Deadly holidays

Friday, October 01, 2004

So, the army was taking up positions in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiye, the Shuhada Cemetery, Sheikh Riad, near the PA officers barracks in northern Gaza, Al Atara, and at Givat Oranim – all sites used by Qassam launchers within a nine-kilometer radius from Sderot presumably to prevent the limited range home-made rockets from reaching the town.

So far, an estimated 100 tanks have reportedly rolled into northern Gaza over the last 24 hours, and at least as of this morning, no Qassams had fallen onto Sderot as they have for the last several months on a daily basis.

There have been three Israeli casualties in Gaza since the operation began (a settler woman killed while on he morning jog and two soldiers) – and more than 30 Palestinian casualties, mostly armed men trying to challenge the Israelis, but also civilians caught in the fighting. That disproportion is evidence not merely of Israel’s military superiority but also of Palestinian readiness to go into obviously hopeless battle.

The goddess loves -- Mixed media on paper, 50x70 cm by Silvia Rosenberg

The conventional wisdom is that while radical Palestinians will do whatever they can to make it appear that the Israelis are quitting Gaza because of the terrorism, radical settlers will do everything they can to make any disengagement so traumatic that it will never be repeated in the West Bank.

But the radicals, on both sides, are not the majorities, even though they seem to dictate policy. Trouble is, Palestinian democracy is still in its most infantile stages, while Israeli democracy is deeply flawed by virtue of maintaining a discriminatory military occupation in territories contiguous to Israel. As opponents of the occupation have long said, the Green Line cannot prevent the ills of occupation from crossing into Israel, especially after nearly 30 years in which the Likud, as the ruling party, made erasing the Green Line its policy.

So, the emerging prevailing wisdom on the Israelis side now seems to be that the only way to evacuate Gaza, as Sharon wants, is to first reoccupy it, because Israel cannot allow itself to be seen leaving Gaza under a hail of Qassam rocket fire or any other wave of terror.

The trouble, of course, is that a large military occupation in Gaza will likely only prompt more Palestinian resistance – and more controversy inside Israel about why it is taking so long for the disengagement plan to be implemented. There are voices calling for an acceleration of the disengagement plan, which Sharon has now scheduled for next summer. But if the disengagement is indeed sped up, it will appear to be the result of the Qassams and terror in general. There’s a vicious circle at work, and so far, neither side appears capable of breaking it.

Meanwhile, on the Temple Mount / Haram el Sharif , the flashpoint for the religious aspect of the conflict, police meanwhile were limiting access to Friday prayers at the mosque to women and men over the age of 40 who carry Israeli ID cards. The police are on high alert, expecting that militants might try to make a ruckus whether to protest the Gaza operation, or to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the intifada four years ago.

In Galilee, demonstrations are planned in the villages and towns where the rioting and killings took place four years ago, with a main rally planned for Sakhnin in the afternoon. Police are under orders from their new chief to stay out of the towns and villages to avoid friction and to behave ‘with sensitivity’ and ‘good judgment.’ There is an absolute ban on the use of any bullets, rubber coated or plastic, in case of any violence. But unlike 2000, when much of the shooting broke out because police believed they were under orders to keep roads open at all costs, the orders now are that if any of the demonstrations close roads, police should redirect traffic to avoid the protest marchers and only as a last resort to use a minimum of force to move the protestors off the roads.

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