Yasir Arafat has agreed to stop the popular intifada against Israeli occupation. Arafat has also given up on the demand for an international enquiry into the violence, and agreed to a US-led enquiry, whose outcome is predetermined.
Occupation is rape on a national scale.
It is a crime of power and violence. And those who find this comparison harsh or offensive should go to Palestine and see what occupation has done to the land and the people. To women, to men, to children. To the environment, to water, to the ancient terraces, to olive groves and fields. The most positive aspect of the recent crisis is that it opened the possibility that the international community and the United Nations would insist on their proper role in Middle East peace-making.