Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...dead. Most were victims of suicide bombings carried out by Muslim extremists. "You get the feeling we're collectively going over a cliff," says student Sarah Halevi. "I completely don't trust anything the Palestinians say." Seeing the killers celebrated in the streets of Gaza, and how gingerly Yasser Arafat's governing Palestinian Authority has treated them (at least until very recently), most Israelis wonder whether it is possible ever to make peace. Even among Israeli peace activists, says Clinton Bailey, a history professor at Tel Aviv University, "people are asking whether making the deal with Arafat was the right...
While residents generally give Arafat's administration low marks for efficiency, the leading Gazan complaint is economic. Responding to the suicide bombings, Israel has limited the number of Palestinian laborers working in Israel to 29,000, down from the normal 100,000 or so at this time of year. The Gaza Strip has been especially hard hit, as it has little local industry. Trade with Israel has also been sharply curtailed. Because of the new strictures, the unemployment rate is at 58% in Gaza, and merchants are starving for business. True, self-rule there has brought some degree of pride...
...Authority are checked and sometimes harassed by Israeli officials at border crossings. "Even the people of the Authority are treated by the Israelis like garbage," laments insurance agent Fathi Sirhan. The feeling is widespread that in the negotiations over expanding self-rule, Israel basically dictates the terms. "Every time Arafat meets with the Israelis, it's like he gets his instructions and that's it," says linguist Lily Feidy...
...indication of disillusion was the reaction in March to reports that the West Bank city of Jenin would soon be turned over to the Palestinian Authority. The residents of Jenin themselves petitioned Arafat to stop any such move. "They didn't want to see their city turned into another prison, opened and closed according to Israel's wish," says Khatib. As long as the West Bank's future is still under negotiation, its residents remain subject to the indignities of the occupation: checkpoints, curfews, the presence of an alien army. What's more, the Israelis continue to expand Jewish settlements...
...dangerous game in attempting to claim a Palestinian monopoly on pain and suffering. We need hardly remind him of the countless of Israeli, European and American civilians murdered over the years in hijackings and bus-bombings, both by current Palestinian extremists like Hamas, and current moderates, like Yasir Arafat. We choose not to dwell on this, however, because to do so is to sully the memory of the victims by using their deaths to score debate points. This is something that we can no longer stomach...