AN extraordinary piece of diplomatic skulduggery was signed with great fanfare in Doha on Jan 15, with mankind told a new era of peace and goodwill was to begin in Palestine, that Israelis and Palestinians would no more be like chalk and cheese, and the agreement would ensure `a sustainable calm` and `a permanent ceasefire.` The accord, we were told, would go into effect from Jan 19.

However, such is the `permanent ceasefire` that Israel has continued to bomb Gaza daily; the truce collapsed swiftly last month after Tel Aviv restarted its rampage. Also, the Israeli forces were to withdraw not from the entire Gaza Strip but from `outside densely populated areas.` Certain bewildering facts about this piece of diplomatic chicanery need to be highlighted. First, `the parties to the conflict` have not been identified. The word Hamas is conspicuous by its absence from the 345word text, but `Israelis` appears once.

The agreement was not between Israel and Hamas, nor was it announced either singly or jointly by Hamas or the Likud government. Instead, it was overseen by Egypt, Qatar and the US. According to the accord, the three states would ensure that the agreement is `fully implemented by both parties.` Regrettably, the two Arab governments and America have failed to do what was expected of them.

Those who drafted the accord were honest enough to admit that it doesn`t concern all of Palestine; it only concerns the Gaza Strip. There is, thus, no mention of the West Bank and Jerusalem, even though the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, was given to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by the Oslo accords, to which Israel is party.

While PA president Mahmoud Abbas announced that the PA had completed all preparations to assume full control of Gaza after the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any role for the PA and Hamas. If the PA and Hamas are kept out of Palestine, who else is going to manage Gaza Jared Kushner? The Arab-Israel conflict is not confined to Palestine. It now concerns Lebanon and Syria`s Golan Heights. The scars on the Palestinian body and soul cannot be healed by a withdrawal from a strip of land or part of it. The wound began in the 20th century with the occupation of Palestine by the British and their Balfour Declaration even when WWI had not ended.

Much has been written about the mendacity behind this declaration, which handed over the Palestinian people`s home to another people. This `declaration`, a euphemism for holocaust, has been perpetuated for 107 years and cannot be mitigated by ending the occupation of asmall piece of land.

Let all those who support the usurpation of Palestine by foreigners know: even if Palestine is liberated, and its occupation by the descendants of migrants from Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine and the Caucuses is ended, the Palestinian people will not be satisfied by the mere return of the present generation to their homeland.

They cannot forget what their ancestors have suffered for more than a century, and the horrors associated with names like Deir Yassin, Sabra-Shatila, Jenin and Qana `One` and `Two`.

Just two quotes from Robert Fisk`s classic Pity the Nation give a glimpse of the reservoir of memories the Palestinian people have. The following is from the chapter `Gravedigger`s Diary`: `One hundred and twenty-five people inside, mostly children, women. Sheltering from bombs in the basement. All dead. All of them had burned.

Flesh mostly burnt. Collected the bones of 125 people, also bags of gold rings, jewel1ery. Could only check number of peoplefrom evidence of seven survivors who were outside building at the time. Took bones to cemetery.

My decision to bury bodies there.

This is from the June 1982 report of Mahmoud Khadra, director of south Lebanon civil defence service, on the Israeli bombing of a civilian apartment block in Sidon.The following is from another chapter `The Massacre`: `A man was lying in two pieces. There was a woman who was pregnant and I could see the arm and leg of her unborn baby poking out of her stomach.

There was a man who had shrapnel in his head. He was not dead but you could see a piece of metal in his neck, like he`d had his throat cut. He told his daughter to come to help him and lift him up. And I heard her say: `Wait a minute. I`m trying to put my brother together he`s in two pieces.

There was another brother holding a child in his arms. The child had no head.

This traumatic account is from Fawzieh Saad, survivor of the April 18, 1996 Qana massacre.

Jews worldwide say `Never again`. They should know Palestinians say with greater determination: `We will never forgive or forget!`• The wnter is Dawn`s External Ombudsman and an author.