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"What was, will no longer be"
Graham Usher
Published in
Al-Ahram Weekly
on 16 - 08 - 2001
Israel's occupation of Orient House and other Palestinian institutions in East
Jerusalem
took all by surprise. It shouldn't have. Graham Usher reports from
Jerusalem
With grim inevitability, last Thursday, a Hamas suicide bomber --23-year old Izzedin Masri from Akaba near Jenin -- "succeeded" in detonating himself inside a packed pizza restaurant in the heart of West
Jerusalem
. Fifteen
Israeli
civilians were killed, including six children, and 130 were injured. And one of West
Jerusalem
's busiest junctions was left with a slick of blood, glass, tangled wire and human body parts.
Palestinians braced themselves for
Israel
's long deferred devastating strike, as the streets of Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus emptied in a flash.
It did not come. True,
Israeli
tanks rolled a kilometre into Gaza City to bulldoze a Palestinian Authority police post and F16s jet unloaded three one-tonne bombs on the PA's main West Bank civilian police headquarters in Ramallah, reducing both to rubble but mercifully causing no casualties.
But the real response was political, and mounted on the most explosive terrain. In a pre-dawn raid on Friday,
Israel
occupied seven Palestinian national institutions in East
Jerusalem
, including the PA's
Jerusalem
governor's house in Abu Dis and Orient House, the Palestinians de facto political headquarters in East
Jerusalem
and symbol of their aspirations to sovereignty in the city.
On Friday morning that symbol had an
Israeli
flag fluttering above its famous arched gable and
Israeli
police, special forces and undercover squads barring every access road to it. The flag was later removed: the military occupation remains in place.
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said PA activity in the seven institutions was an "infringement of
Israeli
sovereignty" in the city. He further accused this "foreign entity" (the PA) of using Orient House and the Abu Dis governor's building to store "weapons", conduct "torture" and plan "murder", all backed up with footage on prime-time
Israeli
TV, showing
Israeli
police "discovering" a pistol in one of Orient house's offices.
The Palestinian leadership charged the closures were in flagrant violation of a 1993 letter from Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to his then Norwegian counterpart, Jurgen Holst, pledging
Israel
's commitment to "maintain and develop" Palestinian institutions in East
Jerusalem
. PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat reminded
Jerusalem
's diplomatic corps on Saturday that Yasser Arafat had conditioned his signature to the
Oslo
accords on receipt of that letter.
Sharon has now abrogated the pledge, perhaps permanently. At
Israel
's cabinet meeting on Sunday he made it clear there would be no return to the political status quo ante in
Jerusalem
. "What was, will no longer be," he vowed.
Sharon did not launch his pre-emptive strike in
Jerusalem
because of what was happening in East
Jerusalem
or indeed on the streets of West
Jerusalem
. He struck because of what was not happening in Orient House. "With the death of Faisal Husseini
Israel
saw it had a golden opportunity to exploit the Palestinian political vacuum in
Jerusalem
," says Madhi Abdel Hadi, a
Jerusalem
-based Palestinian analyst.
The breach has been filled with force. Since Husseini's death on 31 May,
Israel
has embarked on a new wave of house demolitions in East
Jerusalem
, announced further land confiscation and, on 17 July, banned a memorial service for Husseini at Orient House.
These were all dry runs for the closures on Friday and, with them, to any vision of shared Palestinian-
Israeli
sovereignty in the city, even in its most inadequate, Camp David form. "
Israel
has moved in to tell Palestinians it will no longer tolerate their institutional presence and political activities in East
Jerusalem
," says Abdel Hadi.
And, admit Orient House sources scathingly, it was largely "pushing at an open door". In the two months since Husseini passed away Arafat has done nothing to reconstitute a new Palestinian political leadership in
Jerusalem
, preferring for the Orient House to be run by a committee that is often divided within itself and always bereft of power. For East
Jerusalem
's 220,000 Palestinians and 200 Palestinian institutions this is simply not good enough.
"Palestinians in
Jerusalem
need a face, an address and a sense of where
Jerusalem
now stands on the Palestinian national agenda. In other words, they need a political leadership they can trust. Currently they don't have one," says a source.
The upshot of this disarray was seen Friday. One hundred-fifty
Israeli
police and special force rolled over Orient House's seven Palestinian guards like a razor through cotton, hauling off documents, files and equipment before the city awoke. In the days since Palestinian demonstrations started rarely more than a 100- strong protestors have tried to breach the
Israeli
phalanx around Orient House.
Sterner responses will be needed. On Monday Palestinians observed a general strike throughout the occupied territories in protest at Orient House's occupation and the other closures in East
Jerusalem
. Significantly Arafat's Fatah movement called on Palestinians and Arabs across the region to engage in similar actions. But all are aware demonstrations and solidarity is no longer sufficient. Action is necessary.
"If
Jerusalem
is so important to the Arabs, why doesn't
Egypt
and
Jordan
shut down their
Israeli
embassies in reprisal for
Israel
's closure of Orient House?" asks one of its Palestinian employees. "Then
Israel
would take notice."
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Imploding Palestinian Authority 9 - 15 August 2001
Israel
targets political leaders 2 - 8 August 2001
Reaping Sharon's harvest 2 - 8 August 2001
'Things we will never talk about' 26 July - 1 August 2001
War by instalments 19 - 25 July 2001
Apartheid is alive and well 19 - 25 July 2001
Spoiling for a strike 12 - 18 July 2001
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