Despite all its efforts to retract the moment, the Obama Administration’s embrace of Netanyahu 2 weeks ago for "unprecedented" progress was hugely-clarifying to many of us. A shattering moment, it has liberated people to think about the failed peace process in new ways. It has made me vow not to be trusting about officials’ statements in the light of real conditions. Here is Mustafa Barghouti at the Wattan Center in Palestine (hat tip, Seham). My impression is that this eminently-reasonable and even-tempered man is now enraged, and who can blame him?
“We will be unable to freeze settlements expansion or any other Israeli policy of apartheid if we do not engage in a unified strategy against it. Towards this direction diplomatic action is fundamental but is not enough. Non violence resistance is the only means to revive a culture of collective activism among all sectors of the Palestinian people. Powerful models are already spread across several villages in the West Bank. Let’s follow the examples of those Palestinians who succeeded in breaking down sections of the Wall last week, in Ni’lin and Qalandya, marking the 20th Anniversary of Berlin Wall’s fall" went on Barghouti..
“We witness today the complete death of the so called peace process” concluded Barghouti “but nothing will prevent the Palestinian people from declaring their independent state. Israel does not respect the law and it contravenes Oslo agreements, increasing the number of illegal settlements in West Bank, perpetrating the siege on Gaza and stealing Palestinian land with the ongoing construction of the wall. Why should a declaration of an independent state on June 4 1967 borders, including east Jerusalem constitute a violation of the Oslo agreement?”
“We refuse to be slaves of occupation, slaves in ghettos.”
