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In most instances, only after several minutes of viewing would a
Palestinian representative finally be heard. PLO spokespersons Michael
Tarazi and Diana Buttu were interviewed by the BBC, but were interrupted
and challenged by reporters far more than Israeli-US voices, who were
frequently allowed to get their “media messages” across unimpeded.
Exposing the bias of western corporate media in their reporting of the
Palestine-Israel conflict is a crucial aspect of the P10K strategy. The
corporate media’s emphasis on the pullout from Gaza of just 7,000 settlers
- with little or no mention of the support Bush has given to retain
hundreds of thousands of settlers across the West Bank - was at best
sloppy journalism, and at worst utter incompetence and connivance in
swallowing the official line that was fed to them in one of the most
transparent state sanctioned PR operations in decades.
However, Sharon’s announcement and Bush’s backing for it only strengthen
the need for a citizen led action such as P10K. Now not even the most
naïve westerner who has any grasp of the situation in Palestine could be
under the impression that the Bush-Sharon announcement has done anything
but utterly killed the “peace process.”
P10K will be announced just weeks after the Bush-Sharon-Corporate Media
triple act - a sickening show of lies and complete disregard for
Palestinian rights. Surely their announcement will only increase support
for P10K, now that the illusion of any US backed “Roadmap” or “Peace
Process” which would be fair to Palestinians has vanished entirely?
Here is Miftah's response to the Bush-Sharon declaration
US Endorses Israel's Occupation
April 14, 2004
By MIFTAH
A substantial and dangerous shift in U.S. policy in the Middle East took
place this afternoon in the White House. US President George W. Bush
explicitly endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plans to
permanently maintain major Israeli settlements in the West Bank (which are
illegal under international law and comprise 15% of the whole territory),
while denying 4.6 million Palestinians (refugees who were uprooted,
dispossessed, and displaced in 1948) their right to return to their
original homes in historical Palestine (Israel). Bush applauded Sharon’s
moves as “historic and courageous actions,” giving his full backing to the
“unilateral disengagement” plan and presenting Sharon with a letter of
“assurances.”
The letter, signed by President Bush, awards retroactive legitimacy to
Israel's illegal settlements by stating:
“As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and
recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the
parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new
realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli
populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final
status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice
lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution
have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final
status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed
changes that reflect these realities.”
Further, and in violation of UN Resolution 194, the letter blatantly
rejects the inalienable right of return for Palestinian refugees by
stating:
“The United States is strongly committed to Israel's security and
well-being as a Jewish state. It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair,
and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as
part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the
establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian
refugees there, rather than in Israel.”
President Bush’s statement and letter trumps two pillars of US policy
towards the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, namely that Israeli
settlements on occupied Palestinian land are an obstacle to peace and that
the U.S. will not dictate the terms of a final peace settlement. Moreover,
this shift in policy makes the US complicit in the Israeli occupation's
lawlessness and violation of international law, ultimately disregarding
essential legal foundations such as the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949,
which strictly prohibits the occupying power from making demographic
changes in, and moving parts of its population into, the territory it
occupies.
By fully accommodating Sharon and his shortsighted extremist government,
the US is preempting key issues intended for mutual agreement between the
Palestinians and Israelis within the framework of the final status
negotiations; the US has abandoned its very own “road map” to peace.
Sharon has undoubtedly exploited the US predicament in Iraq and Bush’s
election drive to extort concessions and changes in US policy towards the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. More dangerously, the Bush administration’s
publicly declared endorsement of Sharon’s plans is a clear demonstration
of Washington’s willful neglect of the real causes of conflict (most
notably Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories).
The imminent and long term effects of such a negligent shift in policy
will be destructive to the whole region; the results of today’s
declarations will further inflame Arab and Islamic public opinion. It will
most certainly undermine what is left of US standing in the region,
destroying both its credibility and any chance it still has of playing a
constructive role in peace-making.
The position adopted by the US this evening worryingly shows a complete
disregard for the Palestinians in the negotiations concerning their
future. America has forcefully assumed the position of deciding the fate
of the Palestinian people during exclusive and secretive negotiations with
Israel. Dispensing with Palestinian rights, Sharon’s plan received
unfettered support from Bush, who foolishly expected Palestinians to
embrace their new found “freedom,” despite the fact that Israel will
maintain full control of airspace, territorial waters, and land passages
of the West Bank and Gaza.
The US has effectively given Sharon a green light to retain at the very
least six "large settlement blocs" in the West Bank, with a population of
92,500 Israeli settlers, if not more, as part of any final peace accord
with the Palestinians. Sharon promised that the Jewish settlements inside
Hebron and the nearby enclave of Kiryat Arba, as well as Maaleh Adumim,
Givat Ze'ev, Ariel and Gush Etzion “will remain under Israeli control and
that will continue to grow stronger and develop.”
Today, the prospects for a real peace settlement between the Palestinians
and the Israelis seem more distant than ever.
From : http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=3495&CategoryId=3
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