The Jordanian intellectual, Adnan Abu Audeh, said in an interview with Albawaba.com that the current Israeli military campaign in the West Bank aims at transforming the Palestinian people into just inhabitants and warned against the success of these plans.
Abu Audeh, who assumed many top-ranking posts in Jordan, the last of which was political advisor to late King Hussein, accused the Arab states of being careless towards the Palestinian issue particularly the Aqsa Intifada and Jenin massacres. He reiterated that Arabs have many cards, which they can play and indicated that the slight change in Washington’s stance came as a result of the Arab peoples' reactions.
Following are excerpts from the interview:
Q. The Israeli army launched a massive military campaign in the West Bank through which it destroyed and occupied the area and imposed a siege on the Palestinian leader. What did Sharon in your opinion aim at?
A. The Israeli military campaign has two objectives. First to destroy the Palestinian resistance and uproot it and the second to transform the Palestinian people into just inhabitants.
I have many reservations about the Palestinian Authority but I support it now so that the Palestinian people won’t be transformed into just inhabitants after the destruction of this authority, which Sharon planned for.
The difference between people and inhabitants is that people have national rights of sovereignty over their lands, identity, independence and freedom while inhabitants constitute a group of people with interests not exceeding garbage collection and earning daily living. They have no cultural heritage based on independence and freedom.
Israel attempts to implement this old theory inside the Palestinian territories so that it will be easy for it to disperse the Palestinian people. Arabs should protect the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinians inside the occupied territories as people who have the right of self-determination, independence and identity; otherwise the impacts will be catastrophic even on the Arab world.
Egypt and Jordan have additional responsibilities because West Bank and Gaza were part of Jordan and Egypt before they were occupied by Israel in 1967. Being neighbors to Israel this adds more moral obligations on the two countries in addition to the national responsibilities of all Arabs towards this issue.
If Sharon’s plans are achieved, the Arab states surrounding Israel will suffer as the inhabitants can be dismissed from their lands. 1967 war was nothing but a conquest despite the fact that this type of war was ended by the end of World War II in 1945, the creation of United Nations Charter and the beginning of what was described as modern history, ending imperialism and occupation worldwide. Israel has been the only occupying force for 35 years. In order to affirm that it was a conquest, Israel transferred its nationals to the land it occupied and built settlements for them. These evidences prove that Israel’s war was a conquest contrary to what it claimed and constituted a violation to the UN charter and world conscience, which is responsible for ending this situation.
Israel might have succeeded to a great extent in destroying and uprooting the Palestinian resistance which will need long time to reorganize itself but in the meantime we should make every effort to undermine the Israeli second objective of transforming the Palestinian people into inhabitants.
The problem we face now is that the US has stood on the Israeli side instead of being a third side. This has been evident in the latest Israeli military operations and Bush’s hailing Sharon as a man of peace. The US justified the Israeli attacks describing them as self-defense without referring to the Israeli occupation, which has been the reason behind all the violence in the area. This blunt change in the US stance as a third party puts a big challenge on the Arab states and complicates the situation. In my opinion, it is not time for Arabs to blame each other and exchange accusations. We are in a stage that needs unity and coordination between the Arabs to counter Sharon who is moving steadily towards his final goal of destroying the Palestinian people, expelling them from their land and ending the Palestinian issue.
Diplomatic moves have to made as we as Arabs share the world many interests which we should focus on. The Palestinian people should have their rights in self-determination. We should monitor the actions of other nations and if they help Israelis in the implementation of their goals, we should counter their moves and express our resentment. Diplomatic moves have many aspects and not merely issuing statements. There is the balance of interests between interrelated powers in addition to media campaigns, which should be launched by enlightened intellectuals so that the whole world will understand that Palestine was targeted by a conquest and the claim that Jews were attacked was a false propaganda.
Q. Are you convinced, as others believe, that the destruction of the PA and besieging Arafat will lead to a Palestinian state in Gaza alone because the topography of the West Bank may threaten the Israeli security?
A. These are weak justifications because international relations can be organized. Palestinians should be given their rights and permitted to establish their independent state so that they will deal with the other side with responsibility. The current oppressive circumstances under which the Palestinian people live because they ask for independence spur them to do anything but when are given an independent state they will act according to a peace agreement particularly in presence of international guarantees.
Any arrangement in Gaza will not be a state. This is funny because even the West Bank and Gaza together have not enough territory for the formation of a state. A state in Gaza is in no way a success for any Palestinian.
Q. Israel is hindering the arrival of the UN fact-finding mission. Do you think the results of this mission will have any impacts on the future of Sharon and his government?
A. This is the beginning as the international mission has been entrusted with the task of fact finding and it is more or less an administrative mission. It will not stop any move to call for organizing war crimes. Israel took notice of this possibility and Sharon announced that he was afraid of the results. The Israeli refusal of the mission is a proof that they are guilty.
Q. What do you think the next step would be after the more radical elements have joined Sharon’s security cabinet?
A. Yes there is more radicalism in the Israeli cabinet after the two rightists ministers were added, the fact that rules out any moderation on part of the Israeli government. This means that Sharon will take more moves to benefit from his first success in destroying the resistance in the West Bank. This is called preliminary victory, which he will exploit politically and might come up with a peace plan from his point of view that will be a justification for permanent occupation and the 1967 conquest.
Q. The Arab public blamed their leaderships and accused them of betrayal. Do you think the Arab peoples and governments failed to protect the Palestinian people or has Sharon massacres preceded any move by the Arabs?
A. There is no consolidated and unified Arab stance to convey to the world in a diplomatic way. At the moment there is a fairly good coordination between Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and I hope it will influence the international stance. I think the Arabs have more capabilities than what they showed. I believe they failed to do anything during the uprising because they adhered to a mysterious concept stemming from their confidence in the United States. The US stance is now very clear and the Arab countries, which signed peace agreements with Israel, discovered that they had no influence on Israel.
I believe the legendary resistance of the Palestinian people during the attacks gave the brightest lessons in history and depicted to the world an unprecedented patriotic epic. The Arabs should exploit this resistance which the whole world saw.
This is a very strange war. Can Sharon claim that the was victorious? Has he won a battle against an army? There was no Palestinian army but there was a will, which Sharon will never conquer. The Palestinians are still insisting that they are people living on their lands. There was no traditional war because a heavily armed Israeli army equipped with all modern arms launched devastating attacks against armless people. The Israeli army used all kinds of weapons except the nuclear bomb against people equipped with primitive and locally made explosives. I would say that what happened was a legend not because I am originally from Nablus but because the whole world acknowledged the heroism of the Palestinian people who were victims of one of the world’s strongest army.
Q. What are the weapons, which the Arabs have?
A. The American interests in the region are protected by the Arab states but they are not protected by the history movements. Nobody in the Arab world threatens the American interests as there is in not any single Arab country, which threatens to stop the oil flow to the US or the withdrawal of the Arabs money from the American banks. But parallel to this there is the invisible history movements such as the Bahraini young men and women demonstrations and burning of the American flag in the Bahraini capital al Manamah. Bahrain is the center for the American fifth fleet.
This is in addition to the demonstrations, which took place in Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian intellectuals demands for reviewing the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
Q. Do you think the EU criticism and the withdrawal of Lebanon and Syria from the partnership conference in addition to Solana and Larsen move will influence the American stance?
A. These are small moves that will not lead to quick results. Europe is concerned about of the Israeli actions but it cannot have any significant influence.
Q. What remained for the PA to help it resist?
A. The PA should consolidate and integrate itself with the Palestinian people. Despite my remarks about the PA, it has become part of the Palestinian people that should be protected. The PA should benefit from the past experiences.
Q. Do you think that Sharon will harm Arafat physically?
A. It is very likely but the Israelis assess the potential impacts of such an action. The western media reported that the Israelis discuss this affair continuously, which indicate that it is a possibility.
Q. What will be the situation if a vacuum takes place in the Palestinian territories?
A. Israel will quickly exploit this situation either by dismissing Arafat or Jailing him and claim there is a vacuum in order to abolish the PA and replace it by civil administration and military rule and going back to the mid seventies.
Q. Do you think that Israel will impose an alternative leadership on the Palestinian people through the civil administration?
A. Yes and the PA rushed to announce that the Palestinian people needs should be met through the PA Ministry of Local Government. Honestly the PA has become very important to keep Palestinians as people and prevent the Israeli attempts to transform them into inhabitants. Sharon’s plan is destructive and unfortunately most of the Arab peoples have become mere inhabitants on their lands. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
