From Occupied Palestine

E-1: The end of a viable Palestinian state
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD, 27 March 2005

The fatal flaw in most analyses of the Israel-Palestine conflict is the assumption that if the Palestinians can just get a state of their own, then all will be fine. A state on all the Occupied Territories (UN Resolution 242), on most of the Occupied Territories (Oslo and the Road Map to the Geneva Initiative), or even on half the Occupied Territories (Sharon's notion) - it doesn't matter. Once there's a Palestinian state the conflict is over and we can all move on to the next item on the agenda.

Israel flouts road map with new settlement
CONAL URQUHART
Guardian, 6 August 2004

Tel Aviv -- Israel has announced plans for thousands of homes in a new settlement near Jerusalem, ignoring its undertaking in the road map to freeze settlement activity.

The proposed settlement, on 1,518 hectares (3,750 acres) of West Bank land, would be sited between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim and provide a bridge between them.

UN Assembly votes overwhelmingly to demand Israel comply with International Court of Justice ruling
UN NEWS CENTER, 20 July 2004

20 July 2004 – The United Nations General Assembly today voted overwhelmingly to demand that Israel comply with an advisory opinion issued earlier this month by the World Court, which declared the construction of a separation barrier in and around the West Bank to be illegal.

Rogue states embrace the Bush-Sharon press conference
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Znet, 15 April 2004

Talking Points

OCCUPIED ARAB JERUSALEM

Bush's embrace of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan to annex six major West Bank settlement blocs and reject the internationally-recognized Palestinian right of return as a quid pro quo for Sharon's pull-out from most Gaza settlements represents a major defeat for Palestinian human rights and international law, and a huge consolidation of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. While U.S. policy has, since 1967, tacitly accepted Israel's illegal settlements and done nothing to even encourage the end of the occupation, Bush's position represents a sharp break with longstanding precedent of supporting a negotiated settlement and even more sharply with Bush's own (however disingenuous) claim to support a two-state solution.

Road map is forgotten at dead end for negotiation
AVI SHLAIM
Observer, 28 March 2004

Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, marked an extraordinarily dangerous escalation in the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. There could hardly be a more dramatic demonstration of the disparity in military power between the two parties to this conflict. The trouble is that there is no military solution and there are only losers in this dance of death.

Sharon's old new year
GRAHAM USHER
al Ahram Weekly, 1-7 January 2004

Palestinian options will vanish as rapidly as their lands under Ariel Sharon's plans for the year ahead, writes Graham Usher from Jerusalem

On the eve of 2003 Ariel Sharon gave some flesh to his vision of a Palestinian state with "provisional borders", the second stage of the untested "roadmap towards peace". One year on -- and at the same Herzliya venue -- he gave vent to what might happen should the roadmap remain folded on the Bush administration's shelf.

Hurtling toward the abyss: Hanan Ashrawi interview
HANAN ASHRAWI and JON ELMER
FromOccupiedPalestine.org, 21 November 2003

Jon Elmer, FromOccupiedPalestine.org: The pro-Israel lobby went on a rabid campaign of defamation and intimidation when you were announced as the winner of the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize. To certain symbolic lengths, they succeeded: Sydney University withdrew the use of the Great Hall for the ceremony, the Lord Mayor of Sydney disassociated the city with the award. The former chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation was quoted as having said to Stuart Rees, the current director: "I have to speak logically. It is either Hanan Ashrawi or the Peace Foundation. That's our choice, Stuart. My distinct impression is that if you persist in having her here, they’ll destroy you" [Robert Fisk, "When did Arab become a dirty word?" Independent, 6 November 2003]. Were you at all surprised by the reaction to your selection?

Un Resolution 1515 to back Roadmap
KRISTEN ESS
Znet, 21 November 2003

"More resolutions is not the solution," said Israel's deputy UN ambassador Aryeh Mekel. They must not be for Israel, considering its history of not honoring them. Since 1967 and the passing of Resolution 242, the UN has passed 130 resolutions against Israel, none of which have been honored.

The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted unanimously yesterday to support Resolution 1515, calling for the implementation of the Road Map. Israel has long spoken against UN intervention. Palestinians have been asking for it for years.

Israel ignores road-map over illegal outposts
JUSTIN HUGGLER
Independent, 28 October 2003

The Middle East peace process was marred yesterday by fresh violence on the Lebanese border and an admission from the Israeli government that it will provide new services to illegal settlement outposts it pledged to dismantle under the "road-map" peace plan.

Hezbollah guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in a disputed southern Lebanese border area for the first time in two months, triggering Israeli air strikes and artillery fire. The army said one soldier was lightly wounded.

Resistance and collaboration
JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
Znet, 22 September 2003

As early as 1996, three years after the signing of the Oslo 'peace' Accords, Israeli military leaders drew up contingency plans for the re-conquest of the West Bank and the destruction of the Palestinian Authority. They called their plan "Field of Thorns" and in the spring of 2002 Sharon's government began effectively to carry it out under the name "Operation Defensive Shield". This series of military operations nullified the administrative distinctions for joint and separate rule over segments of the West Bank (Areas A, B, & C) that were established under the Oslo agreement, and dealt a near deathblow to the leadership of the PA. In the name of security the IDF also caused irreparable damage to Palestinian popular and democratic civil society fostered by numerous NGOs, educational and political institutions. Soldiers ransacked offices, destroyed computer hard drives, stole, and in some cases burned, decades' worth of statistical, sociological information stored in paper files and on software disks. In some cases they wrecked the offices and headquarters of these organizations, including Palestinian TV and Radio stations, so thoroughly that even the most hardened citizens were left stunned.