pro-israel demo in manhatten

Pro-Israel Demonstration in Manhattan
by Staff Reports

(Excerpt)

\"We are sending a loud and vocal message to Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasir Arafat to stop the violence and bloodshed immediately,\" added Gedale
Horowitz, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council. \"Differences
must be resolved at the negotiating table, not in the streets.\"

While Lazio received a warm reception from the crowd, Clinton was booed
loudly at times.

Former mayor Ed Koch was among the speakers. Koch said when a Palestinian
throws a rock, he should know that a soldier will respond.

\"No soldier or civilian should have to stand by without defending
themselves,\" said Koch.

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an editorial from from the montreal gazette.

Oct 11/00

To the emotionally uninvolved, it is funny how facts and a reality that are
so clear can be misconstrued to support uninformed political positions. In
the latest rage of violence between Palestinians and Israelis, about 90
people have been killed, of which the majority are Palestinians, including
12 who are Israeli citizens.

All human life is sacred, yet despite these glaring statistics the
mainstream media have portrayed this conflict as one between two equally
armed parties, in an otherwise promising and peaceful situation. As the
statistics show, however, the reality of the matter is that this latest
episode is between unequal foes: one of predominately unarmed, rock-throwing
protesters, dispersed with the occasional Molotov cocktail and members of
the police forces, confronting the world\'s third-strongest military, which
has \"found it necessary\" to use unrestrained disproportionate levels of
\"strength\" - helicopter gunships, missiles,rockets and tanks -
indiscriminately in highly populated areas. Moreover, this situation shows
the level of desperation that the Palestinians have reached waiting to reap
the fruits of the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

Despite this backdrop, the mainstream media have focused their attention on
the extent to which Yasser Arafat should be held responsible for the latest
blood bath and why Arafat still has not brought an end to this violence.

Somehow, few seem to understand the anger and frustration that have taken
over the Palestinian streets. The general mood is full of anger and defiance
- even against Arafat at times. Arafat might be able to control the
Palestinian police forces but not all Palestinians. To many Palestinians,
the emperor is naked and desperate to establish any
semblance of a sovereign entity at the expense of his own people.

This wave of violence and defiance should be seen in the context of 33
years of brutal military occupation followed by a peace process that has
left the majority of Palestinians disappointed and helpless. At times they
even feel their leadership has turned its back on them.

Try to imagine the anger of 1.2 million people confined to 140 square
kilometres, making this one of the most densely populated areas in the
world. Such is the situation of the Israeli- sealed Gaza Strip, home to
unemployment rates of 25 to 60 per cent.

In the privileged West Bank, home to 2 million Palestinians, the situation
is marginally better. Continuation of Israel\'s closure policy, in which free
travel was not permissible between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or to
Jerusalem, without special Israeli-issued security permits, a poor economic
situation and a general feeling of insecurity are exacerbated by the
presence of Israel\'s military. Such has been the situation since the 1993
Oslo peace process. It is this reality which breeds desperation, not the any
leader\'s calls for revolt.

As Palestinians see it, the military occupation continues. Moreover, the
peace process has failed to deliver what it initially promised. At Camp
David, Israel refused to withdraw from all occupied territory; Israel
continues to bar the return of Palestinian refugees in clear violation of
international law, and settlement activity has increased under Barak,again
under clear violation of international law.

All international standards of legality are put aside when Israel chooses to
deal with its Arab enemies and display its military might - the Fourth
Geneva Convention covering treatment of civilians on occupied territory, the
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. That\'s not to mention Israel\'s own laws concerning the treatment
of its own citizens.

This is not the first time since the Oslo peace process that Israel has
displayed a disproportionate level of violence. We remember all too well the
killing of 88 Palestinians by Israel\'s military in September 1996.

Ariel Sharon, who even by Israeli standards is held indirectly responsible
for the massacre of more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and
Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon, is seen as the instigator and Arafat is
seen as the perpetrator of hatred.

To quote Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post, published in The Gazette:
\"Hatred has at least momentarily overtaken the hope that Prime Minister Ehud
Barak sought to nurture with his visionary peace offers. It is the inability
of Sharon, Arafat and others to respond to those offers with the humanity
shown by Barak.\"

Somehow, Barak appears as the dove, and it is quickly forgotten that he was
the one who initially gave Sharon permission for his \"holy\" visit to Al-Aqsa
mosque. Also, as defence minister, he is the one giving orders to Israel\'s
military to respond in this disproportionate manner.

Perhaps it is time that the ethnic categories be put aside and the
mainstream media let the statistics speak for themselves. The world\'s
third strongest military fighting against rock-throwing protesters and a
police force. The outcome: the overwhelming majority are killed from one
side.

If there were no Israeli military surrounding these Palestinian areas,
there would be no one to throw rocks at. Perhaps if a people were not so
desperate, they would not continue to protest against such odds.

- Manal Jamal is a doctoral candidate in political science at McGill
University.