Fellini in Palestine

VICTORIA, B.C.--Not even Fellini, the great Italian cinematic genius, could have choreographed a more surreal, circus-like situation in the West Bank—the absurd siege of Arafat's compound and the doubly absurd demands from Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush that Arafat —confined to an office lacking electricity, running water, or a spare cell phone battery — "do more to stop the violence." If it were not so deadly frightening for the unarmed civilians facing tanks, snipers, F-16s and the blind wrath of Ariel Sharon, the IDF's current drive to reoccupy key cities in the West Bank might be comic, another reminder that "O what fools these mortals be."

But such mortal foolishness is no laughing matter. We still don't know how many people were executed in Ramallah. Anyone walking the streets in occupied Palestine now risks his or her life, as the Boston Globe's award-winning journalist, Anthony Shadid, discovered when he was shot in the shoulder two days ago. Israeli tanks are on the move everywhere, yet despite Sharon's brutal offensive, the suicide bombers just keep on coming: six in as many days, and no one imagines it is over.

At an Easter gathering yesterday, a friend jokingly suggested that a good short-term solution might be to "introduce Paxil and Zoloft to the Palestinian and Israeli water supply," indicating that abnormal psychology might provide a more useful approach than that of political science for making sense of recent events in the Middle East. And truly, one need not be a rocket scientist, let alone hold a Ph.D. in International Relations or Psychiatry, to see that something is seriously, dangerously amiss in Israel and Palestine. Only the daft and the ideologically blinded, such as US President George W. Bush and most mainstream US media pundits, are unable to see that Sharon has already lost this battle and that a key turning point may have been reached in this long, painful, and exhausting conflict.

Although suicide bombings directed against civilian targets are indeed horrific and, in this writer's view, illegal, inexcusable and counter-productive, the crucial issue is not the daily carnage visited upon Israelis by young Palestinians so poisoned by anger, bitterness and despair that they end their own lives while taking out as many of those they perceive as causing their distress with them. Rather, the key, overriding issue is—now as it has been since June 1967—Israel's ongoing military occupation of Palestine. Colonialism ended everywhere else, so why not here, too?

Here we see a different, more insidious type of violence, one apparently not photogenic, simplistic, or dramatic enough to attract CNN's attention: The structural violence of three decades' worth of dispossession, disenfranchisement, injustice, humiliation, and misery to which Israel has subjected Palestinians — directly or indirectly. One must note that the Oslo Accords were simply an attempt to subcontract the occupation to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. It did not work, nor will any attempt to solve this conflict using the tired old approach of Oslo.

The only way to end this conflict, to restore justice, peace, dignity, and a sense of a future, is through all of the available international laws and UN resolutions that directly address the ongoing tragedy. Oslo's detour around international law consolidated an inherently unjust and unbalanced power structure, giving the Palestinians the "short end of the stick" for nearly a decade. If nothing else, the events of the last 18 months, not to mention the events of the last 18 days, demonstrate that only international law, not US geostrategic interests or Zionist dreams of expansionism and ethnic purity, or Hamas hopes for all Jews to leave once and for all, can stop the madness and bring down the tent on the obscene and absurd circus act now playing on televisions across the world.

The point is not to be pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, but to be pro- justice and pro-sanity. To quote another master of the absurd, American novelist Tom Robbins: "The true enemy of Arab is not Jew, the true enemy of Black is not White; the true enemy of all is dull- mindedness" (from "Even Cowgirls get the Blues"). And as is so painfully obvious to anyone watching one of the most dull-minded US administrations ever to control Washington, DC, the primary characteristics of dull-mindedness are the use of violence as the main method of problem solving, the adoption of revenge instead of justice as a guiding political principle, and the erosion of truth and moral complexity through the repetition of such mindless mantras as "You are either with us or against us."

Dull-mindedness comes in only two shades: Black and White. Notice that Fellini's most troubling films were all shot in monochromatic tones: La Dolce Vita and 8 ½. In these films, men and women had lost their way through selfishness, greed, pride and lust. Their hearts and minds had frozen. But all of his life-affirming films, imbued with warmth, justice, decency, hope, and--the greatest virtue of all-— compassion, were shot in glorious and luscious Technicolor: "Amarcord," "Amore por Tutti" and "Ginger and Fred."

By enforcing international law and UN resolutions, rather than rewarding Israeli war crimes and thus fueling Palestinian suicide bombers, Israelis and Palestinians might finally be able to live a glorious life in Technicolor in one of the most beautiful places on the face of this troubled planet. Whether they are Jews, Muslims, or Christians, the multi-cultural mix of peoples fated to share that lovely land together deserve to live fully, rather than to rot away in half-lives of fear and hate and the deadening hell of black and white ideologies interrupted only by red flashes of fire and an unending flood of crimson blood.

© 2002 Laurie King-Irani

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Editor's Note

A few days ago, I was in a rage over the unfair, biased reporting of events in the Middle East. I was complaining to my mother about not having the time to go and dig up the information I knew was out there about the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and Ariel Sharon's militant politics.

Then I received a newsletter from the Nation Magazine with some links to websites offering the information I was looking for. Thanks to the hard work of good, talented people like Laurie King-Irani, I am able to offer you this excellent article as well as some great websites and resources for information if you wish to find out more.

There are a number of excellent websites available -- a few of which are listed below. ~ Audrey

Resources

"THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA located at electronicIntifada.net will equip you to challenge myth, distortion and spin in the media in an informed way, enabling you to effect positive changes in media coverage of the Palestinians and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict."

"indictsharon.net satisfies where other websites do not. The site where the information about the case against Sharon in Belgium is posted. A very important initiative. Join the news list. Created by Laurie King-Irani and Nigel Parry from material provided by the legal team who lodged the case against Sharon in Belgium."

If you're not sure what all this is about, check out the Israeli Prime Minister's annotated biography:
http://electronicintifada.net/forreference/keyfigures/sharon.html

"B'TSELEM - The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel."

Amnesty International "The Heavy Price of Israeli Incursions"

The Peace Mid-East Dialog Group Resource Page

The Nation Magazine

Middle East Resource Page

Independent Media Center

The Daily Star

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