Alternative Information Center emergency call for action

[Shardana Ruju]

The recent Israeli attacks on Palestinian territory are a clear
answer by Sharon to the Arab strategic choice of peace declared at the Beirut Arab Summit. The Israeli refusal of peace came just hours after the Arab declaration of the peace initiative. This Israeli answer is an all out war against the Palestinian people and their leadership. The Israeli definition of President Arafat as an 'enemy' was supported fully by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who accepted wholesale the spurious attempt by Israel to justify the savage actions of its military as security measures.

Sharon's rational behind his political and military initiatives is
and has always been to "fight terror," yet the nature of the current Israeli military action involves the systematic destruction of all Palestinian Authority infrastructures, as well as the local
Palestinian economy. All of this is happening under the nose of the international community, in contravention of international
humanitarian law and human rights conventions. It is our
understanding that these activities have been approved by the United States, the sponsor of the peace process.

By attacking the PA centres of power, the ultimate aim of these
actions is to encourage the processes of internal civil unrest inside Palestine and to destabilise the forces of legitimate resistance to Israel, while conducting a full scale assault on Palestine. In this
way, it is a war conducted on two fronts, both lethal and both
illegal.The AIC condemns all attacks against civilians, yet the overall responsibility for this violence lays with the Israeli government and its systematic practices over the last 18 months. These practices have aimed to undermine all achievements of the PA over the years, whether on the political level, infrastructure building of the future state or the legitimacy its earns.

The AIC views the current Israeli military actions as an all-out war
aimed to lower morale and destroy Palestinian aspirations to freedom and independence. As the various Israeli governments since the commencement of the Oslo process were unable to attain their imposed version of peace, the current war derives from the dogmatic and ideological beliefs of Sharon's far right government and with full agreement of the Labour party. This policy, which never recognises Palestinian rights, is in harmony with the Israeli political project of imposing 'Palestinian self rule' in disconnected bantustans, while retaining complete Israeli control over land, water,borders etc.

Sharon's declaration that this is an all out war against the
Palestinians, a war with no time limitations and waged under the eye of the international community with a green light from the US, means:
- the threat of an all out war in the Middle East
- the destruction of any real chance for a viable peace in
Palestine/Israel, such that we will be returned to square one in
which the conflict and violence will be the primary characteristics
of the coming period.
-
The AIC has always stressed that the Israeli occupation is the cause of all violence in the region and that the Palestinians have the right to fight against the occupation. Without ending the occupation and dismantling all settlements, there will be no viable peace.

In light of this the AIC calls for:
1- Serious and real international pressure on the Israeli government to end its all out war and halt the destruction of Palestinian infrastructures and the legal and legitimate authority of the PA.
Particularly, Europe must move forward against American hegemony in the area to provide the support necessary for a just peace in the region.

2- The immediate deployment of international observers to protect the Palestinians against this unprecedented aggression. Pressure should be brought both on the UN and within the European institutions to remove barriers to the introduction of observers/protection forces, barriers raised by a small group of countries which consistently blocks these initiatives.

3- The implementation of all UN resolutions concerning Palestine and the conclusion of the Israeli occupation as the sole means for a stable and lasting peace in Palestine/Israel.

[Perdu]

libertadi po is palestinesus! indipendèntzia !