I was four years old when my parents, my elder brother, my sister
and I were compelled to leave our home in Kufur Yasif in 1948. In the spring of that year Jewish troops were to take over our village and our family found a safe place for several weeks in the neighboring Druze village, Yirka in Western Galilee. That unpleasant trip on foot is still vivid in my memory and in particular two things: One, the huge camel that carried some of our basic belongings and my being afraid to ride it, and, second, my spontaneous question to my parents: Why should we leave our home?
The tragic cycle of violence and bloodshed continues in the West Bank and Israel. The phenomenon of suicide bombers against civilians is tragic, immoral, and insupportable. This does terrorist infrastructure of the Palestinian National Authority. It is Still unclear is how killing, humiliation, arrests, siege, torture, collective punishment, vandalism and destruction of homes and offices would achieve that objective. The institutions of the PNA established in 1994 were damaged in April 2002, but they would be replaced as soon as possible probably by more efficient ones.
Yaffa Yarkoni, the national singer of Israel, has described the Independence Day as "the worst Independence Day I can remember. I have never seen things more dismal or black. I feel we are at the edge of the abyss". Such terror, called by others resistance, exists in the souls of millions of Palestinians and of Arabs alike. A Palestinian child who watched the dreadful scenes in the camp of Jenin will probably not think much before becoming the suicide bomber of tomorrow. The state of entire despair and the feeling that this young generation has noth resolution since 1948.
The American secretary of state Mr. Collin Powell in his ten day visit to the Middle East did not find it necessary to pay a short visit to the camp of Jenin or to the besieged Church of the Nativity. Yet, he rushed to the market of Mahanei Yehuda in West Jerusalem in the wake of a suicide bomb attack. Many voices will be wondering: What happened to the world's moral compass? Will the double-standard policy succeed in the long run? The West has devoted little attention or discussion to the 35 year Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory, which has been the longest in recent times. After eight years of sterile peace discussions between Israel and the PNA, more than seventy five percent of the Palestinians are unemployed and seventy percent live in poverty on less than two dollars a day. Since the second Intifada, September 2000, Israel has sequestered Palestinians in more than 200 little ghettos in the Western Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians in the remaining 22 percent of historical Palestine. The peace and liberal movements and parties in Israel would join such a just and peaceful campaign for the mutual benefit of Israelis and Palestinians and thus allow them to live next to each other peacefully and with respect. A near-saint leader such as Mahatma Gandhi is not on the horizon in the Middle East. Therefore it is morally imperative that the international, democratic, and civilized community intervene to end the bloodshed, hatred, violence, and destruction in the Holy Land and bring security to both Israelis and Palestinians. America's credibility in the Middle East has been damaged, especially among the Arab people who number approximately 300 million. A peace broker in a conflict situation has to try to be even-handed and not a partner in the conflict. Nice words have little weight when calculations and considerations of elethroughout the whole world.
The fighting in Jenin will be described in history by various terms and settings depending on ideologies of the writers and historians. It may be described as a story of disaster, an earth quake, a nest of terrorism, tough resistance, a massacre, a second Sabra and Shatila, the Stalingrad of Palestine, or just beyond belief. Jenin might be regarded as the Palestinian Massada similar to that of the Jews against the Romans in 71 A.D. However one thing is clear, what happened in Jenin will not be among the glorious chapters of Israel's modern history. The Myths of the Jenin camp and of Arafat's compound, or muqata'an in Ramallah, may fire up the consciousness of the Palestinian people. They may demonstrate the power of weakness against the weakness of power. After 54 years of suffering as refugees, the Palestinians look for peace and justice, while the Israelis look for peace and security. Does security lead to peace or does peace lead to security?
