Pullback under pressure

THE Israeli pullback from Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah might have temporarily eased the crisis, but the basic issue remains unresolved — that of withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied territories and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. Israel and its supporters have tried to obfuscate this fundamental issue by bringing in extraneous matters not germane to the Arab-Israeli conflict. This has taken several forms. One obvious strategy has been to label the Palestinian struggle for freedom as terrorism. Another is to focus on the purported need for reforms in the Palestinian Authority and on the personality of Yasser Arafat. No one has done more to lend full support to Israel in raising a smokescreen of fake issues than successive US governments. The present American administration has outdone all previous ones in confounding the Palestinian problem and trying to sidetrack the core issue. President George Bush’s much-awaited Middle East “initiative” epitomized America’s unqualified support for Israeli policy and its defiance of the UN and world opinion. The June 24 speech made no reference to the Oslo accords or to the need for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Mr Bush ignored the freedom issue completely and focussed, instead, on the need for reforms in the Palestinian Authority. He called for a new Palestinian leadership and then spoke of a provisional Palestinian state. The speech was so brazenly pro-Israel that many western critics said it might well have been written by Sharon.

The partial Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah has taken place under pressure from an American administration that is fully preoccupied with Iraq. A continued siege of Arafat’s headquarters would merely make it that much more difficult for Mr Bush to sell his Iraq attack policy to the Arab and Muslim world. Hence, some pressure on Israel for withdrawing from Ramallah. However, this is no permanent solution to the Arab-Israeli question. As a defiant Arafat told his supporters after coming out of his battered office, the Israeli action did not constitute a withdrawal. “This is only moving a few metres away. They are trying to deceive the world.”

The solution lies in reviving and implementing the peace process, which Sharon has abandoned. Enlightened sections of western public opinion have also realized the overriding need for an Israeli withdrawal and the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state. In Israel itself, the media and members of Sharon’s own Likud Party are questioning his strategy. Many Knesset members say that Arafat cannot be blamed for suicide attacks by groups that are not under his control. Others believe that Sharon’s reoccupation policy and his siege of Arafat’s headquarters have only strengthened the Palestinian leader’s position among his people and in the eyes of the world. Sharon’s hard-line policies have increased the death toll on both sides, and there is no guarantee that more suicide attacks will not take place. The only option which America and Israel’s other friends have is to make Tel Aviv realize the need for a political solution. In practical terms, this means reviving the peace process and ensuring an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza to pave the way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Caring for the elderly

WHEN there is such little joy and comfort in the daily life of the average citizen, it seems wishful to hope for a better deal for those covered by today’s observance of the International Day of the Elderly. More than what the state could do for our senior citizens, it is our traditional system of extended or joint families that has provided a safety net for senior citizens. But as in most other spheres, family values too have been in decline under economic and social pressures, particularly in the urban areas. There is greater impatience with the whims and needs of the older members of a household. With growing unemployment, there are few further opportunities for those who have retired and do not have age on their side. Pakistan does not have a very large proportion of the elderly in its population: poor living conditions and health care are taking care of that. According to the 1998 census, 5.5 per cent of the population was over 60, but the number of the elderly is expected to double over the next 10 years.

The last Nawaz Sharif government had decided that, despite all the constraints, some facilities could be offered to senior citizens, and the present administration also set up a task force two years ago to look at the issue. Nothing substantial has come out of these efforts so far, and certainly the problem should be seen as being much larger than concessional travel and free entry to museums and libraries (how many of these do we have anyway?). Medical care is a priority area where senior citizens deserve more attention: they should have easier and less expensive access to treatment and medication. They require to be protected against inflation and their savings exempted from frequent reductions in government interest rates. They should be able to get loans for house building more easily and on better terms. Senior citizens ought to be enabled to lead honourable, independent and purposeful lives so that they do not feel that they are a burden on their families or on society.

Why this dithering?

THE latest project to suffer unexplained delays at the hands of the authorities is the planned public park at the site of the old sabzimandi in Karachi. Since the handing over of the 16-acre plot to the army for development by the city district government in April, nothing beyond the levelling of the old infrastructure has been achieved. Is it because the authorities now are having second thoughts about converting this otherwise precious piece of land into a public park? If so, it would be very unfortunate, and a breach of trust on the city government, which, when the sabzimandi was moved, promised that the city would have a sprawling recreational park in its place.

There have been reports in recent days suggesting that the so-called land mafia has set its eyes on the old sabzimandi plot with a view to acquiring parts, if not all, of it for commercial purposes. Also, there has been some talk of litigation over the settlement of the ownership of the land, which lends credence to such reports. It would be a great shame if the city were now to be deprived of a decent recreation facility under any of these pretexts. Any such ill-advised move would doubtless come up against popular resistance because that would negate the very purpose of having moved the sabzimandi, which was ostensibly to reduce congestion in that part of the city with no open spaces. The city government must do all it can to save the land in question from being auctioned off to commercial establishments, and fulfil its promise of giving Karachi a decent public park that it badly needs and has long been waiting for.