Four
Decades Of Occupation
By Zahi Khouri
04 June, 2007
San
Diego Union-Tribune
'I
don't know what I would do if my daughter had to go through that humiliation.”
A U.S. congressman said those words to me while watching Qalandia checkpoint,
the key Israeli roadblock between occupied East Jerusalem and the West
Bank. As we mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war and Israel's military
occupation of Palestinian territory, his comment is particularly poignant.
As both a Palestinian and an American, I wonder what my fellow Americans
would do if they lived for 40 years with every aspect of their lives
controlled by a foreign army, or what members of Congress would do if
they had to pass through an occupier's checkpoint on Capitol Hill.
In 1995, I worked with other
Palestinians to launch the Coca-Cola franchise in the West Bank and
Gaza. I am one of many Palestinian-American businessmen who invested
after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. They were supposed to have
ended the occupation and led to the formation of an independent and
economically viable Palestinian state. We were determined to create
jobs and build businesses that would bring Palestinians hope for a free
and prosperous future. Instead, the occupation has become more entrenched.
And we see the toll it takes on the new generation of Palestinians –
every man, woman and child under the age of 40 who has not known a day
of freedom in his or her lifetime.
Israel is the leading foreign
destination for privately sponsored congressional trips. Yet while the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of our most critical foreign policy
issues, few members of Congress visit the occupied Palestinian territories.
I tell those who do that a trip through Qalandia checkpoint will show
them most of what they need to know.
The checkpoint is a microcosm
of the Palestinian experience. More than 500 Israeli checkpoints are
scattered throughout the West Bank, which is roughly the size of Delaware.
Palestinian students wait at checkpoints, sometimes for hours, to get
to school. Others wait years to visit their parents in Gaza while studying
in the West Bank. Laborers wait to get to work, mothers to the grocery
store, and doctors to the hospital. With a wave of a soldier's hand,
they might pass through and make it to their final exam or to the hospital
in time to deliver a healthy baby. Just as easily, the soldier can stop
them. Hours at a checkpoint can mean missing an exam or losing a baby
to a miscarriage.
Israel's military occupation
similarly blocks the economic, political and social potential of Palestine.
Like all people, when allowed to live in freedom, Palestinians have
thrived. Economic development in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf countries
was largely driven by Palestinians. Palestinian-Americans are accomplished
businesspeople, educators and artists. But in their homeland, the military
occupation hems Palestinians in, limits their horizons and stifles their
potential. Is this in Israel's best interest?
For 40 years, America has
called on Israel to end the occupation. There is international consensus
that the creation of an independent Palestinian state would bring peace
and stability to the region. Yet the occupation and relentless building
of new Israeli settlements continues unabated. Consecutive American
administrations have agreed that settlements are illegal. Still, at
least 20,000 new Jewish settlers moved into the West Bank last year
alone. And the prospects for an independent Palestinian state darken.
A viable state cannot be
built on a ruined economy. Various agreements – beginning with
the Oslo Accords and most recently the November 2005 Agreement on Movement
and Access – required the free movement of people and goods within
the Palestinian territory. Yet, according to a recent World Bank report,
Israeli restrictions leave more than 50 percent of the West Bank off
limits to Palestinians while the movement of Israeli settlers living
there illegally remains relatively unhindered. We can spend hours at
Qalandia and the many other checkpoints, while Israeli settlers speed
by on Israeli-only roads.
The World Bank notes that
these restrictions “create such a high level of uncertainty and
inefficiency that the normal conduct of business becomes exceedingly
difficult and stymies the growth and investment which is necessary to
fuel economic revival.” I know this firsthand. Today Coca-Cola
employs hundreds of Palestinians. Yet, it is virtually impossible to
compete fairly when my goods and my employees cannot move freely, even
within our own community.
American interests suffer,
too. Our credibility is damaged when Israel ignores U.S.-brokered agreements,
yet remains the beneficiary of unparalleled American financial and diplomatic
support. American peacemaking efforts are premised on the notion that
a better future is possible, a future where both Palestinians and Israelis
live in peace, freedom and dignity. On this anniversary of the 1967
war, the United States should fully engage and commit to winning the
war of peace. The first step is for the occupation to end. Surely 40
years has been too long.
Khouri is CEO of the Palestinian National Beverage
Co. and a board member of the Palestinian Development Investment Co.
He is chairman of the Palestine International Business Forum and chairs
the largest Palestinian NGO, the NGO Development Center, in association
with the World Bank.
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