Letter to Sharon

From: F.W. de Klerk, former President of South Africa (1989-1994)

Dear Ariel,

You may not remember me, as I have drifted off the scene over the last few years. But like you, I was once at the helm of a country dealing with an ethnic group growing increasingly assertive about reclaiming its national rights. So I’m writing to offer you some friendly advice.

It saddens me to say it, but since the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Occupied Territories have shown a striking resemblance to my country under apartheid rule. The impoverished Palestinians live in squalid third-world conditions alongside the first-world Israeli settlers. Much like the black South Africans under my government’s rule, Palestinians can’t even travel on the same roads as the settlers, and they are confined to tiny Bantustans. When they wish to leave their Bantustan to go to the market, school or work, they are subject to the whims of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officer in charge of the checkpoint. If he’s having a good day, then maybe they’ll get to cross unmolested. Other times, the officer will deny entry or exit to all Palestinian males under 30.

Tell me, Ariel, do you know how many civilians died at the checkpoints last year? Fifty-one people, including women and children. These were not terrorists or even activists. These were people who “opened the [car] door too quickly” or who failed to slow down. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz often reports that some of the people who die at checkpoints “are shot unintentionally.” Last year, one of these “unintentional” deaths included a baby who was born at a checkpoint after the Israeli officer refused to let his pregnant mother cross.

I’m bringing this up for your own good—you need to know that the world is watching. We see the photographs of Palestinian children playing in the rubble of their bull-dozed homes, IDF soldiers pointing their machine guns at elderly Palestinian men and tanks rolling through Palestinian neighborhoods. Fear tactics and mass punishment—illegal under international law—are no more justifiable in the West Bank than they were in the townships of Johannesburg.

Many of my countrymen thought that the world would let South Africa get away with apartheid—the Americans and British liked our diamonds too much to pay more than lip-service to the plight of our black majority. But then what happened? Divestment campaigns and university sit-ins all over North America and Europe, and before you know it, we get slapped with UN sanctions!

An eerily similar movement is growing across universities today, from the University of Michigan to the University of California, Berkeley. A number of American Jewish organizations have joined the fray, some of which have urged the U.S. government to cut Israel’s foreign aid. San Francisco-based A Jewish Voice for Peace is conducting a petition drive, asserting that “as Americans, we do not want our foreign aid dollars used to deprive Palestinians of justice and human rights. As Jews, although we support a democratic Israel, we must criticize its security policies that have the effect of making it less safe, not more.”

The pressure is not just coming from abroad, but also from within Israel. For years, Israeli peace and human rights organizations like B’Tselem, Peace Now, and Women in Black have brought the plight of the Palestinians to the attention of the Israeli public. And now, even the army is beginning to question apartheid rule. Two weeks ago, 52 officers risked imprisonment by issuing a statement refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. At last count, 157 more reservists have joined them. Their message is simple: “We will not continue to fight beyond the Green Line [Israel’s pre-1967 border] for the purpose of dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people.”

You know, Ariel, you’re actually quite lucky. Whereas I had to surrender complete control of my country, you have the luxury of withdrawing to Israel’s recognized international borders with the Israeli state completely intact. To be honest, you’d be better off that way. Inside the Green Line, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Outside the green line, Israel is guilty of apartheid rule. Take it from someone you knows: apartheid is a worm that will eat away at your society as if it were a rotten apple. The reservists’ movement teaches us an important lesson: even those who supposedly benefit from apartheid will eventually recognize its inhumanity.

By the way, you also have a personal incentive to end your government’s frightful policies. There is a growing international campaign to indict you for your part in the 1982 massacres in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps, with Belgium willing to host your trial. Princeton professor of international law Richard Falk affirms that there is “no doubt whatsoever” that you are indictable as a war criminal. Even Israeli newspapers have begun using the term “war crime” to describe not only your checkered past, but also your recent house demolitions in the Occupied Territories.

But don’t fret. The Nobel Peace Prize committee is a forgiving bunch. Withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza and maybe they’ll give you the prize too. Heck, I went from presiding over death squads to shaking hands with Nelson Mandela and sipping Dom Perignon in Oslo. And believe me, retiring as a Nobel laureate is a lot more fun than spending your final days in the Hague, awaiting an imminent war crimes indictment.

Nader R. Hasan ’02 is a government concentrator in Lowell House. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays.