>Until you are willing to address the issue of state terrorism and the colonial enterprise in the Middle East, you have nothing of value to say about Palestinian terrorism. And if you really think that the Palestinians will get the Israelis to dismantle the settlements and go back to 67 borders by being nice, nonviolent, and civilized, you are a fool.
>Joanna
Him and Edward Said.
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/560/op2.htm
>Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560
>...My suggestion is that Arafat should stop his world tours and come back to his people (who keep reminding him that they no longer really support him: only 17 per cent say they back what he is doing) and respond to their needs as a real leader must. Israel has been destroying the Palestinian infrastructure, destroying towns and schools, killing innocents, invading at will, without Arafat paying enough serious attention. He must lead the non-violent protest marches on a daily, if not hourly basis, and not let a group of foreign volunteers do our work for us.
http://www.edwardsaid.org/articles/le_monde_diplomatique/august-september-1998.txt
>LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE - August-September 1998 A REPLY TO ARAB INTELLECTUALS
>...In the meantime, we should concentrate our resistance on combating Israeli settlement with non-violent mass demonstrations that impede land confiscation, on creating stable and democratic civil institutions (hospitals and clinics, schools and universities, now in a horrendous decline, and work projects that will improve our infrastructure), and on fully confronting the apartheid provisions inherent in Zionism. There are numerous prophecies of an impending explosion due to the stalemate. Even if they turn out to be true, we must plan constructively for our future, since neither improvisation nor violence are likely to guarantee the creation and consolidation of institutions.
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/568/op2.htm
>The first result of this was that on 3 January, after Barghouthi held a press conference with about 20 Europeans in East Jerusalem, the Israelis arrested, detained and interrogated him twice, breaking his knee with rifle butts and injuring his head, on the pretext that he was disturbing the peace and had illegally entered Jerusalem (even though he was born in it and has a medical permit to enter it). None of this of course has deterred him or his supporters from continuing the non-violent struggle, which, I think, is certain to take control of the already too militarised Intifada, centre it nationally on ending occupation and settlements, and steer Palestinians toward statehood and peace. Israel has more to fear from someone like Barghouthi, who is a self-possessed, rational and respected Palestinian, than from the bearded Islamic radicals that Sharon loves to misrepresent as Israel's quintessential terrorist threat. All they do is to arrest him, which is typical of Sharon's bankrupt policy...