Scratching the surface

Nov.13, 2007

Scratching the surface



Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has to do more than releasing a few hundred Palestinians from Israeli jails if he is hoping that his move would be considered as a goodwill gesture to the Palestinians ahead of the US-sponsored conference on the Middle East to be held in Annapolis.
Release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons has always been a key Palestinian demand but there are many other manifestations of the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank that have made life miserable for the residents of the territory. Olmert has to address them in a realistic manner in order to have any realistic impact for the people who live under Israel's military occupation.
Olmert might have internal political considerations for not making any concrete moves to lift the choking blockade of the West Bank.But that should not be a reason for him not to honour his commitments. Under US pressure, he had agreed during meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he would remove most of the roadblocks maintained by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and also ease restrictions on Palestinian movements within the occupied territories. It is one of the key points that the Palestinians have in mind when they call upon the US to do whatever is necessary to oblige Olmert to live up to his pledges. The Israeli prime minister should have the courage and will to confront his political problems away from linking them with the effort for peace with the Palestinians.
Indeed, Abbas has to be bolstered among his own people to secure popular support for the decisons that he takes durng the expected peace negotiations with Israel."Goodwill" gestures in bits and pieces are not going to have any serious impact on this count.
Take for example the fact that Olmert plans to release only a few hundred Palestinian prisoners from among the 11,000 and plus whereas Abbas has asked that at least 2,000 be freed.
Israel is also continuing frequent military raids of West Bank towns where Palestinians are taken into summary detention. The latest such action came on Monday when Israeli troops arrested nearly 20 Palestinians from West Bank towns, including two Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament.
Indeed, Olmert could argue that Hamas is opposed to peace talks with Israel and therefore the detention of its activists would help Abbas. However, it has to be remembered that Hamas holds the majority of the seats in the Palestinian parliament. The group's popularity might have slipped since then — because of a multitude of reasons — but it remains a strong and powerful force among the Palestinians.
The finding of an opinion poll that while 67.9 per cent of Palestinians support peace negotiations with Israel but 62 per cent expect the Annapolis conference to fail should be an eye-opener to the reality that Olmert could do a lot more to boost the chances of the forum's success before it is convened.