Republican News · Thursday 14 March 2002

What needs to be done

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An Phoblacht editor MARTIN SPAIN spoke last weekend with DR ALI HALIMEH, Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, about the current Israeli onslaught against the Palestinian people.

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The Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, is a quiet spoken and polite individual. He is also very calm, and in the current situation he needs to be. There was an air of unreality as I sat drinking coffee with Dr Ali Halimeh in the lobby of the Conrad Hotel in Dublin. His phone was constantly ringing, as he received news of the latest developments in Palestine, almost all bad.

He had lost a good friend in the Palestinian administration to Israeli bombardment just that day. Another friend, a senior member of the Palestinian security forces, had evacuated his office only minutes before it was destroyed by an Israeli air-to-surface missile. Each day now for the past fortnight, the body count of Palestinian victims has risen relentlessly, reaching daily double figures on an all too depressing basis.

Ali Halimeh was born in Lebanon, his parents, like so many thousands of other refugees, having been forced to leave their land and everything they owned by the Israelis in 1948. He attended school and university in Beirut and graduated in Arabic literature and history. He joined the Palestinian national liberation movement in 1969. He spent 19 years representing the Palestinians in Zimbabwe before being posted to Ireland. He was five years in Tanzania before that.

I was anxious to discuss with him the growing desperation that leads young men and women to sacrifice their lives as suicide bombers, a phenomenon unheard of in Palestine until recently. He, however, preferred to discuss the big picture and took me back to the Oslo agreement in 1993, which he says was a genuine effort by the Palestinian leadership to conclude a historic agreement with the state of Israel for peace in the Middle East.

The problems started, he said, with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The four prime ministers since, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak and now Sharon, have each brought their own interpretation to the Oslo agreement. "We wanted to stick to the terms agreed at Oslo, not to have to engage in endless renegotiations," he said. "We are very much committed to Oslo, but it is not working. Sharon has never believed in Oslo, From day one he rejected it. He is seeking to destroy the Palestinian Authority and what remains of Oslo with it. Given the current situation, the whole basis for Oslo is gone.

"Sharon has targeted the security establishment, institutions and symbols of the Palestinian Authority. He calls Arafat a terrorist and he is supposed to be a partner in peace.

"There is despair, frustration and anger among Palestinians at this persecution by Israel but the Israeli public have not come to appreciate the meaning of the historic shaking of hands between Arafat and Rabin. For the first time in modern history, there was a Palestinian acknowledgement of the state of Israel. We told the entire world that we wanted to live side by side in peace.

If there is to be progress, said Dr Halimeh, "we have to have genuine common trust. We need Israel and the West to help us by giving Arafat some hope". He said that under Barak, there was a Palestinian state but it was controlled by remote from Israel. "Arafat did not lose the opportunity to build the peace. He was never given the chance to sell it to the Palestinian people. And Israel refuses to admit any political or moral responsibility.

"Sharon has never presented any political programme. He just presents ultimatums. That will not work with Arafat. He is flexible and pragmatic but he will never compromise on Palestinian national rights. They won't destroy the Palestinian national aspiration. Sharon will bring more problems to his country by trying.

"The big word for us is occupation. If you don't tackle that issue there will always be resistance. We have done everything possible to liberate our country. We tried political means and agreed that they would have 78% of the territory and we would have 22% but still they want to share Jerusalem and part of the West Bank. Over the years, the Israelis have pulled out of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Why not Palestine?"

Halimeh said the Palestinian leadership believes Sharon is on the way out. "The Americans have prolonged his lifespan as premier," he said. "Bush wanted to justify his actions in Afghanistan and Sharon was happy to give him support. At the end of the day, the solution will only be based on the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people. We need a fully independent and sovereign state, not one controlled by Israel from within or without."

Dr Halimeh concluded with a word of praise for the Dublin government. "Ireland has been the most progressive among the European countries," he said. "They have distinguished themselves within Europe in the way they have acted with regard to the Middle East."