Nothing random about hatred

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JIM HOAGLAND Nothing random about hatred The Killing of Mohammed Jamal played into the hands of Yasser Aldura at age 12 on a Gaza road last Arafat and his lieutenants — weekend cannot be dismissed as a who have in fact orchestrated random accident or a senseless trag- edy. A chain of avoidable events cre- much of the violence for their own political effect. Mr.

Sharon ated the scene in Gaza that has styles himself a fool rather than shocked television viewers and a knave. newspaper readers around the The political space that Mr. world Horror registers on the face of Barak hoped to create for him- Mohammed's father as he instinc- self and for peace is being tively but futilely crooks his arm to squeezed out of existence by such extremism. shield the boy from the bullets flying It is not Mr.

Barak's offers of around them. He seems to scold the eace and cooperation with the unseen gunmen as a television cam- eraman caught in the same fusillade Palestinians that created this films father and son. wave of violence, as apologists Incomprehension and dread con- for Likud will claim. It is the in- tort the boy's features.

Then Mo- ability of Messrs Sharon, Arafat and others to respond to those hammed is shot to death and his fa- ther is severely wounded as Israelis offers with the humanity shown and Palestinians fire wildly at each by Mr. Barak. Peace threatens other. (Israeli commanders conced- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS them.

The picture you have not In this image from video, Jamal Aldura shouts toward the ed Tuesday that their bullets proba- seen is one of Mr. Arafat going camera operator as he tries to shield his son near the bly hit the boy.) on Palestinian TV to appeal for Netzarim Jewish settlement in southern Gaza City. Moments Photos do not lie, it is said. But calm.

He has let the fires stoked later, the boy was hit. He died. The father was wounded. frequently they tell partial truths. They tear moments out of time and sepa- by his Fatah youth organization burn without interference. rate them from what has come before and The Jerusalem Post conducted on Sept. 28 If Mr. Sharon or Mr. Arafat had acted and published in full on Sept.

30. what will follow. They can misrepresent as differently at the outset of the crisis, the well as represent. His proposal for the Palestinians to re- odds are that Mohammed Jamal Aldura This time, however, the news photo- gain most of East Jerusalem and to call it al- would still be alive.

That is probably true graphs from this spasm of Middle East vio Quds, the capital of a Palestinian state, was for most of the more than 50 others, mostly lence capture the underlying, terrifying es- intended to restart the stalled peace negoti- Palestinians, who have died as well. sence of what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ations.

But it was completely overshadowed In that sense these deaths are not ran- has become. If insanity has a face, it can by a brazen ploy by Ariel Sharon on Sept. dom or senseless. They have meaning. surely be glimpsed in that terrible footage from Gaza. All wars are cruel, some are senseless and a few qualify as insane.

Insane wars feed on hatred instead of personal calcula- tion or national advantage. The Israeli- Palestinian conflict is rapidly slipping into that latter category, just as peace seemed within reach.

Hatred has at least momentarily over- taken the hope that Prime Minister Ehud Barak sought to nurture with his visionary peace offers to the Palestinians at Camp David this summer. Mr. Barak reaffirmed and amplified proposed Israeli concessions on Jerusalem in a lengthy interview with The other enduring image of this crisis will be Mr.

Sharon strutting for political ef fect that day on the paved pavilion of the Temple Mount, site of Islamic and Jewish holy shrines. Fearful of a challenge to his leadership of the Likud coalition, Mr. Sharon made a spectacle of walking on ter- ritory most Israeli politicians and citizens avoid for reasons of religion or prudence. Mr.

Sharon claims he did not set out to provoke Palestinian violence. But it is clear that he did nothing to avoid becoming a pretext for the predictable upheaval that fol- lowed. Mr. Sharon offers the equivalent of a manslaughter plea: He admits that he They are the cost of political acts that ap peal to hatred as a tool of political gain. Mr.

Arafat seeks the world's sympathy and dip- lomatic advantage from these deaths. Mr. Sharon thinks his macho swagger will bring him votes. But the force of hatred, stirred by such slaughter, quickly overtakes calculations like these. Senseless behavior then edges into the insanity of revenge at all costs.

Is- raelis and Palestinians must find a way out, by finding a way apart, to avoid that out- come. Jim Hoagland is a columnist for The Wash- ington Post. His e-mail address is hoagland) @washpost.com

Cite this item

"Nothing random about hatred," Palm Beach Post, 5 October 2000. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2000-030. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2000-030

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They could not agree on his name