Bro, Thanks for the forwards BMK >Palestinians' lives got worse: Israel continued to demolish homes; >Jewish-only bypass roads connecting settlements to Israel increasingly >chopped up the West Bank, dividing Palestinian communities into >disconnected Bantustans; Israel retained control of water and other >resources and continued to confiscate Palestinian land. And it certainly >didn't help that corrupt officials in Arafat's Palestinian Authority >pocketed funds meant for economic development. Americans hadn't paid much >attention, so when the Al Aqsa Intifada erupted, it was easy enough for >them to buy the Israeli version of what had gone wrong: the Palestinians >simply didn't want peace. > >"We had done a good job during the first intifada of showing the >occupation," says Phyllis Bennis, a fellow with the Institute for Policy >Studies who specializes in the Middle East. "But our mistake was in not >continuing to talk about human rights violations as an ongoing reality of a >repressive, spirit-killing, military occupation. It seemed as though if >guns weren't being fired, then things must have been fine. But you don't >have to fire a gun to control someone, you only have to have it. That's why >if you hold up a store by aiming a gun at the cashier, you've committed >armed robbery, even if you never pulled the trigger. Israel was still >holding the gun, but we had stopped pointing at it." > Though "not an optimist in the short run," Ali Abunimah remains convinced that "a broad-based movement against the occupation and in favor of a just peace, based on equality and ending domination," can succeed. "People forget that there was a strong business lobby in this country for South Africa during apartheid and that American policy was turned around entirely due to public pressure," he says. "There are precedents." > _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~