| Cheryl A. Rubenberg
Published by Lynne Rienner, London, 2003
Pp. 450
“JUSTICE DENIED anywhere diminishes justice everywhere,” said
Martin Luther King.
This book discusses the sense of injustice that Palestinians
feel and the severe dispossession they struggle with on a daily
basis.
Cheryl Rubenberg, an independent analyst and former associate
professor in the Department of Political Science at Florida
International University, shows how the Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza struggle daily with conditions of severe economic,
social and psychological deprivation.
She also discusses how the Israeli policies have worn out the
Palestinian commitment to the peace process, how US intervention
has affected the region, and how pervasive corruption within the
Palestinian National Authority has played a role.
Rubenberg also criticises the Oslo accords and their
devastating aftermath.
The book is divided into nine chapters, discussing issues
related to Palestinians. The first three chapters present a
historical overview of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from a
Palestinian perspective.
The author explains, however, that the book doesn't intend to
be a comprehensive history, but rather “to provide insight into
Palestinian positions in the peace process and to clarify why
Palestinians insist on achieving a liable independent state in the
remaining 22 per cent of mandatory Palestine”.
Under the heading “Accords and Agreements Whither Peace”, the
writer, a member of the Board of Advisers of Deir Yassin
Remembered, examines in details the issue of refugees and their
right of return. She also analyses the agreements signed by the
Israelis and the Palestinians, in addition to the political
context in which they were concluded. She starts with the 1993
Declaration of Principles and ends with the Taba Meeting of 2001.
“Oslo was doomed to fail from the outset because of the
two-stage structure of the process, the fact that Israel's
interests were specifically protected while the rights of the
Palestinians were either left open to interpretation or omitted,
and the absence of an impartial ombudsman,” she writes.
Rubenberg also discusses the Palestinian life in the occupied
territories and examines the impact of closures, permits, land
confiscations, new settlements, house demolitions, water
restrictions and other Israeli policies.
In chapters four and five, the author uses Hebron as a case
study of the unjust Israeli policy, as “Hebron permits an
integrated summation of the complex effects of Israeli policies in
one city.” She focuses on settler violence and the Israeli
collaboration with that violence.
She also spotlights Jerusalem from a geopolitical perspective.
Under the heading “The Palestinian Authority Politics,
Corruption, and Repression,” Rubenberg analyses the Palestinian
authority in the context of a worsening life situation for the
Palestinians.
“Through corruption, repression, destruction of the judiciary,
and the like, the PNA contributed significantly to the
deterioration of the Palestinian society and policy,” said the
author.
Palestinian security cooperation with Israel, she adds,
contributed to its loss of legitimacy and widespread despair that
overtook the populace.
“The Palestinians certainly did not expect, or deserve, to have
such leadership. The government's malfeasance, corruption, and
human rights excesses engaged in by Yasser Arafat and his coterie
led to bitter disappointment and outrage among the Palestinian
people,” said Rubenberg.
Through the last three chapters, the writer considers the US
role in the Oslo process and the “constant, steadfast and
unwavering” US support for Israel.
“The responsibility of the US for the failure of Oslo is major
and must be recognised,” she writes.
Rubenberg considers Al Aqsa Intifada as an “expression of the
despair and impoverishment” of the Palestinians after years of
unfulfilled promises and dramatically worsening life situation.
She concludes that the current situation in Palestine is a
humanitarian disaster of “widespread collective punishment, fear
of mass explosion, the total absence of peace process and
unmitigated despair and hopelessness”.
Rubenberg has written on US policy and the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict for more than 25 years.
This book can be found at Bustan Lil Kutob bookstore in
Shmeisani.
Hada Sarhan
Monday, October 6, 20 |
