A Strong Case Against
Sharon's Visit to India
By
Praful Bidwai
THE
VAJPAYEE government has gratuitously pushed a grossly partisan,
sectarian foreign policy agenda by inviting Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon to visit India between September 9 and 11.
The
significance of Mr Sharon's presence in India on September 11
is obvious, indeed 'in your face:' the present government, wedded
to Hindutva, wants to underscore its solidarity with the Sharon
regime in the common 'fight against terrorism.'
Nothing
could be more morally untenable and politically ill-conceived.
As we see below, Mr Sharon is no consistent opponent of terrorism,
but himself guilty of obnoxious forms of terrorism against the
Palestinian people. All citizens and organizations committed to
justice must demand that New Delhi withdraw the invitation to
Mr Sharon.
To
demand this is not to support extremist or anti-Semitic positions
against Israel or to condone indiscriminate violence against its
citizens through methods like Hamas-style suicide-bombings. Rather,
it is to apply a consistent standard in dealing with the Palestine-Israel
conflict -- one of the gravest crises of our time. Such a standard
isn't visible in the Vajpayee government's remarkably awkward
attempt to 'balance' its tilt towards Israel by inviting Palestinian
Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath to India. This looks like terribly
clumsy afterthought.
One
must appreciate the exceptional, abnormal nature of India's invitation
to Mr Sharon. Today, when Israel is waging war on the occupied
territories, most nations wouldn't even think of dignifying Mr
Sharon. He would certainly not be welcome in continental Europe.
Even the US and the UK, which he recently visited, publicly rebuked
him for some of his actions.
There
are three reasons why Mr Sharon must be considered an undesirable
guest. First, his right-wing Likud party has taken the most extreme
stand against Palestinian nationhood. Second, he deserves to be
tried as a war criminal for the Sabra and Chatilla massacres of
1982. And third, his government represents the biggest obstacle
to peace in the Middle East and the greatest block even in the
so-called Road Map sponsored by the US, European Union, Russia
and the United Nations, but drawn up mainly by Washington.
To
get the relevant facts straight, Israel was created in 1948 to
right a historic wrong -- the expulsion and persecution of the
Jewish people. But the way it was formed wrongfully deprived the
Palestinians of 78 percent of the land under the earlier colonial
British Mandate and rendered large numbers stateless and homeless.
The remaining 22 percent of the land was made up of the Gaza strip
along the Mediterranean coast, the West Bank along the Jordan
River, and East Jerusalem.
In
the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took over all these areas. They have
since been under its military occupation. Likud staunchly justifies
the occupation in the name of Biblical-era 'Greater Israel.' When
it came to power in 1977, it vigorously promoted the illegal settlement
of the Jewish colonies in the occupied territories.
The
settlements compound the injustice of occupation. Today, there
are over 400,000 settlers, half of them in East Jerusalem. Their
number is growing. The settlements violate international law.
Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits an
occupying power from transferring any part of its own civilian
population into the territory it occupies. The occupation has
been declared illegal by numerous Security Council resolutions.
Yet, Israel has done nothing to vacate it thanks to the protection
it receives from the US, which has strong Zionist lobbies in the
American Jewish Committee and other organizations
The
Palestinians have fought determinedly against the occupation.
For years, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian
National Council (parliament-in-exile) refused to recognize Israel
as a moral or legal entity. But in 1988, in a huge compromise,
BPNC voted for a two-state solution which would create a Palestinian
state with only 22 percent of the land. The Palestinians want
peace, dignity and the right for refugees to return to their homes:
there are more Palestinians living in the diaspora than in the
occupied territories (3.2 million) or within Israel (a million).
Likud
strongly opposes any progress towards a two-state solution, although,
according to opinion polls, a majority of Israelis don't want
to hold on to the occupied territories. The first Palestinian
uprising or intifada (1988-93) generated enormous pressure on
Israel and the US to make concessions. That's how the Oslo 'peace'
process began. But the PLO came to the table in a weak position.
It was isolated in the Arab world because of its support for Iraq
during 1991 Gulf war. Governments like Kuwait bankrupted it. The
Oslo process was an unmitigated disaster because Israel cheated
on its commitments.
Mr
Sharon has blood on his hands. As defence minister in 1982, he
launched an unprovoked war on Lebanon (where the PLO had taken
refuge), which killed 17,000 civilians and destroyed 40,000 homes.
The excuse was an assassination attempt on Israel's ambassador
in London, although it was conducted by a PLO rival.
In
September 1982, Mr Sharon arranged for the anti-Palestinian Phalangist
Christian militia to enter the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps
near Beirut. The area was then fully under Israeli control. Even
the US ambassador to Israel was appalled. He told the Israelis:
'You must stop the massacres. They are obscene... They are killing
children. You are in absolute control of the area and therefore
responsible...'
Mr
Sharon had to resign after the post-massacre furore. A high-level
inquiry headed by Israel's chief justice held that Mr Sharon failed
to take basic precautions to protect innocent civilians; 'these
blunders constitute the non-fulfilment of a duty.' A 2001 BBC
documentary The Accused contains graphic details of Mr Sharon's
disgraceful role in Lebanon.
The
same year, 23 survivors of the massacres lodged a case in Belgium
accusing Mr Sharon and other officials of war crimes and crimes
against humanity. Regrettably, these cases are likely to fall
through. Under American pressure, Belgium is changing its legal
system and abolishing universal jurisdiction for crimes against
humanity.
Third,
Mr Sharon has played an extremely negative role in the recent
past. He opposed the Oslo accords, even though these favored Israel.
The second intifada was triggered by his highly provocative walk
in September 2000 on the holy Haram al-Sharif site in East Jerusalem.
Under him, Israel has pursued targeted assassination and ruthless
repression, by relying on tanks, helicopter gun ships, laser-guided
weapons, and F-16s carrying 2000-pound bombs. He is more culpable
than Hamas for the collapse of the ceasefire on August 21, triggered
off by a missile striking killing senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu
Shanab.
As
for the Road Map, Mr Sharon did his best to delay its publication,
and has since done everything to sabotage its implementation by
raising as many as 14 objections to it. The map is tilted in Israel's
favor and imposes heavier obligations upon the Palestinians.
But
Mr Sharon is loath to grant statehood to Palestine by 2005, as
the map demands. So he is prolonging negotiations on issues like
refugees and prisoners. He has released less than 400 of the 6,000
Palestinian prisoners Israel holds. Likudnik Israel is guilty
of rampant human rights violations. Its Shin Bet security agency
has recently admitted to holding Palestinian prisoners incommunicado
for weeks at a secret detention center in violation of international
law. The prisoners are blindfolded and kept in black, windowless
cells. When they ask where they are, they are told: 'on the moon.'
Perhaps
Mr Sharon's most despicable recent move is to build a high wall
between Israel and the West Bank, while continuing with blockades
which annually cost the Palestinians between $2 billion or 3 billion
in lost income. The 8 meter-high wall will be 650 km long, compared
to the 3.6-metre high, 155 km long Berlin Wall. In places, it
is as wide as 150 meters.
Mr
Sharon is pushing Israel towards a form of apartheid. Its parliament
has just passed a law that would force Palestinians who marry
Israelis to live separate lives or move out of Israel. The law
would prevent Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza who marry
Israeli Arabs from obtaining residence permits in Israel. This
mocks cruelly at democracy, 'pluralism, tolerance and equal opportunity'
-- virtues which India's National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra
sees as common between the US, India and Israel!
Mr
Mishra advocates an 'Axis of Virtue' between them to combat terrorism.
This is a dangerous proposal inspired by a demonized perception
of Islam. It's also related to the Sangh Parivar's deep admiration
for Israel's militarized, tough-as-nails, society and its anti-Arab
policies in which it sees a reflection of its own anti-Muslim
prejudice.
The
Vajpayee government is bringing ignominy and shame upon itself
by honoring a fanatical leader like Mr Sharon. It is reneging
on India's long-standing commitment to Palestinian nationhood
and peace in the troubled West Asia-North Africa region. Worse,
it is becoming complicit in the perpetration of greater injustice
upon the Palestinians. Such betrayal of India's own agenda of
desalinization and peace certainly won't go down well with the
public with its sharp sense of justice. The public must speak
up.- Courtesy Rediff
The
writer is well known Indian columnist
