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Map of Middle East |
CIAO DATE: 12/02
Summer 2002 (Volume XXXI, Number 4, Issue 124)
Essay
Toward a Clear Palestinian Strategy by Rashid I Khalidi
Special Reports
Narratives of Siege: Eye-Witness Testimonies From Jenin, Bethlehem, and Nablus by Ida Audeh
The testimonies below were collected from 10 to 17 May 2002. I traveled first to Jenin refugee camp. No matter how many images you have seen in the news, nothing quite prepares you for the devastation at the camp's ground zero. The storeys-high mountains of rubble are littered with reminders of lives disrupted: a mattress here, a child's schoolbook there. The 373-dunam camp, which had been home to about 13,600 residents, had been invaded at least twice before the assault that began on 3 April. The camp held out for nine days—a point of pride for many residents. Though a total of only fifty-six bodies have been found, rumors persist of mass graves and of trucks carrying body bags to undisclosed locations. Many of those who lost their homes are living with relatives in Jenin town and elsewhere, further hampering efforts to account for the missing. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 140 buildings were completely leveled and more than 200 others severely damaged, leaving about 4,000 people—more than a quarter of the population—homeless.
The Israelis invaded Bethlehem (population 45,000) on 29 March, the second time in a month. The town was kept under siege for forty-four days, though world attention focused almost exclusively on the Church of the Nativity, traditional birthplace of Christ, besieged as of 2 April. Though not subjected to the kind of devastation seen in Jenin and Nablus, numerous centuries-old facades were destroyed or heavily damaged.
I had every intention of traveling to Nablus, a city that had put up impressive resistance to the Israeli onslaught (which began on 3 April) and that had sustained heavy casualties and the destruction of large areas of the historic Old City. However, the numerous roadblocks and alternate routes necessitated by checkpoints and settler snipers turned the forty-minute drive to Nablus into an unpredictable journey that could last up to five hours. I had to settle for phone interviews. Official estimates of fatalities in this city of 110,000 run to about eighty.
In Jenin refugee camp and Bethlehem, the sight of residents talking to a stranger with a tape recorder tended to attract other residents, and often more than one perspective was offered on events. Because I allowed interviewees to talk, rarely interrupting them, some of their narratives contain gaps and some confusion, even inconsistencies, which I have made no attempt to eliminate. At the same time, I was struck by how careful interviewees tried to be in recounting their stories, clearly distinguishing between what they had seen and what they had heard. No one rushed to accuse the Israeli army of looting (a commonly reported feature of house searches in the Ramallah area, for example); when they witnessed it, they were careful to describe the scope. Some interviewees reported the presence of Arabic-speaking soldiers, some with Lebanese accents (presumably South Lebanese Army soldiers who fled Lebanon after the Israeli withdrawal in 1999); others did not. Above all else, I was struck by the extraordinary dignity and restraint with which these people described terrible moments in their lives—when they lost a son or their homes, when they were put at great risk, when they tried to locate their dead or wounded—at a time when their entire futures were clouded with doubt.
A Week in Jenin: Assessing Mental Health Needs Amid the Ruins by Sylvie Mansour
In the days after the Israelis ended their siege on 18+n19 April 2002, a veritable army of visitors descended on Jenin refugee camp—journalists, human right activists, NGO representatives, international aid workers, parliamentarians, UN personnel, solidarity delegations—for visits of varying length and objectives not always clear to the residents. My own mandate was very specific: As a psychologist who had worked in Palestine for a number of years, I was to help put together a preliminary evaluation of mental health needs and mobilize human resources, mainly through "debriefing" sessions both with residents most directly affected by the events (e.g., the newly homeless and internally displaced) and with local personnel (e.g., medical and paramedical teams, teachers, youth workers). I was part of a team that included representatives of UNICEF and the Jerusalem Coalition for Psychology (Palestinian Counseling Center, Women's Center for Legal and Social Counseling, Spafford) sent to help UNRWA and local NGOs working in the psychosocial field.
The Street Reacts to Operation Defensive Shield: Snapshots From the Middle East
One of the least-remarked upon features of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield was the massive response it engendered at the popular level throughout the Islamic world (and in many other countries in Europe and Asia): within days, hundreds of thousands of people from Morocco in the west to Indonesia and Malaysia in the east had taken to the streets to protest Israel's assault on the Palestinian territories and U.S. support of Israel. In the Arab countries, where reactions were strongest (the estimated attendance of a single demonstration in Rabat, Morocco, ranged from 500,000 to a million), angry protesters, even in places such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, railed against the passivity and impotence of the Arab regimes; in a number of countries, U.S. diplomatic facilities were attacked, and protests turned violent; demonstrators were killed in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, and Yemen. Common patterns included the role of satellite television coverage of Israeli destruction in galvanizing popular anger, massive collections of funds and supplies to send to Palestine amounting to tens of millions of dollars, and boycotts of American-made goods that continued after the demonstrations had died down in May 2002, and indeed are still in force in many places. Moreover, while Islamic groups spearheaded the demonstrations in some countries, everywhere secular and civil society groups had a strong presence. What differed from country to country was how the governments handled the protests-by cooptation, repression, or combinations thereof.
Interview
Suicide Bombers: Dignity, Despair, and the Need for Hope by Eyad El Sarraj
Special Documents
The 1953 Qibya Raid Revisited: Excerpts from Moshe Sharett's Diaries
This document reproduces excerpts from the diary—hitherto unpublished in English—of Moshe Sharett, Israel's first foreign minister (1948-56). The entries cover October-December 1953 and pertain exclusively to the 14-15 October raid on the village of Qibya in the West Bank, then Jordan, by IDF unit 101 led by Ariel Sharon during which 69 villagers were blown up in their homes. The diary excerpts, by a well-known "dove," provide an inside view of the repercussions of the raid and particularly the debates within the government as to how to handle the diplomatic fallout. The introduction provides the historical context and discusses the light shed by the Qibya incident and its follow-up on patterns that continue today.
Henry Kissinger's Prescription for Suppressing the First Intifada, 31 January 1988
In June 1988, under the title "Kissinger Behind Closed Doors," Harper's Magazine published an extraordinary confidential memorandum describing a breakfast meeting held by American Jewish leaders with Henry Kissinger on 31 January 1988 to discuss the Palestinian uprising that had broken out almost two months earlier. The memorandum, written by Julius Berman, the former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and sent to a group of friends, was leaked to the press in March 1988. According to Harper's, "Kissinger reacted angrily to the leaking of the memo, but did not dispute its accuracy." JPS finds it appropriate to republish the memorandum, leaving it to the reader to ponder its relevance to Israel's conduct during Operation Defensive Shield and to the current talk of convening a peace conference.
Review Essay
Who Rules Palestine? by Salim Tamari
From the Hebrew Press
The following articles, three from the Israeli daily Ha'Aretz and one from a regular correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedi'ot Aharonot, published by the independent Internet forum openDemocracy (www.opendemocracy.net), were selected because they provide an unusually forthright Israeli Jewish perspective on Israeli government strategy and military actions against the Palestinians during Operation Defensive Shield and beyond.
Tanya Reinhart, "Israel: The Generals' Grand Design," Open Democracy, 17 April 2002 (Excerpts).
Amira Hass, "Ramallah Diary: So Much Damage In Just One Hour," Ha'Aretz, 23 April 2002 (Excerpts).
A MIRA HASS, "Operation Destroy Data," Ha'Aretz, 24 APRIL 2002.
Amira Hass, "Donors Are Funding Cantonization," Ha'Aretz, 22 May 2002.
Book Reviews
Heller: The Birth of Israel, 1945-1949 by Benny Morris
Boyle: Betrayal of Palestine by Lawrence Davidson
Davidson: America's Palestine by Cheryl Rubenberg
Abu-Sitta: The End of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Abu-Sitta: The Palestinian Nakba, 1948 and Gelber: Palestine, 1948 by Nur Masalha
Silberstein: The Postzionism Debates by Rebecca Luna Stein
Ghanem: The Palestinian Regime by Rex Brynen
Bard: Myths and Facts by Donald Neff
Cobban: The Israeli-Syrian Pease Talks by Fayez Hammad
Arab Views
Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy
Settlement Monitor
Documents and Source Material
International
A1. UN Security Council, Resolution 1397, Demanding Cessation of Israeli-Palestinian Violence, New York, 12 March 2002
A2. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, New York, 12 March 2002
A3. European Council, Declaration on the Middle East, Barcelona, 16 March 2002
A4. The "Quartet" (EU, Russia, UN, and United States), Communiqué on the Situation in the Occupied Territories, Washington, 10 April 2002 (excerpts)
A5. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Statement to the Security Council on the Escalating Conflict, New York, 18 April 2002
A6. UN Security Council, Resolution 1405, Calling for a Fact-Finding Mission to Jenin Camp, New York, 19 April 2002
Arab
B1. Arab Heads of State, Declaration on the Saudi Peace Initiative, Beirut, 28 March 2002
B2. Yasir Arafat, Address to the Palestinian Council, Ramallah, 15 May 2002 (excerpts)
B3. Palestinian Council, Statement on Reform of PA Institutions, Ramallah, 16 May 2002 (excerpts)
B4. Rita Giacaman and Abdullatif Husseini, Statistical Reports on the Daily Life, Health, and Environmental Conditions of Families in West Bank Towns during Operation Defensive Shield, Birzeit, 13-31 May 2002
United States
C1. Physicians for Human Rights (USA), Statement on the Health Dimensions of Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Territories, Jerusalem, 26 March 2002 (excerpts)
C2. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Press Conference Following Israel's Launching of Operation Defensive Shield, Washington, 29 March 2002 (excerpts)
C3. President George W Bush, the "Rose Garden" Vision on the Middle East, Washington, 4 April 2002 (excerpts)
C4. US House of Representatives, H Res 392, "In Solidarity with Israel," Washington, 2 May 2002
C5. Human Rights Watch, Summary, "Jenin: IDF Military Operations," New York, 3 May 2002 (excerpt)
Chronology