Terrorism by blackmail

A FEW weeks ahead of the upcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Israel has been guilty of acts that will never produce the necessary good will if results are to be produced in Maryland. The Israeli decision to cut electrical and fuel supplies to Gaza, the mysterious death of a Palestinian inmate in an Israeli jail and the continuing economic strangulation of Gaza, added to what has been going on for years, lends credence to a widespread belief that Israel is behaving in a calculated way. It looks as if Tel Aviv wants to raise the already high level of anti-Palestinian violence at this crucial time; the aim of doing so is, of course, to thwart any meaningful attempt at peace in the conference and thus allay Israeli fears that the conference might actually achieve something positive. Israeli leaders claim that the electrical blackouts are due to the shelling Israel is receiving from the other side. The real reason, however: The general terror under occupation is a means of softening up the Palestinians ahead of Annapolis for a peace deal that, if one materializes, will fail to meet minimum Palestinian expectations. By that time, Israel’s hope is that Palestinians will have become so desperate that they will have no other viable option in sight and so will accept anything. International law requires occupation forces to take care of the needs of occupied peoples. By formally declaring Gaza “hostile,” Israel argues it is no longer bound by international law governing the administration of occupied territory — as if it had ever been treated as a friendly entity. Israel remains legally responsible for the coastal strip, despite withdrawing almost two years ago, because it still controls Gaza’s borders, airspace and territorial waters.
Surely the Palestinian shelling cannot be the reason for the cutoff of electricity. According to statistics, the number of Palestinians killed by occupation army bullets in the West Bank and Gaza since the beginning of the year is 350 while the number of occupation soldiers and settlers killed by Palestinian resistance operations has been five. So because of those five, Israel is willing to trigger a humanitarian crisis? No, there is something greater afoot and it has much to do with Annapolis. Israel has publicly announced it is not in favor of summit language that elaborates proposals or spells out in detail what a final peace would look like. It is not in favor of what lays out stages of the peace’s implementation or sets a realistic timetable for the creation of a state. It wants a conference so stripped of the ingredients needed to succeed that its failure is assured. But just in case, Israel is paving the way to guarantee that the conference does not make any headway to make the Jewish state even slightly uncomfortable. The UN says Israel must not inflict collective punishment on Gaza’s civilian population by cutting vital supplies and services. Exploiting human needs to blackmail the Palestinian people will never weaken their resolve in Annapolis or anywhere else.

Gujarat challenge

THE damning footage of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists spilling the beans about the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 in the western Indian state of Gujarat has raised a political storm in the country. It has raised fresh questions on the moral right of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to continue in office. These VHP-Dal men have admitted, during a sting operation by Tehelka newsmagazine, aired by TV channels later, that Modi had sanctioned the violence against the state’s Muslims in the aftermath of the Godhra train tragedy in which 59 passengers returning from a Hindu demonstration were killed. None other than the BJP legislator from Godhra has been quoted as saying the chief minister had given rioters a ‘free hand’ for three days. By any reckoning, this is an unpardonable action by a senior politician who has been vested with the authority to govern—the maintenance of law and order being his key responsibility. More than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims had been killed during the communal violence. The revelations seriously implicate the chief minister in the stirring of the communal cauldron. The Tehelka investigation also presents ‘irrefutable evidence’ of several complaints that have always been vehemently denied. The narration by some of the accused, as to how former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri was hacked limb-by-limb and burnt, how dozens of Muslims hiding in a pit in Naroda Patiya were roasted alive, and how a mob pierced out the foetus from the womb of a woman, with a sword, was too chilling and macabre to take six years after the carnage. Some of the other revelations, like bombs being manufactured in factories set up by the Bajrang Dal and VHP leaders, and of arms being smuggled from other states to carry out attacks by squads led by elected people’s representatives and Sangh Parivar members in Gujarat, presented the real face of the hard-core Hindutva activists.
The footage might come in handy to the Nanavati-Shah Commission probing the Godhra train fire and the subsequent riots. Indeed, it is likely that the Gujarat BJP would run for cover, calling the expose a ‘political stunt’ on the eve of assembly elections. Yet, the admission by the activists raises a question mark on the state of affairs in Gujarat that boasts, in recent times, of massive development and growth. If this is called a developed state, where the religion of a man determines his survival and growth, then one might rather be tempted to remain a poor in some other state! The BJP’s central leadership must come clean on the latest expose. It must make clear whether it sanctions such violence. If not, it must take the chief minister to task. As of now, the party can’t wash its hands of the accusation that it is seeking to gain strength by unleashing a hate campaign against the minorities. Nevertheless, there is hope. There is one community, the electorate, cutting across creeds and religions, which is mature enough and all-powerful, to guard against the communal mindset of some leaders and organisations, and to thwart their divisive agenda.

—Khaleej Times