Peter Espeut NOWADAYS, EVERY time a Palestinian straps a bomb to his body, walks into a public place in the state of Israel and blows himself or herself up, Yasser Arafat is blamed, and the Israelis take revenge.
Tanks surround his compound and put him under siege, or his residence is bombed or shelled. Not only that, but bulldozers go to the home of the Palestinian suicide bomber where their parents, brothers and sisters live, and level it to the ground. This is gross injustice! Is Arafat to be blamed for the every act of his countrymen, many of whom are not even in his political party?
The equivalent in Jamaica would be to bomb PNP or JLP headquarters every time there is an incident of political violence, or to put the relevant MP or even the party leader under house arrest. Would this make any sense?
The acts of the suicide bombers are terribly wrong; nothing excuses the taking of human life; but the response of the Israelis is equally wrong, and should be condemned by the international community. The United States of America is in a position to put pressure on Israel to do the right thing, but they have not done enough. The USA gives more financial aid to Israel than to any other country, and can insist that the injustice being done to the Palestinian people stop, but they do not; therefore, the USA has to take some of the blame for the Palestinian conflict.
The original injustice was not to have created the independent state of Palestine at the same time that the state of Israel was created. That is the ultimate reason for the suicide bombing and the crisis in that part of the Middle East, and it seems that until the residents in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank get justice, they will continue to give their lives for their cause, no matter how many are killed by Israel backed with US money and weapons. For a country that likes to be seen as taking the moral high ground, particularly against terrorism, the USA seems to be unashamed of its open support for this genocide of the Palestinian people. They were right to take a stand against Saddam Hussein for bombing and other acts of genocide towards the Kurds, an ethnic minority among his own citizens; but this tacit support for what Israel is doing in Palestine is shameful, and the voices of the American church and other people of conscience should be raised against the unjust policies of their government.
Many find it amusing that the USA is taking such a hard line against terrorism considering its own record for supporting brutal dictators such as the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein of Iraq (yes, the USA was a big supporter of Saddam Hussein in his early days!), Pinochet of Chile, Marcos of the Philippines, Somoza of Nicaragua, Noriega of Panama, and the list is long.
The suborning of bombings, assassinations, the overthrow of democratically elected governments and the like are OK as long as they take place in someone else's country; indeed a cult has grown up around that kind of activity, with heroes like the men from UNCLE, the Impossible Missions Force, and Sam Durrell. Imagine, President Noriega of Panama is wanted by the USA for drug smuggling, and so they send in the US military to invade Panama, bombing and killing innocent civilians, just to arrest one man on a criminal charge!
It is a breach of the Geneva Convention for innocent civilians to be targeted in an armed conflict, and I consider the invasion of Panama to be immoral and a breach of international law; but who is going to prosecute? Might, I suppose, is right. Now, if Jamaica doesn't extradite drug dealers to the USA, are they going to bomb and invade us too?
The parallels between Noriega and Saddam Hussein are interesting. Noriega received economic and military aid from the USA, and was a close collaborator with the CIA. Saddam is where he is today largely through the economic and military support he received from the USA in 1980 in his completely unprovoked war with Iran, which lasted for nine years, in which over a million people were killed. But they created a monster, and now the USA wants to depose him from power, so plans have been made to invade Iraq, with or without the sanction of the United Nations. It is all quite a farce!
Indeed, the war has begun, for the USA has been bombing Iraq for the last few months on the ground that Iraq has violated the two no-fly zones; and the US press has been patriotic by not reporting it. The day must come when the world community recognises that the conflict in the Middle East- in Palestine, Iraq and with the elusive Osama bin Laden - may be traced to defective US foreign policy in relation to its unqualified support for Israel against all comers. With such a policy, it should not be surprising that the theatre of operations should shift to the very territory of the USA itself! What is surprising is that it took so long.
I do not condone murder and terrorism performed in the cause of right; it is unacceptable to use evil means to achieve a just end. And that applies to all sides. As the winds of war blow we must be ready for the high oil prices and the increased travel restrictions and the further downturn in tourism which will result.
One day our leaders will have to decide that it is in our interest to speak out on these far-off issues which affect us right here. We spoke out and lobbied against apartheid; why can't we speak out and lobby in support of Israel's right to peaceful existence and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination? Or do we agree that when there is violence, the political leaders should be blamed and bombed?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
