Israel's 'Peace' Path: The Seeds For The Next Intifadah


By Avi Zer-Aviv December 6, 2005


It was the summer of 2003, and my hosts were the villagers of Mas'ha village in the West Bank. I had gone there to protest the construction of Israel's separation wall, which was literally tearing the village in two. Some of my friends decided to show me around their homeland, and off we went in a rickety old four-door through the beautiful West Bank terrain. Not two hours into our road trip, Israeli army jeeps stopped us and the soldiers instructed us to line-up on the side of the road. "You are not allowed to travel so far from your village," they said to my Palestinian hosts. "You must go back or else we will confiscate your vehicle," they continued. Looking at my long dreadlocks and non-native face, the soldiers asked what I was doing here. "I am here to protest the occupation," I replied. After a brief silence, one soldier, whose gun was pointed in my direction, looked at me sternly and exclaimed, "Oh, don't worry. The occupation is over. They sorted it all out already." The irony of the moment was completely lost on him, but my friends and I could barely contain our chuckles.


Thinking back on this memory, I realize how absurd notions of peace and politics can be. Just like the soldier's comments, Israeli politics today has turned into a circus of absurdity and make-believe, the main tent occupied (no pun) by Ariel Sharon. He impresses the audience by turning hard-line sentiments into a pretty dove. ÊHe charms the crowd by transforming a bulldozer into a hippie van. For whatever tricks may be presented, from last summer's Gaza Disengagement Plan to the new Sharon/Peres alliance, what you will not see is any serious attempt to negotiate with the Palestinian people. What you will not see is any clear vision of reconciliation, compromise, and progressive politics. For all of the theatrics, behind the curtain occupation and misery remain.


Sharon's vision, as he expresses it, is to impose peace on the Palestinian masses by unilaterally withdrawing from isolated West Bank settlements, while annexing all the large settlement blocs and declaring the whole of Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel. His vision imagines the Israeli army continuing to restrict movement in and out of the West Bank, having an ongoing army presence in the West Bank, and annexing huge chunks of the West Bank to Israel. In return, the Palestinian Authority gets to fly the Palestinian flag in some areas and call these scattered enclaves "Palestine".Ê


For his part, the newly elected Labour party leader, Amir Peretz, has just announced he is also opposed to sharing Jerusalem, and that he rejects The Geneva Accord, a grassroots peace initiative supported by many Palestinians and Israelis as a good framework for a long-lasting peace. The political spectrum in today's Israel falls roughly along these lines: If you believe in telling the Palestinians what peace is, and plan to follow-through with it, you are a "leftist". If you believe in telling the Palestinians what peace is, but do not intend to follow-through, you are a "centrist". And if you just hate those f*!*#@! Palestinians and don't even want to look their way, you are "on the right." In today's Israel, it is those voices calling for a comprehensive negotiated settlement that are "the extreme left" and "the dangerous left."Ê


Sadly, the circus does not realize it is on top of a very active fault line, and the tent could collapse at any moment. Just like the failed Oslo Accords ignored the reality of people on the ground, this latest series of political deceptions is turning the attention away from the actual realities. The separation/apartheid wall traps thousands of Palestinians in an endless sequence of mazes. Israeli settlers continue to tap most the available water resources in the West Bank, forbidding Palestinians from drilling wells. Continuous curfews, house demolitions, raids, incursions, checkpoints, collective punishments, road closures, land confiscations, and random detentions add up to more desperation and suffering. The longer these conditions go on, the more risk for violent uprising and renewed bloodshed. The kettle of Palestinian despair has already boiled over twice in recent history, both times spurring chaos in an already fragile region. The circus performers know this well, and have already rehearsed this scenario. Continue to blame the Palestinian people for "rejecting the most generous offer" and state the mantra, "There is no partner for peace." ÊIt worked last time.

Avi Zer-Aviv is an Israeli-Canadian living in Toronto. He is a member of the Tikkun Community of Toronto.