Never before, since the printing of the first issue of the Journal
in December 1993 following the Oslo agreements, have we experienced
such terrible times. Though Israeli-Palestinian talks have resumed,
blood is still being spilled and the dead - mainly Palestinian -
are piling up. Can one be surprised if feelings of hatred, of
despair, and calls for revenge prevail in both camps? As a result,
Israeli-Palestinian cooperation is almost at a standstill, and many
voices, especially on the Palestinian side, demand an end to all
forms of joint activity by NGOs on both sides.
Some Israeli peace activists say they are disappointed by
Palestinian behavior. They are angry with the Palestinians for
interrupting the peace negotiations after the failure of the Camp
David summit and, instead, launching the Al-Aqsa Intifada. They
accuse the Palestinian leadership of having broken the obligation -
undertaken by both sides - to settle all differences by
negotiations and not to resort to violence. However, those peace
activists are taking an easy way out of a complex situation. The
Palestinian uprising (Intifada) did not occur suddenly, like a
thunderstorm in the midst of a sunny summer day. For months,
international as well as Israeli and Palestinian media had been
warning of the danger of an explosion among the Palestinian people
of the West Bank and Gaza, if the peace talks were to fail.
One cannot be oblivious to the fact that Palestinians and Israelis
live in a different reality. When Israeli negotiators travel to
Washington, Paris or Sharm el-Sheikh, they leave behind a country
living de facto at peace, with a thriving economy and a decent
quality of life. The Palestinian leaders, on the other hand, leave
behind a people suffering from severe unemployment; a people
embittered by the constant harassment meted out to them daily at
roadblocks by Israeli soldiers - Ami Ayalon, former chief of
Israel's internal security services (the Shin Bet) has called the
Palestinian laborers' daily journey to work an "ongoing nightmare."
This is a people helpless to thwart the repeated confiscation of
tracts of Palestinian land by Israel to make way for more and more
bypass roads for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers; a people
exasperated by the continued expansion of Jewish settlements.
In short, Israel can easily afford to negotiate indefinitely, using
its superior force to create unilateral facts on the ground. While
the Palestinian leadership, which exerts authority over a West Bank
and a Gaza Strip carved up into separate Bantustans lacking
territorial contiguity, fails to see any trace of progress on the
ground. A humiliated, frustrated and angry people has lost hope of
seeing the fruits of peace, and, at last, ridding itself of the
Israeli occupation: after seven years of cumbersome negotiations,
was it really possible for Yasser Arafat to prevent the outbreak of
the Palestinian uprising, following the yet-another failed round of
negotiations at Camp David? The answer to the question came
following Ariel Sharon's "visit" to the Haram al-Sharif, and the
next day's killing of seven Palestinians by Israeli police shooting
at Palestinian youngsters who, allegedly, had started throwing
stones at Jews praying in front of the Western (Wailing)
Wall.
There can be no doubt that violence won't solve anything. In the
end, the two parties have to sit down at the negotiation table.
Sometimes, however, violence is unavoidable. Nonetheless, it is
essential to remember that, even in the midst of the maiming and
killing, one must be ready for renewed peace talks. In this
respect, and in order to promote a favorable climate for those
talks, people of good will, peace activists, on both sides, have a
special duty: to keep alive the various forms of
Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and cooperation. To give in to despair
will only add oil to the flames that threaten to devour us all,
merely strengthening the extremists in both camps, who are opposed
to any and all compromise that may lead to a just and realistic
peace. It is only this kind of peace, based on the emergence of a
Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel, that can
eventually lead to a historic reconciliation between the two
peoples.
To Our Readers:
We were completing work on an issue of the Journal focusing on
"Settlements or Peace," when the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out at the
end of September 2000. We decided, therefore, to publish this
double issue (Vol. VII No. 3&4) with two focuses: settlements
and the Intifada.