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Prof.
Speaks Against Occupation
by Ariella Cohen
After six days of Israeli tanks razing roads and crumbling
Palestinian homes, schools and civil facilities, Assistant Professor
of Womens Studies and Sociology Frances Hasso spoke out against
the Israeli siege. Wednesdays talk marked the semesters
first campus address of the rapidly escalating military take-over.
In those same hours Hasso spent detailing the mass arrests of Palestinian
civilians, the destruction of city infrastructure, including medical
facilities and the lack of electricity and food wrought by the escalating
military invasion into residential areas, Israeli military forces
extended their offensive strike into Nablus, a city populated by 180,000
and under complete Palestinian autonomy, leaving only two Palestinian-ruled
city or towns free of the UN sanctioned, Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
siege.
Hasso detailed events that have been included in mainstream media
coverage, including the IDF killing of five guards protecting democratically
elected PLO leader Yasir Arafat, the killing of 120 paramedics and
the deaths of journalists, before going into accounts left largely
unheard, alluding to the need to read between the lines
and educate ourselves. She recounted a story told to her by a colleague,
Jamil Hilal, who runs a research institute and lives in Ramallah.
During home raids [IDF] soldiers are stealing money, stealing
jewelry, even taking birthday cake, Hasso said.
Hasso read an account from a University of Minnesota student, Tzaporah
Ryter, currently under siege in Ramallah. The American explained her
efforts to get, while under military siege, to the local bakery: I
got to the corner trying to get to the bakery for bread and food for
people. Some people were calling and calling with only one cup of
rice left. I made it to the corner but they opened fire on my first
try and shot at me, so I had to turn back, Hasso read.
Ryter mentioned that armed groups of settlers were roaming Ramallah.
Israels military siege began last week with Israeli Prime Minster
Sharons tank levied house-arrest of Yasir Arafat and has rapidly
escalated to Israels largest military offensive in decades.
Operation Defensive Shield was presented by both
the US and Israeli governments as an effort to crush Palestinian militias
that have carried out deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, now including
seven suicide bombings in the past week. Hasso emphasized American
diplomatic support as well as the billions of dollars in US aid and
military resources that enable the Israeli occupation.
Raising the possibility of a EU brokered durable peace,
Hasso emphasized the necessity of multilateral negotiations in undercutting
some of the U.S. bias towards Israel. Multilateral negotiations realized
the newly approved UN resolution 1402. Still, Hasso pointed to monetary
debts that the UN owes the U.S. as a factor to why even in this resolution
US General Zinni and the US Tenent Plan backbone negogiations.
There is a way in which resolution 1402 says withdrawal from areas
just invaded, not from the territories in their entirety. You need
to watch the language of the occupation. The terrain is U.S. terrain
set
by the CIA, Hasso said.
Activist Jeff Halpern uses the analogy of a prison to explain
the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It looks like the
prisoners have most of the space, theres only a few guards,
some bars but then you have to look at who puts the bars there
what
this does, sophomore Nava Etshalom said.
After 20 minutes, Hasso opened her talk for questions. The first question
asked Hasso to address antisemitic backlash on the part of Western
Europe. After speaking a bit on new political alliances that
have formed as some Jewish-Zionist groups, traditionally progressive,
become alienated by political peers now critical of Israel, Hasso
said she had no comment on the issue.
Later, questions on Israels validity as a modern state surfaced,
students discarding the Zionist myth of Israel as a virgin birth,
a land without a people for a people without a land and
asked how it came that the land so quickly received legitimacy for,
essentially, colonial self-determination; I would like to hear
people talk about whether its even justified to have an Israel,
junior Adam Feldman said.
There is an existential problem for Israel, as a virgin
birth that doesnt recognize the four million refugees
its birth created, Hasso said. There is a problem [for
Palestinians] when democracy is linked to being Jewish, or land ownership
and land ownership depends on being Jewish, Hasso said.
Another question directed the talk towards the effect that the on-going
house arrrest will have on Arafats clout. Now he is salmid,
steadfast in English
there is a way in which [his imprisonment]
has reinvoragrated his power. However, he has never been a truly democratic
leader
and this delays the move from autocrat. There were fair
elections but nevertheless there are questions on accountability,
whether he has given too much. This [the Israeli siege and the consequental
rise in Arafats popularity] slows the process. But people are
used to waiting, Hasso said.
When asked the perennial OC question, what can we do?
Hasso suggested writing to Congress about stopping aid to Israel.
This Friday, the student group Students For a Free Palestine [of which
this articles author is a member] plans to demonstrate in Cleveland
calling for an end to US support for the occupation.
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