By Adam Hanieh
RAMALLAH — On September 10, the Israeli government announced it had killed two Palestinians in a shoot-out near the West Bank town of Hebron. The next day it revealed that the two dead men were Adel and Imad Awadallah, two Hamas activists wanted by the Israeli government.
The deaths of the Awadallah brothers were widely celebrated in Israel. In contrast, the response in the occupied territories was anger. Close to 100 people were injured in clashes with Israeli troops over the following two days and most shops were closed in mourning for the brothers.
Eyewitnesses contradict the official Israeli version of the deaths. According to the Israeli military, the Awadallahs were killed in a shoot-out with police after an explosion was heard in the vicinity. Local residents heard no explosions before trucks carrying plain-clothes Israeli soldiers arrived at the house, and only five shots were heard at the scene.
The house was located in a remote area of the West Bank, Area C, which is controlled by the Israeli state. This is an unusual area for wanted men to hide, especially since it contains only 30 houses — any new face would be immediately noticed.
Journalists visiting the scene after the assassinations reported that an emblem of the Hamas military wing, the Iz adeen al Qassem brigade, had been painted on a bedroom wall — an unlikely artistic pursuit for two men on the run.
Imad Awadallah had been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority (PA) early this year following the assassination of Muhi a Deen Sharif in Ramallah. Sharif was a Hamas leader and his death was blamed on internal Hamas rivalry.
Strong suspicions were raised that the PA was involved in Sharif's death, particularly following the arrest by the PA of Birzeit University student Ghassan Adassi.
According to fellow prisoners and family members, Adassi was tortured and forced to confess to complicity in the assassination. He remains in prison and has never been accused or brought to trial.
Imad Awadallah was arrested following Adassi's confession, but was not charged with a crime. Three weeks ago, Awadallah escaped from prison in Jericho and the PA began a wide search of Palestinian areas and placed checkpoints at town entrances.
Palestinian security blockaded the Awadallah family home and refused to allow anyone in or out of the house. A demonstration outside against the blockade was violently broken up by Palestinian Preventative Security, six people were hospitalised, including Palestinian Legislative Council members and journalists.
Following the announcement of the Awadallah brothers' deaths, a third brother interrupted a press conference to say, "Rajoub, we will not forgive you for this". Jibril Rajoub is the head of the Palestinian Preventative Security.
A few days after the killing of the Awadallahs, the West Bank was rocked by a drive-by shooting of a high school student in Beitunia, near Ramallah. Iyad Karabseh was killed when settlers opened fire on a group of Palestinian students returning home from school.
In response to threats by Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers, the Israeli government has imposed a closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, preventing Palestinians from crossing into Israel.
Leadership agreement
These events form the backdrop to the so-called impasse in the peace process, highlighted by the recent visit to the region by US special envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross. Ross met with Palestinian and Israeli leaders in an attempt to find an agreement on the second stage of Israeli redeployment from the West Bank.
Despite official denials, it is widely believed that an agreement is close at hand.
On September 22, Palestinian negotiating team head Saeb Erekat resigned, reportedly because he disagreed over a "secret track" in the negotiations between the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmed Qr'ei, and the Israeli government. Palestinian president Yasser Arafat refused to accept the resignation.
There are few differences between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships about the next stage of the Oslo settlement. Both face the same problem of how to sell the agreement to their population.
Zionism, since its formation as a political movement, has relied on support from its extreme right-wing. The belief in a "Greater Israel" — extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River — has been strongly held by many influential leaders of the Zionist movement.
Every political leader in Israel's history has supported the settler movement and the colonisation of land in the West Bank and Gaza. The Oslo agreements led Israel to the brink of achieving what it had planned for decades.
The main guiding principle has always been to find a means to control the maximum area of land with the minimum Palestinian population.
A mass transfer of Palestinians — although supported by some Israeli political forces — would be impossible in the current situation. Direct military occupation is also not sustainable because of the significant solidarity with Palestinians shown during the intifada both inside Israel and internationally.
The consensus of Israeli decision-makers over the last 30 years has been to support some form of Palestinian autonomy in which Palestinians would live in isolated blocs, separated from each other by Israeli settlements and highways. The Palestinian population would be contained by checkpoints, ID cards and other means of identification.
Another key to preventing Palestinian sovereignty is the control of natural resources, without which it is impossible to develop an independent state. It is clear five years after Oslo was signed that Israel has virtually guaranteed its control of close to 70% of the West Bank through the construction of settlements, bypass roads and the demolition of Palestinian houses.
Whereas it took a decade to increase the Israeli settler population in the occupied territories to 75,000 in 1989, it took only the next five years to double it again. The number of settlers has been growing by 10% each year since the signing of Oslo.
Between 1967 and 1977, the Israeli Labor Party government unofficially followed what was known as the Allon Plan for the construction of settlements in Jerusalem and along the Jordan valley. These settlements were considered "security buffers" and divided the West Bank from Jordan.
During the mid-1980s, settlement construction focused on creating settlement corridors between Jerusalem and the Jordan valley settlements. In the north of the West Bank, the two major Palestinian towns of Nablus and Ramallah were divided by settlements.
The Allon Plan closely resembles all the maps being discussed by the Israeli establishment for the final status of land at the end of the Oslo process. In addition, Israel has created a weak and submissive Palestinian leadership with its own interests in the Oslo process.
Finishing the process
The difficulty for the Israeli government lies in convincing the settler movement (which has both secular and religious wings) to accept any form of partition and very limited autonomy for Palestinians. The settler movement is strongly represented within the current Israeli cabinet and has threatened to bring down the government if Oslo is implemented.
Netanyahu is often characterised by the Palestinian leadership, the mainstream media and the Israeli "left" as stupid, tactless and mindlessly leading the region towards war.
This overlooks his significant role in keeping together the fractious Israeli society, while implementing the plan that the previous Labor administration began. It is clear — witness the assassination of the previous Labor prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by the right-wing settler movement — that no Labor administration could have done this.
The problem that the Israeli and US administrations now face is how to finish the process and prevent the rupture of Israeli society.
The Palestinian leadership faces a similar problem. As a result of Oslo, a wealthy layer of Palestinian officials preside over an impoverished population. Cars, houses, salaries and freedom of movement are bestowed on those who toe the line. The head of the negotiations department of the Palestinian Authority has "earned" five cars and three houses in his two years in the position.
This shared dilemma has led to unprecedented collaboration between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships, and has demoralised a once militant Palestinian population.
Despite the ferocity of Israeli attacks, land confiscation, settlement expansion and house demolition, the PA's response always takes a similar form.
Official protests from the Palestinian Authority talk about "violations of the Oslo accords", warn of "the imminent demise of the peace process" and urge the "international community" to "come to the aid of the Palestinian people". At the same time, weak, localised clashes with the Israeli army take place.
Collaboration between the PA and the Israeli government is best symbolised by another event — the opening of the Oasis Casino in Jericho. The casino, the largest in the region, aims to attract Israelis and is supported by a group of Austrian, Palestinian and Israeli business people. The casino is built opposite a refugee camp and is being promoted by the PA as a massive source of jobs and money for the local area.
Gambling is illegal in Israel and thousands of Israelis are expected to travel to the new casino along a highway built on confiscated Palestinian land. Neighbouring Israeli settlements have reported that hotels are fully booked and are planning to expand their capacity. The full-page casino advertisements in Israeli newspapers state it is only 25 minutes from Jerusalem, but do not mention it is located in the West Bank.
Mirroring the apartheid that is the reality of the post-Oslo era, Palestinians are banned from entering the casino unless they hold foreign passports or are VIPs — i.e., associated with the PA.