Military

DATE=11/01/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=MIDEAST: ROOTS OF THE VIOLENCE

NUMBER=5-47300

BYLINE=SONJA PACE

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDS: FIRST ENGLISH USE RESERVED FOR DATELINE ///

INTRO: Clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and gunmen and Israeli security forces on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza have now entered their second month. More than 140 people have been killed and a few thousand injured, almost all of them Palestinian. Both sides acknowledge that the road back to peace negotiations will not be easy. VOA's Sonja Pace in Jerusalem takes a closer look at what came unraveled and how both communities see prospects for the future.

TEXT: A few months ago there was still optimism about prospects for a final Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. Even when the two sides failed to reach an agreement at the last round of talks at Camp David, near Washington, negotiations were expected to continue. Then on September 28th, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited a holy site referred to by Muslims as the al-Aqsa compound and known to Jews as the Temple Mount. That visit sparked a cycle of violence that destroyed any optimism about peace.

Ali Qleibo is a professor at Al Quds University in Jerusalem. He is also the university's coordinator for an academic and cultural exchange program with nearby Hebrew University. Professor Qleibo says the angriest and most frustrated Palestinians are the ones now in the streets.

/// QLEIBO ACT ///

Unfortunately, it's the rule of the mob that's taken over, and these are the visible people, and these are the people that speak out - those who are totally desperate and totally outraged and they feel they have nothing to lose.

/// END ACT ///

Professor Qleibo says Palestinian society is split in two - a vocal minority and a silent majority.

/// QLEIBO ACT ///

The silent majority is the middle class .... the majority of people, who have children, who have husbands, brothers. Their attachments are for the security of the family unit, but they cannot speak. It's a very emotional moment in our country, and those who speak are the ones who are violent.

/// END ACT ///

But Professor Qleibo says both camps are united in what they want - an end to Israel's occupation of land captured during the 1967 war, an independent Palestinian state and a real peace agreement.

Ali Qleibo says many Palestinians feel that, even after the breakthrough of the Oslo peace accords of 1993, the subsequent years have brought few concrete benefits.

/// ALI QLEIBO ACT ///

Israelis continue to confiscate land, continue to demolish homes, continue to expand settlements, continue to build new settlements on confiscated land ... and the Palestinians feel abused by the Israeli violations.

/// BEGIN OPT /// It means, ultimately, that if I want to build a house, there is no land for me. So, the Palestinians feel squeezed out of space./// END OPT ///

So, the peace talks for the Palestinians look like a ruse. They feel tricked into the peace. We did not get any gains, and they (the Israelis) got enough time to expand into the West Bank and Gaza.

/// END ACT ///

/// BEGIN OPT /// In addition to those frustrations, the professor says, there is growing poverty in the Palestinian-controlled areas, while Israelis enjoy an overall higher standard of living. All that, he says, is an explosive mixture. /// END OPT ///

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor is a Dominican priest and professor at the French Institute for Biblical and Archeological Studies in Jerusalem, where he has lived since the 1960's. He says, in some respects, life has become more restrictive for Palestinians since the Oslo accords. He cites as an example the difficulties a Palestinian faces when he travels from places like Hebron or Gaza.

/// FATHER MURPHY-O'CONNOR ACT ///

Before the Oslo peace process, a Hebronite could go to Jerusalem. He could certainly go to Jericho. He could go to Jenin, to Gaza, without any difficulty, or with relatively little difficulty. With the establishment of the Palestinian-controlled areas, they (these areas) became little "Bantustans," and to move from one to another - this is from Bethlehem say to Jericho, you were crossing through Israel, and there were much more severe restrictions. And, there were a lot of bureaucratic controls that had nothing to do with security, in my view, but which had everything to do with humiliation.

/// END ACT ///

But Father Murphy-O'Connor says the feeling of being locked in is also shared by the Israelis.

/// 2nd MURPHY-O'CONNOR ACT ///

I remember when Sinai was given back to Egypt, there was a huge outcry because they (the Israelis) lost two-thirds of their territory - territory they could use for recreation, where there were Israeli police, Israeli army; You could take a jeep anywhere in the Sinai. They had a sense of space. ... Now, with the intifada, their space is even more reduced because Israelis used to come regularly to Jericho in winter. ... so, there is a subconscious feeling of being trapped.

/// END ACT ///

Father Murphy-O'Connor says, despite years of peace negotiations, Israelis now feel increasingly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The current violence has only heightened those fears.

Edy Kaufman is professor at Hebrew University and executive director of the university's Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace. He is also Ali Qleibo's counterpart in the exchange program between their two universities. Professor Kaufman says it's time for both Israelis and Palestinians to do some soul searching [think about their actions and goals].

/// KAUFMAN ACT ///

When I look at my own side, and including Prime Minister Barak - and I voted for him - I am very disappointed in the kind of language and spirit he's been using towards the Palestinian negotiators - sort of saying, I'm the best that Israel can offer, take it or leave it, you're not going to get anything better, rather than saying, look, I want to understand your concerns and maybe I can meet them. So, the language is the language of the arrogance of power. ....

I wish that Palestinian colleagues would also look introspectively and ask themselves whether the only way to react to this arrogance of power was to expose so many people to the expected violence of the Israeli soldiers. I personally think if you use non-violent methods of struggle, there is a great variety of things that would have been so much more powerful, such as hunger strikes, civil disobedience that would have put us (the Israelis) very much on the defensive and would have helped the Palestinians much more.

/// END ACT ///

/// BEGIN OPT ///

Professor Kaufman also says that, even though peace may seem distant now, it is important to remember great strides have been made because of the peace process.

/// KAUFMAN ACT ///

Firstly, we finally recognize each other. Before the peace process, Israel wouldn't talk to the P-L-O (Palestine Liberation Organization); the P-L-O wouldn't talk to the "Zionist entity" ... Then, the question of accepting each other's state was mutually accepted. Israel accepts a Palestinian state, and the Palestinians accept the existence of Israel. ... Then the territorial issue is no longer. ... The question is not if to compromise on territory, but rather how much - 90-percent, 95-percent or 100-percent.

/// END ACT ///

Professor Kaufman says there has even been some progress on the contentious issue of Jerusalem. Israel used to say Jerusalem was not negotiable. Now, the issue is on the table.

/// END OPT //

Professor Kaufman blames Palestinian and Israeli leaders for the lack of progress in peace talks. He says it may be time to move away from U-S sponsored mediation and bring in new brokers, such as respected world leaders, like Nelson Mandela or religious leaders such as the pope.

There is general agreement that the last month of violence has made a return to the negotiating table more difficult. But, as Ali Qleibo points out, there is no way out for the two communities - except to find some way to live together.

/// QLEIBO ACT ///

There is a deeply felt need for peace and a deeply felt realization that we and the Israelis are doomed to be together. Whether we love each other, whether we hate each other - it does not make a difference. We have to share this earth together; We have to share this part of the world together.

/// END ACT ///

But that reality has been pushed into the background, at least for now. (Signed)

NEB/SP/KL/TDW