Dr. Sari Nuseibeh, President of Jerusalem University, responded through Albawaba.com to the accusations against him for signing along with others on a statement calling for the halt of suicide bombings inside Israel.
Following are excerpts from the interview:
Q. You have been accused of betrayal for your signature on a statement demanding the halt of the martyrdom operations, what are your comments on this accusation?
A. May God forgive them. All what I hope for is that we reach a situation where we can express our views and counter views by evidence and not by defamation. The call, which I signed along with hundreds of others, was clear and not meant for blaming, renouncing or condemnation of the various brothers in the Palestinian factions. The statement I signed did not mean to label military resistance as terrorism nor was it meant to illegitimatize the Palestinian resistance. These words were not mentioned in the statement.
Our aim was to send a message to those behind these operations to review the benefits of such operations inside Israel within the targets we seek or think we are seeking to achieve.
We want a resistance plan that aims at ending occupation and establishing a Palestinian state. We should realize the means and tools which can serve the achievement of this objective and those, which jeopardize it.
In our call we stated the suicide bombings might harm us because they increase radicalism within the Israeli society. As we can see the prevalence of radicalism will make ending the occupation more difficult. So, we should be careful in anticipating the reactions within the Israeli society to all our actions and know how to influence this society.
This is how we addressed the factions’ leaderships without any anger or condemnation but with a call for dialogue, which already exists inside closed rooms. We wanted this dialogue to be open and clear.
Q. You are aware, of course, of the fact that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) expressed readiness for such a dialogue?
A. Yes, and this is very important in my opinion. Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, said before sometime blatantly “his movement might stop these operations if Israel stopped bombing the Palestinian cities, civilians, villages and refugee camps.”
I think this is very important and should be exploited. In other words, this message should be conveyed in a clearer manner to the Israeli society in order to put pressure and have some influence on it.
Q. When you prepared your statement, did you consider geographic boundaries for the operations? Did your call include the halt of these operations in the lands under the Palestinian Authority jurisdiction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?
A. We said in Israel; the statement was about operations carried out inside Israel.
Q. You are one of the most targeted figures who signed the statement. Has this any link with your previous views which revoked the anger among the Palestinian factions and perhaps many Arabs and Palestinians? Did you demand the halt of the Palestinian Intifada?
A. This is incorrect, as I did not demand the halt of the Intifada. I said many times that this Intifada is not like the previous one, which erupted, in the late eighties.
To make things clear, I said what is going on is partly a Palestinian action but mostly is an offensive war launched against the Palestinian people.
There is a difference between the Intifada and offensive war as in the first we see the Palestinian action that aims at achieving a clear objective that has been agreed upon within a multi-dimensional and defined strategy based on wide popular participation.
These elements were found in the first Intifada but they are not, in my opinion, met in what is going on.
I said many times before and repeat it here that what is going on now is mostly an Israeli action; it is an offensive Israeli war and what we do is just an attempt to defend ourselves. I am here talking about the majority of people in their villages, cities and refugee camps.
Q. So you consider the benefit from the current Intifada as falling short of aspirations to end occupation and establish the Palestinian State. What is the solution in your opinion?
A. I think we should notice that we are facing a real Israeli offensive war, which aims at destroying the Palestinian project. Therefore we should know how to prevent Israel from achieving this political objective. We can do this through pressing towards the political arena rather than the military arena.
On the military arena we are considered the weaker side. It is true that we can resist here and there but the damage inflicted upon us by the Israeli military arsenal is greater than the damage we can cause to them.
But on the political arena we are stronger because we have obvious rights. We should assert that we are armless people and victims of terrorism who resist in order to achieve freedom and independence according to the international legitimacy and laws.
I would like to reiterate that I did not demand the halt of the Intifada but I said people should continue resisting occupation as long as it exists.
Q. Many people accused you of calling for canceling the right of return because you think demanding this right would delay reaching a peace agreement with Israel. Can you explain this?
A. I said in case a peace agreement is reached based on two states, Israel will not agree on absorbing four million refugees from the Diaspora. This agreement, on the other hand, should include provisions giving the refugees the opportunity to return to their future state and get compensations in addition to the implementation of the UN resolution no. 194 through negotiations between both sides.
Under all circumstances if an agreement is reached, it should be presented to the Palestinians in a referendum to make it clear that this is what the Palestinians inside as well as outside Palestine want.
Q. Some people speculate or even accuse you of receiving support from the United States which may press later to put you in place of Arafat?
A. May God forgive all those who make these accusations. All what I hope for is to have confidence in ourselves and feel that we are in one boat facing the same suffering and looking forward to making our dreams reality. We may differ in opinion but this should not mean that one of us is a betrayal and the other is a great fighter. (Albawaba.com)
