"Israel is experiencing a profound internal crisis" -- Palestinian ambassadolr calls for implementation of 1947 UN resolution that divided Palestine

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following interview with the Palestinian ambassador to Cuba has many
observations about the gravity of the crisis including the crisis of
Israeli society.  His point that the 1947 resolution -- pushed by the United
States backed by the Soviet Union -- has never been carried out so far as
the Palestinians were concerned is valid.  This was the first  "two-state
solution" and the sole beneficiaries in the real world were the Israeli
settler-colonial state and its main international imperialist backer. I
think that any "two-state solution" wou ld have similar consequences unless
the Palestinian people and their allies in Israel are able to sweep past it
to a united Palestine..
Fred Feldman.

Subject: [CubaNews] Interview with Palestinian Ambassador in Havana
GRANMA
August 6, 2002

INTERVIEW WITH THE
PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR IN HAVANA

There will be no partial or complete solution until Israel
withdraws

. 'Looking for new plans and initiatives is a waste of time,
more aggression against Palestinians and more reaction from
Palestinians, more suicides, more bombs, more deaths on both
sides (...) . In the Intifadas of '87 and '93 the most
Palestinians did was to throw stones, but those children
aged seven in '87 and '93 are now immolating themselves .
And what will those who are children now do in 10 years time
after seeing what has happened from 2000 to date? Everyone
needs to open their eyes and think hard'

BY MARELYS VALENCIA (Granma International staff writer)
ON September 28, 2000, a member of the Israeli Parliament
made an unusual appearance at the Al Aqsa mosque, a sacred
Arab temple, shielded by 3,000 men. The following day the
third and longest-lasting Intifada was unleashed. Ariel
Sharon, sworn enemy of the Palestinians, who had criticized
Barak and Netanyahu for negotiating East Jerusalem in
exchange for peace, and who prior to becoming Prime Minister
declared he would not accept threats, prepared the way for
fresh confrontations with his Al Aqsa visit.
After two years of Intifada and before the avalanche of
violence in the last few months, Imad Jada´a, the
Palestinian ambassador to Havana, talked with Granma
International of the need to end the conflict which, in his
opinion, conceals the real Israeli problem: the internal
crisis of the Jewish state.

Here we have to enter into an analysis of what is rarely
stated. All the indicators point to the fact that Israel is
experiencing a profound internal crisis. Economically
speaking, 53 years after its artificial creation, it
continues to survive thanks to U.S. aid and donations from
Jewish communities. Socially, there is a crisis due to a
wide ethnic diversity dominating the population: it is the
only country in the world that continues to import citizens.
According to the Israeli National Statistics Bureau, the
population is estimated at six million. By 2035, the Jews
will become a minority group among the Arabs, Muslims,
Christians, and the Russians currently arriving. It is going
to be a state led by a Jewish minority, a new form of
apartheid. How can it be democratic, what has happened to
the Zionist dream? That is the question that is making
Israel lose sleep. How can it defer the problem and not find
a solution to it?
If we look back at events from 1993 to 2000, the seven-year
period of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is the
first time that Palestinians have governed themselves.
During these years we have begun to install public education
and health systems; for the first time Palestinian cities
have had traffic lights, municipal services, street cleaning
and aqueducts. The discrepancies within the PNA are not the
main factor in the crisis, but the continued Israeli
occupation of our territory and the absence of a political
strategy for achieving peace in the Middle East.

If we consider Israel's ethnic polarization within an area
of 22,000 square kilometers, it cannot be another
Yugoslavia, giving one part to the Arabs and another to the
Russians. It's either one whole united Israel or there is no
Israel, that's the issue that nobody is mentioning. By
deferring that situation, they are provoking the crisis with
the Palestinians, in order to conceal that the true crisis
is within Israel, and devote their time to talking of
suicide bombers. Why is that happening? A 23 year-old woman,
in her third year at university, imagines a very rosy
future. When and why does she decide to sacrifice her life?
To seek prestige? Desperation kills. That's what's happening
with these people. There's nothing to fight for. An
eight-year-old boy stands in front of a tank throwing rocks
until the Israeli soldier with a machine gun shoots him.
Seeing the soldiers' humiliation of his father, the sadness
and the pain of his mother at losing her relatives, that
child decides that life is not worth it. That is
desperation.

We have already requested international protection for our
people, however, with the support of the United States,
Israel has rejected it. The use of international observers
has been proven as a way of solving regional conflicts. Why
not with us? Because they would discover that the fault
doesn't lie with the Palestinians, but with Israel. For the
first time in history, a country has dared to confront the
international community and say no to a commission appointed
by the (UN) Security Council, and simply annul that body,
because it would help people understand that the problem is
in Israel, not in Palestine.

Why do you think that by extending the conflict with the
Palestinians Israel is avoiding its internal problems?

Because it gives priority to the suicide bombings and
corruption within the Palestinian Authority in order to
avoid talking about the occupation, so that the Israeli
people continue living in a state of stress like the Bush
administration did after September 11. By concentrating
attention on others one can divert it from the real problem.
In the United States they are talking of PNA corruption, but
look at the bankruptcy scandals, the falsifications of
documents in WordCom and in a whole series of companies at a
level of billions of dollars. It is to cover up real
problems with artificial ones. For example, they continue
criticizing the PNA because we haven't written a
constitution. But, to date, neither does Israel have a
constitution and nobody mentions that. Unfortunately, we are
in a unipolar world, where information is directed through
certain channels in order to talk of what is convenient for
them. They speak of the Al Aqsa Intifada but nobody mentions
Sharon's visit the day before, they speak of the many
suicides but nobody mentions Israel's rejection of the
international resolution on Camp Jenin.

Why does the United States want to eliminate Arafat from the
political arena?

I would like to ask this question. How could the United
States give Carmona and his coup d'état its blessing in
Venezuela when Arafat was democratically elected by his
people, under international supervision. Then it declares
that it wasn't democratic and Arafat must be eliminated. The
Palestinians are a people like any other and have the right
to choose the direction they wish to take.

What would happen if Arafat didn't exist?

Arafat is a son of the Palestinian people. He was born from
the suffering of the people, he grew up seeing his people
repressed and humiliated. He is one of millions of
Palestinians who have felt this; the Palestinian people
placed their faith in Arafat. As a human being, he will
disappear one day and whoever comes after him to lead the
Palestinian people will also have lived and been part of the
people's suffering.

They are trying to eliminate someone who knows the value of
Palestinian blood, not just Arafat. That is what they are
trying to destroy, a symbol. That's why the people will not
let it happen.

Some days ago, a report was published regarding the
repercussions of these two years of violence on the Israeli
economy, a loss of around $20 million USD. What has been the
damage inflicted on the Palestinian people?

The damage is incalculable. Destruction of civilian
properties like the Gaza airport, which was demolished, as
were the beginnings of projects in the city's port,
buildings. One day we will be able to calculate the cost.
Economic damage can be recuperated, but who will give back
life to the innocent victims of genocide? It's no
coincidence that a UN report published a week ago claims
that Palestine's unemployment rate is one of the highest in
the world at 66.6%, 55% of the population is living below
the poverty line, and 80% of children from eight to 14 are
suffering from psychological disorders as a result of the
horror they have experienced in the last two years. These
are current realities. Forty percent of Palestinian women
are anemic. These details are not reaching the news cables
in the era of satellite television.

How are Palestinians in the seven occupied cities of the
West Bank living?

They have a 24-hour curfew that is only lifted when Israel
wants to capture people who go out on the streets to deal
with their problems. The fact of the Jewish holocaust is
known, but today the entire world is witnessing how they
mistreat children, how they tie them up with nylon string
that is stronger than they are, blindfold them and take them
off in trucks to unknown destinations.

And what happens to them?

Nobody knows. The few that return speak of the horror,
torture at the hand of the Israelis, but to date there are
8,000 disappeared Palestinians. All we know is that the
Israelis take them away in front of their homes and
families. There are some imprisoned in the Nagev desert in
the south, where in July and August temperatures reach 47
degrees.

Can Palestinians go to work in the occupied cities?

No, there are curfews. Last week we experienced another
humanitarian crisis at the Jordanian border. Some 3,000
Palestinians, men, women and children who needed to cross
the border between the West Bank and Jordan in order to
return to their homes, were left stranded for one week
without tents or water, due to an Israeli curfew imposed
when the government suddenly decided to reorganize the
border crossing. Three thousand people were stuck there.
That's no lie. The entire world saw it, but there's a total
silence about it and silence is complicity with the enemy.

Do you believe there is really a will on the part of Israel
to establish a dialogue?

Everything indicates that there is an Israeli-U.S.
agreement, with international participation, to defer the
crisis with these inventions that lead us into a blind
alley, or on an ambiguous route in order to make us forget
what happened yesterday and not solve the problem. The
solution to the problem of Palestine is very simple. There
are dozens of UN resolutions on the issue, from the Security
Council and the General Assembly. What is obstructing the
decision? Israeli arrogance and lack of respect for
international law. When Israel feels that it is a normal
state with a normal economy and a normal people, it can
start to think of a solution.

However, when the radical circles saw that Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin had decided to work for a genuine peace, they
eliminated him and never spoke of him again.

Now the mediators, and specifically the European Union, are
trying to propitiate Israel's withdrawal from the
Palestinian cities occupied in recent months and to halt any
further Israeli colonial settlements in Palestinian
territory. But that would be to return to the talks in 2000,
before the Intifada.

This is the tunnel I was talking about. They are now talking
about returning to the situation prior to September 28,
2000, but who's going to compensate for all the destruction
that has taken place since then. Who is going to mend the
human and political wounds inflicted since? We do not have
to return to that date, we must return to the partition plan
of 1947, we must return to Resolution 242 that obliges
Israel to retreat from the territories it occupied in '67,
and we must also return to Resolution 181 of November 29,
1947, which divides Palestine into two states. The world
accepted the Israeli part, but the Palestinian part has
never been resolved. It would be easy if a genuine will
existed.

Starting from now, there is a proposal to form a quartet of
the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United
Nations to mediate in the conflict.

Starting now, starting yesterday, 10 years ago. Why must we
continue looking for initiatives when everything is in
place? The only thing that needs to be done is to establish
a mechanism with the motto "let us respect international
law," which calls for the creation of the Palestinian state.
In order to create that state a plan is needed, a working
agenda that the international community will respect and
defend. Looking for new plans and initiatives is a waste of
time, is more aggression for Palestinians and more reaction
from Palestinians, more suicides, more bombs and more deaths
on both sides.

Do you know of any internal movements within Israel that are
opposed to Sharon's policy?

Yes. There are left-wing parties, civil movements, NGO's,
groups of mothers who don't want their sons to go to the
West Bank or Gaza to kill Palestinians and come back as
corpses. But these voices are still faint; they need to be
more effective.

A lot is reported in the news about the attacks perpetrated
by groups like Hamas, the suicides. What is the PNA's
current dialogue with these groups in order to halt their
actions, utilized by Israel as a pretext for the occupation?

They are not attacks but a form of national resistance to
the occupation, a right guaranteed to all peoples of the
world by international law. They cannot be qualified as
attacks or terrorism. It is a people guaranteeing its
legitimate right. But, given that the world calls it that,
today the founder and leader of Hamas announced that we are
prepared to stop military operations against Israeli
civilians when there is an end to the occupation of our
territories. Why do they always want to put the cart in
front of the horse?

What would happen if the Palestinian response were to cease
for a moment, simply to see how Israel would act?

No, I would like to ask: why don't we test it out by
withdrawing the Israeli troops from Palestinian territory,
test out when they are going to give us all the money stolen
from our government in order to use it to solve our people's
problems. It's not simply having Palestinians test it out,
when it is well known that any action is followed by
reaction. The problem is the occupation and there is no
partial or complete solution until the Israeli troops
withdraw. There isn't going to be any peace and tranquility
in the Middle East if the Palestinians cannot enjoy their
rights.

Here, this must be brought to the attention of all humanity:
in the previous Intifadas of '87 and '93 the most
Palestinians did was throw stones. Those children who were
seven in '87 and '93 are now immolating themselves. What are
those who are children now going to do in 10 years after
seeing what has occurred from 2000 to date? The world has to
open its eyes and think hard on this issue. The world has to
take urgent measures and think of the reaction that will be
produced in 10 years. What authority will be able to control
those young people? It's a very complicated and worrying
question. The sooner a solution is found for the Palestinian
people, the sooner there will be well-being for the entire
international community.






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