Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON)
28 September 2002
Two Years to the Palestinian Intifada
Could We Be Reliving Our Historic Dispossession?
Why Colonialism, Racism, Segregation, Devastation and Ethnic Cleansing Continue to Characterize the Fate of Occupied Palestine
For most, the past two years have been the longest years of their lives. Were it not for the daily, weekly, and monthly escalations of aggressions by the Israeli military towards the Palestinians, which have brought the numbers of dead, injured, maimed, homeless, jobless, and starving to increasingly new heights; the daily obstacles faced by those mourning the death, or most likely number of deaths of loved ones, the unbearable pains of living without food, of remaining home day and night for months under siege and curfew, standing in line to have your ID checked, begging for the mercy of a soldier to let you take your loved one to the dialysis machine at the hospital or to visit your son or daughter, or witnessing the beating of a man by a soldier in front of your eyes, have all been sufficient to equate life with death.
The number of dead has reached over 2,000, and the injured over 40,000. The numbers are not exact, of course, as so many have gone “missing” and while access to all areas is nearly impossible. The newly dead are buried daily all across the West Bank and Gaza. Everyone holds on tightly to their loved ones in sheer horror of the prospects.
One and all, including a five year old child that can distinguish by sound whether the shot was an M-16, tank-fire, rubber-coated metal bullet, sound bomb or tear gas, will tell you without thinking twice that the thud and terror of the Apache is nothing compared to that of the mighty F-16, which shakes the earth from its greatest depth and rumbles into the bodies--young and old--to freeze a nation awaiting the bombs to drop on them. But the mother, who sees her child pointing his finger to his mouth and asking for water, and cannot give, will find the trembling of an entire nation nothing compared to the shattering of her heart that will never again find quiet. The settlers on the hilltop stopped the water from coming to the village, and their “Jewish-only” settlements and swimming pools thrive amidst some of the most tragic and wretched scenes on earth.
And, now, September 2002, the two year commemoration of the Palestinian Intifada, sparked not by the visit of Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Sabra and Shatila, and now of Jenin, to the Al Aqsa Mosque; but rather, from the last ten years of continued bantustanization of the Palestinian territories, spearheaded by the Israeli Labor government, and which reflects a continued policy of dispossession of Palestinian from their land of the past 100 years.
And amidst the bloodshed, the 75 year-old-man, standing along-side his 300 year-old olive tree, where his father and grandfather and great grandfather stood, weeps and trembles at the site of the distant Israeli military bulldozers which are destroying—razing--the adjacent lands and the treasured olive tree, which, filled with fruits during this olive-picking season, will never again have a harvest. He—and an ever silent world—watches on.
The global gaze at what may be a genocide in Iraq, led by the power and interest hunger of the US, Israel’s partner in crime, is expected to bring even more devastation—perhaps a final tragedy--to Palestine. Israel awaits as all eyes will be turned elsewhere, and its propaganda machine looks forward to any pretext, in order to further implement its plan, already in full effect. Does anyone doubt that the worst is yet to come?
Break the silence, we demand! Two years of Intifada and brutal suppression, 54 years of the largest and longest refugee problem and national displacement, is enough! Is not a world where people’s deaths and planned deaths go on and off at the click of the remote control a sign of madness? Palestine’s tragedy should not be a testimony to the helplessness of humankind but of the need for the world to speak out, mobilize, and to make life the priority.
And, like the indigenous cactus tree whose roots are almost impossible to destroy, and upon destruction find their way back to life; our own roots to the land—the Homeland—will keep our struggle alive for dignity and freedom.
Today, the first day of the third year of the Palestinian Intifada, may it be marked by change and by hope for our long awaited independence.
Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON)
Jerusalem, Palestine
www.pengon.org
info@pengon.org
