israeli-imposed house/town arrest in Ramallah not far from where Burg would be speaking. Furthermore the Israelis have just announced that they will now treat travel from Ramallah to Jerusalem a few miles away as they do for those bottled up in Gaza trying to get in or out at the "Eretz Crossing". This has nothing to do with "borders" or "Palestinian Statehood" at this point; this has everything to do with enhancing the Apartheid-style repression that began as a way to further punish, control, and essentially imprison the Palestinians for the long-overdue and certainly justified Intifada (the "rising up") against their brutal occupiers.
If Burg wants to address the Palestinian 'legislative council" let Haidar Abdul-Shafi address the Israeli Knesset.
If Burg wants to be live on TV and radio before the Palestinian people let Haidar Abdul-Shafi be live on TV and radio before the Israeli people.
If the Israelis want their "draft resolution" put before the Palestinians in Ramallah let the Palestinians put their "draft resolution" before the Israelis... you get the idea...
I.e., the days of dealing with the Palestinians as occupier and occupiee, victor and vanquished, master and slave, should be the past, not the present, and certainly not the future. That is in fact what the Intifada is all about!
[Ha'aretz - Tel Aviv - 14 February 2002 - By Yossi Verter]: Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg is holding contacts with Palestinian Authority leaders to try draft a resolution that could be adopted by the Palestinian legislative council directly after he speaks to the parliamentarians. Burg has also asked PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's aides to ensure his speech is broadcast by official PA media to reach every possible home in the territories.
Burg intends to go even if discussions on these two topics do not bear fruit, the sources say. Burg believes it is important for the council to vote on a resolution of some kind after he finishes his address, the sources said.
Burg is due to meet a top PA official in Greece to continue discussions of these matters. Burg proposes that PA officials draft a resolution for the council which has two main clauses - a ban on anti-Israeli incitement, and a public commitment to act against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Knesset has scheduled a discussion for next week on Burg's proposed visit to Ramallah. He has already stated he will not allow the Knesset discussion to influence his actions. Early this week, the Labor party voted to support Burg's visit.
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/2/635.htm |