Tanya Reinhart

The Palestinians don't even have weather



Yediot Aharonot, March 9, 2003



To the extent that the recent military acts in the territories are debated in
Israel at all, the debate almost solely revolves around the question whether
or not it is possible to end the Palestinian terror this way.  The Palestinians,
as human beings, simply do not exist.



A few days ago it snowed in Jerusalem.  On Tuesday, Ferbruary 25 ^{style='font-size:7.5pt'>th}, the cold wave featured in all Israeli
papers as the main news.  Even in my heated home in Tel Aviv it was cold. 
My thoughts wandered to my Palestinian friends - colleagues from Bir Zeit University.
How does the snow fare with a family that still has a home, but not that much
money to heat it? And what's with those who no longer have a home?  It
snowed in Jenin as well. How did the Jenin refugees survive the cold, and those
who were recently made to flee from Hebron? And what about the old people, for
whom the cold is particularly dangerous?  Where did the new homeless of
Gaza spend the night - those whose homes were destroyed that same day? 
Is UNRWA still able to provide them with blankets and tents?  At the beginning
of February, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in
the Near East (UNRWA), renewed its emergency appeal to the international community
for urgent contributions for the first half of 2003.  They stated that
without these contributions, which have decreased lately, their budget would
end in March(1). 



The heart seeks answers, but the papers tell you nothing about that. Across
the fence, outside the media, outside of consciousness, the Palestinians don't
even have weather.



That same day, however, Ha'aretz reported a new campaign, launched by the Israeli
security echelons, to confiscate funds that are transmitted to the Palestinians
through Israeli banks - "tens of millions of dollars a year...mainly from
charity organizations in the Arab countries and in Europe". (Amos Har'el,
Hebrew edition only).  While UNRWA is on the verge of collapse, the Palestinians
should be deprived also of the charity funds that help them survive.  




This is not an isolated incident, but one more step in a systematic Israeli
policy of economic strangulation. Already in June 2002,"internal conclusions
of the security echelons, following operation 'Defensive Shield', assessed that...the
financial reserves of the Palestinian authority are reaching the bottom... In
a future not far off, the majority of Palestinians will only be able to maintain
a reasonable life through the help of international aid." (Amos Har'el,
Ha'aretz, Hebrew edition, June 23, 2002).  At the same time, Israel, aided
by the Jewish Lobby in the US congress, opened a campaign to restrict international
aid, and demanded a "reconsideration" of UNRWA's operations in the
occupied territories:

"Israel has begun a campaign in the United States and the United Nations
to urge a reconsideration of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs
the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, operates. Israel charges
that UNRWA workers simply ignored the fact that Palestinian organizations were
turning the camps into terrorist bases and it is demanding the agency start
reporting all military or terrorist actions within the camps to the UN.... Meanwhile,
Jewish and pro-Israeli lobbyists in the U.S. are waging a parallel campaign
... American Jewish lobbyists are basing their efforts on the fact that the
U.S. currently contributes some 30 percent of UNRWA's $400 million a year budget,
and is therefore in a position to influence the agency: A congressional refusal
to approve UNRWA's funding could seriously disrupt its operations." (Nathan
Guttman, Ha'aretz, June 29, 2002).

Malnutrition of Palestinian children in the occupied territories already equals
that of Congo and Zimbabwe (2), but Israel "launches a campaign" to
prevent even the little left to keep them nourished.



Genocide is associated in our minds with mass graves, or convoys of population
transfer. The slow death inflicted on the Palestinian people has, perhaps, no
name yet, but still, how does it happen that the Israeli society seals its heart
and its eyes from seeing it?  Part of the answer is that evil is wrapped
in words about "war against terror". The security sources announce
that UNRWA "ignores" terrorist activities (as if UNRWA is a police
force), or that the charity funds to the Palestinians are "millions of
dollars to terror" and the media just circulates their prophecy. No further
proof is ever needed.  Following the confiscation of charity funds, which
started in East Jerusalem banks, "the region commander, Levi, refused to
disclose precise details concerning the terrorist activities in Jerusalem that
were funded with these [confiscated] funds" (Arnon Regular and Amos Har'el,
Ha'aretz, February 28, 2003).  The primal Israeli instinct to believe that
the IDF (army) never lies, will do the rest.



Israel's persecution of the Palestinian people is not war against terror. 
The Palestinian suicidal terror has a simple solution - get out of the territories
and give the Palestinians reasons to live. The war against the Palestinians
is over the 'Promised Land' of Sharon, the army and the settlers. In this kind
of war, one needs to lie constantly, because (according to the polls) most Israelis
don't care about the territories and they are willing to get out of there tomorrow. 
Left to themselves, people won't seek out ways to starve, torture and abandon
in the cold millions of other people. To get them to accept that, one has to
cultivate their fears.  In the same way, the half of the American people
that supports the war on Iraq believes that if they don't immediately eliminate
the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein will eliminate the US. 



(1) The text of the UNRWA Emergency Appeal for 2003 can be found at href="http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/pdf/5th-appeal.pdf" eudora=autourl>http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/pdf/5th-appeal.pdf style='color:blue'>

(2) Chris McGreal, The Guardian Feb 11, 2003.