Sharon's war, lies and now, ghettos

Ariel Sharon's policies of military confrontation have brought misery 
and suffering not only to the Palestinian people but are tearing apart the 
fabric of Israeli society as well.

"He is a Prime Minister whose policies "have reached bankruptcy in all 
spheres-he brought neither peace, nor security, the economy is sliding into 
deep depression and the people are in moral crisis", says Gush Shalom, an 
Israeli peace organisation.

Many young Israelis are now leaving for work in Western Europe or the 
United States. Many Israelis also refuse to serve in the occupied 
territories. What started as a trickle is turning into a river of 
"refuseniks"-reservists who refuse to serve in the army.

"Four months ago it was clear to me that the movement would grow if we 
continue calling up reserves to accompany settlers to music lessons and to 
protect real estate that has nothing to do with ideology", says Reserve 
Major-General Danny Rothschild.

Pull out

General Rothschild is president of the Council for Peace and Security. The 
Council includes over a thousand reserve senior officers including generals 
and colonels in the Army and the security and intelligence services.

The Council is calling on the Sharon Government to immediately pull out 
from most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as demanding Israel's 
recognition of a Palestinian state and the evacuation of 40-50 Zionist 
settlements in the West Bank.

Over 15,000 Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on February 16 from Rabin Square 
through the main streets to a rally across the street from Israel's Defence 
Ministry. The theme of the demonstration was "Get out of the Occupied 
Territories. Get back to ourselves!"

The rally participants were reminded of huge demonstrations in the early 
1980s when Israel had occupied south Lebanon. It was a mass protest 
movement combined with resistance to Israeli occupation of Lebanon that 
finally forced the Israeli government to withdraw from Lebanon.

Ariel Sharon still refuses to respond to the calls for a peaceful, 
political solution to the conflict. Speaking on Israeli television on 
February 21, he said that Israel would create "buffer zones" to achieve 
"security separation" from the Palestinians.

He urgently appealed for national unity and stated that "the state of 
Israel is not collapsing". The fact that the Prime Minister felt it was 
necessary to assure the public in such a way suggests that his statement 
was far from the real sentiment or state of affairs in the country.

The creation of buffer zones around Israeli settlements on Palestinian 
territory was the only thing offered by Sharon. According to the Prime 
Minister's office, buffer zones could be more than half a mile in width and 
include fences and mobile patrols.

He did not specify how the buffer zones would affect more than 200,000 
settlers who live in the West Bank and Gaza.

Even the use of the term "buffer zone" echoed the ill-fated attempt of 
Israel to set up a buffer zone in south Lebanon in 1982 to "protect" its 
northern border. It resulted in a decades-long guerilla war in which more 
than a thousand Israeli soldiers were among the victims.

Israel was finally forced to withdraw in May 2000. The buffer zone did not 
protect Israeli territory from military attack.

Ariel Sharon was Defence Minister when Israel invaded Lebanon. He was 
removed from his position for war crimes committed against Palestinian 
refugees then living in Lebanon. It seems that history repeats itself 
except that now, Sharon is Prime Minister.

The creation of "buffer zones" means "more land confiscation, more house 
demolitions, more uprooting of trees, more killings", says Gush Shalom.

"Palestinians know full well what it means. [Sharon] exploited the media 
for a speech without content other than incitement, lies and hollow 
phrases."

Sharon's proposals, which have been widely condemned in Israel, would mean 
that Israelis are themselves creating ghettos and prisons for their own 
citizens.

Gush Shalom's statement concludes: "Israel's only hope lies in the 
'discordant voices' which the Prime Minister so sharply denounced — the 
voices of protest and dissent which are increasingly heard in the Israeli 
society, especially among the young, and which will eventually bring the 
Sharon Government down."