Prisoners to Wye By Khaled Amayreh Thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets this week to protest Israel's unfaithful implementation of the Wye River Memorandum, particularly its refusal to free Palestinian political prisoners, and the frenzied resumption of the expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. Mass demonstrations took place in major Palestinian towns and occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli police harshly suppressed a peaceful Arab demonstration, held on Saturday in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, injuring at least five protesters and two photographers. In scenes reminiscent of the Intifada, Israeli police, including undercover agents disguised as Palestinians, beat up demonstrators, dragged old women to the ground and assaulted journalists, cameramen and photographers, using truncheons, rubber-coated bullets and tear gas. In the Gaza Strip, demonstrators marched to the home of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), second in command to President Yasser Arafat, demanding an explanation of "this scandal". The protesters carried placards bearing slogans such as "He who neglects our cause is not our representative" and "Why did you forget us at Wye?" The protesters singled out Abbas for their silent outrage, accusing him of having taken a lax stance on the prisoners' cause during the Wye Plantation talks and describing the Palestinian negotiations as "disgraceful". Outside Abu Mazen's opulent villa, protesters lambasted Palestinian negotiators for not insisting that the Israelis draw up a comprehensive list of the names of the prisoners slated to be released. On Sunday, hundreds of Palestinian inmates in three Israeli prisons declared an "open-ended hunger strike" to demonstrate their profound sense of betrayal. They called on the Palestinian people to take to the streets to "identify with us in this battle of our freedom". The prisoners also accused the Palestinian leadership of "not treating [their] cause seriously", pointing to the "flimsy approach to [their] cause" during the Wye talks. The "fiasco" surrounding the issue of prisoners has forced Palestinian Authority officials onto the defensive, denying them the opportunity to enjoy the "fruits" of the recent Israeli army redeployment in the northern part of the West Bank. The issue has continued to haunt the Palestinian-Israeli agenda. On Sunday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Ereikat met with Danny Naveh, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's secretary, in Jericho in an attempt to change the Israeli government's adamant stance. However, the meeting ended in disarray when Palestinian negotiator Hasan Asfour walked out in protest against Israeli "deception and equivocation". Naveh reiterated the government's position, which rejects the release of Palestinian prisoners who are affiliated with Islamist movements and those who "have blood on their hands". Needless to say, this Israeli justification infuriated Ereikat who demanded that the implementation of the Wye agreement be suspended "until matters concerning our prisoners are clarified". "I cautioned Naveh to desist from intoning a mantra of nonsense whenever the prisoners' issue is evoked, for if our freedom fighters have Jewish blood on their hands, Israeli soldiers' and settlers' hands are soaked to the fullest with Palestinian blood," said Ereikat after his meeting with Naveh. Furthermore, Ereikat reminded Naveh that the previous agreements in Taba, Cairo and Hebron stipulated the release of Palestinian prisoners who had served two thirds of their term, the sick, the elderly and those who are 16 or under. Meanwhile, the vital issue of Jerusalem was again the subject of another public row between Palestinian and Israeli officials. During his visit to the US to take part in a donors' meeting sponsored by President Bill Clinton, Arafat reiterated his intention to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital on 4 May 1999. Arafat reminded the world that East Jerusalem was an occupied territory and part of the West Bank. However, he said the Palestinians were advocating an undivided city, with the eastern part of the city, occupied by Israel in 1967, becoming the capital of the Palestinian state and the western part remaining the capital of Israel. Arafat's remarks exasperated Netanyahu and the Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert. Netanyahu described the remarks as "grave and unhelpful", warning that if Arafat sought to put them into effect, the entire Oslo process would collapse and the Jewish state would be forced to take unilateral actions to safeguard its interests. Netanyahu didn't state what actions he would take if Arafat went ahead and declared a Palestinian state, as he has been vowing. For his part, Olmert proposed several measures to "strengthen Jewish presence in Jerusalem and foil Palestinian designs concerning the town." He urged the Israeli government to begin construction work immediately at the Jabal Abu Ghneim settlement and double investment in East Jerusalem in an attempt to attract more Jews to the city, which he called "Israel's eternal capital". Peace talks collapsed in March 1997, when ground was broken for the construction of a new settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim. The third incendiary issue which is generating Palestinian indignation is the continuation of Jewish settlement building throughout the West Bank. Palestinian sources indicated that Israeli settlers, apparently in connivance with the Israeli army, were taking over hilltops throughout the West Bank. These acts of seizing Palestinian land, cordoning off large areas around existing Jewish settlements and building thousands of additional housing units, coincided with the confiscation of hundreds of acres of Arab farmers' land to open scores of bypass roads serving and linking Jewish settlements. On Tuesday, Ahmed Qurei, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, called on Arafat to "suspend the talks until this frenzied campaign is stopped." "This is a flagrant aggression, it is a war, we can't play deaf and dumb and pretend that nothing is happening," Qurei said. Realistically, however, there appears to be little the Palestinians can do to stop Israeli insolence in the West Bank, short of causing a real crisis, given American reluctance to press Israel on the matter.
