The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin — the partially sighted, wheelchair-bound quadraplegic — is a clear demonstration of the paralysis and blindness of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government.
Israel, whose creators believed the Zionist state would radiate as a ”light unto the nations”, has long sunk to the lowest depths of moral and political depravity — visible to all but its blind adherents. Those living in South Africa, who defend Israel’s every action, should have learnt from the apartheid experience that baasskap and kragdadigheid are no solution to conflict.
Sharon’s short-sighted vision of punishing all Palestinians with an iron fist, for the actions of individuals, and his bankrupt belief in a military solution only leads to the slaughter of more Arabs and Jews alike. That is precisely why the blood of the suicide bomb victims in Israel are equally on his hands as the blood of Palestinians. It is additionally clear that his policy of blind retribution fuels the rage and instability of the Middle East and the fragile international order.
As shocking as the non-judicial execution of the Hamas spiritual leader is, it is essential that the cycle of violence does not divert attention from the root cause of the conflict. Successive Israeli governments, and Sharon’s in particular, are past masters at creating smokescreens to cloud their real objectives. The murder of Yassin must not distract attention from Sharon’s prime objective, which is the completion of the Apartheid Wall around the West Bank and annexation of more Palestinian land.
Israel claims that the wall is meant to be a ”security barrier” to keep out terror, much like the steel fence that cages in the people of Gaza. Yet that fence failed to neutralise the influence of Yassin demonstrating that barriers can never be effective.
The pro-Israeli camp focuses on the huge effect terrorism has had on Israelis. They never reflect on the impact of triple the number of Israeli killings of Palestinians — who are a smaller nation than the Israelis and have been driven into one-fifth of the space. Once the wall has been completed that space will be 12% of historic Palestine.
It is argued that ”if Palestinian terror would stop, there would be no need for the fence”. If the Israeli government had granted Palestine independence and withdrawn from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, there would be no intifada. It is not true that Yasser Arafat broke off negotiations after Ehud Barak’s so-called ”generous offer” was spurned. The Taba talks followed Camp David and there was progress with Palestinian negotiators winning a better deal from the Israelis. That deal was scuppered because Likud was soon voted into power and its leaders were determined to destroy Yitzhak Rabin’s Oslo legacy, just as they had helped destroy him.
While Sharon’s provocative appearance at the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem was the catalyst for the second intifada, the root cause of the problem has always been the violation of Palestinian national and human rights, and annexation of land. That is what motivates resistance and, as we in South Africa experienced, repression of a just cause only fuels more intensive struggle.
As to the real motives of the Sharon government, it needs to be noted that plans for an apartheid-style, de facto annexation of around 45% of what remains of the West Bank, long predate the current Palestinian uprising for independence. Sharon consistently urged such annexation, to be followed by confiscations for settler colonisation, from the mid-1970s.
If this history, now repeated in front of our eyes in the West Bank, is not condemned by religious ethics, are those ethics not being degraded? Yet we are told that criticism of Israel is tantamount to anti-Semitism. This would consign half the population of Israel and thousands of Jews around the world into such a category.
One political consequence of this Israeli land-grab is that Hamas and other rivals of the secular Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)/Palestine Authority ridicule them as ”sell outs” and ”collaborators” for formally and publicly recognising the State of Israel at Oslo in 1993 and allowing themselves to be deceived by various Israeli governments. They are derided for not getting an independent State of Palestine in exchange.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad gained support because the PLO could not win independence. This has led to renewed terrorism, the suicide bombing strategy and targeted executions such as that of Yassin and anyone unlucky to be in the vicinity. Extremists will only be marginalised when the pro-peace party, the PLO, can win the overdue independent State of Palestine, which is the maturation of the Oslo Accord. Until then hatred will remain.
We urge the Jewish community to say not in our name. We urge all South Africans to call for this Apartheid Wall to be torn down, an end to the military occupation and resumption of negotiations. A meaningful negotiated process is the only way to achieve a settlement that will end terror and bring peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
When Samson of the Bible had his eyes plucked out by his Philistine tormentors in Gaza he brought the temple down on one and all. Sharon, eyeless in Gaza, is threatening to destroy Israelis and Palestinians alike and must be stopped before it is too late.
Ronnie Kasrils is Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, and Max Ozinsky is an MPL for the African National Congress in the Western Cape