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Editorial Killing with impunity
April 1st, 2004 -- As he left his mosque on the morning of 22 March Shaykh Ahmad Yasin can have had little doubt that, sooner or later, the Israelis would make another attempt on his life. They had threatened him often enough and already tried at least once. Like any Palestinian political leader, Yasin knew he was a target. He joins a hallowed company in his martyrdom. More will doubtless follow him. Extrajudicial executions are so frequent an occurrence that the public threats from Israeli leaders against other leading lights in Hamas in the wake of Yasin’s death seemed quite redundant. The timing of the assassination has been the subject of some debate. Clearly, the Israeli government wants to leave Gaza (if it is indeed sincere in that) with a bang. The Strip has been the subject of numerous intensive assaults in recent weeks that have caused scores of casualties and hundreds of house demolitions. Targeting Hamas and its leadership appears to make sense according to Ariel Sharon’s logic not because it will prevent suicide bombings (it will surely have the opposite effect), but because it will contribute to weakening the movement and making Gaza peaceful when the Israelis pull out. If this is the thinking, and it appears to be at least part of it if Israeli officials are to be believed, it is spectacularly flawed. As the response to Yasin’s death amply demonstrated, Hamas’ position has been considerably strengthened by the assassination. And rather than sleeping easier in their beds, the Israeli public appears to be living in a state of dread in anticipation of Hamas’ revenge. While the logic behind the assassination may be difficult to fathom, the reactions to it have been telling, if predictable. Sharon can hardly have been surprised by the robust condemnations which came from much of the international community. As long as the United States failed to join in, he had nothing to fear from abroad. In fact, Washington’s reaction appeared utterly confused. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, effectively endorsed the killing — Hamas was a terrorist organization, she said, and Yasin was heavily involved in terrorism. The State Department, and eventually the White House, admitted to being “deeply troubled”, but there was no outright condemnation. When the matter reached the Security Council a week later, the US veto was hardly surprising. But while US policy on anything to do with Israel seems set to be predictably deplorable for some time to come, the rest of the world has little to be proud of. Piecemeal condemnations of individual acts, even of extrajudicial executions as a policy, barely make an impression on Ariel Sharon’s Israel. Sharon clearly has some kind of plan for the withdrawal from Gaza. It has cost, and will undoubtedly continue to cost, many Gazans their lives and many more their homes and livelihoods. By the time the Israelis finally pull out much of the Strip is likely to have been reduced to rubble, its infrastructure and its political and civil institutions in ruins, and its orderly administration a near impossible task. The international community is likely to find a major humanitarian problem on its hands. There has been some discussion of measures that might be taken in the event of Israeli withdrawal, largely to do with security, but nothing that reflects an appreciation of the severity of the problem. And the longer Sharon is allowed to continue his present policy of wanton destruction, the worse Gaza’s plight will become, and the less able the Palestinians will be to do anything about it. The Palestinian Authority administration there is unlikely to have either the resources to serve its subjects or the popular support to govern them. There has been scant evidence of an awareness of this state of affairs on the part of the international community. All the UN, the EU, the Russians (and even the US in more lucid moments) can come up with is the road-map, a plan which promised only marginal benefits when it was drawn up, was immediately denigrated by the Israelis and has been in abeyance ever since. In the meantime, Sharon has continued to pursue policies condemned by much of the world, the West (albeit not the US) included, with complete impunity. |
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