Four years ago on September 28, 2000, when

Ariel Sharon made his operatic visit to the Temple

Mount igniting the Second Intifada, no one could have

predicted how dire the situation would become so

quickly: Close to 6,000

dead, the building of the Separation Wall inside

Palestinian Territory despite an International Court

of Justice decision calling it illegal, mass movement

restrictions, continued passage of discriminatory

legislation, military assassinations, much of the

Palestinian population under closure and curfew,

thousands of home demolitions and the uprooting of

olive groves, socio-economic

discrimination, racist incitement, subsidization of

settlers, the number of jobless at

an all time high, continued police violence, no

cessation of suicide bombings, an

economy in freefall, continued West Bank settlement

expansion, the Gaza withdrawal still on hold and the

Roadmap to Peace ostensibly dead. This is seemingly

the pathetic legacy of the Al Aqsa Intifada years and

Ariel Sharon's Likud government.

The Al Aqsa Intifada, as the Second Intifada, began as

a Palestinian uprising to get the peace process back

on the table and to set the stage for an independent

Palestinian state. Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple

Mount, significant in Jewish tradition, but also a

Muslim holy site was seen as provocative by many as

his visit included over 1,000 security forces. The

riots which followed in the days after resulted in

numerous deaths including the killing of 13 Arab

citizens of Israel and a massive military crackdown.

Since then, West Bank cities in the Occupied

Territories like Jenin, Nablus and Hebron have seen

their cities terrorized. Gaza has been relentlessly

bombarded despite all the talk of withdrawal. Buses

in Jerusalem and Beersheba have been bombed. Israel

continues to flaunt international human rights and

humanitarian law in full view of the international

community with little response.

What is one of the worst things perhaps in this new

reality, which is quite similar to the old reality, is

the level of normalization this political climate has

taken on in Palestinian and Israeli society. The

Palestinians are still in trauma, shell shocked by the

effects of the Occupation are still testing the

atmosphere for change.

Its unfortunate result is the prevalence of several

positions within the Israeli silent majority which

perpetuate the present situation. First, that Israeli

security concerns justify violations of Palestinian

human rights through the use

of collective punishment, mass movement restrictions

and construction of the Separation Wall inside the

Green Line. Second, that unilateral Israeli action is

necessary to maintain Israel as both a

Jewish and democratic state. And thirdly, that the

Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat are not

credible partners for peace.

Challenging the present political climate in favour of

one which is driven by a need for human rights is

not high on the agenda of any of the mainstream

political movements in Israel today. It was after all

the Labor Party which started the West Bank settlement

expansion and plans for the Separation Wall, a barrier

presently being constructed between Israel and the

West Bank.

As the leaders talk peace, the situation on the ground

rarely shifts. From Hebron to Bethlehem to Nablus to

Jericho, to Jenin to Gaza, the humiliating and daily

effects of the Occupation are direct and all

encompassing. This power relationship that exists

today is still clearly not yet on an equal footing nor

is there any relevant plan that sees this as the goal

in the near future.

The Roadmap to Peace and the Geneva Accord are deeply

flawed. The Roadmamap to Peace, a plan for

Palestinian statehood by 2005 led by the United

States, was drafted by envoys from the US, European

Union, United Nations and Russia in April of 2003.

Despite the Roadmap's claims to push for an end to

the Occupation and a move to a two state solution, its

conditions placed on the Palestinian state are rigid

and do not acknowledge the role Israel plays in

maintaining a weakened Palestinian state. Arafat and

the Palestinian Authority today has little power and

is regularly undermined by Israel and its own lack of

leadership. The Geneva Accord, signed in October of

2003 by prominent Israeli and Palestinian leaders

outside of official government channels, is a

blueprint for a final status agreement between Israel

and Palestine. However, in its present form would

have a Palestinian state cede control of its borders,

airspace and underground water reserves to Israel.

Since Sharon became Prime Minister he has justified

much of his unilateral policy in the Occupied

Territories on the basis of "fighting terror" and an

unwillingness to deal with Arafat. This

game of violent response and counter-response between

the Israelis and Palestinians has resulted in the

Palestinians losing more than four times the number of

lives through military repression, and territory as a

result of the Separation Wall and within the other

side of the West Bank through settlement expansion and

its supporting infrastructure development. The

borders of Jerusalem are also being expanded through

annexation policies designed to create territorial

contiguity for the benefit of settlers.

Sharon's vision is ultimately to incorporate the West

Bank into de facto Israeli control without absorbing

any of the existing Palestinian population into

Israel. In fact, some Israeli Cabinet Ministers

openly talk about transferring some of the existing

Israel Arab population to the West Bank. The refugee

issue is not even on the map in any realistic way in

the major peace plans being offered up today by Yossi

Beilin, former Shabak director Ami Ayalon, Sharon

through his unilateral disengagement plan or in the US

led Roadmap to Peace.

The Americans have been total failures in guiding

Israel towards peace, having bought into the argument

that Israel requires operational space to deal with

Palestinian resistance. The US continues to fund

Israel between 3 - 5 billion dollars annually. In the

Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act of

2003 (Public Law 108-1, HR 1559), the US Congress

approved $9 billion in US loan guarantees to Israel

stipulating that the funds could only be used by those

areas under Israeli control prior to 1967. This past

week, they sold 5,000 American bombs to the Israeli

Defense Forces seemingly in preparation for a possible

future conflict with Iran.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, John Dugard,

stated in his report that the growth of settlements

together with the construction of the Wall "suggests

that territorial expansion remains an essential

feature of Israel's policies and practises in the

[occupied Palestinian territories]."

The great legacy of the Second Intifada and the Sharon

era will be the Separation Wall standing 26 feet tall,

over 400 miles long, constructed

with concrete and, in parts, enclosed with razor wire

and with plans to set up a trace zone with fine sand

to pick up footprints and to have parts of it mined.

Palestinians living between the Green Line and the

Separation Wall will particularly be isolated. When

completed, 70,000 Palestinians will find themselves

within this "no man's land" without access to Israel

and the Palestinian territories on the other side of

the wall. Water and food shortages resulting from

movement restrictions have occurred regularly and the

economy continues to suffer due to curfews, closures

and checkpoints.

As Dugard noted, "The Wall has all the features of a

permanent structure. The fact that it will

incorporate half of the settler population in the West

Bank and East Jerusalem suggests that it is designed

to further entrench the position of the settlers. The

evidence strongly suggests that Israel is determined

to create facts on the ground amounting to de facto

annexation."

What is being done today in the name of protecting

Israeli security is clearly disproportionate to the

threat being posed and is being used as a cover for

land expropriation in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The

Israelis and Palestinians continue to live through a

'Grand Dissonance' - leading parallel but uneqal lives

disconnected from each others narratives resulting in

disastrous consequences.

Naomi Klein's recent observation about the

'Likudization' of world politics is hardly a ringing

endorsement of the Ariel Sharon regime. There is

certainly value in bringing to international light the

grave excesses of Israeli government policy in the

past four years and of the Second Intifada in general.



There has been a gross failure of leadership at every

level in this conflict. Fundamentalism of the

religious and right wing variety has increased amongst

Jews and Palestinians. Ariel Sharon's position as a

moderate in Israel is not well earned considering his

long history of military repression. Yasser Arafat

needs to cultivate a new generation of leadership.

In short, after four years of pathetic leadership, the

Israeli/Palestinian situation is no further ahead.