No let-up in Mideast violence

Ariel Sharon comes under increasing international pressure as Israeli troops continue their campaign of intimidation in the occupied territories this week. Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem
President George Bush's remarks at the UN this week, regarding the possibility of a Palestinian state, were a cause of some consternation for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Particularly disquieting must have been the US president's inclusion of the word "viable" in describing the possibility of an independent Palestine in the near future.
Indeed, the American vision of a viable Palestinian state significantly differs from Sharon's own conception, which, it is thought, would only perpetuate the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Israeli officials within Sharon's circle, have reportedly voiced their apprehension that US Secretary of State Colin Powell might call for Jerusalem to be shared between Israelis and Palestinians.
"A Palestinian state is not something that bothers us, since we have also been talking about one. The concern is about what he will say about Jerusalem," an Israeli official was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, the occupying Israeli army continued its incursions into Palestinian-administered population centres in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
On 10 November, Israeli tanks and crack troops made an incursion into the Palestinian village of Araqa near Jenin, demolishing two homes which the Israeli army alleges belonged to relatives of Palestinian resistance fighters.
Human rights groups condemned the collective punishment, an established Israeli policy against Palestinians since 1967, as unlawful and contrary to fundamental human rights.
On 12 November, the occupation forces attacked the village of Tal, south west of Nablus, and assassinated 25-year-old Mohamed Reihan, a former Islamic activist, in full view of his family. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli troops, who had encircled his home, fired over 60 bullets into Reihan's head as he descended from his home. "They could have arrested him easily, but they didn't come to arrest, they came to kill," said Mustafa Ismael, head of Tal's village council.
Moreover, as many as 45 local villagers were savagely beaten and arrested on suspicion of supporting the uprising. With Reihan's death, the number of Palestinian political leaders and resistance activists assassinated by Israeli death squads since the
outbreak of the Intifada, more than 13 months ago, reached 95.
Earlier, the Israeli army killed Samir Abu Halib, a 35-year-old deaf Palestinian who was walking alongside the "security fence," east of Khan Younis.
While maintaining its campaign of intimidation in the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government continued applying intimidatory tactics against Palestinian Israeli citizens.
And in another development, the Israeli Knesset, overwhelmingly voted to strip Arab Knesset member Azmi Bishara of his parliamentary immunity for voicing "non-conformist views," earlier this week.
On 12 November, the Israeli attorney-general filed formal charges against Bishara, a Christian Palestinian from Nazareth, accusing him of supporting a terrorist group, and condemned his activities of organising visits by elderly Israeli Arabs to their relatives in Syria.
Bishara described the charges as "disingenuous and politically motivated" and "representing the venom of racism and fascism."
"I'm being persecuted because I'm an Arab who refuses to be co- opted by the Zionist establishment. The real issue here is fascism, and it is fascism that ought to be tried."
Bishara also pointed out that Israeli Jewish lawmakers have made equally virulent remarks against Arabs and Palestinians and escaped rebuke, let alone prosecution. "This affair proves one thing, democracy in Israel is not for everybody, it is for the Jews alone."
Like all of the Knesset's 13 Arab members, Bishara has, on several occasions, supported Palestinian opposition to Israeli occupation and, on a visit to Syria earlier this year, called Hizbullah a "liberation movement."
In the meantime, Hamas and its junior arm, Islamic Jihad, notched up an overwhelming victory at Al-Najah University's student council elections on 12 November, signaling a further downturn in public support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
With a student population of more than 12,000 and as many as twenty-five graduate and undergraduate colleges, the Al-Najah University is the largest on the West Bank.
According to the elections results, the Islamists won 48 out of the 81 seats. The election marked a further slide in the fortunes of Fatah, Arafat's governing party, which until a few years ago controlled the student council. On this occasion, it won just 28 seats, down from the 36 seats it controlled last year.
The remaining five seats went to the PLO's two main leftist groups, the PFLP and DFLP, with the first receiving two seats and the second receiving three respectively. The People's Party (Communist) and Feda, headed by Palestinian Authority Information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, didn't win any seats.
The election was the first to take place in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Intifada. It comes as further confirmation of earlier opinion polls that suggested a significant drop in public support for Arafat and Fatah, with a corresponding rise in support for Islamic organisations.
For their part, the Islamists viewed the election results as a major victory, and a reflection of the overall mood among the general Palestinian population. And it adds further credence to the claim that the Palestinian Authority's arresting, under pressure from Israel and the US, of a number of Islamists has only fuelled the religious parties fortunes.
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