MERIP
Media Resource List, September 24, 2004
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
Note: Fourth anniversary of the Palestinian intifada
on Tuesday, September 28
- Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal plan
- Palestinian society after four years of military conflict
THOMAS ABOWD
Thomas Abowd specializes in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
and Arabs and Muslims in post-9/11 America. Abowd teaches
Middle East anthropology at Wayne State University, in Detroit.
He said today: “Nearly the entire world community has
called on Israel for decades to withdraw its troops and settlers
from all of the Palestinian territories it has illegally occupied
since 1967. Sharon’s plan is meant to separate Gaza
(a territory that has become a burden on Israel) from the
West Bank (where Israel seeks an indefinite foothold). Israel’s
withdrawal from the Occupied Territories must be coordinated
with the Palestinian leadership so that Palestinians can properly
exercise their right to national self-determination on their
own land and so that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza (less
than 5 percent of Palestinian land) does not amount to the
last withdrawal. The security of both Israelis and Palestinians
depends on negotiated solutions, not arrangements imposed
by one side upon the other.”
DEBORAH J. GERNER
Deborah J. Gerner is professor of political science at the
University of Kansas and co-director of the Center for International
Political Analysis. Gerner is editor of Understanding
the Contemporary Middle East (2004) and author of One
Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict over Palestine (1994).
Gerner said today: “Palestinians are exhausted by the
past four years of conflict -- the vast majority just want
it to end so they can get on with their lives. The massive
disruption caused by the extensive network of checkpoints,
roadblocks and walls within the West Bank has made it impossible
to move freely and has undercut Palestinian civil society
and grassroots organizing. However, there is no reason that
this conflict cannot be solved. Indeed, it must be resolved
in order to create a stable Middle East. No amount of interference
in Iraq, Iran or Syria will accomplish this.”
MICHAEL F. BROWN
Michael F. Brown is the executive director of Partners for
Peace and Washington correspondent for Middle East International.
He has lived in Gaza and is a regular commentator on the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, particularly as it pertains to the Gaza Strip. Commenting
on Israel’s proposal to withdraw from Gaza, Brown said
today: “Four years into the second intifada the situation
between Palestinians and Israelis is dismal. We are in this
mess, in part, because US policy toward the region makes no
sense. The absurd hope of the Bush administration today is
the Gaza disengagement plan. Of course Israel should get out
of the occupied Gaza Strip, but if it is not part of a plan
to withdraw from the West Bank as well, then Gaza will be
left as an enormous outdoor prison and the fighting will go
on in the West Bank with no end in sight. The unimaginative
Israel-Palestine policies both Bush and Kerry offer will lead
only to further heartache and loss.”
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