Newspaper
La Nacion
Buenos Aires. Friday, August 10 of 2001
“Peace only will take place with dignity” (view)
By Suhail Hani
Daher Akel *
For La Nacion
The Conference of Peace in Madrid took place ten years ago and the Oslo Agreements between the Liberation Organization of Palestine and Israel took place eight years ago. After the warm handshake between President Arafat and Premier Rabin, it is incredible to accept that it was just a fleeting dream. Two promoters of the Peace of the Braves: one of them, Rabin, was killed by an Israeli terrorist and the other one, Arafat, was threatened of being killed by Sharon.
¿Is it possible to kill peace? It is not understood that this implies killing the people, the Palestinian people, who live under occupation and this also implies loading over the other, the Israeli people, the weight of massacre. We did not pretend that when the agreement of a new stage of tolerance and cohabitation was signed in Washington.
Netanyahu, Barak and Sharon did not interpret this necessity. It was the own wife of the late Rabin, Leah, who a few weeks before dying told him: “...Mr. Barak, you are not as far up as the Peace of the Braves, you have a partner and he is Arafat...”
For Sharon, accused of being a war criminal in Belgium, his experience for a statement in favor of life was not enough and he started looking for death that September 28 of 2000, penetrating in the occupied East Jerusalem and knowing he would arouse the anger of Palestinians and progressive Israelis. Unfortunately, today, death and violence consume the destiny of both people and Sharon broke the Palestinian-Israeli hope with his insensitive attitude against the peace process.
As a pleasant perfume, peace efforts vanished. Drums of war again. Newly, the siege of occupation, toxic weapons and the permanent economic and territorial asphyxia.
President Yasser Arafat firmly condemns terrorism. We do not agree with terrorist attacks inside or outside Israel. We neither accept terrorist attacks performed by Israeli illegal settlers nor the State terrorist of Israel within Palestinian territory.
Security
On one hand, it is not easy for people to live under the occupation. On the other hand, it is not easy for people to live within the Israeli semantics changing the reality in public opinion with the military justification to stop intifada and hiding its wishes of “ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” unde the shadow of the so called “security” by Israel.
In that “security” framework, any Palestinian attempt - within its occupied territory- in its legitimate defense against colonialism is considered “terrorism” by Israel. Sharon uses the hypocrisy of his dialectician to justify his role of aggressor under the concept of attacked; he does not know the occupied territories, calling them in dispute and reducing any Palestinian right to its self-determination with the imposition of maps as “brilliant offers”. This offers do not agree with the international demands, UNO resolutions and the accords signed with Palestine.
In spite of everything, Arafat will go on working for peace and we count on the support of the progressive Israelis. But peace only will take place with dignity.
* The author is the Ambassador of the Palestinian Mission in Argentine