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The day we need to rememberHikmat Ajjuri aa Middle East Physicians for Prevention of NuclearWar , c/o 55 Belcose Road, West Drayton,Middlesex, UB7 9DF E-mail:Published online: 22 Oct 2007.

To cite this article: Hikmat Ajjuri (2003) The day we need to remember, Medicine,Conflict and Survival, 19:1, 53-55, DOI: 10.1080/13623690308409667

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The Day We Need to Remember

HIKMAT AJJURI

Middle East Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War

The crime of 11 September 2002 is another aspect of the military culture of the last5,000 years, which is also reflected in the continued conflict in Israel and Palestine.N o real a t tempt has been made to convert the Oslo agreement into a permanentpeace settlement, which must include a viable Palestinian state. Nevertheless, all actsof terror must be condemned whatever their motivation. The support of the UnitedStates is essential for a Palestinian state to come into being.

KEYWORDS Israel Palestine Peace process Terrorism United States

Israelis and Palestinians

No one with any sense of humanity will ever forget the tragedy of 11September 2001 - I remember watching it with horror. The crimecommitted on that day was not merely against innocent Americans, butagainst all humanity. While watching that crime on television over a yearago, the wisdom of Bernard Lown, founder of IPPNW, came back to mymemory, carrying me back ten years to Stockholm where the tenth IPPNWWorld Congress was held. In his speech at that congress Dr Lown said: 'Aslong as the military culture erected over the past 5,000 years endures, weshall have neither national security, global peace nor human betterment.'On another occasion, he added that the ruling establishments 'are unmovedby high sounding principles or by logic of events'.

Had Dr Lown been wrong, 11 September 2001 would have been anormal day on the American calendar - and the past two years in the HolyLand we would have been busier building bridges between the Semites(both Jews and Arabs) who are destined to share that land. Furthermore,the whole world would have been safer today and our tomorrow wouldcertainly be more humane. As a Middle Eastern, I can see more than othersthe linkage between the tragedy of 11 September and that of the HolyLand, where innocent Israelis and innocent Palestinians have been and stillare being killed every day, especially over the past two years.

For 54 years, half of the Palestinian population, totalling nearly 6million, have been living as refugees consequent to the creation of the stateof Israel and for 35 years the other half have been living under Israelioccupation. By now Israelis should have finally become aware of the human

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54 E KAHAN and H AJJURI

cost paid by the Palestinian people individually and collectively for thecreation of their state. The state of Israel, which was created in 1948, wasintended to meet Jewish needs or be the answer to the Jewish Question. Asa result, the Palestinians are now the question - the question of Palestine,which has been waiting for a convenient and equitable answer since then.

Nine years have elapsed since Yasser Arafat and the late Itzhak Rabinshook hands and signed the Oslo agreement at the White House inWashington. Four different Israeli governments have been in office sincethen; each one of these governments opened the file on that agreement andchanged it to suit its political agenda, left, right and centre. Instead of apermanent peaceful settlement, we have ended up today with a permanentpeace process. Moreover, we remain Israelis and Palestinians and, beforethe eyes of the world, are engaged in a vicious cycle of violence. No Israeligovernment has ever fully committed itself to the only goal that could makedurable peace possible - a viable sovereign Palestinian state on thePalestinian land occupied by Israeli military forces since the 1967 war.

The current Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has more than oncestated that negotiation of a permanent status is not on his agenda - ascenario that means the continuation of violence and bloodshed betweenthe Semites as long as he rules.1 When he mobilized all his forces - tanks,helicopter gun-ships, missiles and reserve forces - to fight what he calledthe Palestinian terror, he exploited the tragedy of 11 September andhijacked the principle of war against terrorism. He was trying once again,after his failure to do so in 1982, to crush the Palestinian cry for freedomfrom captivity and bondage. Yet Sharon should have known that thePalestinian terror is an understandable reaction to the illegitimate Israelioccupation of Palestinian land. I recall what Ehud Barak, a former Israeliprime minister and the most decorated Israeli general, replied when askedon the eve of his election in 1999 what he would have done had he been aPalestinian: that he would have joined a terrorist organization.2

The United States and the Middle East

That does not mean that I try to justify terror; neither my pacifist naturenor my convictions would allow me to even think about such an insaneidea. I unequivocally, and in the strongest possible terms, condemn all actsof terror regardless of their motivation or their perpetrators. I also believethat the current cycle of violence in the Holy Land is not only totallycontradicting the values of the key religions - Judaism, Christianity andIslam - but also is a shameful chapter in the history of mankind. The UnitedStates is committed to Israel's existence, a message we in the Arab worldreceived years ago. Thirty per cent of American foreign aid goes to Israelbut only American foreign policy advice goes to the Palestinian Authority;this is another message that we, the Palestinians, have swallowed.

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OPINION - ISRAEL AND PALESTINE 55

But does the US also need to be seen as endorsing Israel's expansionistinclinations and its territorial appetite? Surely it is this perception ofconstant alignment with Israeli policy that has antagonized Arab andMuslim public opinion? America has, only recently, attacked two countries(Iraq and former Yugoslavia), nominally to support the United NationsOrganization and its resolutions. In spite of many resolutions in the UNSecurity Council (242, 338 and others) calling, among other things onIsrael to withdraw its army from territories it has occupied since the 1967war, the Israeli army is still there and the question of Palestine is stillwaiting for an answer.

In his memoirs former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson writes that'the UN charter was a condensed version of American PoliticalPhilosophy'.3 His thoughts give me good reason to believe that our globewill be safe, but not before his country, the only superpower left on its face,reconciles its power with its principles.

References

1. Barak concedes defeat. Guardian, 6 Feb. 2001. At: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,434543,OO.html.

2. Levy G. If Barak had been born Palestinian. Ha'aretz, 9 May 1999. At:http://www.haaretz.com/.

3. Acheson D. Present at the Creation. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.

(Accepted 19 November 2002)

Hikmat Ajjuri is Director General of the Palestine Council of Health in Jerusalemand Regional Co-Vice President of IPPNW. He qualified from Baghdad Universityin 1975, has a DTM & H from the Royal College of Physicians, London and thefellowship of the American College of Tropical Medicine. In 1994 he was Directorof Medical Aid for Palestine and in 1999 was appointed short-term consultant tothe World Health Organization.

Correspondence: c/o 55 Belcose Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 9DF. Email:hikmatajjuri@yahoo.com.

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