Thursday, Nov 20, 2003
The wound that refuses to heal
By Amit Baruah
Whether it was a hospital, a church, a mosque or a bank, the Israelis did not discriminate when they withdrew from Qnaytra - they bulldozed and blasted everything.
IT IS as if time has stood still in Qnaytra. The Israelis razed everything to the ground in what was a town of 51,000 Syrians before pulling out after the Yom Kippur war of 1973. The 70-km-long ceasefire line between Syria and Israel almost touches the rubble of what must have been the bustling town of Qnaytra in 1967. Today, just a couple of families live there.
The Syrians have deliberately chosen not to rebuild the town. They have left it as a reminder of the Israeli occupation, and to impress upon the international community the need to undo the injustice done to them. Whether it was a hospital, a church, a mosque or a bank, the Israelis did not discriminate when they withdrew from Qnaytra - they bulldozed and blasted everything.
The ceasefire line and the areas around it are eerily silent. Barring the odd blue-bereted soldier of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force manning the checkpoints, and a solitary Syrian soldier in the dilapidated Golan Hospital, there are only huge blobs of mangled concrete.
But Qnaytra is not just about the past. It is about the Israeli present as well. A country that has deployed its vast armoury against the helpless Palestinians is showing continuity of a policy that has been sharply condemned by the U.N. General Assembly. On November 29, 1974, the General Assembly, in Resolution No.13240, regarded "Israel's deliberate destruction and devastation of the town of Qnaytra as a grave breach of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of August 12, 1949," and condemned "Israel for such acts."
On October 5, 2003, Israel bombed a "terrorist camp" outside Damascus. The intentions of the Ariel Sharon regime are clearly hostile to Syria. Several Syrians were clear that their Government would "respond" if Israel attacked a second time. In Qnaytra, the provincial Governor, Nawaf Fares, said: "We expect aggression from Israel at any time. Israel is the source of instability in the area. There could be an attack any time."
Damascus is a bustling city. The shops are full and post-Iftaar celebrations are in full swing in the evenings. It is the month of fasting and shopping for the people here. But at the back of their minds, many Syrians remain conscious of the Israelis just 60 km away to the south-west, across the ceasefire line in Qnaytra.
According to Samir Qurat, who deals with public relations in Qnaytra, the Golan does not mean just the Heights. The Golan is an area of 1,860 sq km of land, of which the Israelis have been occupying 1,260 sq km since 1967. The Israeli regime seems to have missed the point that the key to bringing peace to this volatile part of the world lies in ending the politics of occupation. And today, it is no longer the liberal critics who are saying this to Mr. Sharon and other hawks in Israel. His own military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, has criticised the Sharon approach.
"There is no hope, no expectation for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip nor in Bethlehem and Jericho. In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interests," Mr. Sharon's military chief was quoted as telling the Israeli Press in October.
In a similar tone, four former chiefs of Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, have come out with what amounts to a damning indictment of how Mr. Sharon and his Government have conducted the "war" against the Palestinian people. "We are taking sure, steady steps to a place where the state of Israel will no longer be a democracy and a home for the Jewish people," Ami Ayalon, a Shin Bet chief who stepped down three years ago, was quoted as telling the Yediot Ahronot newspaper on November 14. Mr. Sharon has "spoken about the need for painful compromises, and there are no painful compromises except the evacuation of settlements," said Yaakov Perry, who headed the Shin Bet from 1988 to 1995. In September, as many as 27 reserve pilots from the Israeli Air Force signed a letter in which they opposed air strikes targeting militants in heavily-populated areas.
Even the Israeli hawks have to take the credentials of these gentlemen seriously - for they are part and parcel of the security and military establishment.
Whether it is the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or the Golan Heights, the Israeli Government needs to look afresh at its overall approach to its neighbourhood. Grave dangers lurk in every corner in West Asia. The "new occupation" of Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom has spelt out the dangers of tinkering with nations and taunting the nationalism of Iraqis.
Even the U.S. and the U.K. that refused to heed honest counsel not to attack Iraq, are now veering round to the view that a quick handover of sovereignty to the people of Iraq is necessary. Is there a message here for Israel?
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