Oslo anniversary: no reason to celebrate
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 8/25/1998

At least twenty thousand Palestinians living in the heart of Hebron had to mark the 5th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords while confined to their homes. The Israeli troops clamped a curfew on the city center following last Thursday night stabbing to death of a leading settler in Hebron.

These Palestinians have very little reason to celebrate the signing of Oslo since they see the accords, and in the subsequent Hebron agreement that was signed with the Netanyahu government early in 1997, as a means to perpetuate Israel's rule over the city center and to fortify the Jewish settlements in the heart of the city. The Oslo anniversary came as the Israeli government took a decision to upgrade Jewish settlements in the heart of Hebron, regardless of the anticipated violent repercussions to such a decision.

According to a report the Palestinian government issued Monday night, Jewish settlers in Hebron carried out attacks against Palestinians, including Palestinian officials, such as shooting at a Palestinian police vehicle and stone throwing at Palestinian government cars.

In one incident, the report said, the settlers stopped a Palestinian policeman near Dabbouya building, beat up Palestinian civilians, torched three cars and tried to force their way into Palestinian homes in Hebron. Commenting on the report, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's advisor on Israeli affairs, Ahmed Tibi, said the settlers have presented new evidence that they threaten regional stability. He blamed the Israeli government for failing to enforce law and order on the settlers "who not only harass Palestinians but also act against Israeli soldiers and policemen."

Haaretz Hebrew daily on Monday called on the Israeli government to evacuate all Jewish settlers from the city center in order to avoid further bloodshed in the region. The call reflected how serious the question of Jewish settlement in Hebron is. It manifested the concern that at least half of the Israeli society bears with regard to continued settlement activities in the Occupied Territories.

Other opponents to the continued Jewish settlement in the heart of Hebron included members of the Labor Party, whose government failed in the past to take a single decision to evacuate the settlers from Hebron. Labor Knesset member Benyamin Ben Eliezer (also known by his Iraqi name, Fuad) expressed his concern over seeing Jewish boys aged 10 to 12 years old overturning market stalls owned by Palestinians in the city center.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has not shown any sign of intimidation by those calls. On the contrary, in a secret meeting he held with leaders of the settlement movement at his residence in West Jerusalem on Saturday night, he approved a plan to enlarge the Jewish enclave in Tal Rumeideh, one of the central hills towering over the city of Hebron.

Netanyahu moreover authorized the building of a residential facility close to Dabbouya building in Hebron, a site taken over by Jewish settlers late in the 70s. While many voices in Israel called for the removal of the Jewish enclave out of Hebron to prevent a potential outbreak of violence, the Israeli government has decided to do exactly the opposite. Netanyahu has always kept away from visiting "bereaved families" whose relatives were killed by Palestinians simply because he wanted to avoid chanting against his government, something he always provoked against former prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. But the chance arose for him to gain political capital, he immediately visited Hebron on Tuesday morning for the first time since he took office in June 1996.

He was acting within the context of dancing on graves and blood, as was written by the father of one of the 12 Israeli navy commandos who were killed in the ill-fated raid on South Lebanon last year. "I saw how you greeted the rescue team that was sent to Kenya to carry out a humanitarian mission, par excellence. Unfortunately, I saw you celebrating on the heap of rubble and taking credit for glory that is not yours. Therefore, I invite you to dance on the grave of my son and to reap that glory too," the father wrote to Netanyahu in one of the harshest letters ever sent by a bereaved father to a prime minister in Israel.

Previous Stories:
  Arafat frustrated by U.S. inaction   (8/19/1998)
  Settlements need not be enlarged, Israeli Peace Now members help   (8/7/1998)
  Settlers press for more police in Old City of Jerusalem   (7/25/1998)

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