Israeli terror in Gaza

Israeli depredations in occupied territories now seem to have crossed all limits. In the latest military operation, the Israeli army has killed 30 Palestinians since Tuesday, besides demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Security Council has condemned the latest assault, voting 14-0, with the US abstaining. According to Amnesty International, the total number of homes destroyed in the occupied territories during the last three and a half years has gone up to 3,000.

In addition, Israel has destroyed hundreds of homes belonging to the families of Palestinian freedom-fighters. Normally AI is not quick to accuse someone of war crimes. But in this case, said the rights body, Israel was guilty of war crimes, because evictions and demolitions fell in this category.

While the demolition of Palestinian homes and orchards has been going on since 1967, it has acquired new dimensions because of Mr Ariel Sharon's perverse intentions.

What the Israeli prime minister would like to do is to annex the West Bank and Gaza. That would, of course, upset Israel's demographic character. Alternatively, he would like to "transfer" the Palestinian population elsewhere, and thus annex the territories without altering the demography of a Greater Israel.

This the international community would not let him do. His latest Gaza "disengagement" plan has been approved by the US. Under the plan, Israel would evacuate Gaza but retain "some" West Bank land. One may then ask: if Israel is to quit Gaza in any case, why must it destroy homes and kill civilians there?

The truth is that the total elimination of the Palestinian people is built into the Zionist philosophy. Without the liquidation of the Palestinian people Israel cannot be at peace with itself.

It has never been interested in a two-state solution. For that reason, Tel Aviv has sabotaged every peace process to date. The fate of the latest one unveiled by President Bush was sealed by Mr Bush himself when he said recently that 2005 was an unrealistic deadline for creating a Palestinian state.

This is an election year in the US, and Mr Sharon knows this is the time when he can do whatever he likes. After all, Mr Bush needs the Jewish lobby's support in his bid for a second term.

That said, America's own actions in Iraq seem to have had an encouraging effect on Mr Sharon, who now feels free to pursue his own brand of unilateralism in Palestine.

Like the US-led occupation forces in Iraq, whose warplanes attacked a wedding party in a village on Wednesday killing 41 innocent civilians, Israeli army also kills and maims innocent Palestinians in the name of fighting militancy.

The fact is that Israel has no business being in the Palestinian territories and any violent activities there are in retaliation for the reign of terror it has unleashed there.

The way things are taking shape in the Middle East, with the Bush administration mindlessly going about implementing its policy of brutal suppression in Iraq and Mr Sharon practising his in Palestine, the chances are that the entire region may be dangerously destabilized as a consequence.

It is time the UN, the EU and other permanent members of the Security Council took serious note of these developments, as the whole world has a vital stake in saving the Middle East from plunging into utter chaos and anarchy.

Cost of mismanagement

Violence witnessed on Wednesday at the New Sabzi Mandi located on Karachi's Superhighway is a problem that needs to be addressed urgently by the government. The latest round of violence was triggered when power supply was cut off after outstanding bills were not cleared.

A similar situation was witnessed there last year. The New Sabzi Mandi is Pakistan's largest wholesale market for fruit and vegetables and was made operational in 2000, under funding from the Asian Development Bank.

Traders from the previous location, situated in a densely populated part of the city, were shifted to the new site in the hope that a planned market with adequate space and facilities would be able to function more efficiently.

Instead, what we see is that the government has turned a blind eye to the problems and deficiencies affecting its working. The market committee, which comprises stakeholders of the project, has been unable to provide sound management.

Traders say that the committee should be required to explain why power dues were not cleared when they are making regular payments to the committee. There are also delays in handing the project over to the city government, as provided under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.

At present, the most pressing issue is the absence of an approved layout plan which has led to a number of encroachments coming up. While genuine traders were waiting for the approval of the plan to build their shops, encroachers have surfaced and grabbed land wherever they could.

Parking areas, footpaths and passages have been appropriated, with the result that the number of shops has risen to over 6,000 as against 4,300 originally provided for.

In the absence of an approved plan, the market is denied regular power and water connections, and this only increases the hardship for genuine traders. Keeping in mind the government's plan to engage in other resettlement projects in the future, it is important that the New Sabzi Mandi resettlement project is seen as a good example of planning, implementation and management.

Or else, there will be stronger resistance to such moves in the future, depriving the government of opportunities to take on mega-projects in the city.

Desaffronizing history

Following the defeat of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party last week and with a Congress-led coalition forming the next government in New Delhi, demands for purging history books of selectivity and distortions have resurfaced in India.

Congress leader Eduardo Faleiro, who served as the human resource development minister in the last Congress government until 1996, has said that the task would be undertaken at the earliest.

The BJP embarked on a systematic saffronization of history textbooks in 2001 - a process which many in India and elsewhere equated with distortion of historical facts aimed at furthering the goals of Hindutva - the ideology the BJP espouses.

The books written during the outgoing government's tenure labelled India's large minorities - Muslims, Christians and Parsis - as foreigners, reserving the title of native Indians only for the majority Hindus and Sikhs. Critics believe that this distortion not only alienates minority Indians, it also makes them feel insecure in their own country.

The BJP and some of its extreme right-wing component parties and allies, like the RSS and the Shiv Sena, also worked towards demystifying Gandhi. But the way they set about doing so was by purging the textbooks of his teachings on tolerance of diversity in India.

References to Gandhi's murder by a Hindu fanatic were also taken out. Another pet peeve of the BJP-led government was the Mughal era, which was defined as foreign rule, and references to advances made under the Mughals were carefully purged.

Widespread acts of such omissions and a Hindutva-centric reinterpretation of history in its place made the former government's policy not only controversial but seem almost perverse.

Supported in its endeavour to undo the damage thus done by its left-wing allies, Congress now has the chance to set the record straight. Desaffronization of textbooks will help restore the Indian state's secular image as well as help integrate minorities into the national mainstream.