http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/show_katava.asp?id=33671&mador=4
Wednesday, November 11, 1998
Terrorism and Geography
By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz
Perhaps only the sharp tongue of the Palestinian
Authority justice minister articulated what
Palestinians thought of the many postponements
and clarifications of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's government. When Freih Abu Meddain
was asked, four days before the Mahane Yehuda
terrorist attack, why he thought Netanyahu
postponed cabinet discussion of the Wye
Memorandum again, he said, "Netanyahu is waiting
for a present from Islamic Jihad, a present from
Hamas." "The present" has been given, and is
still being used to the fullest by state
broadcasting.It was concealed for over 24 hours
that the perpetrators of the attack came from
areas under Israeli security control, and the
public did not contest early enough Tzachi
Hanegbi's accusations on Friday news programs
that the suicide bombers came from areas under
Palestinian security control. Every Palestinian
already knew the perpetrators' names and where
they came from, so it is hard to say the secrecy
stemmed from security reasons.
Now the word is that they belonged to a cell from
Jenin - that is, Area A. In other words, still,
the PA is not carrying out its obligations. Fact.
Therefore, postponing the cabinet discussion is
justified. What will they say about the capture,
publicized two days ago, of the Hamas cell from
East Jerusalem suspected in the Jerusalem murder
of David Quatorze? The suspects are residents of
Abu Tor, Ras al Amud and Silwan. Suddenly, it is
not important where the members of the cell live,
nor that only the murder of a Jew led to their
discovery. Instead, the origin of their
instructions is stressed: they were given orders
by Muhi a Din Sharif or the Hamas leadership in
the Ashkelon prison. Also stressed will be the
origin of their explosives: presumably the
autonomous areas. In other words, the PA is not
carrying out its obligations. Fact. Who even
cares that Israel hires collaborators to locate
cells, erects roadblocks throughout the split-up
West Bank, and is itself responsible for the
Ashkelon prison? Will anybody accuse the IDF and
General Security Service (GSS) of failing to do
enough in "the fight against terrorism?"
The very selective invocation of geographic
location prevents public discussion of the
phenomenon of terrorism and its social and
political roots. It also fails to raise the
possibility that the willingness of individuals
with children to attack Jews is more related to
the Israeli policy of embittering the lives of
Palestinians in Jerusalem than their access to
Sharif.
The willingness of a 24-year-old from Area A or B
to commit suicide (Suleiman Dahayneh, in the
Mahane Yehuda attack) is less related to Iran
than to the fact that when he was a child, an IDF
soldier fired at and seriously injured him, and
according to his family, soldiers beat his
brother to death. Perhaps it simply stems from
the fact that no security apparatus can uncover
every "terrorist organization"
Another reasons why this discussion about
terrorism is not taking place now is that, as
presented by the Israeli press, the suspects were
convicted before they were tried. "The cell whose
members murdered" - most news programs reported
in the past several days. To hell with the
principle of "innocent until proven guilty." The
same applies to the famous list of 30
Palestinians whose arrest Israel is demanding of
the PA: The demand is not for the PA to try them
based on Israeli evidence, but "to arrest them."
At least two, cousins Yusuf and Saher a Raghi,
have already been given quick trials by the PA.
But the GSS insists that "they are murderers."
They have been in detention in Jericho for three
years. Amnesty International has asked the PA to
retry them. When Abu Meddain recommended their
release, Israel cried "revolving door" to the
U.S. Has anyone ever asked themselves whether the
fact that Palestinians treat convicts as heroes -
instead of questioning the legitimacy of
murdering the elderly and children - is related
to Israel's operative assumption that every
Palestinian is guilty because he is Palestinian?
Netanyahu also gave Islamic Jihad a present: the
prevailing Palestinian public opinion that there
is no logical political thinking that takes their
welfare into account. After all, if this
incidence of terror involved a group wanting to
prove the Wye agreement bad for Palestinians, why
wouldn't this group simply let the agreement
prove its own shortcomings during the
implementation? The very need for an attack backs
the PA's claim: these groups are interested in
sabotaging the accord because it is "good for
Palestinians" (and for the PA).
Actually, the Pavlovian rejection of the
agreement gives a lot more power to the suicide
bombers of Islamic Jihad, a small and shrinking
organization opposed to the PA and its
agreements. The postponement serves to inspire
other people - guided by outsiders, insiders or
those seeking compensation for personal weakness
and a sense of failure. The postponement proves
that with relatively little effort from people
disgusted with their lives, the IDF can be
stopped from moving a few kilometers and
President Clinton stopped from visiting Gaza
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