Washington Report, December 2005, pages 16-17

Special Report

“Nothing Lasts Forever”: Nasser Al-Kidwa On Israeli Occupation, Wall, Checkpoints

By Delinda C. Hanley

	Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa (Photo by Michael J. Keating).

PALESTINE'S minister of foreign affairs,  Nasser Al-Kidwa, spoke to the Washington Report at his Ramallah office on Oct. 4. Prior to his February 2005 election to the Palestinian Authority cabinet, Dr. Al-Kidwa served as Palestine’s permanent observer to the U.N. His predecessor as foreign minister, Dr. Nabil Shaath, is now deputy prime minister and minister of information.

Dr. Al-Kidwa politely listened to our expressions of dismay at finding matters in the West Bank worse, if anything, than we found them in our last visit a year earlier (see October 2004 Washington Report, pp. 42-61). Old friends, elected officials, shopkeepers, cab drivers, hotel and restaurant staffmembers, and countless people who just walked up to chat with two obviously American visitors painted a bleak picture. Despite the Gaza withdrawal, we found, West Bank Palestinians are in economic trouble and have little hope for their future.

Amid the festive lights and evening gatherings of Ramadan, shoppers were frugal and worried-looking as they haggled over luscious and fragrant fruit, vegetables, and sweets. Shopkeepers were desperate for customers. Hotels, souvenir stores and holy sites were empty between infrequent bus-loads of European, mostly Italian, or Asian tourists.

Traveling from Jerusalem to our meeting in Ramallah we found passage through Israel’s Kalandiya checkpoint separating the two cities slower and more chaotic, despite—or perhaps because of—increased security, more soldiers, computers, and scanners in the caged corridor through which all Palestinians and non-Jewish Israelis and tourists must pass. There was no sign of the road our minibus of diplomats had inched along last year, nor can Palestinians any longer travel through this checkpoint in their own cars. As usual, Palestinian entrepreneurs are making lemonade out of lemons and have devised a transportation system: Travelers can catch a bus or shared taxi to the checkpoint, then trudge across the dusty, garbage-strewn, unpaved passageway dragging suitcases, shopping bags, and children, while trying not to brush up against the encircling barbed wire. They then can grab a different vehicle at the traffic jam at the other end.

The nearly completed terminal for vehicular traffic loomed at the side of that crossing. Looking like a bleak Soviet-era building, it will enable Israeli soldiers to process and examine prisoners and their belongings, as well as fruits, vegetables and other products, more “efficiently.” Its real function, however, is to formalize and complete the terrible isolation and separation begun by Israel’s annexation wall—built on Palestinian territory. And despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s protestations, it looks very permanent indeed.

Palestinians wishing to drive to or from Ramallah soon will have to pass through this terminal at Israel’s Kalandiya checkpoint (Photo by Michael J. Keating).

After hearing us out, Ambassador Al-Kidwa offered the only optimistic words we’d heard in days: “Nothing will be there forever.“

We also expressed our frustration that Israel had refused to let us enter Gaza without Israeli press credentials, which the government press office refused to issue.

Now that Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, not much has changed, he agreed. But, he firmly believes, “It’s important that a reversal of the colonization process has happened. Israel has dismantled settlements and left Gaza. It’s important politically and psychologically that they’ve left. The departure of the soldiers removes a direct threat to the lives of the population. That’s it.”

Nevertheless, Al-Kidwa said, despite the Israeli withdrawal, “Palestinians’ legal status hasn’t changed. Israel still occupies territory, including Jerusalem. There has been no resolution of the remaining elements: the Rafah crossing point; the airport and seaport; linkage between the West Bank and Gaza; not even what to do with the rubble they left behind. Its removal is a real problem.

“It should be noted,” he elaborated, “that Israel concluded the disengagement while leaving great amounts of destruction. Not only the destruction in the few days before the completion of the disengagement, but over the course of years. Israel has left behind damage to homes, structures and huge amounts of rubble. Obviously it doesn’t look pretty.

“The notion that now that Israel has left Gaza, the population is in a model situation and it’s up to Palestinians to succeed on their own is ludicrous,” Al-Kidwa asserted. “Gaza has been destroyed.

“Israel has an interest in not having a good situation in Gaza,” he noted. “Israelis don’t want it to succeed. They want Gaza to remain isolated.

“In any case,” Al-Kidwa  reiterated, “there has been no settlement, either political or economic. It will all depend on what happens next in the West Bank. Will there be a real cessation of any settlement activities? Will Israel cease construction and tear down the wall? That is now the central issue. Now, practically speaking, the construction of the wall and settlements on Palestinian land, and the E-1 Plan, destroy  the potential of a two state solution.”

The E-1 Plan cuts the West Bank in half, and isolates East Jerusalem from the rest of Palestinian territory.

When asked if he believes Israel really wants peace, Al-Kidwa replied, “Any normal people want peace. No one wants bloodshed and confrontation. The question is, do the Israeli people understand and accept the requirements for peace? Are they ready for a real peace? Or do they really think they can only have peace if Palestinians disappear? In reality many Israelis don’t accept the national existence of Palestinian territory within the 1967 borders. That is tantamount to Palestinians who refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

“If Israelis speak of peacemaking while colonizing the land of the other side,” he pointed out, “it makes no sense. The last few years they have come to the negotiating table while continuing to colonize Palestine.”

Asked for his predictions regarding Jerusalem, the former U.N. diplomat said, “If what we hear is really the Israelis’ final position, it’s just not smart. Not only is it unacceptable to us, but it won’t be accepted by the rest of the world, either. The notion that Jerusalem is only for Jews is not realistic. If we look at history, as well as the present situation, Jerusalem is multi-religious, multi-ethnic. Sooner or later there must be an international decision that takes into consideration the interests of the three monotheistic religions. It’s absurd [for Jews] to say ‘it’s all mine.’ One possible solution is some kind of dual sovereignty [Jews and Muslims/Christians], an arrangement that is acceptable to the world.”

Getting Away With Murder

To this quiet, gentle man, it is inexplicable that Israel can get away with murder. “Many of the things Israel has done over the years would never have been tolerated by the world if they had been committed by any other state,” Al-Kidwa noted. “All the principles and values protected by the world—human rights, respect for international law, non-proliferation of weapons, religious tolerance...any value that crosses your mind—they have been violated by the Israeli side.

“How could the world allow this wall to happen?” he asked. “It’s unbelievable to see what has happened to my people as a result of the wall. Israel ignores U.N. resolutions and advisory decisions by the International Court of Justice. Still they go on building.”

Jordan, Egypt, the Gulf states, the Joint High Committee, the Arab League...all Arabs without question feel deeply about justice for  Palestinians. The problem, Al-Kidwa said, lies with their weakness. Their ability to help Palestinians solve this problem has been demolished.

“This issue has a direct influence on everything else in the region,” Al-Kidwa cautioned, “because for Arabs there is no doubt that a huge injustice has taken place with Palestine. The Palestinian conflict is the worst source of trauma and desperation, anger and hatred. It helps encourage extremism and lack of tolerance around the world. A solution here could change the situation in Iraq.

“You can argue about details,” he observed, “but you must address this huge injustice. A Palestinian state in the 1967 armistice line is key. At least then there would be a viable entity, a real state.

“Palestinians can’t compete with the Israeli lobby in the United States,” Al-Kidwa pointed out. Because the PLO’s small office in Washington is not an embassy, he explained, “it has no clear status and no functional diplomatic immunity.” A federal court in Rhode Island has frozen Palestinian funds in the U.S. because the PA failed to pay $116 million in damages the court awarded for the 1996 shooting deaths of American Yaron Ungar and his Israeli wife, Efrat, near an Israeli settlement. If the Palestinian Authority’s Washington, DC office had embassy status it would be immune from harassing lawsuits. Meanwhile, it’s difficult to accomplish any meaningful work under these circumstances, and with no embassy in Washington, DC.

“The American media frame the discussion,” Al-Kidwa noted, as we promised to try to share his words with our readers and with other publications.

Even though “things that we thought were impossible, like the occupation in Gaza, have been reversed,” Foreign Minister Al-Kidwa warned that, as Israel relentlessly builds settlements, the annexation wall, and very permanent-looking checkpoints and terminals, all on Palestinian land, the situation does indeed look bleak. “A two-state solution is still possible,” he concluded, “but it’s only possible for a short time.”

Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.