Nonetheless, in spite of everything Israel unleashes, the dream of a liberated Palestine remains strong. That's the goal in spite of continued repression, Oslo's betrayal, fiasco at Camp David in 2000, decades of built up frustration, and Hizbollah's forcing Israel's May 2000 South Lebanon withdrawal remains inspiring. It sewed the seeds of the Second Intifada. Anger and discontent were building, then erupted in a popular uprising on September 29, 2000. Ariel Sharon provoked it by "visiting" the Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) the previous day. Israel responded harshly, a cycle of resistance and retaliation followed, and the struggle continued ever since. Baroud recounts its nominal five year period.
He begins by stating that it "will be etched in history as an era in which a major shift in the rules of the game occurred." It was fueled by:
-- decades of continued, repressive occupation;
-- desperate young people in frustration voluntarily blowing themselves up; their resistance and defiance is called "terrorism;" Palestinians call them heroic; Baroud urges Palestinians to resist targeting civilians regardless of how Israel acts; he believes it's vital to seize a higher ground, maintain moral values, and confine resistance to self-defense and targeting an illegal occupation;
-- the construction of the 721 kilometer Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land; the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled it illegal and ordered it be removed; Israel ignored the ruling and continues to build its unfinished parts; its consequences have been devastating; Palestinians have been cut off from work, schools, medical facilities, and their community life is seriously impaired; farmers are separated from their land; it's an act of land seizure and collective punishment; and
-- a decades-long struggle now "an eternal divide between two peoples," and its gulf continues to widen.
Baroud was in high school when the First Intifada erupted in December 1987. In spite of it, residents of his Gaza refugee camp "were consumed with....other more" daily concerns: "would they eat today, would they find clean water, would they seize their long-awaited freedom?" Palestinians took to the streets, and Baroud joined them in their chants. He also began to write with poetry his earliest efforts. They evolved into chants, were "published" on Gaza refugee camp walls, and there they stayed.
Baroud was studying in America when the Second Intifada began. Like the first one, Palestinians were unfairly blamed and condemned by a media as one-sided as the nations they report from. Baroud confronts them, and his book and writings are his "contribution" to the mostly neglected Second Uprising narrative and the Palestinian struggle overall.
He has no political affiliation and intends it solely as an independent view. His aim is direct and forthright - to represent and report on "the same principles espoused by countless (numbers of Palestinians) in small and over-crowded refugee camps where freedom is proudly cherished over life." Without comment, his book is dedicated to them and everyone who supports his efforts to reveal what the mainstream continues to suppress.
Intifada - Year One (2000-01)
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is the main protagonist. He willfully incited violence before becoming Israel's 11th Prime Minister in March 2001, and consider what Palestinians were up against.
He was brutish and violent from his earliest days as a platoon commander during Israel's "War of Independence." He later led the infamous Unit 101 that carried out vicious and criminal assaults against Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
As IDF's southern command head, he conducted a reign of terror against Gaza - indiscriminate killings, targeted assassinations, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes, displacement of thousands of civilians, and uprooting their lives. It got him called "the Bulldozer," and for all of it he was never held to account.
In 1981, as defense minister, he led the infamous Lebanon attack. He bombed civilian populations, killed around 20,000 Lebanese, and oversaw what British journalist Robert Fisk called "one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century" - the Sabra and Shatila massacres of about 3000 men, women, children and infants in a 62 hour proxy Phalange militia force rampage.
He always opposed peace. He voted against the 1979 treaty with Egypt, the southern Lebanon withdrawal in 1985, the 1991 Madrid peace conference, the Knesset 1993 Oslo agreement plenum vote, the Hebron 1997 agreement, and he abstained from voting on peace with Jordan in 1994.
He was at it again on September 28, 2000 prior to becoming Prime Minister. Accompanied by over 1000 Israeli troops and police, he staged a provocative (photo-op) visit to Islam's third holiest site - the Haram al-Sharif sacred shrine and Al-Aqsa Mosque. It ignited "uncontainable violence" and Second Intifada the following day.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
After growing up as an admirer of plucky Israel, I am compelled to say that Israel's occupation of those terrotories it captured in 1967 has degenerated into a slow form of genocide.
It is decidely NOT pretty. Israel look at yourself in a mirror and see what you have become.
by
kwalsh (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 117 comments)
on Friday, May 9, 2008 at 12:56:01 AM
