Israel's 'Berlin Wall' may lead to massacres
Israel's 'Berlin Wall' may lead to massacres
Israeli bulldozers flattened ground Sunday for an electronic
fence that is planned to run the entire length of the West Bank
-- a disputed project said to be aimed at protecting Israelis
from Palestinian bombers. The Jakarta Post contributor Santi W.E.
Soekanto talked to Almuzammil Yusuf, director of the Jakarta-
based Center for Middle East Studies (COMES) and deputy
secretary-general of the Indonesian Committee for Palestinian
Solidarity (KISP), on the issue.
Question: The fence eventually will stretch 215 miles, which is
the full length of the "Green Line" -- the Israeli border before
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. What are
the demographical consequences of the building of the wall?
Answer: As a concept, the building of the fence is not novel to
the Israelis -- it does, however, run counter to their concept of
"Great Israel" -- which defines their territory as covering the
whole Palestinian land. The establishment of this fence is
disputed and some, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have
objected to it because it implies that the West Bank and Gaza
Strip now belong to the Palestinians.
It is the Israeli's ideology that "this whole land is ours"
but reality tells them that their intelligence and military
forces are unable to protect them from the Palestinian bombers --
I would not call them "suicide bombers" but "martyr bombers". The
building of that fence is a pragmatic step supported by the
majority of Israelis -- even the hardliners of Likud.
The fence, however, also represents a defeat to the Israelis
-- they are taking this step because of the overwhelming bomber
attacks. The Palestinians are, on the other hand, winning a psy-
war because no matter how great an oppression they are facing,
they still continue their resistance. It is true that the fence
would to some extent cause extra difficulty for the Palestinian
bombers to operate.
The number of Palestinian bombers is actually bigger than
those reported in the media. In fact, the Israeli Defense Force
launches arrests of potential and actual bombers every night --
only the actual explosions, however, make the headlines. Israeli
military chief Saoul Mouhfaz has described how every night his
men arrest suspected bombers.
But the Palestinian fighters have stated that they are not
afraid of dying. Their fear is to get arrested and killed before
they can carry out their missions. There is in fact a very long
queue of Palestinians wishing to become bombers. This is what
Israel is afraid of -- they've got nuclear power, Apaches, F16,
tanks and are in the process of purchasing 110 fighters. They
only come second after North Korea in the military-civilian
ratio, namely 1 to 33. They've also got the support of the United
States behind them -- and yet the Palestinian "martyr bombers"
now frightens them.
One proof is in the number of Jerusalem residents that keeps
dwindling over years. Why? Because of the great number of
Israelis there have opted to abandon Israel and flee somewhere
else.
Q: In a 1982 interview, Sharon stated that the "bonus" of Lebanese
war would be that the whole world would hate all Jews forcing
them "to come home, fast, to install thick steel doors, to build
a strong fence, to have submachine guns positioned at every
corner of their fence here and to fight like devils against
anyone who dares to make a sound in this region."
A: It is not happening quite like that, is it? Instead, more and
more Israelis are abandoning Jerusalem. So, this fence is really
a representation of their deepest fear. They are building this
because their fear (of the bomber attacks) has reached its peak.
Q: Palestinians maintain the fence will take West Bank land they
want for a state. Israelis fear the temporary "security fence"
will evolve into a permanent border with a future Palestinian
state. If that happened, many of the 200,000 Jewish settlers in
the West Bank would be left on the Palestinian side. What do you
think?
A: It is true that the biggest risk that entails the building of
the security fence is the fate of the Jewish settlers. But the
Israeli forces in those settlements are really strong. They are
actually well fortressed enclaves of settlers that Palestinians
find difficult to penetrate. They have checkpoints just about
everywhere -- so much that Palestinians wishing to avoid those
posts would have to climb mountainous areas to reach their
destination.
This "pragmatic step" however, would be followed by more
massacres and more oppression of the Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. This looks very much like the Berlin Wall --
where people can be electrocuted and shot at easily.
Q: Sharon once described the killing of 500 Arabs as a "tiny
massacre" and asked if that could even be called a massacre. What
kind of violence are you referring to?
A: The ideology of Zionism is massacre. Remember that how former
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once remarked that the saddest
morning for her would be one when a Palestinian baby was born.
The Israelis are people who believe that they are a nation
without land who came to a land without a nation. This belief
justifies massacres.
In fact, a June 2001 edition of the Jane's Foreign Report
revealed a planned major offensive of the Israeli Defense Force
-- a planned deployment of 30,000 troops with a projected death
toll of 3 percent in the Israeli side, and a projected death toll
of 40,000 Palestinians. The plan was somehow botched.
Q: What is the possibility of Israeli acting out that reported plan,
when the whole world can now watch something as it is taking
place and has the means to respond quickly?
A: Look at Jenin. More than 500 Palestinians were killed in a
short time -- children being mutilated, shot, and run through by
tractors. Remember the extent of violations in Jenin. What is
really unfortunate is the fact that the United Nations, anyone of
this world, can't visit Jenin when Sharon says no.
Q: You fear the security fence would be a prelude to more massacres,
despite the dispute over it. How soon do you think that could
happen?
A: Sharon's policies are ones that are strong in timing. Every
chance he's got, he would massacre Palestinians. These could be
"tiny", or major such as what happened in Jenin. He takes
advantages of momentums of great importance.
When the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York took
place, when the whole world was watching the U.S., he went and
launched killings of Palestinians. No one paid any attention to
what he was doing then.
As for the dispute, the most that it could cause would be a
snap election -- the way leadership succession has always been
done in Israel. The Israelis might think that Sharon has failed
to give them safety, so they could proceed and elect some
"softer" leaders like Shimon Peres. And when they are tired of
such soft leaders, they would go out and vote for someone like
Sharon again.