Debate in Palestine over Palestinian petition on suicide bombings

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note by Fred Feldman: The following is an interesting contribution to the
discussion in Palestine over the tactic of the tactic of suicide bombings..

 I haven't followed the news coverage on the petition closely enough to know
whether or not the facts support the claim that the
petition against suicide bombings was financed by the  European Union. (How
much financing does the circulation of  such a petition require in this day
and age? I don't know.).

If true, the claim would place the petition at least partly in the context
of current imperialist attacks on the Palestinian struggle for
self-determination, and the right of the Palestinian movement to make
decisions free of  imperialist dictation.

I would appreciate a contribution to the list from anyone who knows the
facts on this.

The article is from the on-line edition of the Cairo- based Al Ahram
Weekly.

Al-Ahram Weekly
June 27-July 3, 2002
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/592/re2.htm


Debate over suicide operations: A controversy is brewing over a
petition against suicide bombings signed by hundreds of Palestinians

by Khaled Amayreh

Hundreds of Palestinian intellectuals have signed a widely-circulated
petition calling on Palestinian resistance groups to terminate
"martyrdom operations" against Israeli civilians in Israel proper,
Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem.


Signatories to the petition, most of whom are affiliated with the
Palestinian People's Party (PPP) and the Palestinian Democratic Union,
or Feda, as it is known by its Arabic acronym, added their names to a
document arguing that suicide bombings put the Palestinian national
struggle at risk of being associated with terrorism.

Moreover, said the petition, such operations provide Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon with a pretext for maintaining and intensifying
the oppression of the Palestinian people as well as permitting Israel to
evade the real issues, namely, the matter of its continued occupation.

Finally, the signatories argued that suicide bomb attacks targeting
Israeli civilians seriously impeded the growth of forces for peace
within Israel who are essential to concluding a peace between Israelis
and Palestinians.

The relatively circumspect tone of the petition suggested that its
purpose was not to condemn the Palestinian resistance, but rather to
foster a democratic debate about the bombings and their moral and
political implications for the Palestinian cause.

This point was illustrated by Palestinian law-maker Hanan Ashrawi, one
of the people who signed the petition, in an interview with Al-Ahram
Weekly.

Ashrawi said that Palestinian society needs to re-evaluate the various
means and modes of struggle against the occupation in order to maximise
political benefits and minimise harmful effects.

"We have to objectively examine whether these operations help or harm
our national goals, namely, ending the occupation and realising
statehood."

Ashrawi acknowledged that the terror Israel is wreaking on Palestinian
civilians is the root-cause of the suicide bombings. However, she
cautioned that Palestinians should refrain from resorting to terrorist
tactics since to do so is "morally wrong and politically
self-defeating".

Most Palestinians wouldn't contest Ashrawi's reservations about the
bombings and the political damage they cause to the image of the
Palestinian struggle. However, many Palestinian intellectuals criticise
what they view as the petition's "decontextualisation" of the suicide
bombings. The petition, these critics note, fails to mention specific
instances of Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians, such
as the artillery shelling of a crowded market in Jenin on 22 June, which
resulted in the killing of three children and a man, and the maiming of
20 civilians.

It is such acts of terror, most Palestinians argue, that make the resort
to suicide bombings almost inevitable, regardless of how one views them
ethically.

One of the most outspoken critics of the petition is Professor
Abdel-Sattar Qassem. He accused the signatories of "paying ample
attention to the blood of Jewish civilians, while ignoring the blood of
Palestinian children".

"This petition ignores the daily massacres and acts of terror
perpetrated by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians. It is
both unfair and unrealistic to ask the victims to end their resistance
without demanding that the aggressors stop murdering and repressing the
victims."

Qassem, a professor of political science at Al-Najah University in
Nablus and frequent critic of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser
Arafat, also questioned the motives of those who signed the petition:
"The fact that the petition was financed by the EU raises questions
about the motives of those who signed it. Perhaps the people who signed
it were more interested in meeting the aims of the donors than
expressing objections to the resistance." Qassem also lashed out at the
people who signed the petition, suggesting that they were relatively
sheltered from the problems faced by the majority of Palestinians living
in the occupied territories.

"Those people travel and move freely in and out [of the occupied
territories] and have neither been tormented by the Israeli occupation
nor seriously scathed by the Intifada. Thus, their views are unlikely to
reflect Palestinian public opinion."

According to an opinion poll conducted by the General Information
Department, a PA-affiliated body, 60.2 per cent of Palestinians
expressed support for bombing operations inside Israel, while 86 per
cent supported resistance operations, including bombing operations
against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in the West Bank, East
Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

These results, however, bear qualification: the 1,137 poll respondents
were interviewed at a time when Israeli repression had become
particularly brutal. It is widely acknowledged that when people are
under pressure and experiencing harsh conditions, as the Palestinians
clearly are, that their views become more extreme. Consequently, such
attitudes might be better understood as an expression of suffering than
deeply-held convictions. This view is supported when one looks at the
vacillation over time in popular support for suicide bombings which
shows a strong correlation between higher levels of Israeli brutality
and increased popular support for suicide bombings.

Indeed, even Hamas, an organisation which views "martyrdom operations"
as the Palestinians' last-remaining deterrent against Israeli brutality,
readily acknowledges that such operations are not an ideal means for the
Palestinians to work to achieve their aspirations for statehood.

"If you guarantee that Sharon won't target Palestinian civilians, I will
guarantee that we will not carry out operations against Israelis inside
Israel," said Hamas official Ismael Abu Shanab in a recent interview
with the Weekly.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin repeated the offer this week,
saying, "Have them [Israelis] stop killing our civilians, and we will
stop killing their civilians."

Hamas's position presumes that the key to stopping suicide bombings is
in Ariel Sharon's hands as much it is with Hamas, Fatah, the Islamic
Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Indeed, Sharon could, if he were sincere about putting an end to these
operations, suspend targeting Palestinian civilians for a week or two to
see how Palestinian resistance groups respond.

However, experience suggests that Sharon would not take such an action
for one simple reason: a restoration of calm would probably spell the
end of his political career.


© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved.



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