Hacking at the roadmap

IT IS well-timed, deliberate and a well-calculated show of defiance. It also constitutes a message to the world, especially to President George Bush, who recently unveiled a roadmap for peace in Palestine. On Wednesday, Israel laid the cornerstone of a new Jewish settlement near the Palestinian town of Ramallah to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Zionist state. The move constitutes a violation of international law, disregards all UN resolutions regarding the Israeli-occupied territories, and flies in the face of the latest roadmap to peace.

Unlike what happened on Wednesday, Israeli settlement activity has generally been carried out surreptitiously. Often, to deny and conceal that it was building new settlements, Israel has claimed building “extensions” to the existing ones. Actually, these extensions were — and are — in effect full-fledged new settlements, except that the initial activity consisted of getting some trailers to station close to an existing settlement. Over time, these trailers have been turned into homes. In some cases, these “extensions” have become larger than the original settlements. Officially, Israel claims there are 141 settlements in the occupied lands. However, data made available by independent sources which rely on satellite imagery show there are 308 Jewish settlements (282 in the West Bank and 26 in Gaza). The settlement activity has also continued in eastern Al Quds, where at the time of its occupation by Israel in 1967, there were few Jewish settlers. By 1995, the number of Israelis in eastern Al Quds had gone up to 160,000. Now there are 400,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza. What happened on Wednesday was a most blatant example of Israeli arrogance. The laying of the cornerstone means not only that Tel Aviv will continue to build more settlements; it will do so irrespective of what consequences this may have for peace in the Middle East.

The roadmap to peace, unveiled by Mr Bush on April 30, is blatantly pro-Zionist. But even this roadmap not only calls for a halt to the settlements’ activity; it calls for dismantling all settlements built after March 2001. The roadmap is silent on the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes; it says nothing about what borders a Palestinian state will have; and it makes no mention about the future of the holy city of Al Quds, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. However, in spite of its pro-Israeli bias and many vital omissions and ambiguities, the Palestinian Authority has accepted it. The Sharon government has expressed serious reservations about it, though it has not rejected it. Yet, in spite of this acceptance, it has already started working against the specific provisions as well as the overall spirit of the new peace process. The laying of the cornerstone of the Beit El settlements is proof positive of this fact.

What makes Tel Aviv so brazenly arrogant is obvious: it knows it can get away with any crimes because it has powerful lobbies in the US Congress and the State Department. Pro-Israeli lobbies have always been there in the corridors of power in the US. However, the phenomenon one witnesses today is unprecedented in American history, for Israel has never had it so good. A combination of neoconservatives representing the Christian right and the traditional Jewish lobbies now run America’s foreign and defence policies, and, as the Iraqi war shows, it is the Israeli interests that basically determine their options and policies in the context of the Middle East. So long as this deadly combination of Christian right and “messianic” Zionism is in command, there is little possibility that Israel will ever feel constrained by its legal and political obligations in the context of a peace process.

Not a law unto themselves

AN extraordinary recent incident involving a group of army personnel and the owner of a shop in Multan reflects an alarming trend that must be checked before it becomes a running sore. Outside a shop in the city’s cantonment is a highly unusual sign warning that the outlet is “out of bounds for all ranks.” Two jawans of the military police stand guard at the door to ensure that this order is obeyed. The reason for this forced boycott of the fabric shop by the military is truly bizarre. Some three weeks earlier, a traffic policeman stopped two army officers in civvies for riding their motorbike on the wrong side of a one-way street. In the altercation that followed, one officer reportedly slapped the constable. A group of policemen arrived on the scene and dragged the man to the police station. Eventually, a group of army personnel, including some senior officers, intervened and took the man away. While none of the local shopkeepers dared testify against the army officers, the owner of the shop currently being ‘boycotted’ was brave enough to tell the true story.

Weeks later, the gentleman found that an FIR had been lodged against him for allegedly manhandling the officer and inciting a mob against the army personnel. Because the owner had left for Canada after the incident, his brother was hauled up by the police and the shop was made a no-go area for military personnel. This incident, unfortunately, is only the tip of the iceberg. A number of similar incidents have been reported from Multan and elsewhere in the country from time to time. Some army personnel, like their civilian counterparts, have become convinced that they are above the law and react furiously if they are questioned for breaking the law. Such behaviour is unacceptable and can only bring a bad name to the armed forces. No one should be above the law, however powerful the organization they represent. In the case of the Multan shop, senior officers must order the removal of the offending sign and the guards from outside the premises. They must also ensure that their proud institution is kept above such petty personal rows, squabbles and unsavoury vendettas.

Charged parking scheme

ON the face of it, Karachi’s new charged parking scheme, set to begin from July 1, looks very much like the old one, though with a few minor modifications. The rates are the same as are the main coverage areas; parking on Sundays and holidays, unlike in many countries in the rest of the world, is not exempted from being charged. However, this time around the city government has exempted all the city councillors from paying the fee and handed the overall parking contract to a single party. The city government will earn Rs 61.2 million under the new charged parking scheme, significantly higher than the Rs 47.8 million that it earned during the current financial year.

For any such scheme to be successful, some points need to be kept in mind. The first, and most important, is that because of its nature, charged parking allows for considerable fraud. Often there have been reports of unauthorized parties, complete with uniforms and receipt books, charging parking fees from motorists. To prevent such malpractices, the city government must have a mechanism in place that is able to apprehend all those who charge a parking fee fraudulently. It should also ensure that the authorized parking staff are easily identifiable and that they wear a uniform and an ID card at all times. Another important issue is that many of the roads that fall under the charged parking scheme are in a shoddy and dilapidated state. It is imperative that a part of the Rs 61.2 million that the city government will earn from the new scheme is spent on repairing some of these roads, so that those who pay for parking see that the levy thus collected is being put to proper use.