Handshakes. Smiles. Cameras. Euphoria.

A dawn of a new era, it is said.

Haven’t we learned?

From a window in Bethlehem’s ancient city, I look through the gray morning mist to watch the construction of Israeli walls of imprisonment.

Like the Oslo, Camp David and other agreements before them, this week people worldwide will believe there is an opportunity for peace, and that Israel is now ready to take the steps required for peace. On the ground, another story yearns to be told.

By summer, this revered city’s prison walls will be completed and its indigenous Palestinian people, their land taken and their communities surrounded, will be choked. According to published Israeli military plans, there are to be three gates to the Bethlehem Palestinian Reservation and the Israeli army will be holding the keys.

Using some of the new money promised this month by President Bush, Israel will build a system of roads and tunnels for Palestinians across the West Bank that will separate Palestinian Christians and Muslims from the illegal Jewish-only roads and colonies that are rapidly devouring remaining Palestinian land.

Bethlehemites, as they do now, will require permits to get from one Palestinian reservation to another.

Ariel Sharon said Tuesday, “To our Palestinian neighbors, I would like to promise that we have a genuine intention for you to live in independence. We do not want to control your lives.”

“We do not want to control your lives.”

I gaze out of the window again.

I see the colonies, gates, walls, watch towers, trenches, razor wire, patrol roads, bypass roads, tunnels and borders — construction plows ahead.

The New York Times reports that Israel will “pull back its troops” from five West Bank cities.

But like Oslo and the other negotiations, the trap has already been set. Israel The Occupier will pull its army out to its reservation gates surrounding the cities and maintain total control, waiting for the inevitable reaction of the Palestinians imprisoned inside. They will use this reaction to justify furthering their interests. The cycle continues.

At its core, the summit Tuesday at Sharm el-Sheik is the natural progression of past agreements carefully engineered to expand Israeli control of the land.

But time is of the essence. Graying war makers and politicians have legacies to leave, and colonial powers have projects to complete.

The people now must decide whether to let them repeat the mistake.

Omar Tesdell

Alumnus

Bethlehem