[RSCT] Two articles on Gaza

[Bob Peterson]

Friends,

These two articles provide very important background information for  
teachers and for older students on the current situation in Gaza. I  
hope people find these helpful. I encourage those of you teaching  
about the current situation to share your experience on this list serv.

In solidarity with the people of Gaza,

Bob Peterson

I have also attached them as word documents


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090112/avnery
The Nation
A Memo to Obama on Israel
Comment
by URI AVNERY

December 29, 2008

This article originally appeared on Uri Avnery's website.
The following humble suggestions are based on my seventy years of  
experience as an underground fighter, special forces soldier in the  
1948 war, editor-in-chief of a newsmagazine, member of the Knesset  
and founding member of a peace movement:

1) As far as Israeli-Arab peace is concerned, you should act from Day  
One.

2) Israeli elections are due to take place in February 2009. You can  
have an indirect but important and constructive impact on the  
outcome, by announcing your unequivocal determination to achieve  
Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-all-Arab peace in 2009.

3) Unfortunately, all your predecessors since 1967 have played a  
double game. While paying lip service to peace, and sometimes going  
through the motions of making some effort for peace, they have in  
practice supported our governments in moving in the very opposite  
direction. In particular, they have given tacit approval to the  
building and enlargement of Israeli settlements in the occupied  
Palestinian and Syrian territories, each of which is a land mine on  
the road to peace.

4) All the settlements are illegal in international law. The  
distinction sometimes made between "illegal" outposts and the other  
settlements is a propaganda ploy designed to obscure this simple truth.

5) All the settlements since 1967 have been built with the express  
purpose of making a Palestinian state--and hence peace--impossible,  
by cutting the territory of the prospective State of Palestine into  
ribbons. Practically all our government departments and the army have  
openly or secretly helped to build, consolidate and enlarge the  
settlements--as confirmed by the 2005 report prepared for the  
government by lawyer Talia Sasson.

6) By now, the number of settlers in the West Bank has reached some  
250,000 (apart from the 200,000 settlers in the Greater Jerusalem  
area, whose status is somewhat different). They are politically  
isolated, and sometimes detested by the majority of the Israel  
public, but enjoy significant support in the army and government  
ministries.

7) No Israeli government would dare to confront the concentrated  
political and material might of the settlers. Such a confrontation  
would need very strong leadership and the unstinting support of the  
President of the United States to have any chance of success.

8) Lacking these, all "peace negotiations" are a sham. The Israeli  
government and its US backers have done everything possible to  
prevent the negotiations with both the Palestinians and the Syrians  
from reaching any conclusion, for fear of provoking a confrontation  
with the settlers and their supporters. The present "Annapolis"  
negotiations are as hollow as all the preceding ones, each side  
keeping up the pretense for its own political interests.

9) The Clinton administration, and even more so the Bush  
administration, allowed the Israeli government to keep up this  
pretense. It is therefore imperative to prevent members of these  
administrations from diverting your Middle Eastern policy into the  
old channels.

10) It is important for you to make a complete new start, and to  
state this publicly. Discredited ideas and failed initiatives--such  
as the Bush "vision," the Road Map, Annapolis and the like--should be  
thrown into the junkyard of history.

11) To make a new start, the aim of American policy should be stated  
clearly and succinctly. This should be: to achieve a peace based on  
the two-state solution within a defined time span (say, by the end of  
2009).

12) It should be pointed out that this aim is based on a reassessment  
of the American national interest, in order to extract the poison  
from American-Arab and American-Muslim relations, strengthen peace- 
oriented regimes, defeat Al Qaeda-type terrorism, end the Iraq and  
Afghanistan wars and achieve a viable accommodation with Iran.

13) The terms of Israeli-Palestinian peace are clear. They have been  
crystallized in thousands of hours of negotiations, conferences,  
meetings and conversations. They are:

13.1) A sovereign and viable State of Palestine will be established  
side by side with the State of Israel.

13.2) The border between the two states will be based on the pre-1967  
Armistice Line (the "Green Line"). Insubstantial alterations can be  
arrived at by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1  
basis.

13.3) East Jerusalem, including the Haram-al-Sharif ("Temple Mount")  
and all Arab neighborhoods will serve as the capital of Palestine.  
West Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and all Jewish  
neighborhoods, will serve as the capital of Israel. A joint municipal  
authority, based on equality, may be established by mutual consent to  
administer the city as one territorial unit.

13.4) All Israeli settlements--except any which might be joined to  
Israel in the framework of a mutually agreed exchange of  
territories-- will be evacuated (see 15 below).

13.5) Israel will recognize in principle the right of the refugees to  
return. A Joint Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, composed of  
Palestinian, Israeli and international historians, will examine the  
events of 1948 and 1967 and determine who was responsible for what.  
Each individual refugee will be given the choice between (1)  
repatriation to the State of Palestine, (2) remaining where he/she is  
living now and receiving generous compensation, (3) returning to  
Israel and being resettled, (4) emigrating to any other country, with  
generous compensation. The number of refugees who will return to  
Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual agreement, it being  
understood that nothing will be done that materially alters the  
demographic composition of the Israeli population. The large funds  
needed for the implementation of this solution must be provided by  
the international community in the interest of world peace. This will  
save much of the money spent today on military expenditure and direct  
grants from the United States.

13.6) The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one  
national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel  
or bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.

13.7) Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will  
withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan  
Heights will be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli  
activities conducted directly or by proxy. The two parties will  
establish normal relations between them.

13.8) In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member  
states of the Arab League will recognize Israel and establish normal  
relations with it. Talks about a future Middle Eastern Union, on the  
model of the EU, possibly to include Turkey and Iran, may be considered.

14) Palestinian unity is essential for peace. Peace made with only  
one section of the people is worthless. The US will facilitate  
Palestinian reconciliation and the unification of Palestinian  
structures. To this end, the US will end its boycott of Hamas, which  
won the last elections, start a political dialogue with the movement  
and encourage Israel to do the same. The US will respect any result  
of democratic Palestinian elections.

15) The US will aid the government of Israel in confronting the  
settlement problem. As from now, settlers will be given one year to  
leave the occupied territories voluntarily in return for compensation  
that will allow them to build their homes in Israel proper. After  
that, all settlements--except those within any areas to be joined to  
Israel under the peace agreement--will be evacuated.

16) I suggest that you, as president of the United States, come to  
Israel and address the Israeli people personally, not only from the  
rostrum of the Knesset but also at a mass rally in Tel-Aviv's Rabin  
Square. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt came to Israel in 1977, and,  
by addressing the Israeli people directly, completely changed their  
attitude towards peace with Egypt. At present, most Israelis feel  
insecure, uncertain and afraid of any daring peace initiative, partly  
because of a deep distrust of anything coming from the Arab side.  
Your personal intervention, at the critical moment, could literally  
do wonders in creating the psychological basis for peace.

About Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery is a veteran of Israel's 1948 war, a former Member of the  
Knesset, founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement and winner of the  
2001 Right Livelihood Award, often called the "alternative Nobel  
Peace Prize." His book "1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to  
Jerusalem," which was published in Hebrew soon after the 1948 war and  
was a bestseller in Israel, has just been translated into English for  
the first time by Oneworld Publications.

-------


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html

January 8, 2009 - New York Times

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

What You Don’t Know About Gaza

By RASHID KHALIDI

NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong.  
Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the  
conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about  
Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice.  
The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140  
square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from  
towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They  
were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since  
the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an  
occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from  
the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports  
and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has  
control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter  
the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the  
responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the  
welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the  
United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly  
stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council  
elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and  
the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly  
choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation,  
health, water supply and transportation.

The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and  
malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the  
tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for  
exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket  
fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel  
and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza  
from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the  
subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The  
cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and  
ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported  
killed.

WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel,  
is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the  
numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them  
civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end  
of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis  
killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective  
way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have  
been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease- 
fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it  
about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press  
might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe  
Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002:  
“The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses  
of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the  
author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American  
Dominance in the Middle East."

  
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