Is Peace Breaking Out in Palestine?

Ali Abunimah

Are Israelis and Palestinians

The continuing harassment and humiliation of Palestinians by the Israeli military is a typical part of occupation. This scene is from the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, West Bank. Photo: Musa Al-Shaer

finally on the road to peace? A cursory glance at commentary in the US press would seem to suggest so. Since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced a truce in early February at the Sharm al-Sheikh summit, many observers see a "window of opportunity" they are encouraging both sides to leap through.

Sharon has announced he is now coordinating with the Palestinians on his originally unilateral plan to pull Israeli troops and settlers out of Gaza and the Israeli cabinet voted to approve the "disengagement."

A New York Times editorial gushed about the disengagement that "it would be churlish to greet [Sharon's] historic decision with anything other than enthusiasm." (24 February) Behind the photo opportunities and historic handshakes, however, the evidence on the ground is that Israel is taking advantage of the new mood not to build peace, but to build more settlements. Without an immediate halt in settlement construction, the possibility for a territorially contiguous, free Palestinian state alongside Israel will remain a distant mirage. This is true no matter how many times President Bush talks about it, and the present easing of tension will be no more than a short respite from more horror to come.

Israel Forges Ahead
Phase One of President Bush's Road Map peace plan says that both sides must immediately halt all violence against each other, and Israel must freeze all construction of Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land. But Palestinians still watch helplessly as Israeli bulldozers chew up their farms and orchards.

Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported that Israel is forging ahead with plans to expand Ma'ale Adumim, the largest settle-ment in the West Bank, which lies between Jerusalem and Jericho and cuts the West Bank in two from north to south. If this expansion goes ahead, as it seems it will, it confirms that Israel intends there to be no possibility for a contiguous Palestinian state. ("Herzog's Greater Jerusalem," by Shahar Ilan, Ha'aretz, 16 February).

Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper revealed that, according to the state land authority, Israel plans to build more than 6,000 new homes in settlements in the West Bank - many in Ma'ale Adumim - and that the government will also legitimize 120 unauthorized settlement outposts. (BBC, 25 February 2005)

A recent study by Israel's Peace Now using aerial photography and field research found that "the main building effort in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank is now focused on the area between the Green Line [1967 border] and the separation fence, and it is aimed at turning the fence into Israel's permanent border." ("Quietly carrying on building," Ha'aretz, 8 January 2005) This evidence bolsters Palestinian claims that the separation wall - ruled illegal last July by the International Court of Justice - is not a temporary security measure as Israel argues, but a land grab carried out while world attention focuses on Gaza. The deception, however, is not Israel's alone, but requires the active participation of all those invested in the "peace process" as it is currently configured and who prefer to talk about the Gaza withdrawal as if it were the only and most important thing happening.

Peace Rhetoric Gap
There is a vast and growing gap between the Bush administration's peace rhetoric and what is happening on the ground. Post-"truce" talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to hand over several West Bank cities to Palestinian control have stalled. Israel has now "handed over" Jericho, but this is a cosmetic move as there were no Israeli troops inside the city center to begin with, and Israel continues to control the perimeter of the city with roadblocks. Many Palestinians feel that what is happening now is not a genuine quest for peace, but simply discussions between the jailor and the prisoner on easing prison conditions.

In recent municipal elections in the Gaza Strip, Hamas trounced Fatah, an indication that despite a campaign of assassination against their leaders by Israel, Islamist opposition groups remain the strongest force in some parts of the occupied territories.

The dynamic that exists looks ominously like the failed Oslo peace process during which Israel doubled the number of settlers on Palestinian land, and never let up on forced land confiscation and house demolitions, sustaining a cycle of violence which claimed thousands of innocent lives. Despite the continuing euphoria created by Sharon's theatrics, there is no evidence that Israel has any intention of seizing perhaps the last opportunity to save itself through the two-state solution. Neither is there any sign that its chief sponsor, the United States, has any intention of pressuring it to do so.

Ali Abunimah is a co-founder of The Electronic Intifada [electronicintifada.net], from which this article was excerpted.