From Occupied Palestine

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.

Yassin and annexation
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Znet, 30 March 2004

The assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin marks a serious escalation in Israeli occupation tactics. While Israel had (in earlier assassination attempts) already crossed the "red line" that once defined some limits in aggressive acts, its message in the Yassin murder was that there are no limits, that Israel's military attacks face no restrictions. Counting accurately on Washington's unwillingness to challenge its aggression, the assassination also ushers in a new Israeli campaign to win official U.S. support for wide-spread annexation of major West Bank settlements as part of Tel Aviv's "unilateral withdrawal from Gaza" plan.

Talking points on the Geneva Accord
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Znet, 11 December 2003

The "Geneva Accord" drafted and signed by Palestinian and Israeli negotiators acting in their private capacity has received extensive international attention. The Accord is apparently based on earlier discussions begun during the Taba talks of January 2000 that followed the failed Camp David summit; Taba broke down without an agreement when Bill Clinton was replaced by George Bush and when Labor's Ehud Barak by Likud's Ariel Sharon. Official Palestinian-Israeli talks have been largely non-existent during the years since.

Veto
PHYLLIS BENNIS
The Link, January - March 2003

The United States today vetoed a Security Council resolution that condemned Israel for its recent killings of several United Nations employees and the destruction of a United Nations food warehouse. The count was 12 in favor, two — Bulgaria and Cameroon — abstained, the U.S. opposed.

At various points in its history the United Nations has been a major player in the Middle East. For good or bad, it was responsible for the partitioning of Palestine through General Assembly resolution 181, creating the state of Israel, while endorsing a Palestinian state and international status for Jerusalem, neither of which was ever allowed to come into existence. It passed resolution 194 guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinian refugees. After the 1967 war, the Security Council passed resolution 242, which first called for the exchange of (Israeli-occupied Palestinian) land for (presumably Palestinian-disrupting Israeli) peace. Then in the early 1970s the U.N. played a key role in establishing the legitimacy and recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization, highlighted by Chairman Yasir Arafat's speech to the General Assembly in 1974.

Talk given at the Annual Solemn Meeting of the UN General Assembly Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People
PHYLLIS BENNIS
29 November 2002

New York -- Two months ago almost 400 people, representing civil society organizations from around the world, all committed to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine, met here at the headquarters of the United Nations, to strengthen our international campaign to "End the Occupation!" On the occasion of this year's solemn commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the peril facing Palestine and the Palestinians has never been greater.

Bush mispronounces Middle East peace
PHYLLIS BENNIS
End the Occupation, 8 July 2002

President Bush's much-awaited Middle East policy pronouncement was very much a post-September 11 speech. It was shaped by the unbridled power of an unchallenged global sovereign, unconcerned with the differing opinions or legitimate interests of any other nations, peoples, or regions. And it consolidated a key aspect of the administration's strategic approach: ramp up the pressure on key Arab allies to support a US attack (whether full-scale military invasion or escalated covert overthrow/assassination attempts) on Iraq by claiming a new commitment to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian women suffer under occupation
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Progressive Media Project, 8 March 2001

Malake Kafishe lives in Hebron's Old City, and she was seven months pregnant last November when the Israeli military attacked. There was shooting, and then I heard the helicopter gunships coming in and my heart just stopped, she said. She began to bleed and then collapsed on the doorstep. Her family telephoned for an ambulance. Because of a curfew imposed on the 40,000 Palestinians in Hebron's Old City, it took an hour for an ambulance to arrive. In place of paramedics, two Israeli soldiers insisted on examining Kafishe.

Search continues for Middle East peace
PHYLLIS BENNIS and GEORGE NEGUS
ABC Australia, 3 January 2001

GEORGE NEGUS: The sorry state of the Middle East is as evident as ever and the wishful shuttle diplomacy going on between Jerusalem, Gaza and Washington continues.

Today we saw the obviously ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and that would-be-peacemaker and soon-to-become former US president, Bill Clinton, meet not once but twice at the White House.

The UN in the Israel-Palestine struggle
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Trans-Arab Research Institute, January 2001

The United Nations was both venue and player in the complicated international diplomacy that led to the partition of Palestine in 1947 and creation of the state of Israel in 1948. By the end of that year the UN General Assembly had passed Resolution 194, affirming the right of Palestinian refugees from the 1947-48 war to return to their homes and to receive compensation for their losses. When Israel joined the UN the following year, its membership (resolution 273) was contingent on its acceptance of the obligations imposed by earlier resolutions, including 194.

For Jews only: Racism inside Israel
PHYLLIS BENNIS and MAX ELBAUM
Color Lines, 15 December 2000

Phyllis Bennis, a longtime analyst and activist around Middle East issues, is now head of the Middle East Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She is the author of From Stones to Statehood: The Palestinian Uprising, a book about the Palestinian intifada of the late 1980s, and Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's U.N. In this interview, Phyllis analyzes the racist character of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as well as its treatment of Palestinians who live within Israel's pre-1967 borders.