‘Rediscovering’ Palestine

IT IS a measure of the strength of feeling against the proposed US attack on Iraq that US President George W. Bush was forced on Friday to promise a new ‘road map’ for peace in the Middle East. The move is clearly a sop to the Arab and Muslim world and a victory for beleaguered British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long believed that US re-engagement on the Israel-Palestine crisis is vital before any attack on Iraq and offers the key to appeasing the Arab world, not to mention his own domestic critics. America’s single-minded obsession with Iraq has been widely criticized and seen as a sign of blatant bias against the Muslim world. While the Bush administration has been threatening war against Iraq for its alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and for allegedly ignoring UN resolutions, it has consistently turned a blind eye to Israel, a country that has repeatedly violated UN resolutions and has the most formidable arsenal of deadly weapons in the region. These double standards have helped fuel anger against the US in the Arab and Muslim world.

Belatedly responding to this criticism, President Bush announced on Friday that he would shortly unveil his proposals for peace in the Middle East. In recent months, Washington seemed to have all but written off the Palestine issue, giving a virtual free hand to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to carry on with repressive policies against the Palestinians. Last week alone, 34 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces. To that extent, the return of the Palestinian issue on the US agenda is a welcome development. However, it is patent that Washington’s new proposal does not represent any radical departure from the past. For one, its underlying theme remains much the same as before: the Palestinians will have to reform themselves and put an end to terror before the Israelis will offer them any concessions. The bottom line of the new proposal is that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will have to hand over power to a new prime minister with “real authority” if any progress is to be made towards a ‘provisional’ Palestinian state by 2003. Days earlier, Yasser Arafat had proposed the name of his close aide, Mahmud Abbas, as prime minister.

The Palestinians are disappointed that Bush has delayed unveiling his road map immediately and has made it contingent on reforms in the Palestine authority. They are also concerned that the issue of dismantling the illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian territories has been watered down considerably. The only positive point for the Palestinians is a reference to “a viable and credible Palestinian state,” a concept that clearly clashes with Sharon’s aim of creating an emasculated and powerless Palestinian entity reminiscent of the notorious Bantustans of apartheid South Africa. The fate of the new proposals following an attack on Iraq is also unclear. With Israel likely to call the shots following a war, there is no guarantee that an emboldened Tel Aviv will stick to its part of the deal. However, the most serious problem the new initiative faces is one of credibility. The Arab world will see the move not as a sincere attempt to resolve the thorny issue but as a cynical attempt to appease Arab feelings in the prelude to an attack on Iraq. Washington must be reminded that Palestine is far too fundamental and emotive an issue for the Muslim world to be treated as a mere footnote to the invasion of Iraq.

Land for the landless

THE Punjab chief minister’s decision to distribute 0.1 million acres of agricultural land among landless cultivators will bring some cheer to the rural poor if implemented properly. Up to 12 acres would be given to 10,000 landless tenants in the first phase of the scheme to be launched from Muzaffargarh district. Inequitable land distribution has played a major role in aggravating rural poverty and reducing agricultural growth. Owing to snags in the distribution process, similar initiatives in the past could only make a limited impact. Board of revenue sources indicate that most of the government land available was in southern Punjab while there was insufficient land in the central region for distribution among the landless. The present scheme envisages that land would be allotted to residents of the same area where land is available. In case there is no deserving landless person in the area, the government would allot that land to a deserving person from the nearest area. While this could benefit some indigent tenants, poor farmers from areas other than southern Punjab would still be at a disadvantage. Availability of land and transparency of distribution thus assume an important position in implementing the programme.

Various exemptions and the poor implementation of land reforms in the past have affected land acquisition and distribution. Litigation has added to the constraints involved. The current data on land is inadequate and the plan to computerize land records in 10 districts of Punjab is moving at a slow pace. The reluctance of patwaris, fearing a loss of their jobs, to provide proper records has made the task difficult. It is therefore necessary that the record is properly checked so that a better perspective is gained about the availability of land. This will help in realizing the scheme’s true objectives. Much also depends on the scrutiny committees being set up in districts and tehsils to ensure distribution of land to deserving cultivators. Checks must be devised to prevent abuse of the facility on partisan political grounds.

Tribal justice again

ANOTHER heart-rending episode of cruel jirga justice has come to light — this time from a village in Khairpur district in Sindh. The victim is a woman and an educated union council member. Noor Khatoon has been accused of being a kari fornicator — for a crime she says she never committed. Her stepmother and uncle reportedly sold her to her tormentors in ransom for saving a female cousin from meeting a similar fate. The men allegedly raped and tortured her for days on end. They pulled out her fingernails and defaced her by throwing acid on her. She was finally rescued by people from her own tribe, who brought her back to her father’s home only to frame charges of fornication against her before a tribal jirga. The latter sentenced her to death as a kari. If the nazim of Khairpur (incidentally, a woman) had not informed the police in time and offered her protection, Noor Khatoon would have been killed after Ashura, as per the decision of the jirga.

Shocking as it may seem, the tribal jirga system continues to hold sway in many rural areas of the country. Under the system, men, women and children are routinely subjected to inhuman and disproportionately harsh and cruel punishments for alleged crimes and acts perceived as crimes. The police, as the legal law enforcement authority, often choose to turn a blind eye to excesses of feudal and tribal systems. The growing number of such criminal excesses, with mostly poor sections of society and women singled out as targets, makes a mockery of the writ of the law and state. The authorities must urgently bring Noor Khatoon’s tormentors to justice. It is also important that a broader law specifically aimed at punishing those administering tribal justice is put in place to stop these abhorrent practices.