“The Altered Bible”
28 May 2001
By Nour Odeh
Palestine Media Center
Since its formal announcement on 21 May, the Mitchell Report (Report) has almost turned into the Middle East’s newest Bible. However, since it is not really a holy book, inspired by God, it has been altered and shockingly as well as unethically misrepresented by its American and Israeli “advocates”.
Originally, the Report called on the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to implement “an immediate and unconditional cessation of violence”. It also stated, “Israel must freeze all settlement activities including ‘natural growth’. It must lift closures, transfer to the Palestinian Authority all revenues held and refrain the ‘IDF’ [Israeli “Defense” Forces] and settlers from destroying agricultural land, trees, and homes”
Unfortunately, the well-oiled Israeli propaganda and disinformation machine began spewing out statements declaring “a unilateral Israeli ceasefire” and a supposedly honest call on the Palestinian leadership to “end the violence and terror”. All the while, this machine also declared that Israel would not end its settlement activities, seeing how they could not stop these illegal colonies’ “natural growth”, stressing at the same time that settlements were not in any way connected to the current explosive situation in the Middle East.
On 21 May, US Secretary of State Colin Powel announced his government would send its newly appointed Middle East envoy, William Burns, to bridge the gap between both parties.
Mr. Burns arrived to the besieged West Bank town Ramallah on 27 May. After meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, he declared, “I asked Chairman Arafat to do everything he can to bring the violence and terrorism to an end.” He did not keep in mind that unlike the Israeli government, Palestinians accepted the entire Mitchell Report, without excluding any of its recommendations.
Burns also did not address the 96 Israeli breaches of the “unilateral Israeli ceasefire”, resulting in the murder of two Palestinian civilians and injury of 84, as well as razing hundreds of dunams of cultivated land. During this “ceasefire”, Israel also assassinated a Palestinian and injured 9 others, three of them critically. Burns also ignored Israel’s 21 incursions into and continued shelling of Palestinian-controlled areas since its declaration of the fantastic “ceasefire” on Tuesday 22 May. Mr. Burns ignored Israel’s building of new settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
But ignoring a fact does not make it disappear or change. On the contrary, it shows the ignorer as biased, blind, or simply shamefully ignorant.
After meeting Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, William Burns advised Israel to continue exercising its policy of “self-restraint”!
A spokesperson for the Israeli grassroots organization Peace Now declared on 28 May, “Since the election of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli government has offered 700 bids for settlement construction. Presently, there are 3,700 empty units in the Israeli settlements”, The organization’s recently published report unveiled that since Sharon’s new government took office, at least 15 new settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been built. It also stressed that the unoccupied units already present in the settlements would be plenty to meet “actual demographic needs” for at least four more years.
In a defiant statement on 11 May, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Silvan Shalom declared, “We are not concerned by the US about settlements”. Shalom is also not concerned with the numerous binding UN resolutions that call on Israel to halt all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and declare them illegal and in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention. That is apparent in his refusal to as much as address his government’s defiance of the UN’s position on Israeli settlements.
The United States, the United Nations, and the European Union (EU) endorsed the Mitchell Report, published by an international Fact Finding Mission. In a statement published on 21 May, the EU called on both parties to accept all the recommendations of the Mitchell Report. The statement also stressed that Israel must stop all its settlement activities. The United Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Robin Cook welcomed the Report and stressed that Israel must “completely freeze settlements and end the economic siege against Palestinians”. Regional powers, such as Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan, all of whom have diplomatic relations with Israel, expressed the same position.
One cannot blame an ignorant person’s confusion and naďve statements regarding the Middle East. However, unless he has a different agenda from that which was pronounced, a learned and experienced man in Middle East politics such as William Burns is expected to weigh his statements carefully.
Based on Burns’ performance and blindness so far, one can only conclude that his trip to the Middle East is simply an effort to cover up Israel’s distortions and alterations of the Mitchell Report, the newest Bible in the Middle East. Further, the American Middle East Envoy’s mandate seems to be to coerce the Palestinian leadership into accepting the altered Bible while supporting Israel in its defiance of international law and the report it alleges to accept. Such an undeclared agenda cannot be covered up, even with Mr. Burns’ eloquent and diplomatic statements.
Palestine Affairs Council