But it sure doesn’t feel like peace to many people who live there. The violence and mercilessness that the two sides have long shown each other continues. That raises serious questions about the peace plan’s viability. A partial list of the dirty tricks of both sides:
Palestinian gunmen who oppose the peace accord have fired on Israeli soldiers at least 10 times since the signing. Six grenades were thrown at Israeli units in the second half of September–two more than were recorded in all of August. More recently, Palestinian assailants murdered two Israeli hikers in a valley near Jericho.
Three Palestinians have blown themselves up in suicide attacks on Israelis in the past five weeks. Radical fundamentalists in Lebanon have used suicide tactics for years–against the U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1983, for example–but the Palestinians haven’t used them widely until now. Israeli security anticipates more attacks in the future.
Palestinian hit men have killed at least seven other Palestinians since the peace plan was signed. Most of the victims were Palestinians believed to have been informants for the Israeli occupiers.
Israeli forces use antitank weapons against Palestinian homes where they believe radicals are holed up. They severely damaged or destroyed 19 apartments in operations in five different areas of the Gaza Strip on Oct. 2, according to the Gaza Center for Rights and Law.
Israeli troops have arrested dozens of Palestinians since the peace accord, including several activists from armed wings of Yasir Arafat’s Fatah faction of the PLO. Israeli soldiers have killed at least four wanted Palestinians while trying to apprehend them and several other Palestinians involved in demonstrations. More than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli jails, some without a trial or a charge.
Israel severely restricts the amount of water that Palestinians in the and occupied territories may use. The average Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, who sometimes has to ration water for bathing or cooking, uses less than a quarter of the amount of water that a Jewish settler consumes.
Israel deported 392 Islamic fundamentalists to the snows of southern Lebanon last December; 189 were allowed to return last month. Unless a new deal is negotiated, those remaining in Lebanon will languish in their makeshift camp until December, when Israel has pledged to allow them back. Israel has banished roughly 1,600 other Palestinians from the occupied territories since 1967; 30 of those were allowed back last spring. The others wait in exile.
