As a Christian Palestinian, I shudder as the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks approach. Why? Because I know what an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank will mean for my family. What will it mean? Civil war, and all the carnage that accompanies it:
JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AFP) - A top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip warned on Friday that the Islamist movement would seize control of the West Bank if Israel withdrew from the occupied territory.
"Israel says the party in power in Ramallah (Fatah) serves its interests and if Israel withdraws from the West Bank, Hamas will take control. That's true," Mahmud Zahar told a party rally in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
When the Israelis withdraw it will not be the start of peace but the start of war. There will be the kind of insane Palestinian fratricide seen recently in Gaza, with Hamas and Fatah slaughtering one another...as well as anyone who gets in their way. Throughout the Arab world (and on this site) there will be celebrations because the Zionists have ceded occupied territory.
But for my family in Ramallah, there will be no celebrations. There will only be fear and grief followed by funerals. The day that Israel withdraws from the West Bank is the day that my mother and my brother and my grandmother become much less safe.
I suspect many peace activists do not care, that their philosophical agenda outweighs any humanitarian considerations. But I care very much, and while I would like to see Israel eventually leave the West Bank this is not the time. The time will not have arrived until Hamas is no longer intent upon violently transforming Palestine into an Islamic Republic.
For Christian Palestinians and I suspect for most Muslim Palestinians as well, it is better to survive under Israeli occupation than to perish under Hamas liberation.