Ariel Sharon’s “100-day plan,” during which a total Israeli military siege is imposed across the Palestinian territories, is nothing short of collective imprisonment; the crime: being a Palestinian.

Drafted by Lt. General Shaul Mofaz, and approved by Israel’s newly elected unity government, the plan (implemented on Sunday, March 12th, 2001) is threefold. First, it aims to dichotomize the Palestinian territories into 60 units, each ‘guarded’ by Israeli army posts and surrounded by trenches, leaving thousands of Palestinian towns and villages in complete isolation from each other, and, indeed, from the rest of the world. Second, the residents of the besieged towns and villages will be ‘monitored’, and their behavior evaluated against Israel’s “security requirements.” And third, should there be any indication of a “threatening activity,” (as defined by Israel itself) Israeli forces reserve the “right” to conduct missions inside Areas A (under full Palestinian control).

Israel’s multiple siege policy is posing serious and irreparable disruptions to the economic, political, and social life of the Palestinians. 274 schools have been completely shut off, Palestinian universities are not operating, hundreds of towns and villages are suffering from serious shortages in food and medicine, Palestinian government institutions have been paralyzed, and the daily movement of Palestinians has been restricted to the boundaries of isolated ‘Bantustans’.

The Sharon-Mofaz strategy has pushed the limits of Israeli oppression up to a level where an entire nation is sentenced to a slow and painful death; rising poverty, rising unemployment, deprivation of medical care, food and water shortages, lack of education, and a complete strangulation of political and social life.

The Palestinian people’s aspirations for development, prosperity, and peace have (for the time being) been reduced to a modest, yet desperate, wish: to get out of prison.