THE HANDSTAND

OCTOBER 2002

>pROFESSOR aVRAHAM oZ WRITES:

Dear Friends,
>
>The following is a petition which is getting organized by members of the Israeli academe. I think it speaks for itself, While not condoning inhuman crimes cynically perpetrated by extremist Palestinians against civilians in Israel in the name of so-called freedom fighting, the official response of the current Israeli government often becomes a version of State Terrorism, and rather than directed at stopping the circle of bloodshed seems intent on increasing it for reasons mentioned in the petition below. It is not easy for an Israeli to sign this text. If we did, it is to raise our voice and
your conscience to help stopping this snowball process leading the whole area into the abyss of senseless violence.
>
>For better days,
>A. Oz
>
>Professor Avraham Oz
>Department of Theatre
>University of Haifa
>Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel
>Telefax: +972-3-5609627
>Email: avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il
>
>>
Urgent warning: The Israeli government may be contemplating crimes
against humanity.

>
>
>We, members of Israeli academe, are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership's enthusiastic support for it.
>
>We are deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing.
>
>The Israeli ruling coalition includes parties that promote "transfer" of the Palestinian population as a solution to what they call "thedemographic problem". Politicians are regularly quoted in the media as suggesting forcible expulsion, most recently MKs Michael Kleiner and Benny Elon, as reported on Yediot Ahronot website on September 19, 2002. In a recent interview in Ha'aretz, Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon described the Palestinians as a "cancerous manifestation" and equated the military actions in the Occupied Territories with "chemotherapy", suggesting that more radical "treatment" may be necessary. Prime Minister Sharon has backed this "assessment of reality". Escalating racist demagoguery concerning the Palestinian citizens of Israel may indicate the scope of the crimes that are possibly being contemplated.
>
>We call upon the International Community to pay close attention to events that unfold within Israel and in the Occupied Territories, to make it absolutely clear that crimes against humanity will not be tolerated, and to take concrete measures to prevent such crimes from taking place.
>
>Signatories, as of the 23 Sept 2002, morning:
>
>Prof. Zach Adam, Rehovot
>Prof. Colman Altman, Haifa
>Dr. Janina Altman, Haifa
>Tammy Amiel-Houser, Tel Aviv
>Chaya Amir, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Shmuel Amir, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Daniel Amit, Jerusalem/Rome
>Yali Amit, Chicago
>Dr. Meir Amor, Montreal, Canada
>Dr. Yonathan (Jon) Anson, Beer Sheva
>Prof. Shalom Baer, Jerusalem
>Dan Bar-On, Beer Sheva
>Dr. Avner Ben-Amos, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Matania Ben-Artzi, Jerusalem
>Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi, Tel Aviv
>Avi Berg, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Louise Bethlehem, Hod Hasharon
>Prof. Anat Bilezki, Tel Aviv
>Uri Bitan, Haifa
>Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Berkeley
>Prof. Victoria Buch, Jerusalem
>Smadar Carmon, Toronto
>Dr. Nicole Cohen-Addad, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Uri Davis, Sakhnin
>Athena Elizabeth DeRasmo, Haifa
>Prof. Aharon Eviatar, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Ovadia Ezra. Tel Aviv
>Prof. Emmanuel Farjoun, Jerusalem
>Pnina Firestone, Jerusalem
>Elizabeth Freund, Jerusalem
>Gadi Geiger, Cambridge, MA, USA
>Dr. Amira Gelblum, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Rachel Giora, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Anat Goldrat-First, Netanya
>Dr. Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Neve Gordon, Beer Sheva
>Dr. Yerah Gover, New York
>Prof. Charles W. Greenbaum, Jerusalem
>Dr. Lev Grinberg, Beer Sheva
>Ran HaCohen, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Uri Hadar, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Galit Hasan-Rokem, Jerusalem
>Dr. Sara Helman, Beer Sheva
>Prof. Hanna Herzog, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Ze'ev Herzog, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Hannan Hever, Jerusalem
>Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jerusalem
>Shirly Houser, Tel Aviv
>Tal Itzhaki, Haifa
>Prof. Eva Jablonka, Tel Aviv
>Andrea Jacobs, Austin, Texas
>Dr. Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Haifa
>Aya Kaniuk, Jerusalem
>Prof. Jacob Katriel, Haifa
>Prof. Tamar Katriel, Haifa
>Prof. Baruch Kimmerling, Jerusalem
>Dr. Haggai Kupermintz, Boulder, Colorado
>Dr. Ron Kuzar, Haifa
>Dr. Ariela Lazar, Evanston
>Prof. Micah Leshem, Haifa
>Erez Levkovitz, Jerusalem
>Prof. Rene Levy, Lausanne
>Dr. Orly Lubin, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Ruchama Marton, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Anat Matar, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jerusalem
>Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, Jerusalem
>Menucha Moravitz, Ramat-Gan
>Regev Nathansohn, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Avraham Oz, Haifa
>Dr. Ilan Pappe, Haifa
>Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA
>Shakhar Rahav, Berkeley
>Dr. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Beer Sheva
>Prof. Zvi Razi, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Tanya Reinhart, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Berlin
>Prof. Freddie Rokem, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Henry Rosenfeld, Haifa
>Dr. Maya Rosenfeld, Jerusalem
>Ouzi Rotem, Philadelphia
>Dr. Hannah Safran, Haifa
>Tami Sarfatti, UCLA
>Dr. Nita Schechet, Jerusalem
>Hillel Schocken, Tel Aviv
>Ruben Seroussi, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Erella Shadmi,Beit Berl
>Prof. Nomi Shir, Beer Sheva
>Dr. Miriam Shlesinger, Tel Aviv
>Aharon Shabtai, Tel Aviv
>Orly Soker, Sapir-Jerusalem
>Nurit Steinfeld, Jerusalem
>Roman Vater, Tel Aviv
>Dr. Roy Wagner, Tel-Aviv
>Dr. Michael Yogev, Haifa
>Kim Yuval, Tel Aviv
>Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, Jerusalem
>Michal Zweig, Herzelia


 

Conspiracy of silence

By Osama El-Sherif

September 25, 2002, 01:43 PM

TORONTO   What does Ariel Sharon really want from the Palestinians? What is the end game for the aging former commando officer now holding in his hand the future of both Israelis and Palestinians? In the past weeks the prime minister of Israel has managed to knock down the few remaining signposts of the Oslo peace agreements, and today as his tanks encircle the ramshackle headquarters of his archenemy, Yasser Arafat, in Ramallah he seems ready to cut free the hair-thin line that connects the two peoples who are destined to share the same piece of land. So again: what is Sharon's end game?

It doesn't take a genius to see what Sharon and his generals are up to. The world is shamefully quiescent about this latest atrocity, a dismal chapter in a hair-raising modern-day holocaust where the only thing that is missing is the gas chambers. Whatever the Palestinians are accused of, there is nothing that justifies their wholesale humiliation and subjugation. Sharon's war is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. He can offer nothing to his people or his victims because in all honesty he has nothing to peddle.

But Sharon is true to his beliefs. What is shocking is how the world has succumbed in resignation to what is happening in the Holy Land. Sharon could give the order to blow up to smithereens the last standing building, with Arafat and his aides still huddled inside, and that would be the end of it. Other than the usual statements of denunciation and regret life for the rest of us would go on. The Palestinian people are destined to carry their burden alone and face the wrath and fury of their tormentor.

In fact the plight of the Palestinian people, who have been struggling for liberation and independence ever since the mighty British army marched into Jerusalem more than 85 years ago ending centuries of Ottoman rule, is unique in modern political history.

It's a checkered history of ephemeral victories and nagging disappointments. No nation on earth today has suffered as much as the people of Palestine. The irony is that international legality, the result of unprecedented diplomatic largesse, is on their side, as dozens of UN resolutions attest. In the eyes of the world, they are an occupied nation who has an alienable right to self-determination and independence and accordingly their resistance of occupation is a legitimate one.

The siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters epitomizes decades of Palestinian struggle that has never looked so futile and hopeless. Between the first Palestinian revolt of 1936 and the latest Intifada, which erupted in September 2000, many deals and agreements, treaties and resolutions have been trampled on and deposited into the dustbin of history. It is true that in hindsight, and to a minority of observers, the Palestinians, and Arabs, appear to have sacrificed one "generous" offer after the other, but that is not only a harsh judgment to make but a simplistic one as well.

Those who pontificate about Palestinians not honoring their agreements and turning to terror to achieve political goals only demonstrate their ignorance, or their use of other people's ignorance, of Palestinian history. The bare truth is that the Palestinians have been let down time and time again by the powers of the day.

Ariel Sharon knows that history very well. He believes the world could very well afford to abandon the Palestinians to their fate, and he sees a rare opportunity to carry out a fantastic scheme to rob the Palestinians of all of their land and of all of their rights.

Global and regional realities have given him that chance. The tanks surrounding the dilapidated building in Ramallah underline these realities. The failure of the UN to investigate what happened in Jenin refugee camp earlier this year has enticed Sharon to pursue such scheme with impunity.

This is really not a war between Sharon and Arafat, nor is it about Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This is a colonial war to finish off Palestinian aspirations for statehood, to usurp the last plot of their land and to drive them into exile for good. It would be foolish to read this war in any other way. Sharon will not offer anything to the Palestinians, not after Arafat, not after he turns his guns against Hamas and others.

There is a conspiracy of silence that makes this whole saga even more sinister. That conspiracy transcends borders and ideologies to include everyone from the liberals of Europe and America, to the progressive and secular left inside Israel, to the Palestinians' own brethren in Arabia and beyond. And this poses a real moral dilemma to all. If we wash our hands of Palestinian blood how can we then pretend to go on with our lives as individuals, as nations and as a world community?


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