MERIP
Media Resource List, April 13, 2004
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topic:
- Ariel Sharon in Washington
JOEL BEININ
Joel Beinin teaches Middle East history at Stanford University.
In 2002 he served as president of the Middle East Studies
Association of North America. His most recent book is “Workers
and Peasants in the Modern Middle East” (Cambridge University
Press, 2001). Commenting on tomorrow’s meeting
between Sharon and Bush, Beinin said today: “Ariel Sharon
will offer a deal to Bush, one that completely marginalizes
Palestinians interests and voices. Sharon will ask Bush to
endorse his proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and call
it a step toward implementation of the Bush administration's
defunct road map for settling the conflict. In exchange for
Israel's providing ‘evidence’ that the Bush administration's
policy towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not a failure,
Bush will turn a blind eye as Israel continues to construct
a separation barrier inside the West Bank, along a trajectory
that could eventually allow Israel to annex 50 percent of
the West Bank.”
MICHAEL BROWN
Michael Brown is executive director of Partners for Peace
in Washington, DC. Brown said today: "Sharon will be
in Washington to negotiate with Bush when he should be negotiating
with the Palestinians. Bush seems prepared to undermine UN
Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 by lending American
support to Israeli expansion in the West Bank. An Israeli
redeployment from Gaza would be good, but the long-term results
will be very poor if in exchange Sharon simply entrenches
the Israeli occupation in the West Bank."
NADIA HIJAB
Nadia Hijab is executive director of the Palestine Center
in Washington, DC. She is the author of “Womanpower:
The Arab Debate on Women at Work” (Cambridge University
Press, 1988) and co-author of “Citizens Apart: A Portrait
of Palestinians in Israel” (I.B. Tauris, 1990). Hijab
said today: “Everyone welcomes peace and withdrawal.
But Sharon’s disengagement plan is out of line with
international law, UN resolutions and stated US policy because
it envisages permanent control over large chunks of occupied
Palestinian territory. Sharon himself says his plan ‘will
make Palestinians unable to set up a state.’ His plan
carries heavy political and economic costs -- for US foreign
policy and the Treasury, for the Palestinians who have lived
under occupation for 37 years and for Israelis who suffer
the consequences of occupation as well.”
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