"
E V E N I F . . . "
MER - Washington - 7/9:
Nothing currently under discussion
in the largely misnomered "peace process", even if signed by the Israelis,
even if implimented as signed, will benefit the Palestinians. The public
relations mayappear otherwise, but this central reality needs be constantly
remembered.
Indeed, every agreement of the "peace
process" has actually helped restructure, strengthen, and in various convoluted
ways "legitimize" the overall Israeli occupation and disposession of the
Palestinians.
The agreement under "negotiation" at
the moment is actually the worst of all.
A central feature of the agreement
is that the extensive and growing network of Israeli "by-pass" roads is
not only accepted by the Arafat regime but largely paid for by the Americans.
These "by-pass" roads are the infrastructural heart of Israel's apartheid-style
plans to permanently settle and control all but the "autonomous" population
centers of the occupied terriories. And even these "autonomous" areas will
be surrounded by the Israeli army controlling all entry and exit from these
increasingly isolated and separate pockets of Palestinian population.
The following paragraph from journalist
Patrick Cockburn in Jerusalem sums up this crucial aspect of today's situation:
PALESTINIANS BOTTLED UP IN "ENCLAVES"
"Even if Israel does withdraw from
13 per cent from the West Bank, more than half of it will remain under
Israeli control. The 1.5 million Palestinians will continue to live in
enclaves which they cannot leave without Israeli permission and where standards
of living have fallen 30 per cent in the last five years."
Patrick Cockburn
The Independent, 9 July
