Ramallah, West Bank – Palestinians marked 40 years of Israeli occupation Tuesday with rare calls for soul-searching and a warning from their leader that months of bloody internal fighting have pushed them to the brink of civil war.
In Israel, the anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War highlighted the bitter debate over whether the lightning capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem was a curse or a blessing for the Jewish state.
The mood on both sides was somber, with many Israelis and Palestinians saying they’re as far away from resolving their conflict as they were 40 years ago. Several modest ceremonies were held in the West Bank, including a rally and a parliament session, but none in Israel, which follows a Hebrew calendar.
Palestinians said they never expected military rule to last this long.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was 12 when his hometown of Jericho came under Israeli military rule, said his two daughters are getting married this summer. “So I will have grandchildren born under occupation,” he said. “This should not be tolerated. Forty years of occupation and violence is enough.”
Israelis recalled how the initial elation over averting possible annihilation gave way to deep divisions over what to do with the captured lands.
“We reached such a state of euphoria and such excitement that we were blinded because with such a success, we could have brought peace,” former Israeli Cabinet minister Shulamit Aloni told Israel Radio. “Today, we can make peace, and we aren’t trying.”
Israel’s dovish camp says rule over the Palestinians has eroded Israel’s values and weakened its global standing. Many devout Jews feel the return to the biblical heartland of the West Bank is a step toward redemption, and hard-liners argue that the land buffer makes Israel more secure.
In the West Bank and Gaza, the day was dominated by worries over the power struggle between the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamic militant group Hamas. The two parties have governed in an uneasy coalition since March, after a year of Hamas-only rule, but a new round of battles erupted last month.
Abbas said in a televised speech that after hundreds of hours trying to negotiate an end to the bloodshed, he realized “what is equal to the danger of occupation, or even more, is the danger of infighting.”
For a society that has long blamed Israel for almost all its woes, it was a candid statement.
In another rare moment of public candor, former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the infighting “proves how much we are responsible for a large part of the failures we are suffering today.”
A majority of Palestinians still hope a peace deal will lead to a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Others say they can only reclaim the captured land by force.
In the West Bank, Israelis and Palestinians re-enacted scenes that have become routine over four decades. About 200 Israeli protesters from the group Peace Now rallied in Hebron, where about 500 Jewish settlers live in heavily guarded enclaves among 160,000 Palestinians. On the outskirts of the Palestinian town of El-Khader, near Jerusalem, some 60 people carrying Palestinian flags marched toward a group of soldiers, calling for an end to the occupation.
