Israeli Lawlessness Is a Provocation

By Abdul Salam Y Massarueh

Vicious onslaughts by Jewish settlers in the West Bank could force the Palestinians under occupation to respond in kind. The logical answer to this Israeli lawlessness is for the Palestinians to make the occupation much costlier.

Although the Zionists have exhausted all of the methods of brutal force in responding to Palestinian aspirations, after more than 18 months neither Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir nor his defense czar, Yitzhak Rabin, have succeeded in suppressing the struggle for freedom and independence.

Now they seek to force the Palestinians to strike back in kind against the force used by the Israelis against them. Leaders of the intifada, however, are aware of their tormentors' intentions. They are ignoring the cries to kill one Israeli soldier or settler for each Palestinian killed by Israelis. The PLO hasalso dissociated itself from such a call. All Palestinians, inside and outside Palestine, believe that those calls for an "eye for an eye" originate with persons seeking to bring down upon Palestinians in the occupied lands new disasters and more brutality

Those under occupation must not allow conspiracies to crush what has been earned by the hundreds of Palestinian martyrs.

The Palestinians know also that they are dealing with a "superpower" with the means to destroy homes, villages, and even nations. The Palestinians, on the other hand, can inflict damage upon Israel only if, while they wage their campaign of defiance from inside Palestine, neighboring Arab countries launch their own campaign of attrition against Israel. Such action is not feasible, however, so long as the Arab states fear the Israeli goliath.

Palestinians have rejected the suggestion of Iran's speaker of the parliament (and possibly future president), Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, that they kill five American, French, or British nationals for each Palestinian killed by Israelis. The PLO leadership also has shied away from recent calls by small and insignificant elements inside and outside the PLO to kill Israelis for each Palestinian martyr. All this is testimony to the resolve of the Palestinians and their leadership to continue the struggle against Israeli occupation through civil disobedience and economic warfare.

The intifada, by means of civil disobedience, has forced the government of Yitzhak Shamir to attempt to create alternative Palestinian leadership. However, escalation by both the Israeli army and Israeli settlers of their murderous actions against the Palestinians will eventually only expose Israel to further contempt from the international community.

The Palestinians under occupation must not allow conspiracies to crush what has been earned by the hundreds of Palestinian martyrs, and tens of thousands of Palestinian wounded, prisoners and detainees. Since much of the current escalation of violence in occupied Palestine has been carried out by Jewish settlers who are dual citizens of the US and Israel, it should also be the responsibility of the US government, in the absence of action by the Israeli government, to hold these settlers who commit crimes to US laws.

Indications of concern in the United States for the most elementary standards of human rights might prevent Palestinians from losing their patience and dealing with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the same manner in which these Israelis deal with Palestinians. If matters reach such a point of mutual destruction, much of the responsibility will lie with those who had the power to support moderates on both sides working for a peaceful settlement, but failed to do so.

Abdul Salam Y Massarueh, a Palestinian-born US journalist, was 1986-87 president of the Foreign Correspondent's Association of Washington, DC