By Miriam Tramer
The Palestinians stranded in southern Lebanon after illegal deportation by Israel are suffering from cold, and their health is deteriorating sharply. The Israeli government has yielded to international criticism only to the extent of allowing the International Red Cross to bring medical aid and supplies.
The Israeli High Court, which resumed hearing the case on January 21, will declare on the legality of deportations. The court is not expected to find them unconditionally illegal, but many hope that it will devise a compromise formula on which a resolution could be based.
The Palestinians are adamant that nothing short of an unconditional return of the deportees to their homes will bring them back to the negotiation table. And Arab applicants to the court are threatening to declare no confidence in its decisions if it orders anything less than an unconditional return.
There are now negotiations for Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist group at the centre of the dispute with Israel, to join the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
Until or unless the deportees go home, the peace talks are off. Basma Abou-Sharar of the Intifada Centre in Amman told Green Left Weekly, "The Palestinian peace negotiators would lose all credibility and support in the eyes of those in the occupied territories if they were to compromise."
The Rabin government is in a dilemma entirely of its own making. Driven by the need to satisfy the paranoid Israeli electorate that he is as strong as Likud and as uncompromising, Rabin has himself on a hook from which only Palestinian compromise can release him. But the Palestinians say, why should they compromise? Why should they let Rabin off his hook?
At present, there is little internal pressure on Rabin to reverse the deportations. The so-called peace ministers in the cabinet, members of Meretz, the "peace" coalition of three parties, are defiant in their support for the deportations.
They say they have "saved the peace government"! By this they presumably mean that if they had not supported the decision, Rabin would have broken with them in favour of a coalition with the far right. By their stand, the Meretz ministers have isolated themselves from the movement which put them into the government.
In Gaza, there is an ongoing rebellion against Israeli oppression, epitomised by the deportations. Five or six people are killed each day in these protests.
The Israeli peace movement is mounting opposition in the form of a "tent city" outside the home of Rabin in Jerusalem. This is keeping vigil 24 hours a day as a reminder of the conditions faced by the deportees. Israeli Arab mayors and Palestinian peace negotiator Feisal Husseini have visited and endorsed the action.
Well-known Israeli peace activist and writer, Uri Avnery says it is possible that Clinton may put pressure on Rabin to find a resolution because of the need to give some semblance of coherence to US policy. The glaring inconsistency between bombing Iraq and failing to do anything about the deportations of the Palestinians may be too much of him to swallow.
A group, Concerned Citizens, has been formed in Sydney to plan further actions against the deportations. They can be contacted by phoning 02 810 4035.