[News] Palestinians reject Bush, Sharon plans

Thu Apr 15 11:36:42 EDT 2004

Palestinians reject Bush, Sharon plans
by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
Thursday 15 April 2004 12:27 PM GMT

Palestinian leaders have rejected a change in US policy announced during a 
joint press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as 
a "new Balfour Declaration".

Departing from the longstanding American policy in the Middle East on 
Wednesday, Bush declared that Israel could keep at least some illegal 
settlements in the West Bank.

He added that Palestinian refugees had no right to return to their native 
hometowns and villages in Israel.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat labelled Bushs statements a 
"new Balfour Declaration", alluding to the infamous British declaration of 
1917, which gave Palestine to Zionist Jews as a national homeland.

"This is another Balfour Declaration. It will blow up the peace process 
from its foundation. It will tear up all peace efforts to smithereens," 
Arafat told reporters in Ram Allah on Thursday.

PM reaction

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya condemned the statements as 
"illegal, unlawful and inconsistent with international law.

"This is like someone giving a part of Texas to the Chinese," said a sombre 
and grim-faced Quraya.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, whose popularity has dwindled very much of 
late, said the Palestinian people would never ever accept Bushs statements.

"He [Bush] is the first President who has legitimised the settlements in 
the occupied Palestinian territories. We reject these statements, we can't 
accept them."

Another Bin Ladin

Other Palestinian officials have been more outspoken in expressing their 
outrage and indignation at Bushs remarks.

"We dont have only one Bin Ladin, we have two: Usama bin Ladin and George 
Bush," said Abd Allah Abd Allah, deputy foreign minister of the Palestinian 
Authority, in an interview with Aljazeera.net.

He argued that Bush was introducing "destructive and blind religious 
extremism" into American policy in the Middle East.

"I dont believe he said what he said because of election considerations. 
Bush is an avowed Christian Zionist and his ideas and beliefs can be 
considered as the Christian equivalent of Bin Ladins ideas."

However, the PA official said the Palestinians would not panic or lose 
their mental equanimity as a result of the crisis.

He pointed out that the PA leadership was making hectic contacts with the 
European Union, Arab states and Russia for the purpose of enlisting 
opposition to "Bush's brazen adoption of Sharons agenda".

"We are going to take a number of practical and tangible steps aimed at 
consolidating the Palestinian stance. We obviously cant be indifferent to 
this grave matter."

Few choices

Notwithstanding the angry reactions, it is clear that the PA ability to put 
up an effective and sustained resistance to the most radical alteration of 
US Middle East policy since 1967 is very limited.

Indeed, the Arab world, whose leaders face a chronic legitimacy crisis at 
home and mounting pressures for reform from the United States, is in a 
state of disarray.

President Bush himself, and certainly his even more conservative allies, 
seem to realise this dismal state of affairs.

Bush's statements came less than 24 hours after his meeting with visiting 
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak and only a few days before his scheduled 
meeting with King Abd Allah of Jordan.

This, according to Abd al-Sattar Kasim, professor of political science at 
the National University of Nablus, underscores and embodies the Bush 
administrations utter contempt for Arab leaders.

"Unfortunately, these leaders have lost all sense of personal or national 
dignity. They act as submissive servants of their American master & they 
are like dogs gasping after a dry bone."

No authority

Kasim ridiculed the Palestinian Authority, comparing it with "Alice in 
wonderland."

"The PA is a burden on the Palestinian people, not on Israel. It should be 
terminated immediately in order to make the occupation appear as it really is."

Kasim refused to consider Bush's statements as a "new development", arguing 
that all that Bush did was to switch from "de facto to de jure".

He predicted that US president's "vindictive enmity to the Palestinian 
people" would produce two main effects in the coming period.

The first is a dramatic escalation in the open confrontation between the US 
and the "secret resistance groups". The second would be the "widening and 
sharpening of the chasm between the despotic leaders and the masses".

Scrap the PA

Muawiya al-Masri, a Palestinian lawmaker representing the northern West 
Bank city of Nablus, said that the only effective response to Bush's 
assurances to Israel was the "elimination and dismantlement of the PA".

"Look, why should we continue deceiving ourselves? The PA doesnt exist in 
reality. Some people claim the PA controls 20 square metres outside 
Arafat's office in Ram Allah, but this is not true.

"Ram Allah is the only place in the West Bank where Israeli forces roam the 
streets using jeeps, not tanks as is the case elsewhere, which means the 
Zionists feel more at home in Ram Allah than in other parts of the occupied 
territories."

And like Kasim, al-Masri said that it would be futile and self-defeating to 
count on the Arab governments.

"The Arab regimes are part of the problem, actually they are the problem. 
On the one hand, they are afraid to lose power because of simmering 
discontent at home, and on the other they are constantly bullied by the 
Americans to be more loyal slaves."

Vindicating resistance?

For their part, Palestinian Islamists reacted to Bushs statements by 
reasserting the "resistance choice".

"I think that Bush's statements are a clear vindication of the resistance 
choice," said top Hamas official Khalid Mashal during a television 
interview last night.

Mashal said the Palestinians ought to respond to "Bush's provocations" 
which he also called a new Balfour Declaration by cementing their national 
unity behind the resistance.

"Freedom is earned, not given on a silver platter," he said.

Aljazeera
By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/158B6782-853E-49F9-9B50-780DDCC03A56.htm 

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