Palestine’s Next Generation: What Prospects?

21 June, 2004

by Catherine Hunter

Israel's policy of erecting barriers and destroying Palestinian lives and homes in the name of security represents a travesty of international humanitarian norms. Yet it fails to attract the publicity and action necessary to protect the lives of Palestinian civilians and to nurture any fragile hopes for the future.

The international community has become inured to atrocities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the death of over 100 Palestinians in May 2004 and at least 32 minors, most during “Operation Rainbow” in Rafah. All that the US could tell Israel was that "some of their actions don't create the best atmosphere."

Destroyed livelihoods
The continuing imprisonment of some 5,000 Palestinians, including 373 children, and the widespread incidence of torture and mistreatment have been verified by numerous independent human rights groups, including Physicians for Human Rights, the Red Cross, and Defence for Children International.

Yet international condemnation is limited to the weaker institutions of the UN and a few European MEPs, with noticeably little impact on Israeli strategy.
At least 60% of the population live below the UN poverty line of US$2 a day

Against this backdrop, Israel continues with the erection of its “security wall” through Palestinian territory, including the Ariel spur, cutting right into the heart of the West Bank. This has catastrophic implications for the economic well-being of the wider population, as well as for the viability of any future Palestinian state.

This barrier has already destroyed livelihoods and has limited job prospects in a country where unemployment affects 70% of the population - 35% under stricter ILO criteria - and where at least 60% of the population live below the UN poverty line of US$2 a day.

Faced with this onslaught of abuses, the only possible explanation for international inaction is a worldwide misunderstanding of the Palestinian-Israeli balance of power.

To this we can add wilful ignorance about the extent to which Israeli policies and actions - promoting poverty, humiliation and violence - have reduced the lives of Palestinian civilians to a pale shadow of what human life should be.

Child exploitation
Even among very young Palestinians there is a pervasive sense of despair and hopelessness. When 16-year-old children strap themselves into suicide belts - as in the case of Sabih Abu Al-Saoud, who killed himself in an attack on a group of Israeli soldiers in March 2003 - the issue of child exploitation by Palestinian political groups and the wrongful targeting of Israeli civilians is justifiably mentioned.

But what of the impulses that push individual children and young adults towards these actions? Despite high-profile cases of forced recruitment, the majority of this small but growing band of youngsters cite individual motives: revenge, justice, or even the desire to be a hero.

In today’s Palestinian society the only celebrities are those who challenge the Israeli presence in words or, with increasing frequency, desperate acts of resistance.

This kamikaze approach to resistance, far from inspiring world respect for the Palestinian cause – or, perhaps more properly, sympathy at their desperation - has only exacerbated the US-led division of the world into the West and the Other. It has supported the impression that Israel is the blameless victim of a multitude of domestic “Osamas,” no matter that the causes, personalities and context are different.

The result is that when Israeli chief of staff Lt Gen. Moshe Yaalon says that his soldiers have killed "15 Palestinian terrorists" in gun battles and missile strikes, as he did one day in May, interest in the specifics is slight.

Who exactly were those "terrorists"? What evidence had been collected against them? Did Israeli troops go beyond the realms of "self-defence"?

Meanwhile more Palestinian families are left destitute and bereft, feeding the desire for further desperate measures.
The Palestinians must start to take heed of this unfavourable world opinion

This is a lose-lose scenario for the Palestinians, whichever way you look at it. The situation promises only to get worse, as the US and coalition experience in Iraq toughens the West's stance to all matters Arab and cows European powers into silence over Israel's apartheid agenda.

Restraint
Whatever their problems, the Palestinians must start to take heed of this unfavourable world opinion if they are to stand a chance of regaining the initiative and securing a viable future for their children, if not themselves.

In a world where violence seems to have become the favoured currency, only the cessation of violence and the adoption of civilian protest will improve the standing of the Palestinian cause in the international mainstream. Such an approach would call on new levels of Palestinian sacrifice and restraint beyond anything that the population has been asked for so far.

But without this change, the hopes of a new generation of Palestinian children will be stifled in infancy, increasing the flow of those willing to follow in the footsteps of Sabih Abu Al-Saoud.
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Catherine Hunter is Middle East consultant for the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the position of the Coalition.

Source: www.oneworld.net