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Ole Sippel

02.00

Ramallah - Yassir Arafat's besieged capital on the west bank. Empty pockets, empty pots. Union workers collect signatures to pressure the Palestinian Authority for jobs.

Arafat Nahla,

Vice Chairman of the Palestinian Workers Union in Ramallah

We are here to demonstrate against the blockade, the siege and the starving of our workers which has led to over 75% unemployment. This is why we are demanding the Palestinian Authority finds work for people as the difficult economic situation has led to the our children’s malnutrition.

Hussein Abed Al Karim,

unemployed

If you have no bread you are forced to take the sword and attack your neighbour..

Ramallah October 2000

The current situation is a nightmare for the Palestinians after two years of uprising against 35 years of Israeli occupation. In the beginning stones and Molotov cocktails were used - later on hand-guns and mortars were used against Israeli soldiers and settlers..

… and lately, suicide bombers have been used randomly against Israeli civilians.

Gaza - bombing July 22.

… and from the other side - the Israeli military machine has clamped down mercilessly against the rebels, against all Palestinians in the hunt for terrorists.

Pan Nablus + Jenin

The amount of destruction is vast - as are the casualties - on both sides. In 2 years more than 2000 Palestinians and more than 600 Israelis have been killed. Thousands more have been wounded and scarred for life. Everyone is personally affected by the on-going attrocities.

Oslo - The white house

… and all this just 9 years after the famous handshakes in front of The White House - handshakes which should have been the beginning of a peaceful solution to the 100 year old conflict.

Nablus - tanks

But now the hope has vanished, replaced by bloodshed. The Israeli army has moved into the Palestinian areas given self-determination, using the international ‘war on terror’ as a cover.

The re-occupation of these territories started in September 2002, soon after the start of the 2nd Intifada - and the siege is now complete: Approximately 3 million Palestinians are completely fenced in, entire cities, villages and enclaves are cut off…

And now the Israelis are taking this a step further- a couple of months ago they started building a middle eastern Berlin wall from Salem in the north until Kfar Qassem in the south - building concrete walls, ramparts and fences, with sensitive listening equipment all along the border, which has divided Israel from the Palestinians since the war in 1967. The official reason is to keep terrorists out but it badly restricts the movement of all Palestinians who can no longer freely cross the green line to Israel. Whilst Israeli settlers are free to come and go as they please.

Many roads are now restricted to just Israeli vehicles.

Palestinians must make detours through tough terrain, just to avoid going near one of the many Israeli settlements.

Even roads leading out of some Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem are blocked - areas annexed as part of the Israeli capital.

Samar Daoud lives through these obstacles daily. For example when she needs to go to the post office.

Aram Checkpoint

The post office is only a few hundred meters from her home, but she finds the Israeli checkpoint in between very time consuming and humiliating.

Samar Daoud - Aram checkpoint

In English

It's not just the siege: Following the suicide bombers, a curfew has been implemented in most of the re-occupied cities on the West Bank.

the curfew is only lifted for a few hours on a couple of days a week. People hurry to shop for necessities before being locked up in their houses again.

The curfew creates an enormous pressure - both mentally and practically. We visit a family in Ramallah with several generations living together.

Rawan Harb,

Health therapist

In English

Issa Bosheh,

Department Chief

In English

Checkpoints are a real hardship for the Palestinians to bear in their own land. And the issue of humiliation and harassment by the Israeli soldiers crops up time and again. The Kalandia checkpoint, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, is often in complete chaos with mile long traffic queues and seven to eight hours waiting for those in cars. People sometimes have to stay over night if they do not make it across the checkpoint before dusk.

Behind Herod's Gate, inside old Jerusalem, lies a health clinic, run by the UN-refugee organisation. The clinic has to serve approximately 70.000 Palestinians from the villages around Jerusalem.

But it has now been made impossible for many to travel to the clinic which used to treat 200 patients a day.

Dr. Adel Bashir,

Chief, UNRWA health clinic

In English

… and fight to get through, they do. It is hard to fence in two million people. They use tracks around the check points to escape in and out of Israel. It still takes several hours to get anywhere but its often vital.

According to Dr. Adel's own statistics, the results are a drastic decline of health especially amongst heart patients and diabetics who are normally attended at the clinic and given free medication.

Pregnant women are especially vulnerable. Fewer and fewer are able to attend the necessary pregnancy examination - the hardship of getting there is simply too great. Even highly pregnant women have to walk for several hours using mountain paths.

Salima Ibrahim,

housewife

I have had a lot of pain, so I was advised to come to the clinic. It took me two hours to get here. I was humiliated on the way. I did not want to come before because of the humiliation one goes through and because of the curfew.

Dr. Adel Bashir,

Chief, UNRWA health clinic

In English

On top of all the poverty and misery the Palestinians are watching any future country shrink more and more.

Sharon's lifelong ambition has been to create a Greater Israel between the Mediterranean and the river Jordan, that would say include the occupied West Bank in Israel, by allowing the continuation of colonisation by Jewish settlers, primarily with immigrants from Russia and the US.

Settlers

In English

Prime Minister Sharon assures that there is only going to be expansion of settlements that exist already. But the Israeli peace organisation, PEACE NOW, has investigated the situation and claims it is not true. New settlements are being founded despite international objections that they are illegal.

Galia Golan,

Professor, PEACE NOW

In English

On top of the heavy human losses, the economy and the social structure have been totally shattered in Palestinian communities.

At least there is just about enough food.. it's money that is in short supply, with an unemployment rate far above fifty percent and half the population living below the poverty-level on just two dollars a day.

According to the UN, two-thirds of the three million Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza are dependent on food-assistance from international organisations. A newly released official American survey confirms that the Israeli siege has deteriorated nutritional and health standards. The American Ambassador to Israel has labelled it: “A humanitarian catastrophe”

MUSTAFA HAMEDI, Paint shop owner, al-Azarie

Before I had a paint shop with 52 employees and life was good. Today I have to beg for cigarettes from my son or nephew. I have to ask for bread from the restaurant here when they close at night.

SAMER HAFEZ MAHMUD,

Optician, Nablus

We are at breaking point. It's hard to take any more. We cannot stand this situation and the lack of food. And there is no work, no money and no medical care.

The Palestinians believe that the occupation is not just for security reasons, but has a political and military goal, with the illegal collective punishment of civilians in order to force them into submission.

DANIEL BEAUDOIN, major

In English

Despite the Sharon administration's wish to crush Arafat's rule once and for all, resistance and terrorism grows stronger.

According to the Israeli army there are more suicide bomber volunteers today than there are explosives. Sharon refuses to negotiate with Arafat and has said, that the Palestinians would be beaten back so soundly they would come begging for a truce.

But, does force not simply breed retaliation? Are the prospects of a peaceful solution not hindered by the new settlements, the tightening siege and the extended occupation?

A military spokesman for the Israelis tries to explain:

DANIEL BEAUDOIN, Major

• (in English)

Yet another bombing – this time at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Palestinians may hold Sharon responsible, because of his policies. But, human rights organisations rightly call all attacks against civilians as criminal and totally unjustifiable, no matter what the provocation.

Officially, Arafat condemns terrorism and has often said he will attempt to stop it. But it continues. Why?

JASSER ABED RABBO, Information Minister. Palestinian Authority

(In English)

Ole Sippel

Yassir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority's headquarters have been completely destroyed, except for a small building in the middle of it all - It is the one with the Palestinian flag - it is here Arafat and his closest colleagues have their offices.

But, the question is, is it just the buildings that lay in ruin, or is the entire Arafat led Authority, including Arafat's own position now lying in the rubble. He is certainly in the most difficult position he has ever been in.

Israeli tank-turrets once again point at close range on Arafat's office. But now it is not just Sharon who is after him. The American President also wants Arafat out of the way; and there are elections planned for January. Before which, democratic law must substitute Arafat's autocratic controls, the security forces must undergo reform so that violence and terror can stop - and the rampant corruption be wiped out. If this happens, Bush has offered the Palestinians a state of an undefined size and the possibility of sovereignty in just a few years. But Arafat's departure is the first condition. Arafat's chief-negotiator is angry.

SAEB EREKAT, Chief-negotiator. Palestinian Authority

In English

Bush's demand for Arafat's departure has shaken the ruins of Arafat's head quarters just like Sharon's bombardments.

Having his regime on the brink of collapse and the world's only super-power as an enemy is almost an impossible challenge, even for such a notorious survivor as Arafat.

And he is not just fighting against enemies on the outside - according to opinion polls, his popularity amongst Palestinians has also greatly fallen in recent months.

Criticism is aired more openly than ever before.

But Arafat has not given up. On the contrary, he has declared he will stand for re-election as President. And now he has moved into the kind fight he is best at: a political battle.

To meet criticism both from the Palestinian voters and from abroad he has announced a democratic reform program.

After five or six years evasion, he has also suddenly signed the constitution and reshuffled the cabinet.

Even so, questions have been raised over the authenticity of his reforms – whether they are intended to increase Arafat's hold on power.

The corrupt inner-circle is still there, and the new ministers, apart from a couple, have long been extremely loyal to Arafat.

This is also true for the new Security Chief -

unlike his sacked predecessor, Jibril Rajoub, who was seen as one of the strongest figures in the Palestinian Authority - and seen by Arafat as a dangerous rival. Since his sacking, Rajoub has not been seen in public, but agreed to a meeting with us.

JIBRIL RAJOUB, Former Security Chief, West Bank

In English

In Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus we met one of Rajoub's supporters, Husam

Khader. He is a popular leader in Arafat's

Fatah-organisation, in the large and militant West Bank town. He is seen as one of the younger up and coming politicians. He has also been a member of the Palestinian Authority from the start. He is not afraid to speak out.

HUSAM KHADER, Palestinian Authority Member, Fatah

In English

Khader will not stand against Arafat himself, but wants Rajoub to. Rajoub is not saying anything, but does not see his political life as finished, and Arafat's picture no longer hangs in his home. Will he stand against him?

JIBRIL RAJOUB

In English

If the voters should decide, the Intifada leader, Marwan Barghouti, currently has the best chance of defeating Arafat.

The problem is that Barghouti is currently sitting in an Israeli prison and will soon stand trial for terrorism. There are others, but no obvious candidate and those favoured by the US and Israel are seen by Palestinians as having too close connections to all that is bad in the Arafat regime. But it is uncertain there even will be an election.

The Palestinians are demanding, with the backing of the UN and EU, that Sharon withdraws all troops from the occupied territories, before the election can be held. Sharon says he will do that, if the uprising and terrorism stops. But, despite the catastrophic situation, various Palestinian groups continue with what THEY call ‘armed resistance’. Can Arafat or anyone stop them?

HUSAM KHADER, Palestinian Authority Member, Fatah

In English

Arafat won with an overwhelming majority in the last election, six years ago. He had, after years of independence fighting, finally achieved recognition for the right of the Palestinian people to statehood - and for the hope of peace with Israel. Now, daily life is full of suffering and want and the future bleaker than it has been for years.

Palestinians feel trapped.. And Sharon is blamed for the current situation - and the Palestinians’ suffering. But what about Arafat? We asked a leading Palestinian peace activist and political analyst if Arafat and the Palestinian Authority are also to blame for the current catastrophe.

RIAD MALKI, political Analyst, Ramallah

In English