The War on Iraq made Palestinians feel increasingly vulnerable and unprotected, said Palestinian civil society organizations
Palestinians have reduced the presidential power of Yasser Arafat by appointing a moderate prime minister (Mahmoud Abbas), they have undertaken reforms for greater government transparency and have tried to convince militant opposition groups that violence only serves Israel's purposes. Abbas is a pragmatic polititian who has publicly condemned violence against Israeli civilians. Over the last 30 months, 87 suicide bomb attacks have killed some 300 Israelis.
Appealing to the international community, Palestinian civil society organizations are demanding guarantees that Israel will not escalate attacks on the civilian population or impose a curfew on the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the context of a war against Iraq, saying that any such curfew would not increase security but amount to a collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
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The creation of the post of Prime Minister is part of the Palestinian reform process, intended to create better governance through a division and balance of powers at the senior levels of the Palestinian Authority executive branch.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Al Haq: Law for the Service of Man have frequently attempted to draw the international community’s attention to the fear that the Government of Israel, currently led by Ariel Sharon, would take advantage of the war on Iraq to perpetrate even more severe crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Fears stem mainly from the knowledge that Israel is likely to impose a complete lock-down, or curfew, on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, forcing millions of residents to stay in their homes 24 hours a day for days -perhaps weeks- on end. Furthermore, Palestinians point out that while Israel is ensuring that its own citizens are provided with gas masks and other equipment in the event of an attack on the region, no such provisions have been made for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, in contravention of Israel’s clear obligations under the Geneva Conventions.
As the world watches the US-British invading forces set Baghdad aflame, Ariel Sharon's Israel is busy executing its plan against the Palestinians, swiftly moving to swallow more Palestinian land now that world attention is consumed by the unfolding tragedy in Iraq.
If attention continues to be diverted from the Palestinian question, the world will awake one day with another million Palestinians carrying their belongings and seeking tents and water at some Arab country's border.
In these nervous few hours before one superpower, the USA, and its three supporters, the UK, Spain and Australia, announce whether there will be a war upon Iraq, LAW looks to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and fears more of the same human rights violations will be carried out by Israel as attention turns to Iraq.
The Palestinians need an end to occupation, not bogus statehood. George Bush and Tony Blair's burst of enthusiasm for Palestine is a transparent attempt to stretch the sticking plaster of a Middle East settlement over the gaping wound of the Iraq crisis. The notion of "linkage" between the two regional conflicts, hotly denied during the first Gulf war, has now seemingly become official Anglo-American policy. By Ahmad Samih Khalidi. The report has a good collection of links.
Not much good can be said about the decision makers for the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Arabs, or the US about this conflict in the past few decades. It is time for better decisions to be made.
Ziad J. Asali, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
While a peace process renewal would be positively received in the region and neutralize some of the growing anti-American sentiment, there are several factors that make it seem a mirage. By Ghassan Khatib, Minister of Labour in the Palestinian Authority cabinet. He has served for many years as a political analyst and media contact.
President George W. Bush announced that he would soon issue the long delayed "road map" to peace in the Middle East. While the Palestinians welcome any initiative aimed at ending nearly 36 years of military occupation, for any road map to be successful, it must clearly spell out the destination -two secure and independent states of Israel and Palestine, based on a complete Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and a just and agreed resolution to the plight of Palestinian refugees. A road map that fails to indicate a destination is by definition not a road map at all.
Perhaps on one of the rare occasions in recent history, the angry sentiments of the Palestinian populace did not reflect the very cautious stand the Palestinian leadership has taken on the US and UK war on Iraq.
