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American Morning

Is Arafat Responsible for Letting Violence Spiral Out of Control, and is He a Target?

Aired December 04, 2001 - 08:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier today Israel's cabinet said the Palestinian national authority was an entity that supports terrorism and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Yasser Arafat was responsible for the deadly suicide bombings this past weekend in Israel.

Is Arafat responsible for letting the violence spiral out of control and is he a target? In the last hour former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was with us and used harsh words to describe Arafat.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

EHUD BARAK, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: It's clear that under his leadership (INAUDIBLE) the Palestinians turn to a terrible campaign. He is responsible. He is a terrorist sag (ph) and he is sophisticated - I should tell you even skillful manipulator of words and liar (ph).

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ZAHN: Joining us right now is Hanan Ashrawi who is a Palestinian legislator. Welcome back. I know I'm fighting the wind. If I need to speak louder, let me know Ms. Ashrawi. You heard what Prime Minister Sharon said It is Yasser Arafat's fault that Israelis were killed in suicide bombings over the weekend. If it's not his fault, whose is it?

HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Well (INAUDIBLE) there's a double irony Paula, because first of all it's Israel that's been driving the Palestinians to desperation, encouraging extremism by escalation of violence. And at the same time they've been undermining Arafat himself and the moderates in the Palestinian camp.

They've sanctioned the radicals and the Islamic movement. And at the same time, they're blaming Arafat whose agenda is dramatically opposed to the Islamic agenda. So it is unrealistic and untrue and I find it uncomfortable that Sharon gives himself the right to distribute labels and post-it stickers on people - calling Arafat a terrorist and the Palestinians terrorists when we know Sharon's history (INAUDIBLE) against humanity and his ongoing attacks against the Palestinian people as a whole. ZAHN: So Ms. Ashrawi, you're saying this morning that this is not Arafat's fault. So if he's not responsible for what led to the killing of a couple of dozen Israelis, then who should be held responsible? You're saying it all Israeli policy. You don't support what happened over the weekend, do you?

ASHRAWI: I think it would be very - of course not - of course not, and I don't have to prove my moral fiber by standing against every attack against every civilian and by doing everything possible not only to prevent these attacks, but to make sure that they do not become the norm in any way, shape or form. This goes against the moral fiber, against the essence of the Palestinian question, which is a struggle for liberation, human dignity, freedom.

That's what we want. So it's not easy to allocate blame on one individual. Find Arafat, scapegoat him - everything will be fine. We have been languishing for decades under a horrible occupation and of course when you unleash violence on the civilian population, then you invite retaliation. And the situation has become absolutely lethal. We are locked in this lethal embrace and it has to stop through peaceful means by the energizing, relegitimizing the peace process - not by making Arafat totally helpless.

He's unable to cope in any way, shape or form with reality because the towns and cities are besieged. We can not move anywhere. The police headquarters in every town have been shelled and Arafat can not protect his own people, let alone carry out actions where he can arrest his own people for standing up to the occupation or for carrying ...

(CROSSTALK)

ASHRAWI: ... out acts of violence that are totally against his policies.

ZAHN: But as you know the Israelis say they can't protect their own people. Let's quickly replay part of what Prime Minister Sharon had to say yesterday. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ARIEL SHARON (through translator), PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Arafat is responsible for everything that is happening here. Arafat made his strategic choice choosing a strategy of terrorism, choosing to achieve political goals through murder by slaughtering innocent citizens. In doing this Arafat has opted for terrorism.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ZAHN: Ms. Ashrawi, are you saying this morning that Israel did not have the right to retaliate for what happened to its citizens over the weekend?

ASHRAWI: I'm saying that nobody has the right to target innocent civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinian. I'm saying that Israel should not spiral and escalate this violence, that this type of collective punitive measures is totally unacceptable by international law. You can not hold a whole nation captive and then bomb them and shell them. And at the same time continue to think that the occupation, which is not history Paula, which is current reality and very painful for all of us.

You can not say that it's a normal reality and the occupying power has the full right to be safe and secure and to have a pleasant control and enslavement of another nation. This is not acceptable. So let's look at things in context. Sharon himself has been escalating. Two weeks before Zinni came, there was quiet. There was a decrease in violence. Then Sharon decided that he's going to assassinate Hamas leaderships. He killed 20 people in less than two days including children.

So what do you do? I mean do you start acting - do you start reacting to the latest events or do you look at the causes and do you have the courage and the vision to relaunch a genuine peace process to bring about something we've been asking for, for a long time - international monitors, troops, peacekeepers, whatever you want in order to be a buffer zone between us, in order to monitor the situation, in order to hold the guilty parties accountable. But most of all, we need genuine intervention to create an alternative to violence - a viable, legal, legitimate alternative, which is peaceful substantive negotiations.

ZAHN: Ms. Ashrawi, thank you very much for your perspective this morning and to keep things in context this morning, I think we need to make it clear that Mr. Sharon said yesterday to reporters that in fact what the Palestinians do is target civilians and in fact what the Israelis - at least in his words do is target those who perpetuated violence against his people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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