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May 14, 2004

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Meeting Sheik Yassin: A Report from Gaza

Jae Myung Kim

The most recent bloody conflict in Israel and Palestine has lasted for more than 44 months and cost more than four thousand lives. Of those thousands, the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli dead is 3.25:1. Since the outbreak of the second intifada, I have visited the Middle East three times to cover the crisis. During my stay, I visited several hot spots, such as Mr. Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, the Jenin Refugee Camp in the northern part of West Bank, and Gaza, including Hamas strongholds such as the Jibalya refugee camp. I also interviewed politicians, intellectuals, and leading activists from both sides. In particular, I interviewed Hamas’ leaders Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi, both of whom were recently assassinated by Israeli missile attacks.

Walking the roads of Gaza, one can easily find clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers. Young Palestinians, including many children, pelt Israeli soldiers with rocks, and Israeli troops respond with rubber-coated metal bullets. In some cases, Palestinian armed forces and Israeli troops exchange live ammunition. Some Jewish settlers armed with rifles also join the current struggles.

In a hospital in Gaza City, I met some young Palestinian children hurt by these rubber-coated bullets. Rubber bullets shot by Israeli troops are sometimes fatal if they hit the heart, and some Palestinians are said to have been killed in this way. During my first visit to the Middle East in 2000 just after the outbreak of the intifada, I observed at close range two funerals in Ramallah and in Nablus; both were flash points. I was shocked to hear that the deceased were victims of rubber-coated bullets. I was overwhelmed by the emotion and deep grief shown by the mourners at these funerals. Some cried, "Allah is great, we will win someday."

"There is no more trust"

During my visits to Israel, I contacted Israeli politicians and intellectuals to hear their opinions about the current crisis. To my surprise, some of them expressed open hostility towards the Palestinians. For example, Dore Gold, a close aide to Ariel Sharon and a former United Nations Ambassador between 1997-1999 during the Netanyahu administration, showed his ultra-rightist attitude in his refusal to recognize even the possibility of Palestinian statehood.

On the Israeli side, many citizens remain frightened of becoming victims of suicide attacks. Ephraim Kam, Deputy Head of The Jaffe Center of Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv University told me that “most Israeli intellectuals, including the moderates, share the same opinion in terms of security agenda.” “There is no settlement, and therefore, it is not necessary for us Israelis to make excuses for occupying the territory," said Gerald Steinberg, a professor majoring in conflict management and negotiation at Bar Ilan University.

The war-time mood in this troubled area seems to marginalize the voices of Israeli peace groups. Some moderate Jewish intellectuals, including Moshe Maoz, a history professor of Hebrew University, lamented the clashes. In contrast to the hard-liners, he was not opposed to Palestinian statehood. Professor Maoz told me that in the past intellectuals from both sides had issued several co-declarations calling for the cessation of hostilities. "At this moment, however", he lamented, "it is a very difficult situation for us to continue this attitude. Too many victims have already been killed. I cannot contact my Palestinian friends."

I also contacted Palestinian politicians and intellectuals. All of them showed anger and deep frustration. Ahmed Qurei, the then-Speaker of Palestinian National Council in 2001 and now Prime Minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA), asserted that "there is no more trust between the Israelis and the Palestinians." He added that "all the negotiations have become useless," showing deep anger against the Israeli government. Qurei himself was at one time a leading diplomat in the Oslo peace negotiations of 1993. He expressed doubt about the format that he had accepted for years, namely the American-brokered talks. From the general Palestinian view, the United States is the sole sponsor of Israel. Palestinians complain that "Israeli soldiers are killing us with American F-16s and tanks."

Barghouti: "We Are Angry"

One year before his arrest in April, 2002, I met Marwan Barghouti, a member of Palestinian National Council and top West Bank leader of Fatah, based in Ramallah. He is now a prisoner in an Israeli jail. Barghouti did not conceal his anger. "We are angry," he said. He complained that even though seven years had passed since the Oslo peace accords, the Israeli government continues to expand settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and still controls the roads into Palestinian areas.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an advisor and spokesman for Yassir Arafat, argued that the real background of Ariel Sharon's aggressive policy against the Arafat regime is part of a strategy to earn more time in order to enlarge settlements inside the occupied territory. Mustafa Abdel-Nabi Natshe, Mayor of Hebron, lamented that, "only because of four hundred Jewish settlers, more than ten thousand dwellers in this city are threatened not to make a normal livelihood."

Influenced by the repeated tensions, the Israeli economy has recently hit a slump. However, in contrast to some high-tech industrial sectors of the Israeli economy which are still steady, the Palestinian economy seems on the brink of collapse. According to the CIA World Factbook, the Israeli per capita income is almost ten times higher than that of Palestinians. Since the current conflict began, many Palestinian people who had previously worked in Israeli factories or companies have lost their jobs. The military has blocked all roads into Israeli territory for purported security reasons.

Palestinians I spoke with did not hide their frustrations. They lamented that their very survival was in danger, mostly because of rising unemployment. I could not forget the gloomy faces of Palestinian workers I met at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem near Jerusalem. They had tried to go to Jerusalem to work, but failed. As one of them lamented, "We are like prisoners without a jail." Ghassan Khatib, Minister of Labor in the Palestinian Authority, strongly criticized the Sharon administration, arguing that "all Palestinians have been suffering collective punishment due to the Israeli blockade policy."

Hamas Logic: Balance of Terror

These Palestinian frustrations form the political base of Hamas. Some young men I met at the Jibalya refugee camp in Gaza told me that if they failed to find jobs by the end of the year they would volunteer for Hamas.

Through the introduction of a local Hamas activist I contacted, I was able to interview Sheik Ahmed Yassin twice. As a founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, he argued that he had taught the Israeli side lessons “by successive martyrdom operations” - suicide bomb attacks. He also denied being a “terrorist. “As far as I know, your country Korea was for decades a Japanese colony. What label did Koreans give to your patriotic activists? Terrorists?”

In fact, Koreans never called them terrorists. Under Japanese imperialist domination during the period of 1910-1945, many Korean patriots killed Japanese rulers and officials using guns or bombs.

Yassin argued, “If our resistance is called terrorism, it might be a balance to Israeli state terrorism.”

His argument reminded me of a Pakistani activist I met in Kashmir in 2002, who argued that he was not a terrorist but a freedom fighter. Yassin also pointed out that many more Palestinian civilians, including women and children, had been killed by “Israeli state terrorism” than Israeli civilians killed by Hamas bombs.

Abdul Aziz Rantissi, at that time a high-ranking leader in the political committee of Hamas and who was assassinated April 17th, argued that Hamas had no alternative left to them but suicide bombings to regain the Palestinian territory lost during the Six Day War in 1967. Like Yassin, Rantissi's definition of Hamas’ tactics was a “martyrdom operation by the weak.”

Surprisingly, he expressed an optimistic vision for the future of Palestinians. “Despite weak military forces, ethnics with a strong will to self-reliance will win in the end. Look at the French defeat in Algeria in 1962, the American retreat from Vietnam in 1973, the Israeli retreat from South Lebanon in 2000. Likewise, Hamas will overcome the current plight and will win someday. I believe in the progress of history.”

Two Key Words

Although some leaders and intellectuals I interviewed in Jordan and in Egypt were critical of Hamas tactics, they showed strong sympathy for Palestinian causes. Shaher Bak, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in Jordan, argued, “Some decisive change should be made in order to stop the current bloodshed situation. That change might at first be from the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territory, and simultaneously acknowledgement of the existence of Israeli statehood from the neighboring Arab countries.” Dr.Hassan Abou Taleb, Editor-in Chief of the Arab Strategic Report of the Center of Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, argued that extremist tactics like suicide bomb attacks would be repeated if the current Israeli occupation continues.

Political actors on both sides of the conflict rely on their own key words to interpret the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. From the Israeli view, the key words are “history” and “religion.” On the other hand, from the Palestinian view, the key words are “frustration,” “anger,” and “history.”

Although I understand the Israeli position, I could not help but to feel strong sympathy with the Palestinians as I stood on the streets of Gaza. The Israeli government needs to pay more regard to Palestinian human rights. One of the most basic human rights is the right to autonomous statehood.

To revive the nearly moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the stronger side should be sincere with its weak and frustrated counterpart. Even though Israel and the United States object to the deployment of an international peacekeeping force or international observers, either of these options is a reasonable plan to ease the current crisis. One simple conclusion: the current foreign policy of the Bush Administration, which does not focus on the self-reliance of Palestinian people, will not decrease the violence of the Middle East.

Jae Myung Kim is a PhD student in the political science department.