Dr Farrukh Saleem

The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist

farrukh15@hotmail.com

Two things before the topic of the week. First, the attack on the Indian parliament. America has already set a dangerous precedent of bombing a country without first proving guilt. Vajpayee sounded just like Bush did right after 9/11. But Pakistan is no Afghanistan. Second, Americans have won a military victory in Afghanistan. More important, however, is the Russian

political victory. What the Russians could not achieve militarily has now been presented to them in a platter. The Northern Alliance, a long-time Russian proxy, not only control almost all of Afghanistan but three of the most powerful ministries-defence, interior and foreign affairs-as well.

Now the topic of the week. Palestine must be to Palestinians what America is to Americans. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly approved Resolution 181 partitioning the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state, an Arab state and a UN-administered international zone around the City of Jerusalem. The US (President Harry Truman had said, "I am sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents."), USSR and Canada along with 30 other states voted in favour while Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Yemen voted against the resolution (10 abstentions).

Resolution 181 allocated specific territories prescribing precise boundaries to the 'Arab State', the 'Jewish State' and the 'City of Jerusalem'. More than 50 percent of the Palestine Mandate went to the Jewish State and a little over 40 percent to the Arab State. The Jews readily accepted the UN Partition Plan but the Arabs rejected it. In December 1947, the British declared that their forces shall withdraw from Palestine by the middle of May 1948. Violent clashes erupted almost immediately. On 9 April 1948, came the Deir Yassin Massacre (Deir Yassin was an Arab suburb of Jerusalem) during which 250 Arabs - including 25 pregnant women and 52 children - were slaughtered by Irgun (underground armed Jewish terrorist group led by Menacham Begin), the Stern Gang (led by Yitzhak Shamir; the inventor of letter bombs), LEHI (Anthem of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) and Etzel soldiers. The massacre spread panic and fear all through the Palestinian population. Some 750,000 Palestinian Arabs ran for their lives becoming refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

At midnight on 14 May 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed the new State of Israel. On that same date the United States bestowed recognition (de jure recognition was extended eight months latter). On May 15, the Lebanese, Syrian, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, Iraqi and Egyptian units entered Palestine from the North, North-East, East and South, respectively. They were to secure the areas allocated to the Arab State. Arab units lacked a unified command structure and were ill-equipped. They were, therefore, beaten back and Israel actually managed to extend its territory southwards into the Negev desert, eastwards till the Dead Sea and northwards to the Lebanese border (beyond what the UN had allocated).

In July 1948, at Lydda and Ramle 250 Arab civilians were massacred in cold blood and another seventy thousand were forcefully expelled. In October, several hundred more were killed at the village of Doueimah. Then there was a string of assassinations in Quibya and Kafr Kassem. Hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed and later opened for Jewish settlement (Noam Chomsky, Blaming the victims). According to Edward Said, "The Israeli policy of punitive counterattacks (or state terrorism) seems to be to try to kill anywhere from 50 to 100 Arabs for every Jewish fatality. The devastation of Lebanese refugee camps, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and orphanages; the summary arrests, deportations, house destructions, maimings, and torture of Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza. These, and the number of Palestinian fatalities, the scale of material loss, the physical, political and psychological deprivations, have tremendously exceeded the damage done by Palestinians to Israelis."

On 11 December 1948, the General Assembly passed Resolution 194 laying down the right of Palestinians to return to their homes. Israel accepted - but never implemented - the resolution as a condition to her becoming a member of the UN. By 1949, victims of Israel's brutal force-grouped as Fadayeen - had turned to taking on non-combatants. Between 1949 and 1956, more than a thousand Israeli civilians were killed or wounded. Some Fadayeen groups operated from safe-houses located in areas controlled by Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.

In 1967, Israel attacked Egypt in the south and Syria in the north. Jordan entered the war as well. By the end of the Six-Day War, Israel had captured the entire Sinai Peninsula (Sinai is three times Israel's size), West Bank, Gaza Strip (from Egypt), Golan Heights (from Syria), and East Jerusalem. Israel Defence Forces also took Judea and Samaria (from Jordan). After the war, Israel unilaterally decided to confiscate more than half of the land in the West Bank and one-third of the Gaza Strip for the use of its military or for the settlement of Jewish civilians. Thousands of Palestinian homes were demolished and a quarter of a million Palestinians were arrested without trial.

On 6 October 1973, Yom Kippur for the Jews (the holiest day in the Jewish calendar; a day of praying and fasting), Egyptian troops and helicopters, wanting to reclaim Sinai, crossed the Suez. Syrian troops, in what appears to be a concerted military undertaking, attacked Israeli-held Golan. Both Egypt and Syria were backed by the Soviet Union. Israel suffered severe initial losses. Syrians nearly reached the 1967 boundary. Then came massive US airlifts and within days the tide changed. Israeli forces pushed back the Syrians and advanced into Syria proper. Israel also crossed the Suez and surrounded the Egyptian Third Army.

Egypt begged the Soviets to save her Third Army. The Soviets obliged and threatened to send in troops. That brought Henry Kissinger to Moscow to negotiate an immediate cease-fire. UN Resolution 338 ended the Yom Kippur War while both Egypt and Israel claimed victory.

Over the past decade, there has been international pressure on Israel to settle with the Palestinians. Israeli strategy has been to continue signing a series of agreements. In 1991, there was the Madrid Conference. In 1993, the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles. In 1994, the Gaza-Jericho Agreement. In 1995, the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1997, came the Hebron Agreement. In 1998, Wye River Memorandum was signed. In 1999, the Israeli Government and the PLO signed the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum. There sure is a Palestinian Authority but no real Palestine.

It might have been a mistake on the part of Arabs to have rejected the UN's Plan of Partition. It is true that Israel has been a ground where the super-powers fought proxy battles. It is also true that Arabs having lost in battle have been killing Israeli non-combatants. Yasser Arafat is either not capable of or not willing to penalize Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PELP's militant activities. But, the Jews now have a country to call their own. The Palestinians don't. The real victim in this 50-year episode of tragedy and misfortune has been the Palestinian people. Palestinians are the aggrieved party. Victims should not be blamed.

There are 24,000 square kilometers between the Mediterranean and Jordan. For any real peace in the Middle East there must be an independent, sovereign and an uncontested Palestine. Israelis have the right to live in peace. So do Palestinians. The two states would have to learn to coexist.