Features
Sharm deal is no long-term solution
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By
Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
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Sunday 20 February 2005, 2:02 Makka Time, 23:02 GMT
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas have
agreed to a ceasefire, but one commentator sees the deal merely as a
time-out for two exhausted societies.
"Both
sides need a rest. The Palestinians need to recover a semblance of
normal life, and the Israelis need to revive their economy, which was
hard hit by the near destruction of the vital tourism
industry," Hani al-Masri told Aljazeera.net.
Al-Masri writes a regular column in the Ram Allah-based daily Al-Ayyam.
The verbal agreement stipulates a mutual cessation of
hostilities, including resistance attacks by Palestinian fighters
against Israelis and military incursions into Palestinian towns and
villages by the Israeli occupation army.
More than 3800 Palestinians and about 1000 Israelis have lost their lives in the past 52 months of violence.
Unenthusiastic
Sharon has also promised a set of largely undefined
"goodwill measures" that ostensibly will alleviate the plight of more
than 3.5 million Palestinians.
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"The summit may have succeeded in stopping the
bloodshed for the time being, but it has by no means removed the causes
and factors that would make the resumption of violence inevitable"
Hani al-Masri, columnist for the Ram Allah-based Al-Ayyam |
Al-Masri believes the public in Israel and the
occupied Palestinian territories have accepted the agreement but not
embraced it enthusiastically.
But the summit is unlikely to lead to far-reaching
progress towards the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,
and al-Masri said the summit has only "temporary importance".
"The summit may have succeeded in stopping the
bloodshed for the time being, but it has by no means removed the causes
and factors that would make the resumption of violence inevitable.
"I am not even talking about Jerusalem and the
refugees, but lesser real problems such as daily Israeli repression,
land confiscation and the building of the apartheid wall," he said,
referring to the illegal separation wall Israel is building in the West
Bank.
Miles to go
The commentator said the summit deal was just a small step.
"They agreed to travel only 10 miles in a 1000-mile
journey. This gives us some optimism corresponding to this small
distance, while uncertainty continues to hover over the remaining 990
miles which both sides have to travel before there can be peace," he
said.
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Palestinians say that Israeli
checkpoints disrupt their lives |
Meanwhile, resistance group Hamas has criticised the
summit agreement, arguing that it "left things as they are", referring
to Israeli repression against the Palestinians.
Hamas' spokesman in the West Bank, Hasan Yusuf, told
Aljazeera.net on Tuesday that Palestinians were unlikely to feel a
qualitative improvement in their daily lives as a result of the summit.
"What good will this summit bring us when sadistic
Israeli soldiers continue to humiliate and beat our people at these
diabolic roadblocks and checkpoints? Sharon even didn't suggest that he
would remove them," Yusuf said.
Roadblocks
Palestinians have consistently demanded the removal
of roadblocks that are used to seal off cities and severely disrupt
their lives.
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"What good will this summit bring us when
sadistic Israeli soldiers will continue to humiliate and beat our
people at these diabolic roadblocks and checkpoints?"
Hamas' spokesman Hasan Yusuf | The issue of Palestinian captives and political prisoners, many held without charge or trial in Israel, is also sensitive.
Tel Aviv last week promised that it would free hundreds of the estimated 9000 Palestinian prisoners it is holding.
But Palestinians have described the Israeli proposal
as "insulting", demanding a commitment to release all the prisoners in
accordance with international law.
Ultimately, the success of the Sharm al-Shaikh
summit will depend on Israel's willingness to take a strategic decision
to give up the land it seized after the 1967 Middle East war, al-Masri
said.
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