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Newsletter : 1fax0314.txt
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>JN March 14, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 46
Israel Eases West Bank Blockades
By Sonja Pace (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel has eased its blockade of the West Bank city of Ramallah and four other Palestinian towns. There had been increasing international criticism of Israel's closure of the Palestinian-controlled West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo welcomed the opening of the main road. But he said that the many other Israeli blockades must not be overlooked.
"In light of 90 blockades - new ones, established in recent days since Sharon took over, as well as the closing of smaller side roads connecting Palestinian civilian centers and village - the opening of one road can only be seen as a cosmetic change."
Israel also said it had begun easing the closure of four other West Bank towns, including Hebron and Bethlehem. But Palestinian witnesses said only a few blockades had been slightly eased and others not at all.
Israel began closing off Palestinian controlled areas after the Palestinian uprising began more than five-months ago. Access to many towns and villages has been difficult, but on Sunday Israel, for the first time, closed off all access to Ramallah. Israel said the closures were necessary to prevent terrorist attacks.
Rabbo said he rejects that reasoning. Instead, he said it is a form of collective punishment against Palestinians. "Israel's policy of collective punishment by destroying roads linking Palestinian towns and villages has imprisoned more than half a million civilians in the Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem areas, creating an atmosphere of confrontation and violence."
Golan Heights Major Issue Between Israel, Arabs
By Sonja Pace (VOA-Golan Heights)
During a speech to the Israeli parliament last week, incoming Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed the hope that Israel could make peace with its Arab neighbors, including Syria. The major issue between the two countries is the Golan Heights, territory that Israel occupied after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Syria now wants back.
The craggy bluffs rise quickly from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, then give way to high plateaus, green hills, deep valleys and even higher mountains in the northeast -- the heights of the Golan, an area some 660 square miles in size. After capturing the territory in the 1967 war, Israel annexed it in 1981.
About 17,000 Israelis now live here in more than 30, mostly agricultural, communities. For Marla Van Meter the Golan has been home for the past 18 years. She came to the Golan shortly after graduating from university in California. Like many Israelis here, she came with a Zionist ideal - a commitment to the Jewish state and a sense of mission to, as she puts it, help define its borders.
"When I came up to the Golan and I saw this magnificent place perched on the border between Israel and Syria with this potential of really defining Israel's borders, creating a peaceful atmosphere, being a part of a young community, building a nation sort of wrapped up this nice package of feeling that you're living a full life both as an individual, as a Jewish person and as a citizen of a state."
Van Meter is also a political activist and a spokeswoman for the Golan Residents Committee. To her, the Golan is an integral part of Israel and she wants to make sure it stays that way. Syria has repeatedly said any peace deal with Israel must include the return of the Golan Heights. She is strongly opposed to any "land-for-peace" deals.
"If we're talking about simply changing borders, we're not talking about peace then," she says. " We could be talking about reverting back to a situation that does nothing to stabilize the region, does nothing to promote peace between peoples, could possibly make Israel weak, which is in no one's interest."
Van Meter says the best way to achieve peace between Israel and Syria is by opening up borders to trade and economic development. But she says if the area is put back on the bargaining table she is ready to mobilize street demonstrations to keep the Golan in Israeli hands.
The 17,000 Israelis who live here share the Golan with about 18,000 Druze Arabs who live mainly in four villages in the north.
Alamedin Umasha is a farmer who sells fruits, soft drinks and trinkets on the roadside near Buqa'ata. He will not come out and say he'd prefer to see the Golan remain under Israeli control, but he does say life is not at all bad under the Israelis. "As a matter of fact, " he says, "life is much better than it used to be."
He said business was good, everyone has cars and the Israeli social services are good for the people here.
However, that view is not shared by other Arabs here. A little farther up the road, in the village of Majdal Shams, shop owner Sakr Abu Saleh is adamant that the Druze are Arabs and Syrians. He said focusing only on economic conditions is shortsighted.
He said life was not just about economics, it's about the future and one's dreams. "I want to live in my homeland. I want to let my children learn and grow in their homeland. In Syria we are first-class citizens, a part of the society."
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