Newsletter:
Vol. 6. Iss.1
15 January 2006
Plant a Tree...Plant Hope
The Rev. Peter J. Miano
When I returned last week from my latest visit to the Holy Land, a colleague commented that he was excited to hear all the good news from the Holy Land these days...the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the agreement brokered by Condoleezza Rice to open the border between Gaza and Egypt, far fewer reports of violence. Another, having heard the same news reports, asked me if people were optimistic in the Holy Land. I answered, "Israelis are very optimistic and they should be. Palestinians are very discouraged and they should be too."
Let me explain: it seems to me that the media not
only sensationalize bad news, they glamorize good news too. I would go much
further and suggest that if you are relying on the mainstream media, whether
you would include CNN, Fox, The New York Times or not, for information about
the Middle East, you are not getting very good information. While the news
reports from the Holy Land correctly indicate much lower levels of violence
(almost none) and celebrate Israel's success in extricating itself from an
untenable position in Gaza, it usually fails to report that living conditions
for Palestinians are far worse now than they have ever been. Indeed, violence
against Israelis is lower now than it was during the years of the Oslo process.
One's risk of being injured in violent crime is much higher in Florida or
Boston, for example, than it is anywhere in Israel. In Israel, there is broad
support for Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. No rational
hawk in Israel opposes it, because the cost of safeguarding 7,000 Israeli
settlers living in illegal, exclusively Israeli settlements in Gaza from the
1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza was astronomical in monetary terms alone.
The cost in terms of human life was greater than Israel endured in any of
its previous wars. From the point of view of most Israelis, things are much
better now than they were a few years ago. Their lives are returning to normal
and there is reason to be optimistic (although it is a telling statistic that
the number of Israeli Jews who have left Israel and are now living abroad
is five times higher today than it was in the year 2000). Our media celebrate
and glamorize these items of good news with the same relish that they sensationalized
the bad news of violence during the Intifada. Based on such reporting, who
wouldn't be optimistic?
Well, the simple answer is that most Palestinians would not be. In fact, while
Palestinians are also experiencing lower levels of violence than they experienced
a few years ago, I found very few who were celebrating Israel's withdrawal
from Gaza. And while West Bank Palestinians can see the opening of the border
between Gaza and Egypt as a relatively positive thing, there is widespread
acknowledgement that the political process, whether it is called "Oslo" or
"the Road Map," is a one-way street to a very dead end. Simultaneous with
the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the agreement to open the border between
Gaza and Egypt, West Bank Palestinians experienced further tightening on travel
restrictions and more expropriated Palestinian land. For most Palestinians,
the writing is on the wall-the 700 kilometer long Wall, built on expropriated
Palestinian land, for the purpose of isolating Palestinians from Israelis.
The writing on the Wall says that the final solution is unilaterally imposed
by Israel. It says that Palestinians will be permanently confined to bantustanettes
isolated not only from Jerusalem, but also from other Palestinian enclaves/reservations/ghettos/homelands.
It says that the future Palestinian "state" will consist of scarcely more
than 30% of the West Bank and that that area will be effectively controlled
from its perimeters by Israel. It says that Palestinian travel between population
centers will be severely restricted by a mind boggling array of checkpoints-not
to mention the 35 foot high Wall itself- and that business, commerce, trade,
education and normal family life will be tightly controlled to the point that
it is virtually impossible to conduct normal human relations. From the perspective
of most Palestinians, the writing on the Wall-not proverbial, but in fact
astonishingly real-says that the future holds dim prospects. It is true that
there are fewer sensationalized news reports of Israeli and Palestinian deaths
lately. This much is a good thing. It is also true that Palestinians face
unprecedented levels of violence on a day-to-day basis in the form of radical
disruption of normal life.
Not only do the Israelis hold out little reason for optimism, but also Palestinians
know that their own "government" is powerless with respect to Israel and increasingly
inclined to corruption and cronyism. The effect of Israel's policies to separate
its Jewish population from Palestinians by building a wall, expanding its
Jewish settlements on Palestinian land and restricting Palestinian commercial
travel has been disastrous for the Palestinian economy. The vast majority
of Palestinians is isolated in population centers, experience daily restrictions
on commerce and movement and are growing increasingly discouraged and desperate
day by day. In the absence of any real political process, what recourse do
Palestinians have? One option is violence. As repugnant as it is, violence
is a common response to repression. In international politics, it is an option
the powerful reserve for themselves, while denying it to others. Some Palestinians
have resorted to this option in the past, but today, there is nearly universal
consensus among Palestinians that this option is not viable.
