Breaking Death's Grip

From The New York Times, 11th September 2003

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Tel Aviv

I learned something new the other night in Tel Aviv. I learned that your neck is actually the weakest part of your body. The Israeli police spokesman taught me that as he explained why the Palestinian suicide bomber's head was blown straight up, like a champagne cork, and was still sitting on a ledge atop the bus stop, like a human gargoyle.

It was Tuesday night. I was on my way to Tel Aviv when the Hamas bomber blew himself up outside the Tsrifin base, near my route, so I dashed over. By the time I arrived, other pieces of the bomber were on the street, including his hairy leg. His shoe had been blown off, but his brown sock was still daintily on his foot. Israeli rescue workers calmly carried away the dead on stretchers, with an odd mixture of horror and routine. You always notice absurd things at such moments. Nurit Betzer, a 20-year-old Israeli medic who had worked five previous suicide attacks, told me that her commander had just lectured their unit about the importance of keeping boots polished. When she arrived on this scene, she said, "I saw this soldier, and he was dying, [but what I noticed was that] his shoes were clean and neat." And then she started to weep.

She was one of the few, though. Most others were gripped with routine. "We will have this whole area cleaned up in two hours," said the police spokesman. "By morning, the bus stop will be repaired. You will never know this happened."

Israelis' ability to adapt to, and defy, these bombings demonstrates the amazing strength of this society. When bus bombings first started, for a week after an explosion few people would ride the buses. Now they're right back on them after an hour. The radios used to stop playing upbeat music after a bombing; now they don't hesitate. I have an Israeli friend who constantly worries about suicide bombers. But when I asked her to ask her teenage daughter, Tali Weiss, whether she felt angry about them, her daughter snapped back at her mom, "I'm angry that you don't let me go out" after a bombing.

I was in a trendy Tel Aviv sandwich shop the other day and my young Israeli waitress had a fun little tattoo on her shoulder. Jews with tattoos — you don't see that every day. Message to Hamas: You may think these suicide bombers will drive Israelis to leave. But they're just digging in, and clinging to normality. The Jews are getting tattoos.

But message to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: Palestinians are not leaving either, and your iron fist will not make them accept Israeli settlements or a truncated Palestinian state. If you think Oslo was a failure, look at your alternative. In three years, some 850 Israelis have been killed under your strategy. Yours and Hamas's are two failed strategies that add up to a human meat grinder. You want Israelis to believe they have no other choice, but they do. It is to use Israel's amazing inner strength to take a different set of Israeli actions, like really uprooting settlements, to stimulate a different set of Palestinian reactions, like controlling suicide bombers.

And some of the smartest people here know it. Efraim Halevy, Israel's former Mossad chief who just quit as a Sharon adviser, said to me: "For there to be a chance for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, the Palestinians will have to get their act together. For them to get their act together, Israel will have to invest heavily in them — without any guarantee of success." Once Palestinians get their act together, he added, they will have to do the same, vis-à-vis Israel.

A Palestinian pollster, Khalil Shikaki, puts it this way: "Sharon wants Palestinians to take the ultimate risk — a civil war — without promise of the ultimate reward": removal of settlements and concrete steps toward statehood. It won't happen.

Israel is in such a strong position now. The people have gotten tougher, America has destroyed Saddam Hussein, and Israel-U.S. ties have never been tighter. What better time for Israel to try something new? But instead of wanting America to solve the problem, Mr. Sharon seems to want America to do nothing.

"We have all these chips in our hands," Mr. Halevy said. "For God's sake, let's do something with them. This is a unique time to be creative."

Amen. Suicide bombing is becoming so routine here that it risks becoming embedded in contemporary culture. America must stop it. A credible peace deal here is no longer a U.S. luxury — it is essential to our own homeland security. Otherwise, this suicide madness will spread, and it will be Americans who will have to learn how to live with it.

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International

AI INDEX: MDE 15/066/2003 28 July 2003

Israel/Occupied Territories: The Knesset should reject discriminatory law

"The draft law barring family reunification for Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens is profoundly discriminatory and Knesset members should reject it ," Amnesty International urged today.

The "Proposed Law on Citizenship and Entry into Israel," denies Israeli citizens married to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip their right to live with their spouses in their own country. The draft bill in effect targets Israeli citizens of Palestinian origins, who constitute some 20 percent of the population of Israel, as it is they who marry Palestinians from the Occupied Territories.

"A law permitting such blatant racial discrimination, on grounds of ethnicity or nationality, would clearly violate international human rights law and treaties which Israel has ratified and pledged to uphold," Amnesty International said.

This bill clearly discriminates against Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin and their Palestinian spouses. It is scandalous that the Government has presented this bill - and it is shocking that the Knesset has accepted to rush it through - the organization added.

If passed this law would affect thousands of couples, including those newly married and couples who have been married for years, and whose requests for residence permits are still pending. Some couples have been waiting for 10 years or more for family reunification. In the meantime they are forced to live separately or for the Palestinian spouse to stay in Israel without a permit and risk being deported at any time.

The government has contended that the bill is aimed at addressing the security threat posed by Palestinians from the Occupied Territories.

"Security measures must be proportionate and respect Israel's human rights obligations. Israel cannot punish thousands of families, when it has many other security options available," Amnesty International stressed.

The adverse impact of this law would be even greater for Palestinians residents of East Jerusalem who do not have Israeli citizenship. Their Palestinian spouses will not be allowed to live with them in Jerusalem and they will lose their right to live in Jerusalem if they go to live with their spouses in the Occupied Territories.

Background

Palestinians have long experienced difficulties in obtaining permits to join their spouses in Israel. Such difficulties have progressively increased over the years. Some couples who have been married for 10 years or more have still not been able to obtain approval for their family reunification applications. These couples are thus forced to live apart, or the Palestinian spouse has to remain in Israel without a permit and be liable to arrest and deportation at any time.

Since the beginning of the intifada residence permits for Palestinian spouses have been de-facto frozen and in May 2002 the Israeli Ministry of the Interior issued an administrative decision formalizing the freeze. The Israeli government cabinet approved this policy "in light of the security situation and because of the implication of the immigration and the establishment in Israel of foreigners of Palestinian descent including through family reunification."

The government subsequently submitted the above-mentioned draft law to the Knesset. The draft law passed its first reading in the Knesset on 18 June 2003. It is scheduled to be discussed by the Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee on 29 July 2003 in an effort to have the bill rushed through and passed by the Knesset before its summer recess (which begins on 3 August).

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Conflict Resolution

The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information is one remarkable organisation, set up in 1988, consisting of Israelis and Palestinians in equal number. Follow the link above and see what you think.

What Country?

Guilty of developing weapons of mass destruction?
Guilty of attacking other countries?
Guilty of threatening other countries?
Guilty of ignoring many U.N. Resolutions?
Guilty of racial discrimination?
Guilty of abusing human rights?

...this is Israel!

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