Viewpoint: Palestinians blame Sharon

Palestinians blame Sharon for escalating the violence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1690116.stm

The weekend's attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa did not come as a great surprise to most Palestinians. Many of us expected this to happen.

A few days before the American envoy General Anthony Zinni visited the region, the Israeli Government escalated the situation by killing 13 people in less than 24 hours.
The suicide attacks came after five schoolboys diedAmong those victims were six innocent children on their way to school and also the head of the militant wing of Hamas, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon knew that the Palestinians would respond. He knows that blood draws blood and actions require reactions.

Being a mother, I know very well how awful it is to lose a son or see an innocent person die.
And it is not only me - all the Palestinians sympathise with the innocent victims. We have all been victims of the Israeli occupation for over 50 years.

'Double standards'
The Palestinians think that Mr Sharon is the one responsible for what happened in Jerusalem.
People here think that Mr Sharon is the one trying to derail Mr Zinni's mission, not the Palestinians or Hamas - Mr Sharon was the one who escalated the violence by killing over 20 Palestinians a few days before the US visit.

The Palestinians, who have waited a long time to see gains from US diplomatic efforts, believe strongly that the Americans only care about their own interests in the Middle East and about Israel. People wonder why Mr Arafat has not been invited to visit the White House as well as Mr Sharon.

Palestinians expected retaliation for Hanoud's assassinationPalestinians who have lost faith in the peace process are fed up with the American administration's double standards and their attitude regarding all the Israeli violations.

They are frustrated by the Americans' attempts to compare the Palestinian struggle against the occupation with terrorism.
People here were also shocked that New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described Mr Arafat as a terrorist.

If Mr Arafat has been involved in a struggle against the Israeli occupation of his land - which is a legal right given to all nations, and which the Americans called "terrorism" - what should be said about Mr Sharon's black history?
Hamas has strong support on the streets of the Palestinian occupied territories at the moment. There is also much anger about Mr Arafat's attempts to jail members of Hamas and other militant groups.

Prison targets
Many people think that the decision is a mistake on the part of the Palestinian Authority.
Support for Hamas is currently highDuring this intifada, Israel has used F16 planes to attack one of the Palestinian prisons in Nablus in the West Bank, killing many prisoners and 11 policemen.
Jailing these fighters means potentially condemning them to death because they will become a target for Israeli planes.

In Palestinian opinion, the only solution to end all this is to end the occupation.
Both the Palestinian leadership and the people have declared their commitment to a just peace settlement. But the promised peace has not arrived. People here are waiting for an end to the occupation, which is the real cause of all this conflict and bloodshed.

A nation of 'terrorists'?
As Mahmoud, a 65-year-old man from the Khan Younis refugee camp where I grew up, put it to me:
"If the Israelis describe Arafat and his authority as terrorists, and the Americans accuse Hamas - and the rest of the Palestinian parties who fight against the Israeli occupation that kicked us from our land and even followed us to the refugee camps - as terrorists, this means that the whole nation of Palestine are terrorists. Can you believe that a whole nation can be terrorists?"

The suicide attacks, which take place from time to time inside Israel, send clear messages.
But perhaps the most important message is that Middle East peace and security are achieved only in one way - the way of finding a just solution to the Palestinian issue, a settlement that puts an end to the Israeli occupation, the only colonisation in the 21st Century and the source of this bloodshed.