As the White House and the “Madrid Quartet” continue work to implement an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, Palestinian political reforms, and finally peace negotiations, they might devote more attention to saving Palestinian moderates.
Last December, right-wing Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau detained Al Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh, a soft-spoken intellectual, as he hosted a cookies-and-juice reception for foreign diplomats in East Jerusalem. On July 9th, Landau closed Nusseibeh’s office at the university and seized its contents because “a civil representative of the Palestinian Authority was operating from the heart of Jerusalem with the aim of putting our sovereignty in question.”
Nusseibeh, you may recall, was the Palestinian who publicly called on his people to give up their dream of the “right of return” and to embrace a genuine two-state solution to the conflict. More recently, Nusseibeh was among those leading Palestinians who published advertisements in local newspapers calling for an end to suicide attacks on Israelis.
Ironically, Landau justified his actions against Nusseibeh by citing the Oslo Accords. But Landau’s Likud Party openly disavows the Oslo Accords. Fellow Likud MK Ze’ev Boim defended Landau’s December actions, saying of Nusseibeh, “If he is moderate, he is also dangerous.” Indeed, if your political agenda includes the reoccupation of Palestinian lands on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, rapid growth of settlements, and sole Israeli sovereignty over an expanded Jerusalem, and denies the possibility of a Palestinian state, you have much to fear from a man who warrants a security detail because he receives death threats from Palestinian extremists.
If Nusseibeh’s arrest and last week’s closure of his office were isolated incidents, I would not be concerned. But his case is just one of a number of actions, directed against individuals and against the spirit of Oslo, that have quietly eroded the position of Palestinian moderates. Being a moderate, on either side of the Green Line, is no easy feat these days.
Just recently, the Israeli cabinet approved a bill that would have barred Israeli Arabs from home ownership in Jewish communities built on state-owned land, meaning more than 90% of the country. The bill was a response to an Israeli Supreme Court decision, more than two years ago, that upheld an Israeli Arab’s right to build a home in a Jewish neighborhood in the Galilee. Fortunately, after the Labor Party threatened to vote against the bill, the Cabinet withdrew its approval and the bill is now buried.
The cabinet’s action was not legally proscribed under Oslo. But it was certainly not a shining moment in the history of Israeli democracy. The fact that the bill’s authors are from the core of the Likud, Prime Minister Sharon’s party, also calls into question Sharon’s credibility as an arbiter of Palestinian democratic reform.
Democratic reforms by the Palestinian Authority are a critical element of President Bush’s vision for a two-state solution. Unfortunately, the President’s June 24 speech and July 8 press conference did little to dissuade hardliners from undermining that vision. And it did nothing to ease the plight of the nearly one million innocent Palestinian civilians trapped in their homes and cities under interminable military curfew.
All humanitarian organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip report severe constraints on their ability to deliver food and medicine. UNRWA is critically understaffed and undersupplied as both local employees and goods are prohibited from moving. According to USAID, approximately 50% of all Palestinians require external food assistance just to meet their minimum daily caloric intake.
A Palestinian doctor working for Save the Children reports that only 45% of births occur in hospitals now, a dramatic decline from 95% prior to the military incursions. I found out after our meeting that his own premature, newborn son had died in April, after the IDF refused access to the ambulance sent to transport the baby to a neonatal ward.
I fully support Israel’s right to defend itself. But I contest the logic of its reliance on a strictly military solution to its security problems.
The Bush Administration, with its allies in the Quartet, must engage in a concerted effort to relieve the suffering of ordinary Palestinians. In doing so, the United States would reassure Palestinians and our allies in the region that we have not lost our moral compass, and that we are just as opposed to civilian losses among the Palestinians as we are to Israeli casualties. This will go far toward saving Palestinian moderates from near-extinction. And it will ensure that, once both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships are serious about peace, they will have a constituency ready to make the necessary compromises.
Disclaimer: Assertions and opinions in this Commentary are solely those of the above-mentioned author(s) and do not reflect necessarily the views of the Middle East Institute, which expressly does not take positions on Middle East policy.
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As the White House and the “Madrid Quartet” continue work to implement an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, Palestinian political reforms, and finally peace negotiations, they might devote more attention to saving Palestinian moderates.
Last December, right-wing Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau detained Al Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh, a soft-spoken intellectual, as he hosted a cookies-and-juice reception for foreign diplomats in East Jerusalem. On July 9th, Landau closed Nusseibeh’s office at the university and seized its contents because “a civil representative of the Palestinian Authority was operating from the heart of Jerusalem with the aim of putting our sovereignty in question.”
Nusseibeh, you may recall, was the Palestinian who publicly called on his people to give up their dream of the “right of return” and to embrace a genuine two-state solution to the conflict. More recently, Nusseibeh was among those leading Palestinians who published advertisements in local newspapers calling for an end to suicide attacks on Israelis.
Ironically, Landau justified his actions against Nusseibeh by citing the Oslo Accords. But Landau’s Likud Party openly disavows the Oslo Accords. Fellow Likud MK Ze’ev Boim defended Landau’s December actions, saying of Nusseibeh, “If he is moderate, he is also dangerous.” Indeed, if your political agenda includes the reoccupation of Palestinian lands on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, rapid growth of settlements, and sole Israeli sovereignty over an expanded Jerusalem, and denies the possibility of a Palestinian state, you have much to fear from a man who warrants a security detail because he receives death threats from Palestinian extremists.
If Nusseibeh’s arrest and last week’s closure of his office were isolated incidents, I would not be concerned. But his case is just one of a number of actions, directed against individuals and against the spirit of Oslo, that have quietly eroded the position of Palestinian moderates. Being a moderate, on either side of the Green Line, is no easy feat these days.
Just recently, the Israeli cabinet approved a bill that would have barred Israeli Arabs from home ownership in Jewish communities built on state-owned land, meaning more than 90% of the country. The bill was a response to an Israeli Supreme Court decision, more than two years ago, that upheld an Israeli Arab’s right to build a home in a Jewish neighborhood in the Galilee. Fortunately, after the Labor Party threatened to vote against the bill, the Cabinet withdrew its approval and the bill is now buried.
The cabinet’s action was not legally proscribed under Oslo. But it was certainly not a shining moment in the history of Israeli democracy. The fact that the bill’s authors are from the core of the Likud, Prime Minister Sharon’s party, also calls into question Sharon’s credibility as an arbiter of Palestinian democratic reform.
Democratic reforms by the Palestinian Authority are a critical element of President Bush’s vision for a two-state solution. Unfortunately, the President’s June 24 speech and July 8 press conference did little to dissuade hardliners from undermining that vision. And it did nothing to ease the plight of the nearly one million innocent Palestinian civilians trapped in their homes and cities under interminable military curfew.
All humanitarian organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip report severe constraints on their ability to deliver food and medicine. UNRWA is critically understaffed and undersupplied as both local employees and goods are prohibited from moving. According to USAID, approximately 50% of all Palestinians require external food assistance just to meet their minimum daily caloric intake.
A Palestinian doctor working for Save the Children reports that only 45% of births occur in hospitals now, a dramatic decline from 95% prior to the military incursions. I found out after our meeting that his own premature, newborn son had died in April, after the IDF refused access to the ambulance sent to transport the baby to a neonatal ward.
I fully support Israel’s right to defend itself. But I contest the logic of its reliance on a strictly military solution to its security problems.
The Bush Administration, with its allies in the Quartet, must engage in a concerted effort to relieve the suffering of ordinary Palestinians. In doing so, the United States would reassure Palestinians and our allies in the region that we have not lost our moral compass, and that we are just as opposed to civilian losses among the Palestinians as we are to Israeli casualties. This will go far toward saving Palestinian moderates from near-extinction. And it will ensure that, once both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships are serious about peace, they will have a constituency ready to make the necessary compromises.