DATE=03/22/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=CEASEFIRE / PALESTINIANS

NUMBER=5-51304

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=GAZA CITY

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Back-to-back suicide bombings inside Israel have cast a shadow over U-S efforts to broker a ceasefire aimed at ending 18 months of bloodshed. Israelis are terrorized by the attacks and Palestinians traumatized by Israel's retaliatory military strikes. V-O-A Correspondent Laurie Kassman was in Gaza earlier in the week and reports on the mixture of hope and skepticism that a long-lasting ceasefire can be implemented.

TEXT: /// MARKET SOUNDS, fade under ///

The central market is bustling again. Shops have reopened. Residents are venturing out into the streets of Jubaliya refugee camp now that the Israeli tanks have pulled back and the air strikes have ended.

Still, a jet flying overhead provokes worried looks. The sound of a jet breaking the sound barrier causes many to jump with fear. Each time there is a suicide attack inside Israel, they say, Israel's military strikes back.

Most Gazans say they are saddened by the loss of life on both sides and anxiously await a ceasefire that could herald a period of calm.

Abu Hassan lives and works in Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip. He remembers the terror he and his family felt when the Israeli tanks rumbled into the area last week.

/// HASSAN ACT, IN ARABIC, FADE UNDER ///

In my opinion, the intifada (uprising) must continue until Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian lands, he says. And then Yasser Arafat will have to stop those who are resisting and collect their weapons. Not before, Abu Hassan insists.

He says his children still cannot sleep through the night and often wake up screaming with fear.

That fear, says psychiatrist Eyad Seraj, is experienced on both sides -- by Palestinians under siege and Israelis attacked by suicide bombers. He believes both sides are so terrorized and exhausted now, they are ready to make peace.

/// SERAJ ACT ///

On the popular levels in Israel and Palestine, they are exhausted because they have reached that balance of terror. They are both susceptible and ready for it (peace). And the international community is ready and the Europeans are strong for it. The Americans, for the first time, have introduced a U-N Security Council resolution themselves. (U-S envoy Anthony) Zinni is here instructed to stay in the area and not to leave.

/// END ACT ///

U-S envoy Anthony Zinni has been trying to broker a truce to end the violence, but his efforts have been endangered by a series of Palestinian terrorist attacks inside Israel.

But Ismail Abu Shenab, a political leader in the Islamist group Hamas, says attacks against Israelis are part of Palestinian resistance to occupation.

/// ABU SHENAB ACT ///

It is a deadly game but we have to pay the price because we have no other alternative. Sharon pushed us toward this type of game, and we have to face it. We will not surrender. We are determined to confront Israeli pressure and Israeli attacks and Israeli savage and brutal activities against us by our own determination. This is the only strong weapon in our hand.

/// END ACT ///

After the latest spate of terrorist attacks inside Israel, the U-S government is heaping more pressure on Yasser Arafat to rein in the militants.

But Gazan journalist Tawfiq Abu Khoussa says a ceasefire is meaningless if it does not lead to statehood.

/// KHOUSSA ACT IN ARABIC FADE UNDER ///

You cannot have a ceasefire between occupier and occupied, he says, because that gives legitimacy to the occupation.

/// OPT /// Palestinian human rights activist Raji Sourani is more blunt.

/// OPT // SOURANI ACT ///

There is a simple formula. The occupation must end, physically, materially, legally. That's more than enough.

/// END ACT // END OPT ///

The ceasefire plan does not, by itself, end the Israeli occupation but its promoters hope it will provide a period of calm that could pave the way for resuming peace talks.

The plan requires Israeli troops to withdraw from Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza, but it also requires the Palestinian Authority to take responsibility for preventing more militant attacks against Israelis. The argument now is over which comes first. (SIGNED)

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