PALESTINIANS VS. ISRAELIS

The deaths will go on

The assassination should make the case for bringing in help from U.S., UN or NATO troops

BY DAOUD KUTTAB
March 23, 2004

During the difficult negotiations following the signing of the declaration of principles on the White House lawn in 1993, Palestinians tried to convince Israelis to give up the settlements of Netzarim and Kfar Darom.

After all, Palestinians argued, these two tiny Jewish settlements located in the center of an extremely populated area of the Gaza Strip had no strategic or religious purpose for Israelis.

Yitzhak Rabin and his negotiators adamantly refused. Their opposition was not ideological or practical, but simply tactical, aimed at denying the creation of a precedent until a final agreement was reached. Rabin, and all the prime ministers after him, held tight to this futile position.

A few Israelis and too many Palestinians have died unnecessary deaths because of this argument.

But now with hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreeing to a total withdrawal from Gaza and some parts of the West Bank, this argument is no longer valid. A neutral observer would say that with this important Israeli announcement there is no need for a single further Palestinian or Israeli to be hurt in Gaza.

After all, the vast majority of suicide attacks have not been carried out by a person coming from the tightly encircled Gaza Strip.

So why does the killing, most spectacularly with Monday's assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, continue in Gaza?

In February alone, 27 Palestinians were killed as well as a number of Israelis. Hundreds were injured. Hundreds of Palestinian homes, especially in the Rafah region, were razed. Before the criminal assassination of Yassin, which killed six other worshiping Palestinians, the number of Palestinians in Gaza killed in March was 42.

The only logical answer for this continued killing seems to be pride. Israel doesn't want its withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip to be seen as a defeat.

Therefore, it is using even more firepower, acting more ruthlessly toward the local population than it would if Israel had plans to stay put in Gaza. Palestinian militants, for their part, want to show that they will not be the last taking it without a response.

Respect and tolerance for the local population, which is suffering the most, is hovering around zero.

The Israeli army knows full well from its experience of the last few years that Palestinians will insist on taking revenge for every violent Israeli act. So by killing Palestinians in Gaza, Israelis are unnecessarily causing harm to both Palestinians and Israelis.

Meanwhile, Palestinian militants want to show that they are violently pushing out the occupier. They are willing to sacrifice their own population to keep proving the senseless point that they will not let any act go without a response.

So with the genie out of the bottle and everyone knowing that Israel is planning to leave Gaza, the most important thing that needs to be done is to make sure that the talked-about Israeli withdrawal takes place quickly and in an orderly manner, and with the least amount of casualties.

Obviously a quick unilateral withdrawal might leave the situation chaotic. But before the brutal killings outside a Gaza mosque, the Hamas spiritual leader was on the record as saying that the Islamists' movement will not challenge the Palestinian Authority for control of Gaza after the Israelis exit.

For its part, the Palestinian Authority started to implement a rigorous five-month law-and-order plan. The plan begins with the return of traffic police and ends with the dismantling of the armed militias.

The plan was to be matched with a public relations campaign that included public events, preaching at the mosques and a vigorous use of the media. Egyptian and American officials were made privy to the plan, and no doubt the Israelis were informed of it.

Killing a paraplegic, religious elderly man will not stop the attacks on Israelis.

And if we can judge by past experience or the angry and widespread public reaction to this assassination, it will not break the will of Palestinians to continue to resist the Israeli occupation.

If ever there was a case for armed international intervention, now is certainly the time. Whether it be United Nations forces, NATO troops or even American soldiers, what is needed, especially in Gaza, is for an outside force to play a role.

Right now, men and women of good will must pool their efforts to put an end to this senseless bloodshed.

All that is necessary now to be able to say "no more killing and suffering in Gaza" is for the Israeli army and government to be willing to swallow the bitter pill and move out of Gaza quickly but in an orderly way.

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in the West Bank city of Ramallah