Although Bush yesterday called for an “end of ‘occupation’ of Arab lands” in Palestine, not many Palestinian observers placed any confidence in his words.
Two articles and a video from Palestinian writers appeared simultaneously with Bush’s visit to the Middle East, and his recent foray into the West Bank to engage the Palestinian side of the conflict through Prime Minister Abbas, considered by some a quisling for his compromise of the Palestinians living in Gaza, under Hamas. But it is not just US approval of the siege of Gaza and the measures employed to starve and frankly kill Palestinians by collective punishment that is at issue. As Israel continues to reinforce and expand Israeli settlement towns and cities in the West Bank, it signals a lack of intent to relinquish more than a few so-called illegal outposts, making a Palestinian state unviable.
Sam Bahour, writing from al-Bireh/Ramallah, occupied West Bank, Live from Palestine, on 10 January 2008, wrote this article: Bush’s “vision” is Palestine’s nightmare.
US President George W. Bush landed in Israel yesterday on his first presidential trip to the country. He participated in a press conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, what both men termed a “historic” and “monumental” occasion. After listening to both so-called leaders make their opening comments and fielding questions from journalists, the only groundbreaking revelation I could register was that Bush’s naiveté, either real or feigned, only served the agenda of one party in the region — Hamas. The radical Islamists at Hamas could not find a better recruiter for their movement if they tried.
My opinion may be extreme, but then again, I live in extreme limbo under Israeli military occupation, shaped by a policy both men continuously refuse to call by its true name — state terror.
My opinion is certainly subjective but I started my day by reading a communique from the real world: a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that the background of the issue: on 28 June 2006 the Israeli Air Force bombed the power plant in the Gaza Strip, destroying all six transformers and cutting 43 percent of Gaza’s total power capacity. The report states, “households in the Gaza Strip are now experiencing regular power cuts” and notes that “the irregular [electricity] supply causes additional problems. Running water in Gaza is only available in most households for around eight hours per day. If there is no power when water is available, it cannot be pumped above ground level, reducing the availability of running water to between four and six hours per day.” The result of this single punitive measure, as stated in this report, is that if Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility “cannot provide its own emergency power supply because of its own fuel shortages, it has to pump raw sewage into the sea which damages the coastline in Gaza, southern Israel and Egypt.”
In another report, released the same day, the World Food Programme spokesperson Kirstie Campbell finds that 70 percent of the population of Gaza has to choose between putting food on the table or a roof over their heads.
Mohammed Ali, writing from the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine, on 10 January 2008, wrote this article: George W. Bush: You are not welcome.
I drove back home and I found the streets without light and not even much traffic as if Gaza was under curfew. When I arrived home, my family was sitting in darkness with a little candlelight. My three-and-a-half-month-old son was crying. I felt that he didn’t want to be in darkness as darkness to him means bed time.
The power cuts that Gazans were experiencing before the last electricity cut was even then too much to bear and now the necessities of daily life are even harder to come by.
What drives me and other Gazans crazy is that the international community can see all of the human rights violations being committed in Gaza and yet they choose not to take any action and instead remain silent. In the past I remember hearing the international community condemn such Israeli violations, but now, nothing.
And finally, this video was sent on by Haitham Sabbah, a Palestinian exile who runs Sabbah’s Blog, which is intended to describe Bush’s dishonesty after seven years of neglect and support of Israeli military occupation/colonialism in the West Bank:
The “Two-Faced Man” in Palestine
Here is a gift for President Bush who is visiting Occupied Palestine.
Needless to say, on the ground observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, who have been through these peace efforts before, expect nothing from Bush except continued military occupation and more Israeli colonialism. Should anyone else?
Reprinted by permission.
