By Vivienne Porzsolt
Uri Avnery, well-known Israeli writer and representative of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), described how, over lunch with the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat, he saw an Israeli gunboat blockading the Gaza coast to prevent Palestinians fishing for food. Avnery met with Arafat in Gaza City on March 20.
Avnery pioneered secret dialogue with PLO representatives during the '70s, when it was illegal for Israelis to have any contact with the PLO. Two of his interlocutors were assassinated over the time of the meetings.
Avnery told Green Left Weekly that he spent about four hours with Arafat but was unwilling to release details of their discussions. He said his purpose was to advise Arafat, on the basis of Avnery's mass communications experience as a one-time newspaper publisher and journalist.
While we were having lunch together, we saw the Israeli gunboat going up and down in the sea opposite us, demonstrating the blockade of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army and navy. It brought it home to us that the situation is worsening between the two peoples. We talked about what we could do about it.
I am a great believer in the importance of public opinion in a democratic society. It is Israeli public opinion which in the end decides what the Israeli government will do, and it leads me to certain conclusions. Our Palestinian friends, who have never lived in a democratic society, are perhaps not quite so conscious of the importance of facing public opinion, including mass communications media.
Avnery said that there is a great gap between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli media. The Israeli media are 99% against anything Palestinian and against Arafat personally. This has now found its expression in the primaries of the two Israeli parties.
There is no spirit of reconciliation at all, there is no spirit of peace. The Labor Party is so afraid of talking about peace, it has completely obliterated the word from its election propaganda. They don't speak any more about peace at all. They speak about security and separation. The Likud now speaks more about peace than the Labor Party, by which they mean, of course, nothing.
Arafat and Avnery saw the gunboat as a symbol of the present situation. This gunboat was there to prevent fishermen going out to sea. Fish are the elementary cheap food for poor people in Gaza. There is an acute food shortage in Gaza and has been for several weeks. Not only is there no work and no money to buy food, but food itself has become scarce.
It's a blockade designed to put pressure on the Palestinians, and personally I believe it's counterproductive. It will only strengthen the enemies of peace.