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The post-1967 avoidable mortality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories totals 0.3 million; an "interim peace plan" proposes: 2 states; 1967 borders; no militias; joint total security provision; interim Holy Land defense by Israel only; racism banned; reconciliation; access by ALL to ALL the Holy Land; but how to get an interim peace plan NOW?
For some years I have been arguing (like so many others around the world) for peace with justice in Israel/Palestine and have published various versions of an "interim peace plan" (e.g. do a Google search for "interim peace plan" ; see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5175/42/ ). I was recently asked "tell me how we can get your plan into implementation mode" by a courageous and good writer from the Holy Land. This excellent question has sparked me into writing this detailed essay arising from similar thoughts expressed in a prior essay entitled "Paradigm shifts for saving the world" (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/7373/42/ ).
My 'interim peace plan" for the Holy Land is designed from the perspective of MOTHER & CHILD i.e. interim peace with justice to stop the killing NOW. This "interim peace plan" simply involves: 2 states; return to the legal, internationally-agreed 1967 borders; militia disarmament; joint provision of airport-level total security for the Holy Land; interim defense of the Holy Land by Israel alone (the Israelis would presently accept nothing less); human rights guaranteed for all; racism, bigotry and incitement illegal; reconciliation after the fashion of post-Apartheid South Africa; and secure access by ALL to ALL of the Holy Land.
The important question put to me is how can this rational "interim peace plan" (or, preferably, something even BETTER) be implemented in practice?
Ultimately, the "problem" to be solved is one of "racism" leading to ACTIVE violence and PASSIVE neglect with consequent "avoidable mortality" and "under-5 infant mortality" that EACH YEAR account for about 4,000 avoidable Palestinian deaths, including 2,400 avoidable Palestinian infant deaths – as compared to deaths of Israelis from terrorism totalling 1,113 since 2000 (over 6 years) , 2,178 since 1967 (over 39 years) and 4,758 since 1920 (over 86 years) (for detailed documentation see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ).
A crucial parameter for assessing "deaths that could have been avoided" is "avoidable mortality" (technically, "excess mortality"), which is the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected in a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics. Using UN Population Division and UNICEF data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ and http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt.html ) it can be estimated that the post-1967 "avoidable mortality" and "under-5 infant mortality" in the Occupied Palestinian Territories total about 0.3 million and 0.2 million, respectively (for detailed documentation see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ).
Accordingly, even more fundamentally, what is needed is EDUCATION so that the world will discard lies, "spin" and "spin-based untruths" ("slies") and adopt rational, scientific methods to solve the critical problems of the world that ultimately relate to "avoidable mortality" - thus post-invasion avoidable mortality (SO FAR) totals 0.3 million (Occupied Palestine), 0.5 million (Occupied Iraq) and 1.8 million (Occupied Afghanistan).
Annual global avoidable mortality totals 16 million (44,000 DAILY) and the post-1950 global avoidable mortality totals 1.3 BILLION, including a post-1950 avoidable mortality in the Muslim World totalling 0.6 BILLION – a Muslim Holocaust 100 (ONE HUNDRED) times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (6 million victims) or the contemporaneous but "forgotten", man-made Bengal Famine in WW2 British-ruled India (4 million victims; a 1940s demographic deficit of over 10 million; suggested to have resulted from a British scorched earth policy; and associated with horrendous military and civilian sexual abuse of starving women and girls) (see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2005/07/forgotten-holocaust-194344-bengal.html ).
Expertly-developed methodology for minimizing "avoidable mortality" is already well-established. Thus World's Best Practice "Rational Risk Management" protocols are practised widely in high risk areas such as aviation, the nuclear industry and defence to minimize RISK of small as well as catastrophic disasters. Rational Risk Management successively involves (a) acquisition of accurate information, (b) scientific analysis of the data (and, most importantly, the critical testing of potentially FALSIFIABLE hypotheses), and (c) sensible SYSTEMIC change to minimize risk in the newly configured system (see: J. Reason, Human error: models and management, British Medical Journal, vol. 320, 768-770, 2000 and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/7373/42/ ).
The Rational Risk Management protocol is routinely applied in high risk areas such as aviation, nuclear power and defence. This is why passenger aviation is vastly safer than going by car, why nuclear power stations are extremely safe and why the ratio of "avoidable post-invasion Iraqi deaths"/"US military deaths" = 0.5 million/2,500 = 200 (as compared to Hitler's order in the Ardeatine Cave massacre for 10 civilian deaths for every German soldier killed by Italian partisans).
Unfortunately in many areas of human activity, from local politics to the Occupation of the West Bank, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, the Rational Risk Management protocol is typically perverted to (a) Mainstream media lying by omission and commission, censorship, intimidation and slies ("spin"-based lies) , (b) anti-scientific "spin" involving selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) blame and shame of suitable victims e.g. the Bush "War on Terror" that is in reality a War on Women and Children and which has so far been associated with 2.3 million avoidable deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories, despite the awful but nevertheless disproportionate reality that the number of Western civilians murdered throughout the world by Muslim-origin non-state terrorism in 40 (FORTY) years totals 7,000 (less than half the number of murders in the US EACH YEAR).
The people critically at RISK in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (and in other lands under brutal foreign occupation, such as Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan) are the SUBJECT CIVILIANS. The Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Civilians in Time of War (1950) unequivocally demand that the Occupier provide life-sustaining requisites (see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ) but this requirement is being flagrantly violated by Israel, the US, the US-led Coalition and NATO (see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ).
Before an "interim peace plan" can be implemented, those involved must accept a sensible, scientifically-attested Rational Risk Management model and indeed the implicit, underlying Scientific Method. There must be zero tolerance for functional racism, lies, "slies" and "spin".
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We are obliged to (a) INFORM everyone about abuses of humanity and (b) act ethically in all our dealings with those complicit in such abuses. INFORMING people about sensible approaches to end violence, occupation and avoidable mortality is critical. International SANCTIONS and BOYCOTTS (i.e. ethical exercise of the "free market choice"), as successfully applied to Apartheid South Africa, would help to persuade human rights-abusing Occupying countries that humanity and Rational Risk Management is more profitable – as well as more moral - than racism, violence and injustice.
The traumatizing of millions of innocent children and the killing and mangling must stop. Peace with justice can be implemented NOW.
