Faizan’s case is not over; it has started now…

Naqshab Afra

We need to stand up together and save future generations from the monsters present everywhere in our state

Faizan Rafiq, 14, has been released. He was put in prison few months ago on the charges of stone pelting and disturbing the law and order situation in the state. His release was possible only after human right organisations worldwide raised hue and cry. News reports have mentioned that before Faizan was released, the SP Kathua Jail asked both parents of the kid to sign a bond assuring that their kid will no more allegedly participate in the protests against the state.


What if Faizan’s parents would have refused to sign the bond, wouldn’t Faizan deserve release? Faizan is a minor both according to the state’s J&K Rabir Penal Code (which considered an individual below the age 16 as a child); and according to the Indian Penal Code (which considers an individual below the age 18 a child).
The police continue to arrests and harass the masses. People protest when police and civil authorities violate human and individual rights. Last year security agencies committed excess; people protested. Had there been no Machil fake encounter no one would have come on streets. Had the protesters not been dealt with heavy handedness no further protests would have appeared on the streets of J&K. Should we assume the government doesn’t want peace and justice to prevail in J&K and are pursuing some other policy to crush the honour, dignity and identity of people?

Faizan’s arrest has raised another socio-legal issue (to be advocated by child rights organisations, if at all they are interested in what they claim to exist for) that why the state of J&K doesn’t have juvenile homes? In context of committing social crimes, if at all a child is proven guilty (not because of his/her religious faith and political ideology).

Even then political prisoners deserve to be kept separate from social criminals as they are arrested for their political beliefs.

I wonder how many more people will be forced to suffer before the black laws like Public Safety Act and Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Disturbed Areas Act are repealed for good.

Time for mere modification is over. The draconian laws have to be totally abolished. It no way is helping India which otherwise has a stable Judiciary and functional legal system.

This time, we wouldn’t be fooled if these laws are replaced by other draconian laws for international consumption as it did happen when India replaced TADA with POTA after thousands of complaints were filed against the former Act by families of innocents, Muslim and Sikh victims of India and human rights defenders. We all know that POTA proved even worse than TADA.

The State government has to accept publicly that the pain Faizan and his poor family, relatives and neighbours had to go through, has to be compensated separately, immediately and adequately.

Concerning the concept of compensation: is it only when a Kashmiri is killed that he/she has to be compensated? We need to assert that all those who were/are victimised unjustly (physically and psychologically) by the state, need to be compensated. Let not the compensation be paid by poor tax payers of India or J&K, it should be deducted from salary of all those responsible for causing the misery, corresponding to the time period of suffering.

In Faizan case all those responsible, who misled everyone by calling Faizan 27 year old adult, who acted blind while signing warrant and PSA papers of Faizan and the people who made unsuccessful attempt to make believe the internationally community that the birth certificate of Faizan is forged, before independent investigation was conducted.

It should not happen to another Faizan. Faizan’s case is not over; it has started now…!! We need to chase other aspects as mentioned above related with the case. Had it happened with a kid in Delhi (may God save all children) we would have witnessed governments toppling down in New Delhi, bureaucrats standing in line in civil courts, whole population of Delhi on roads protesting demanding the release and compensation. We need stand up together and save our youth and future generations from the monsters present everywhere in our state. For a struggle one need a moral cause, we not only have genuine moral base and political reason but have offered huge sacrifices; all we need to do is to make it worth by standing for truth and resisting on each front.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/faizans-case-is-not-over-it-has-started-now…-8656.aspx?sms_ss=facebook_at_xt%3D4d5412f369437e23%2C0

I AM A STONE PELTER

By: Imran Ghazi
Intelligentsia scorn me, to them I am a ruffian, and they refer to me as the lumpen proletariat. They are all learned scholars, poets, linguists, writers; they are mirror of our society. When I and my friends were slaughtered on the streets some Rahi lost his way in the commotion, and found himself in a hall were some Gyan Peeth award was given to him by someone whose hands were smeared with our dirty blood. He accepted the award with hands folded in benediction, feeling at last he has found his way not knowing Rahi has been lost in wilderness forever. When men of intellect stoop so low I do what I know best, yes I pelt stones in despair. I have one question for all you learned men .Do those Shawls of honour have smell of our blood and warmth of the breath of a dying stone pelter? By the way was it not the proletariat who brought a revolution,an old news paper I found with” Sulla Masala”talks about that. How many of you have heard the word sodomy ‘’Astagfirullah’’ cheap word from a cheap stone pelter,this is what some of my friends had to face in police station S.R.Gunj,in presence of S.H.O and the D.S.P,they were no Ram lal or Shyam lal,but musalman saeb. The whole episode was filmed on their mobile cameras, all this in the name of teaching us a lesson. Everything is fair in love and war, but I think there is a word in your civilised world that you call morality, is this punishment moral, ethical, is it human, perhaps new city police chief who is as his name suggests always awake will have the answer or it is during these trying times his conscience takes a nap. Did you ever condemn it even verbally in your hamams ,no never, for boys who were assaulted brutally were not your kids, they were the dirt of the street and deserved to be trampled under the repressive feet of the monsters in uniform. Yes I did what I know best, I pelted stones in solidarity with my friends, for I may be filth of the street but can not condone the bestiality. I and my fellow stone pelters are in our early teens, post 90 generation, we heard about revolution from our elders, we were not part of it, but are the products of revolution. Did not you choke the towns and cities of the valley in millions, in search of Azadi in early nineties? Who are lying in numerous martyrs graveyards across the valley. Were they not your sons, daughters, fathers, mothers and friends? Have you forgotten them or you suffer from selective amnesia, you remember them when it suits you and abuse them when you like. You made us aware of what revolution is during Ragda2008. Who was on the streets for Muzaffarabad march ,Pampore, TRC, it was you. You came out not in thousands but lakhs and that in spite of all the restrictions imposed by the government. Who coined the slogan ‘’Bharat ka tiranga ye Ragda’’. You led and we over enthusiastic teens followed you. Then god knows why you made a beeline to the polling booths during assembly elections. We learned the lesson of freedom from you, alas you forgot, but you taught us so well that yearning for freedom is not in our hearts but our soul. Why are you raising your eyebrows, why this frown on your face. You talk about alternate ways of protest, how many of you participated in the torch processions, signature campaigns, and candle light vigils. I bet if you are asked to clap thrice in your bedrooms as form of resistance to Indian occupation you will not, even that will be left to the petty stone pelters like us. When was the last time you did something for the freedom movement? Moot point is you are all hypocrites, yes a nation of hypocrites. You talk of sacrifices rendered during last twenty years, what is your active contribution. It is our raw courage, which you presume I buy from 2500 paid to me by some agency that acts as a fig leaf to cover your cowardice and hypocrisy. Come out of your hypocrisy, I am a cancer for your development, have balls to tell me the same on my face. Why do you take part in our funerals, why, leave our bodies without bath and a shroud to be devoured by vultures .Don’t you raise the slogan” Martyr your blood will bring revolution.” Never will our blood bring about a revolution for there are no seekers of revolution. We are stone pelters it is our fate to die like this in gutters, from gutters we emerge, in gutters we live and it is the gutter that embraces us when we die. You be at peace in your castles you masters of inaction, in Kashmiri we call you “na karnike seh”. Be men and come out openly in favour of status quo or pre 90 position. Who are you afraid of? The gun wielding elders are gone; they are all in the martyr’s graveyard sleeping blissfully. Why are you confusing the world, you don’t need freedom and you wont get it, until you deserve it. Your self interest has sucked you up, you are in a rat race for making green bucks, castles, cars, careers, path to freedom is not yours, and you have gone astray. You need a course correction. You need a Bakshi (ii) who will provide you Rabab ,Kabab, Sharab and Shabab, this is what you strive for and take my word you will achieve this and no power on earth can stop your march, for you are committed and wedded to this cause. Enough of arguments, after all I am a stone pelter I can not win an argument with you, for you are learned men. It is clear to me my countrymen that I am an impediment to your progress, it pains me, I don’t want you to be backward, I want you to prosper. What then is the solution? I can not stoop to your level nor can you rise to my level. Don’t you worry I have a solution. Let there be a role reversal for a day, you be the stone pelters and we the perennial stone pelters the target. I will gather all my friends at Eidgah and you stone us to death, we will take all your stones with a smile on our lips and a tear in our eyes, smile we will for your prosperity and tears will roll, for we won’t be there to see the smile on your lips when you achieve your prosperity. Having stoned us don’t you think you won, it is we who have won for once from masters of inaction you have become men of action, and did not we pelt stones all our lives just to make you act. One last request my countrymen, please do not make a graveyard for us, for you will make a ritual of visiting it every year along with our respected leaders , who will come separately, as they come to our funerals individually, strange not even our blood unites them. They say unity is possible only on principles, true how can blood of a stone pelter or chastity and honour of a common Kashmiri woman be a principle to unite on, and it must be some high principle. Even if you bury us don’t ever visit our graves for old habits don’t die we will rise from our graves and pelt stones on sight of a Hypocrite. Tell my mother I will miss her, for I had two Homes Street and her lap, and yes her lap was comforting but it was the street that was my calling. As everything in the hospital room is becoming hazy and death is waiting to embrace me, I remember a couplet by some Iqbal, I read on the back of an auto rickshaw of a fellow stone pelter. jis khak Ke Zameer Main ho Atish Chinar Mumkin Naheen Ki Sard Ho Woh khake Arjmund. Is it true my country………….

REACTIVE RESISTANCE

By: Imran Ghazi

“To every action there is equal and opposite reaction.”God knows how many students of physics have understood the essence of Newton’s third law of motion but resistance leadership in Kashmir has imbibed the spirit of this law so much that their entire politics has become reactive in nature. Resistance camp needs to understand the law has universal applicability while dealing with the inanimate objects of the physical world, not in the polity which deals with human beings and their aspirations. It is altogether a different matter if inanimate objects and human beings are one and the same thing for resistance leadership. The events that have unfolded in the recent past stand witness to the reactive nature of resistance politics. The verdict against the Lajpat Nagar blast accused is a case in point. Once the verdict delivering death sentence to the accused was out we had everyone from the resistance camp expressing dismay, even suggesting that it was a political verdict delivered by the Indian judiciary, Strikes were called and Kashmir was on boil again. We as a nation do not dispute the stand taken by resistance camp, given our experiences with Indian judiciary, it is not the first time we have been witness to miscarriage of justice. We have been witness to the judicial murder of Martyr Maqbool Butt, Afzal Guru has been consigned to the death cell not because merit of the case demands so but to appease the conscious of a Nation. The point of contention is the Trial in Lajpat Nagar case was going on for last 14 years what was resistance camp doing all along, we suppose not sleeping. Were the accused provided any legal aid? Had Bar association constituted a team of lawyers to plead for the accused? Or resistance camp has faith in Indian politico-legal system, as a means of delivering justice, if that is the case then it is better to call for winding up proceedings of Resistance Inc. For all these 14 years the Lajpat Nagar accused suffered silently and alone like hundreds of other prisoners who have been languishing in Indian jails, forgotten and forsaken by one and all. Men who sacrificed their today for the people who are so engrossed in their today that they care a damn about their tomorrow. It is surprising that in spite of time gap of almost 15 days between the day the accused were convicted and the day sentence was delivered, apart from a token strike on the day of conviction, there was no political activity that would have created pressure on GOI and would have reflected in the sentence awarded to the accused. We are afflicted so much with the reactive syndrome that we waited for the verdict to be announced. If Kashmir had to be on boil, it had to be prior to delivering of verdict by the court that would have been the case if resistance camp was proactive but alas they are reactive. If we analyse the cycle of systematic violence unleashed by the Indian state in Kashmir and our response as a nation, it falls in the same Action-Reaction Trap. The Indian security apparatus is the manifestation of the Indian State in Kashmir and reflects the policy of the State which is repressive and exploitative in nature. It is but natural that human rights will be the first casualty in such a setup. They kill we protest, they torture we lament, they abuse we are offended, they rape we are enraged, in between we wait silently for them to re enact the drama of death and orgy. For last twenty years we have not been able to break this systematic cycle of repression as we have failed in coming up with a systemic response to systemic repression. Ragda 2008 was a watershed event in our resistance movement, showed lot of promise at the outset, eventually fizzled out and culminated with beelines of voters at pooling booths. The reason for failure of Ragda 2008 was that in spirit it was not a proactive movement but in reaction to the land transfer decision to Shri Amarnath Board, while the contours of Yatra were being changed from a religious pilgrimage to a colonial expedition we chose to be oblivious. We announced Muzaffarabad chalo in reaction to blockade of national highway, it dawned on us that Rawalpindi is our Mandi, only when our children were suffering due to shortage of baby food. Why during 20 years we could not visualise Rawalpinidi as an alternative market. The moment land transfer was revoked and blockade removed the Ragda 2008 found its place in the series of debacles of resistance movement. We can still salvage the movement, if Resistance camp commits itself to a proactive politics. It is time to shape the dynamics rather than be swept away by the changing dynamics of politics in Kashmir. Resistance camp needs to get its act together, instead of quibbling over trivialities it is time to internalise and institutionalise the movement. If they fail to do so they would be searching for jargon and jugglery of words to act as fig leaf to hide their failure five years down the line when next elections are scheduled in Kashmir.

KINGDOM OF SATAN ON EARTH

By: IMRAN GHAZI

It was unanimously decided to arrange the meeting in the deep sea on a warship. Still there was a glitch no Muslim country had a warship that could hang out in the deep seas, Pakistan hired one from U.S.A, and the Muslim world met Satan on a hired ship. Satan offered Muslims return to their glory in lieu of their open support. Satan Said” I will destroy the Christians and the Jews, and you will rule this world”. Muslims conferred and a young Kurd announced the decision to Satan” Satan do you remember in the last century you fooled us in the name of nationalism, we followed you and dismembered the Khilafat, from that day our slide started and continues to this day. We were a single unit then and now are a divided lot, we won’t follow you again. Even if you destroy Christians and Jews our problems will persist for we are our own enemies, we have nothing to do with you, we are in search of a Saladin who will unite us and take us to new glory.” Satan was exhausted and preparing to tender an unqualified apology .Just then a trusted aide rushed in to announce that he had found a race who can side with Satan. He started to explain” There is a place in the Himalayas called Kashmir, people there are living in misery since centuries, they are afflicted with poverty, disease and hunger and are desperate for deliverance, we can use there desperation to our advantage. They have struggled hard to come out of misery but the moment their deliverance is round the corner they deviate from the path of struggle hence their continued misery. I have recruited an able local to prepare the ground for our work and we must rush before it is late.”Satanic delegation rushed to Srinagar the Capital and almost crash landed. Local aide Abil joo welcomed them, Satan urged him to arrange a meeting with Kashmiri leadership. Abil joo smiled and said” we don’t have a leadership”. Satanic delegation was surprised to hear this, then how can we be assured of your support. Abil joo had a plan accordingly a public meeting was called on Friday to be addressed by Satan. Word went around Satan had come to change the destiny of Kashmir for better. On the appointed day there was a sea of people, whole Kashmir assembled on the banks of Dal Lake. Satan rose to address the gathering” I have come to give you deliverance from your miserable life, you will drink from fresh springs, stars will enlighten your dark homes and alleys, Kashmir will be Switzerland of Asia and Srinagar the Venice of East, only you have to support me. There was a buzz in the crowd. I will ban all virtues and vice will be obligatory. Drinking, gambling will be promoted, prostitution legalised…there was pandemonium in the crowd Satan grew pale with fear ,his brow perspired ,sensing trouble Abil joo rose and said” This a critical moment in our history, let us not loose our nerve. Satan has been sent by God Almighty to liberate our body and soul, he is our prayers answered. Holding the divine order Satan had with him he said “If we support Satan as per the divine order in my hand we will be spared of retribution in this world, as far as day of judgement is concerned we will seek forgiveness from God and he is merciful. We are already afflicted with vice, now that vice will be obligatory, we can always plead with God that it was not our fault but the dictate of the ruler. This is a golden opportunity lets grab it with both hands.”There was a buzz in the crowd, just then someone shouted ZAROOR(We will),and there was only one voice to be heard ZAROOR. Satan was over joyed and preparing to convey to God that he was ready to prove his representative character. Angels conveyed the development to the God Almighty and a single line statement was issued” One who creates only knows what he has created .Due to unavoidable circumstances the Elections to Prove representative character of Satan are postponed till further orders .”Same was posted on the notice board of the celestial secretariat. Satan arrived only to read the notice, and he left smiling. what if he had lost the chance to prove his representative character on earth, taking advantage of desperation of Kashmir’s he had found his kingdom on earth.

Hamas at 20

By Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah

I am writing this piece as 300,000-500,000 people (according to Reuters) are converging at the Katiba Square in Central Gaza to mark the 20th anniversary of Hamas’s foundation.
Undoubtedly, the huge turn-out ( nearly one-third of the Gaza Strip’s total population) is an unmistakable proof that Hamas is still very popular among Palestinians despite the rabid American-led efforts to scuttle the movement, possibly in order to facilitate the appearance of a quisling-like Palestinian leadership that would succumb to Israeli hegemony and colonialist aspirations.
The massive attendance is also an eloquent refutation of a plethora of tendentious Fatah-financed or Fatah-inspired opinion survey which have suggested that Hamas’s popular standing has seriously plummeted especially since the mind-June events in Gaza .
These opinion polls are actually reminiscent of the numerous opinion polls preceding the 2006-legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which had predicted a massive victory by the Fatah organization over Hamas.
At 20, Hamas seems a young, viable, and aspiring movement, with hundreds of thousands of mostly young Palestinians indoctrinated in the moderate political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This moderation, needless to say, will ensures Hamas’s continuity, growth and prosperity.
Hamas is not and will not be an al-Qaida-like organization, it will not wage Jihad on the whole world and will not classify the world into two camps- those who are with us, and those who are against us, as the al-Qaida organization.
Moreover, Hamas will not judge people’s religions and ideologies, and will continue to seek friendship on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interests. Indeed, despite erratic and stupid utterances by some ignoramuses who are members of Hamas, Hamas doesn’t actually consider Jews as enemies. In fact, Jews who support justice and true peace and who stand against oppression and occupation are Hamas’ partners for a better future for both Jews and Muslims in this tormented land.
More to the point, Hamas will continue to make a clear distinction between hostile states and citizens of these states and will never seek to target the urban centers of countries whose governments are hostile to the Palestinian cause, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
And Hamas will continue to confine its legitimate struggle and resistance against the Israeli occupation to the Palestinian-Israeli theatre. This has always been Hamas’s policy, and it will continue to be.
At 20, Hamas has been through it all, from creation to destruction. The movement endured every conceivable act of savagery and criminality on the hands of the Nazi-like Israeli regime.
The leaders of the movement, and in many cases their families as well, were deported, imprisoned, assassinated and massacred. Today, as many as 4000 Hamas leaders and activists languish in Israeli concentration camps, many of them without charge or trial. Even Hamas’s democratically-elected MPs and cabinet ministers have been summarily abducted from their homes and offices for no reason other than “the Hamas mantra,” a mantra whose invocations justify every Israeli savagery, brutality and atrocity.
Indeed, the vindictiveness with which Israel treats these innocent people has a few parallels in the history of mankind. The recent bloody repression by crack Israeli army units of the Kitziot prison inmates in the heart of the Negev desert is a clarion testimony, if one were needed, to the blatant barbarianism of the occupation.
Twenty years are not a long period in the history of nations and their struggle for freedom and independence. However, looking back at what Hamas has achieved, one can safely claim that Hamas has been a valuable asset for the enduring Palestinian struggle.
To begin with, from the very inception, Hamas offered an authentic alternative to the corrupt of the PLO which par excellance encapsulated and continues to encapsulate the meaning of corruption, despotism, dictatorship, nepotism, favoritism and even treason.
It is true, Hamas has not succeeded in liberating Palestine from the colonialist Israeli occupation.
However, Hamas has succeeded in reinstituting and prominently featuring the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees as the most paramount cause that can be neither compromised nor ignored nor circumvented.
The same can be said about other Palestinian national constants and red lines which the often happy-go-lucky Fatah negotiators viewed as “unsacred” and even “expendable.”
Actually, thanks to the political culture that Hamas helped foster and consolidate among Palestinians, there is no dignified Palestinian politician, even from Fatah, who would publicly express a readiness to give in on such red- lines like East Jerusalem, the refugees and the totality of any prospective Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.
It is actually because of its consistent refusal to succumb to Israeli hegemony and bullying that Israel and her guardian ally, the United States, and their poodles, and puppets and allies have been boycotting and blockading Hamas in the hope that another Palestinian entity, e.g. Fatah, would do Israel’s and the West’s bidding by finally surrendering to Israeli colonialism, probably through a “peace settlement” that has all the marks of a capitulation .
Non the less, Hamas not only has assets, has liabilities as well. Following the death of Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, who was brutally assassinated by Israel in 2004, a new generation of Hamas leaders didn’t really understand the timeless golden adage that “it is not enough to be right, one has to be wise, as well.”
Yasin and his lieutenants understood and translated this golden maxim into tangible political wisdom that helped Hamas overcome or at least circumvent the treacherous minefields of the Oslo years.
It is perfectly true that most of the blame for the mid-June events in Gaza falls on Fatah, not on Hamas. After all, it was clear to all and sundry that Fatah leaders, especially in the Gaza Strip, accepted willingly to play the role of quislings on behalf of the US and Israel, thus forcing Hamas to take a preemptive action to prevent the occurrence of a longer and bloodier civil war that would have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
We all remember how Israel reacted to the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in 1982, when then Prime Minister Menachem Begin remarked that “we have nothing to do with what happened …It is Arabs killing Arabs.”
Had Keith Dayton and Muhammed Dahlan and their cohorts succeeded in their conspiracy, God forbid, we would have had Ehud Olmert make the same argument, saying “we have nothing to do with what happened in Gaza ; it is Palestinians killing Palestinians.!” Non the less Hamas is not completely blameless.
In these difficult days, when our people in Gaza are facing a brutal and merciless blockade at the hands of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the holocaust, and when most nations prefer to play blind, deaf and dumb and look the other way, we need to utilize every shred of wisdom at our disposal.
Yes, we must do the right thing, but it is also true that we must choose the right time for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing at the wrong time causes disaster and unnecessary bloodshed. It also undermines our ability to withstand the brutality of our enemy.
Hamas is undoubtedly right in refusing to recognize Israel ’s right to exist. Israel, a country whose very existence was made possible only thanks to the destruction and near obliteration of another people, the Palestinian people, has no moral legitimacy and has no moral right to exist.
Non the less, Israel does exist and has moral and international legitimacy, and Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian people should be able to relate to this existence in pragmatic terms, but without giving it any moral legitimacy, because then we would all embrace the Zionist narrative and become de facto Zionists.
Hence, it is advisable that Hamas should reformulate the Hudna concept, at least in order to show the world that the movement is not nihilistic, e.g. like al-Qaida.
Similarly, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations should be able and willing to stop the firing of al-Qassam projectiles onto Israeli territory if and when Israel shows a genuine willingness to lift the criminal blockade and terminate its aggression against the people of Gaza .
Yes, resistance to a sinister and wicked military occupation is a legitimate and secret right that no one can deny.
However, how to exercise this right in a way that would limit one’s losses is always a matter of discretion and reasoning.
In short, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups should start thinking with their brains, not with their hearts.

Who killed Yasser Arafat?

By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem

Who killed Yasser Arafat? This is the question that has been boggling many people’s minds ever since the late Palestinian leader’s mysterious death in November, 2004.
Then, many people, politicians and ordinary citizens alike, even Arafat’s own physician, Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, seemed convinced that Arafat didn’t die a natural death and that he was actually killed as a result of a certain poisonous substance injected into his body probably by agents of the Israeli Mossad.
This writer spoke to Sakhr Habash, a close former aide to Yasser Arafat shortly after Arafat’s death. Habash, now ill as a result of a stroke, said that Arafat was killed by “ Israel ’s agents.”
I remember him telling me “they killed him, they killed him.” And when I asked him who he was alluding to, Habash said “he was referring to Arafat’s opponents within the Fatah organization.”
Habash gave no names, but anyone could conjure up some of the people he had in mind.
The PLO and the Palestinian Authority formed a commission of inquiry to look into the matter of Arafat’s death. However, the commission went into dormancy as soon as it was formed as all cues led to a dead-end or to inaccessible figures or sovereign foreign governments, e.g. France, that wouldn’t cooperate.
Nearly two weeks ago, Bassam Abu Sharif, another former aide to Yasser Arafat, held a surprise news conference in Ramallah, marking Arafat’s 78th birthday, in which he pointed out that Arafat did die of poison and that he possessed credible evidence proving his hypothesis.
Abu Sharif appealed to former French president Jacques Chirac to disclose the cause of Arafat’s death, or more specifically, to reveal the type of poison that killed the late Palestinian leader.
Meanwhile, it was reported recently that the Tunisian government decided to withdraw the Tunisian citizenship from Arafat’s widow Suha Tawil who reportedly moved to Malta where she is now living.
Neither the Tunisian government nor Arafat’s widow elaborated on the matter as some pan-Arab newspapers speculated that the Tunisian measure was prompted by a business dispute between the former Mrs. Arafat and her Tunisian partner.
However, there have been allegations and rumors that Suha Tawil possessed “hard information” about Yasser Arafat’s death and that she received a legal undertaking from the French authorities to keep “Arafat’s medical records confidential.”
Moreover, there have been consistent reports circulating in the occupied Palestinian territories alleging that Suha Tawil had reached a “deal” with the top Fatah leadership in the West Bank whereby she received millions of dollars in return for “keeping her mouth shut.”
And it seems that both sides to the deal have kept their part of the bargain. However, it is obvious that the alleged deal between Palestine’s First Lady, as some pliant Palestinian newspapers used to refer to Suha al Tawil, and the top Fatah leadership, has failed to bury the Arafat’s death affair in the grave of history once and for all.
This week, Ashraf al Kurdi revealed in an interview with the pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV that HIV antibodies were found in Arafat’s blood. When Kurdi uttered these words, the station immediately halted the interview.
Al Jazeera officials didn’t say why they stopped the interview with Dr. al Kurdi, a noted cardiologist and former Jordanian Minister of Health, but journalists working for the satellite station in the Occupied Palestinian territories intimated that the famous station probably was worried that Kurdi’s revelations might put it in a difficult situation vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority, especially the Fatah group, who might harm al-Jazeera’s correspondents and workers in Palestine.
Al-Kurdi, undeterred by Al-Jazeera’s nervous reflexes, clarified the matter further during an interview with the Jordanian Ammon website this week. He said he believed that Arafat was deliberately infected with the AIDS virus in order to obscure the real cause of his death and also in order to tarnish his name, e.g. by creating the impression that Arafat may have been gay, a disgraceful trait in traditional Arab society.
Al-Kurdi, who was Arafat’s personal physician for 18 years, didn’t say how he was able to know that HIV viruses were found in Arafat’s blood and why he thought that the actual cause of his death was poison, not AIDS.
Al Kurdi left many questions unanswered when he pointed out that he was prevented from seeing the late Palestinian leader when his life was really deteriorating.
“They used to call me whenever he had a simple common cold, but when his life started to deteriorate , his wife, Suha, wouldn’t allow me to travel with him to the hospital in Paris; no doctor at the French military hospital contacted me for details about his health, and after he died, the current Palestinian Chairman didn’t allow Arafat’s grave to be reopened in order to determine the cause of his death.”
Interestingly, al Kurdi’s revelation that Arafat’s blood contained the HIV virus was previously unknown and certainly unconfirmed. This writer interviewed al-Kurdi on Arafat’s death nearly two years ago, and he made no reference to the infectious disease. Hence, one is prompted to ask what is the source of al-Kurdi’s revelations? And who has a vested interest in making these revelations at this time? And is there a certain “insider” trying to blackmail or expose the culprits for money or political concessions or both?
Moreover, why did Suha Arafat prevent Ashraf al-Kurdi from seeing her husband after he was transferred to the military hospital in Paris? Also, does her expulsion from Tunis have anything to do with some undeclared revelations about her possible complicity or culpability in Arafat’s death.?
These and other questions are awaiting satisfactory answers.

The Shalit tale is yet to end

By Khalid Amayreh


Last week, when Israel received from Hamas via the Egyptian mediators a list of the names of Palestinian political and resistance prisoners the movement is demanding their release in return for freeing an Israeli prisoner, many people voiced the hope that a prisoner swap was imminent.
However, these hopes were soon dashed when Israeli Prime Minister and other officials rejected the list, on the ground that it contained too many names, including key political leaders Israel is holding as bargaining chips to be used in any prospective negotiations with the Palestinians.
More to the point, Israel is worried that freeing that many Palestinian prisoners would boost the morale of the Palestinian society and strengthen the Palestinian national unity government as well as the Hamas movement.
But Israel is also facing a predicament. The Israeli soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian guerillas nearly ten months ago will not be released alive (or even dead) unless and until Israel releases Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinian factions holding the soldier, Gilad Shalit who has become a household name thanks to Israeli hasbara efforts, are emulating Hizbullah’s tough bargaining tactics vis-à-vis Israel whereby no piece of information, not even a tangible proof that Shalit is alive, will be given for free. Hence, all Israeli efforts to know the whereabouts of Shalit have failed.
The Palestinian stand on the Shalit affair is actually vindicated by Israel’s apparent ill-will and condescending posturing with regard to the Shalit affair.
Initially, Israel sought to free Shalit by force by carrying out deadly incursions into Gaza population centers, causing the death of hundreds of innocent civilians, including many children, and utterly destroying much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
When that failed to liberate Shalit, the Israeli army resorted to taking dozens of Palestinian officials, including cabinet ministers and lawmakers as hostages to be used as bargaining chips to bring about Shalit’s release.
And when this tactic also failed, the Israeli government resorted to the characteristic tactics of deception and equivocation by rounding up hundreds if not thousands of mostly innocent Palestinians citizens from the West Bank and dumping them in Israeli detention camps without charge or trial, with the clear aim of bullying the Palestinians to free Shalit.
At one point, Israel went as far as suggesting unfreezing hundreds of millions of dollars of Palestinian tax money withheld by the Jewish state since last year in exchange for releasing Shalit from Palestinian custody.
Those who are holding Shalit seem to have been unimpressed by all these tactics and are actually showing sophistication as well as a high degree of patience.
Indeed, at one point, Hamas openly criticized the Egyptian mediators for giving Israel the impression that the Palestinians would settle for less, in terms of the number and “the quality” of prisoners whose release is demanded.
It is not difficult to analyze the Israeli posture with regard to Shalit.
Israel, as a matter of principle, is committed to repatriate any Israeli soldier taken prisoner by the enemy, irrespective of the price to be paid.
This has always been part and parcel of the Israeli doctrine, which views Jewish lives as superior than non-Jewish lives and Jewish blood as redder than non-Jewish blood.
However, the price Israel is demanded to pay this time seems to be too high, at least from the point of view of the Shin Beth, Israel’s main domestic security agency. Hence the dilemma.
The Shin Beth believes that releasing 1300-1400 Palestinians, many of them veteran leaders of the Palestinian national movement, would, using the words of Uri Avnery, release an outburst of joy all over the occupied Palestinian territories, as there is hardly a Palestinian family that doesn’t have a relative in Israeli jails.
Moreover, there is always the argument that releasing “terrorists” would encourage Palestinians to carry out more “kidnappings” of Israelis to use them as hostages and bargaining chips to force Israel to free Palestinian prisoners.
Well, this is a spurious argument. In the first place the vast bulk of Palestinians released from Israeli jails since the Olso Agreement have been leading a quiet life and are busy building their lives and raising their children.
More to the point, it is clear that most of the former prisoners are politically moderate and advocate a dignified and just compromise between Israel and the Palestinian people pursuant UN resolutions and the land-for-peace formula. In fact, many symbols of the Palestinian leadership happen to be former prisoners released either before or after the conclusion of the Oslo Agreement.
Second, it is amply clear that it is Israel that forces the Palestinians to resort to desperate tactics, such as kidnapping soldiers, to force Israel to do what it should have done a long time ago, namely releasing Palestinian political prisoners, especially those who have spent many years in prison.
But the most mendacious and often-cited mantra against freeing Palestinian prisoners is the manifestly racist argument that Palestinians are “terrorists” not prisoners of war and that they have “Jewish blood” on their hands, as if the hands of tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers, officers and even politicians didn’t have tons of blood (Palestinian blood) on their hands.
Well, It is obvious that Israelis in general don’t like to discuss this matter since doing so would expose their racism and moral duplicity.
Needless to say, these condescending attitudes emanate from the overall Israeli perception of Palestinians as lesser human beings with lesser rights and whose lives are expendable, or at least incomparable to the paramount Jewish lives.
Israel needs to discard this arrogant attitude toward its neighbors and victims. Otherwise, the possibility of true peace in this region will never materialize.