[lit-ideas] What kind of state deserves to exist?

From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 07:38:03 -0700 (PDT)

What kind of state deserves to exist?

by Tanya Reinhart
Yediot Aharonot
April 21, 2004

Translated from Hebrew by Netta Van Vliet

Amidst the political storm in Israel regarding the
"Gaza disengagement" plan, only one really meaningful
fact emerges: Sharon received Bush's approval to
proceed with his plan for the wall in the West Bank.

With regard to the Gaza strip, the disengagement plan
published in the Israeli papers on Friday, April 16th
specifies that within a year and a half, the Israeli
occupation there should be declared to be over. In
every other aspect, the situation will remain as is.
The Palestinians will be imprisoned from all sides,
with no connection to the world, except through
Israel. Israel also reserves for itself the right to
act militarily inside the Gaza strip. (1) But since
the strip will no longer be defined as an occupied
territory, Israel will not be subject to the fourth
Geneva Convention. Clause f of section I in the
published plan states that "the disengagement move
will obviate the claims about Israel with regard to
its responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip". In other words, what Israel does today in
violation of international law will become legal: It
would presumably become formally permissible to starve
people and to kill whoever Israel determines - from a
child throwing stones, to the successor of a spiritual
leader, himself executed a month before.

The text of the plan also declares that Israel will
evacuate the settlements and the army posts inside the
strip. It is not clear how this could be accomplished
given that the declared intention is to keep the strip
under full Israeli "security control". After all, the
isolated settlement of Netzarim (like the others) was
founded precisely in order to divide the strip into
separate parts, thus enabling control of it from the
inside. Those who want to, may believe that Sharon
will eventually dismantle Netzarim. In the meanwhile,
however, Israel invests in its fortification. On
channel 1 TV news on April 15, there was an interview
with a pretty relaxed settler from Netzarim. "If the
defense minister is building right now a new security
fence for us" - he said - "then surely no one intends
to evacuate us". In any case, the position agreed upon
by Sharon and Netanyahu, and which was confirmed in
the cabinet meeting of April 18, is that no settlement
in the Gaza strip is to be evacuated before the wall
in the West Bank is completed.

As for the West Bank, the innovation in the
Bush-Sharon agreement is not found at the level of
declarations. In the plans of Clinton and of
Beilin-Abu Mazen, as well, it was clear that Israel
was not offering return to the precise line of the
1967 borders, nor a full realization of the right of
return. However, these were plans for negotiation -
proposals awaiting the approval of the Palestinian
people. Now the Palestinians are not even asked. Now
it is Israel and the U.S. who are determining the
facts on the ground. Israel marks the land that it
desires, and builds a wall on that route.

In the Clinton plan, the Palestinian territory to be
annexed to Israel consisted of 5-7% of the West Bank.
But when the present route of the plan was first
approved by the previous Sharon government, Shimon
Peres, then foreign minister, protested that it robbed
the Palestinians of 22% of their lands. Since then,
the segment of the wall which is already under
construction has been extended much further onto
Palestinian land. According to a UN report from
November of 2003, this segment, which did not include
yet the region of Jerusalem, has already appropriated
14.5% of Palestinian land. Along this route, Israel is
uprooting tens of thousands of trees, dispossessing
Palestinian farmers of their land, and pushing them
into small enclaves between fences and walls, until,
at the final stage, the wall will surround them on all
sides, as in the Gaza strip.

In 1969, the Israeli philosopher Yesayahu Leibovitz
anticipated that in the areas of the occupation
"concentration camps would be erected by the Israeli
rulers... Israel would be a state that would not
deserve to exist, and it will not be worthwhile to
preserve it". How far are we from Leibovitz prophecy
in the fenced Gaza strip?

In the West Bank, the situation is still different.
Along the route of the wall, the internal struggle of
the Israeli society is now taking place - between the
self-proclaimed "land redemptionists" who, no matter
how much land they have, will always want more, and
those who want to live in a state that deserves to
exist. Along that route, there are Israelis who,
alongside the Palestinians, are putting their bodies
in front of the bulldozers and the Israeli army.

===============

(1) The published plan is available at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=416024&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y.

Here are some of the clauses that the summary in this
paragraph is based on (Italics added):

III: Security reality after the evacuation 1. Israel
will supervise and guard the external envelope on
land, will maintain exclusive control in the air space
of Gaza, and will continue to conduct military
activities in the sea space of the Gaza Strip. 3.
Israel reserves for itself the basic right of
self-defense, including taking preventative steps as
well as responding by using force against threats that
will emerge from the Gaza Strip.

VI. The border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
("Philadelphi Route") During the first stage, Israel
will continue to maintain a military presence along
the border line between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
("Philadelphi Route"). This presence is an essential
security need, and in certain places, it is possible
that there will be a need for the physical enlargement
of the area in which the military activity will be
carried out.

XII. The international crossing point. 1. The existing
arrangements will remain in force.

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[lit-ideas] What kind of state deserves to exist?

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