593 and Counting...

SATURDAY marks the two-year anniversary of the intifada, the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During the past two years, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories has reported the following:

.593 Palestinians--including 131 minors--have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers.

.2000 Palestinians have been arrested and imprisoned without charge or trial--some for over a year.

.58 Palestinians have been expelled from their homeland, in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention.

.350 Palestinian homes have been demolished, sometimes in order to induce a suspect to surrender himself.

Defenders of Israeli policy will claim that this is a relatively humane occupation, and they are right. The Israeli military command maintains certain judicial procedures for Palestinians. The Israeli government allows press into the troubled areas. Israel seems democratic compared to Syria or Iraq, both of which massacre thousands of their own citizens and prohibit press coverage.

Then why quote statistics about Israel's human rights violations? Because this occupation is not justified.

REFERRING to intifada statistics for shock value, out of historical context, would be irresponsible--if only the context were different. In the past, Israeli Jews might have been able to justify the occupation by referring to Palestinian refusal to accept a partition of Palestine and to Israeli military vulnerability. But we can no longer fixate upon the past by refusing to acknowledge a new historical reality, one in which the Palestinians are willing to live in a state alongside Israel and Israel can negotiate from a position of power. The Palestinian National Council has declared the former; numerous Israeli military figures have affirmed the latter. If these are the conditions that Israel has long awaited, why is there no peace?

The Israeli government refuses to rise to the occasion by entering into negotiations with the representatives of the Palestinian people (the P.L.O.) for one reason: Half the government does not recognize the right of the Palestinians to self-determination. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir does not see Israeli occupation of the territories as a temporary measure, but as an indefinite policy of ruling over Palestinians against their will.

This became clear in July, when he amended his "peace proposal" to preclude explicitly the exchange of land for peace. When Shamir and his American apologists question the honesty of the Palestinians or the strength of Israel, they only do so in order to detract attention from their lack of commitment to a just peace.

Because the Israeli government refuses to negotiate in good faith, the occupation itself is unjustified.

Violations of individual human rights should be seen as a part of a fundamental denial of Palestinian national rights. By condemning Israeli suppression of the intifada, we are not ignoring a "larger context" of justified occupation, but responding indirectly to the new context: protesting Israeli political intractability by drawing attention to the horrific results it produces daily. We must invoke intifada statistics as an act of political protest.

FOR all our criticism of Israel surrounding the intifada, we should not lose sight of the real problem--the occupation. And a difficult problem it is.

The occupation began not two years ago, but 22. Resolving the occupation necessarily involves addressing the question of Palestinian refugees who either fled Israel or were banished by the Jews 40 years ago. To call for unilateral Israeli withdrawal is simplistic. Negotiations will be complex; they must result in self-determination for Palestinians and security for Israel. The specifics of a peace treaty will make the content of many a Crimson editorial in the future. At present, the task is more basic: to pressure Israel to enter into negotiations with the P.L.O., prepared to cede land for peace.

There is hope for negotiations. The half of the Israeli government which is currently not in power appears to support some form of "land for peace." The Labor-led opposition deserves our encouragement in its desire to negotiate, as indicated by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin's recent acceptance of the Mubarak peace plan. Diplomacy is the only way to peace.

But the peace process has not yet begun. The Palestinians have accepted the Jewish state. Now it's the Israeli's turn to accept a Palestinian state. Until the entire Israeli government indicates a willingness to do so, we must oppose the occupation. We can do this by supporting peace movements within Israel--and by crying out against each and every injustice of the two-year intifada.

Jonathan Springer '90 is a founding member of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.